A Vintage Miscellany, October 1967

A Vintage Miscellany

Sir,

Page 794. I think Bunty Scott-Moncrieff relayed the story that a motor trading acquaintance of his was trying to sell a reasonably formal saloon to a truly Edwardian grande dame. (Have I got my sexes mixed?!) On being told that this was by no stretch of the imagination -a sports car, she glared at him, and declared ” Young Man, a sports car is any car I cannot walk through with my hat on!”

In other words, the story seems to be apocryphal.

Page 806. I’m not sure about the Attenborough, but the Chawner, Martyr and my device all use 50-deg. J.A.P.s The point is that in the vintage era the full racing J.A.P. was, to the best of my knowledge, always -a 4-cam 50-deg. job, and 60-deg. engines were either later or cooking. The good vintage 50s are the short-stroke KTOR and the long stroke JTOR. Chawner and I use the K. while Lionel Stretton has a J in the Martyr.

As you know, my K is distressingly slow, having a much lower c.c. than was ever listed by the works! However, much machining is now going OH, and I hope to have a really wild one sooner or later.

Afterthought. Your Castle Combe remark has made Charmian very happy, One apart from the fact that you are one of the few people to spell her name correctly.

London, S.W.1. A. SKINNER.