club news, January 1945

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WE HEAR

Joseph Lowrey has acquired another Morgan, this time a very fine o.h.v. .1.A.P.-engined specimen. The Monaco Engineering Co., Ltd., has purchased a ” 30/98 ” Vauxhall for a South African client, one Longbottom, and Hardy’s 1930 2-seater “Silver Eagle” Alvis is being restored by Sqdn./Ldr. I. E. Lindale. Then Boddy has sold his 1924 big-port ” 12/50 ” Alvis to Denys Axel Berg, who, invalided out of the R.A.F., intends to fill a large barn with vintage

cars to offset his agricultural pursuits. He already has the ex-Davidge Pitt’s 1930 open Riley Nine and the ex-Fall s.v. ” 30/98 ” Vauxhall. Boddy himself has acquired one of the extremely rare “14/75 ” Alvis open 4-seaters with small 6-cylinder engine. Harold Biggs toils steadily on his Model 18 Ford V8 and K. N. Hutchison has just got hold of a Model 40, to which L.M.B. and Scintilla will be added. II. G. Symonds takes a pessimistic view of the future of racing and may sell his It-type M.G. Midget, concentrating on a sprint Austin Seven and his trials “Grasshopper” Austin—

he divulges that Hadley got 92 m.p.h. out of his “Grasshopper,” and Symonds has had 7,000 r.p.m. from his. Warmest congratulations to F/Lt. Donald Parker, that dicer to be, on his engagement to Miss Betty NVebb, who sings with Jack Payne’s Julian Fall has become engulfed by the R.E.M.E., while Philip Turner is now out of the R.A.F. and writing for The Aulocar. Lacy, who has received many enquiries for his 3-litre Bentley, was married recently. Congratulations. F/Lt. Oliver is running a blown 1,730-c.c. AlfaRomeo and Rodney Clarke is building up the very potent ex-Bachelier Bugatti 2-seater. On the subject of I3ugattis, a Type 30, with a 4-seater body

rather like that on Gerard’s T.T.-winning Delage, was driven into a Surrey breaker’s at the beginning of the war and left to rot ; it was recently saved by an enthusiast, who got it for a mere 70s. S. C. H. Davis and T. A. S. 0. Mathieson are in France, and Capt. Moon

expects to go overseas again fairly soon. I). Napier & Son, Ltd., keep a wellpreserved example of the ” 40/50 ” Napier car at their Acton works. Palethorpe’s single-seater Frazer-Nash is for sale, with two bodies and spares, for 2500, and the ex-Dobson T.T. Riley, the Anzani-Nash, and the Jack Duller Duesenberg have all come on the market

recently. An Arrol-Aster limousine in good order was advertised recently in a Yorkshire evening paper. The Editor extends seasonal greetings to all enthusiasts, everywhere. His first

Christmas card came from Assam, Burma. Early Aulocars are available from 13. England, 81, Cavendish Road East, The Park, Nottingham.

RECENT EVENTS

On December 6th Anthony Heal gave an address to the M.M.E.C. in Birmingham and on December 8th Peter Monkhouse spoke on preparing sports cars for competition, at a meeting of the N.W.L.E.C.C. The latter body has produced a news-sheet and is starting a library. The British Model Car Club hopes to stage another meeting for petrol-driven model cars in January, and the Morgan Club issues regular new-sheets and has 78 members— those who decide to toughen-up after the war and run 3-wheelers may like to join now. The Light Car Club, of Relay Race fame, hopes to recommence activities after the war, and its chairman, W. E. A. Norman, of 52, Highlands Heath, London, S.W.15, will be glad of members’ views.

OBITUARY

We regret to have to record the passing of four enthusiasts. A. C. Clark, M.A., LL.D., hon. secretary of the Bentley Drivers’ Club, has died at the age of 61, after a partial recovery from a long illness. Ile was languages master to the London Polytechnic and a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. Motoring was his means of relaxation—real motoring in his beloved Bentleys down long Continental roads. He had a very thorough knowledge of the Continent and was looking forward to driving his very fast 61-litre Bentley Speed Six 2-seater over favourite ground after the war. He also had stored a smaller Bentley and ran two S.S. cars as “pool ” burners ; he was always pleased to hear from Bentley owners, all of whom will mourn his passing.

F/Lt. Bob Cowell is reported missing, following a forced-landing in enemy territory last November. He raced sports and racing Altas with considerable elan before the war, and owned a wide variety of sports cars, some of them very potent, since the outbreak of hostilities. His last was a :3i-litre S.S. 100 2-seater, which he hoped to supercharge. It is to be hoped he is a prisoner of war, or on his way home.

Sgt. Tony Wallace, R.A.F. (navigator) was killed in a flying accident in this country last November—he was too young to hold a driving licence before the war, but commenced motoring on “basic,” in a J2 M.G. Midget, his parents’ 1-litre M.G. saloon and, later, a Ford-engined Morgan 8-wheeler. He was exceedingly keen on the Sport, and shortly before his death had changed the M.G. for. a 4/4 Morgan 4-seater, the better to accommodate his crew. Finally, the death of Luigi Fagioli, from illness, at the age of 45, is announced. Fagioli drove Salmsons in 1925 and Maseratis from 1928-32, being second at Monaco in 1981, and first at Monza. In 1932, with a monoposto Alfa-Romeo, apart from many places, he won at Acerbo,

at Comminges, and also won the Italian G.P. Ile was Italian champion of 1933 and, going to Al e reedes-Benz, won the Italian, Spanish and Monaco G.P. and the Coppa Acerb°, Avusrennen, and G.P. of Barcelona.

LEST WE FORGET

Those who have the future of trials at heart should remember that the British Trials Drivers’ Association had a membership approaching 200 at the outbreak of war and that it is watching the interests of its members as closely as the present state of things warrants. Indeed, its hon. secretary, J. A. Masters, will be very pleased to see any members and hear their opinions, if they will call on him at 26, Bloomsbury Way, London, W.C.1.

BENTLEY TYPE

From that delightful book about the Central Flying School, “Pilot’s Summer,” by Frank D. Tredsey (1939), now, alas, out of print :—” Next is the Bentley type. You can’t mistake him. The white inches of (slightly grubby) shirt cuff with monogrammed gold links. The slightly disreputable tunic and breeches, the battered cap at a rakish angle, the carelessly wound and secured puttees, the somewhat down-at-heel boots. C.O.s and adjutants are constantly at him, but find it a despairing game. A chronic affliction is not amenable to treatment. And while motor cars are his passion, nothing short of cells will persuade him to spend money on uniform kit. Practically every squadron has one such as he. Unable quite to afford a brand new Bentley or Lagonda or Isotta-Fraschirti, he must have one of those makes all the same. So he buys a secondhand job and lives in penury to pay away 250 every year in tax and insurance and pour petrol into its capacious maw, a gallon to approximately every ten miles. Being usually of a 1926 vintage, the car literally drinks oil, too, and being a racing car it must have a racy-smelling oil, too, at a fabulous number of shillings the gallon. You get the racy smell all right. Any 1926 Bentley which has had the guts flogged out of it by a succession of R.A.F. officer owners is slack enough of piston and big end, and plenty of burnt oil makes plenty of blue exhaust smoke. And so he is a happy bankrupt with his Bentley, whose stern juts out of the garage that is too small to accommodate it.

ANOTHER ” SPECIAL “?

Advertkentent in a idlands’ paper : ” For Sale. Half-legged horse. Quiet in all gears.” Presumably ” in all gears” refers to all kinds of harness, but WC confess it took us a long time to see it.