The first advocate?

Long before the Veteran Car Club came into being, Edgar Duffield of The Auto suggested an organisation for ancient cars which were still active, and later the Nicholsons and I expressed similar ideas in letters to the motoring Press. It was the Nicholsons’ letter which led to the Vintage Sports-Car Club being started, though their original idea had been for a club for light cars costing no more than £50 in 1934. All these suggestions were predated, however, by someone who wrote to a motor journal in 1920 advocating an event for really old cars over a long day’s run, at a suggested overall speed of 18 mph. Inevitably called a “Crocks’ Trial” in those days, it would include sufficient hills to test engine cooling and brakes, though not of the severity of Porlock or Park Rash.

The writer suggested that one-cylinder cars (he signed himself “Wun-Lung”) should be given an advantage over twins, those with four cylinders being further penalised. There might also be an age/power handicap, and no car would have more than 12hp or be less than ten years old. Any car which had been radically altered from its original condition would be barred.

What prompted the idea? Well, the writer had a single-cylinder Sizaire-Naudin which he said he would back over 20, 200 or 2000 miles! Rather the kind of thing the Light Car Section of the VSCC is looking for today?