Miscellaneous
A Lagonda Club Party
The Lagonda Club (Northern Section) party at the Kilton Inn on the Knutsford-Warrington road was the greatest success. After a dinner which did the chef very great credit indeed, about eighty members, including wives and popsies, were addressed by Bunty Scott-Moncrieff. Bunty, after touching on Lagondas that he had owned and liked, went on to discuss the “St. Petersburg” model Lagondas built immediately prior to the Kaiser War. There was no need, he said, to abandon hope that one of these cars, either the twenty-horse four-cylinder, or the thirty-horse six-cylinder, might turn up. After all, a complete thirty-horse Rolls, the predecessor of the Silver Ghost, believed to be as extinct as the dinosaur, has been found in Australia. As most of this model Lagonda were exported to Russia that is where one is most likely to be found. It is quite possible, of course, that a surviving Lagonda, with its name-plate and all other evidence of origin removed, is being exhibited as an example of an early Russian motor car. A Silver Ghost Rolls, elderly and perfectly standard except for the back wheels being replaced by locally-built caterpillars for use on snow, is already receiving this treatment.
The evening concluded with a film show. Among the films screened was an excellent one in colour, made by a member, showing a club meet, and depicting every possible shape and size of Lagonda from the little old “collar-box” 11.1-h.p. to the latest David Brown confection.
Wait For It!
The long-awaited baby Fiat is said to have an air-cooled flat-twin engine and seats for two adults and two offspring. Rumour has it that the 450-c.c. prototype outperformed the Fiat 600, in consequence of which the production version will be of about 350 c.c.
Swan-Song Of The Swandean
In March the 27-litre Merlin-engined four-wheel-drive Swandean Spitfire Special, familiar to visitors to the Brighton Speed Trials in recent years, was towed through London at night and loaded on to the “American Planter” for shipment to St. Louis, Missouri.
Michael Wilcock, who devised and built this fantastic sprint car, informs us that the new owner, who is “apparently fairly wealthy and is not in the least worried by a fuel consumption of 1 m.p.g.,” intends to use the Swandean on the road, after substituting an all-enveloping sports body for the single-seater. We wish him good motoring, good luck and no cops!
Incidentally, Wilcock apparently cannot get the monster-bug out of his system — he inquires what has become of the “Silver Bullet,” ” Speed Of the Wind” and “Thunderbolt.”
A Cooper For The Teacher
It is said that after the Cooper School for Racing Drivers suffered the loss of an F.2 Cooper at Brands Hatch, and another pupil lost his teeth after hitting a wall, a rule was introduced that trainees in the faster cars must be preceded by another car driven by an instructor. We recommend as the school theme-song, “A Cooper for the Teacher . ..”
Miniatures-News
New Meccano Dinky replicas include an A.E.C. armoured command vehicle, 5¼ in. in length, priced at 5s. 9d., and an Austin A40 van lettered “Raleigh Cycles,” 3½ in. long, the price of which is 2s. 9d.
Tekno Toys of Denmark list a Ford Thunderbird amongst their scale miniatures.