V-E-V Odds & Ends, March 1982
The front cover of the Jowetteer, magazine of the Jowett CC, recently carried a picture of a sports-car made in S. Africa from flat-twin Bradford parts. complementing an article within about how another Bradford was converted into an open Special for MCC trials, and we believe an ex-saloon 1934/5 Jowett in Wales is likely to be made into something similar, rather fun, if given an exhaust pipe down each side, from each of the flat-twin cylinders. We heard of a 1927 Austin 7 Chummy, with a spare reconditioned engine and five new tyres being offered for £900 very recently, so perhaps prices of the older cars are dropping — this is certainly more realistic than the £2,500 to £3,500 or more asked for such cars by the more avaricious motor-copers. A 1924 I.h.d. 5cv. Citroen was restored in Oxfordshire recently for its 57-year-old owner. The Brooklands Society has announced three forthcoming fixtures — the BS Trophy Race at Thruxton on May 3rd, the Annual Re-Union at the Track on June 27th, and its annual Dinner, at Woking, on November 25th.
The Winter issue of the Morris Register Journal fully maintains the expected interest and standards of this club magazine; indeed, this 21st Anniversary issue has gone to some excellent colour pages. The photographs sent to the Register from old family albums this time include some fascinating backgrounds to pre-war Morris vehicles, such as a shop in Old Welwyn advertising Fry’s cocoa, Gilbey’s invalid pen and Force wheat-flakes, while outside waits the shop’s 1928 810 ems Morris light van, and an Essex baker’s shop proclaiming “Bread as supplied to HM The Queen”, outside which stands a 1920 back-braked Morris-Oxford tourer in the care of two ladies. (Signs like this have all but disappeared but those for Colman’s mustard and Colman’s starch can still be seen in a Welsh village. — Ed.) A 1932-type Theo-Multiple electric petrol pump is still in use, we hear, in a Suffolk village — is this the oldest, or are any hand-worked pumps still in service? Small world — a postcard which turned up in a “flea-market” recently showed a Railton Series-III Fairmile drop-head coupe being slung by crane onto a boat at Dieppe in the late 1930s and the Railton OC reports that the same car is still in existence, in a dismantled state.
No doubt Austin 7s arc being smartened up and restored, ready for the Jubilee Rally at Longbridge in August. But what of a 1937 Ruby saloon found recently in very good and quite original order in the shed it had occupied since 1952? Given new plugs, petrol, and a battery it was driven out under its own power. The Railton OC has made a memorial to the memory of the late Reid Railton 1895-1977, carved in slate, but after it was refused by the NMM is wandering where it should he displayed, due to the uncertainty about the future of Brooklands – at the Leyland factory in Lancashire, perhaps, or beside the preserved Leyland Eight owned by BL Heritage Ltd? The not-very-long-formed Vauxhall OC has published another register of Vauxhalls. It lists the amazing number of pre-1941 cars known to exist throughout the world. Aeroplane Monthly for February had a pleasing piece by Air Commodore A. H. Wheeler about carefree brief ownership of an ancient Blackburn Velos in 1933, and is publishing much about Flying Fleas, including Stephen Appleby’s pre-war memories.
We hear that Bill Lake has decided to dispose of his 1922 GP Sunbeam, which however will remain in this country, for something rather more practical, such as a road-equipped 8C Alfa Romeo. Anniversaries are reaching saturation point, surely, but another has recently been announced, namely the Bentley DC’s visit to the IoM to celebrate the first Bentley team victory achieved when W.O. ran his 3-litres in the 1922 TT and no doubt a good time will be had there, from August 30th to September 5th, when this 60th anniversary is recognised. International Alvis Day happens this year at Knebworth Park, on May 16th. — W.B.