Vintage miscellany, September 1966

It is sometimes said that very few pre-war cars are now seen, rallies apart; but the warm July weather seemed to have brought them out. Over one week-end we saw a yellow-wheeled 14/40 Humber tourer in Marlow, a stately Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost all-weather distinguished by a silver warning bell in front of its radiator, approaching Sandhurst, a circa 1936 vee-radiator Armstrong Siddeley saloon going in a more spritely fashion than is normally attributed to these cars, in Herne Hill, an early sports Wolseley Hornet in Weybridge and a big-bodied vintage Rolls-Royce tourer passing the R.A.F. airfield in Farnborough. Quite apart, that is, from the just-pre and just-past-war Austin, Morris, Ford and Standard cars which are still.a feature of British roads, or a neat 1934 Austin 10/4 saloon disappearing down a side turning in Bucks: A week-end later an open H.E. Six was seen in a pub yard near Hanley and a Sunbeam 18.2 saloon with STD badge motoring on the Oxford-Henley road in heavy rain.

The A.C. Owners’ Club summer News Bulletin contains a most interesting register of vintage A.C.s known to the Club. It includes 21 Sociables or box vans, a 1913 2-seater, 13 Empire model A.C.s of the 1921-24 period, 30 Acedes cars of the 1923-30 era, 25 A.C. Royals built between 1924 and 1928 and three specials or racing A.C.s, including Aked’s ex-J. A. Joyce single-seater. The data includes registration, engine and chassis numbers, make of carburetter, magneto and lighting, type and colour of body, tyre size, number of wheel nuts and brakes, if a handbook is owned, various casting numbers and whether or not the vehicle is owned by a Club member — a very useful record indeed.