Club news, April 1936

HARROW C.C.

The Chilterns Trial of the Harrow C.C. resulted in a win for Mrs. A. E. Moss, driving her new and very exciting, short-chassis Marendaz Special. On Easy Hill only this car and W. E. C. Greenleaf’s Ford Ten made successful

ascents. In the timed tests S. G. E. Tett’s Balilla Fiat was fastest in the reverse up Maiden’s Grove, and on the roundabout and acceleration test on Lewknor, Douglas Briault’s M.G. was a very easy victor, in spite of incurring a 10 per cent, supercharger handicap.

RESULTS

RESULTS

C.L.J. Cup : Mrs. A. E. Moss (Marendaz Special).

First-Class Awards : D. L. Briault _(s/c M.G.) ; S. G. E. Tett (Balilla Fiat); W. E. C. Greenleaf (Ford Ten).

Second-Class Awards : A. C. Westwood (Mills. Fiat).

Team Award : Tett, Westwood and IL. Sandford (all driving Balilla Fiats).

SCOTTISH SPORTING C.C.

The Winter Trial was a severe contest, heavy rain having fallen for three days before the event and snow came down during the day. Costerton failed eighteen cars, and Humble twenty, the latter hill before about a foot deep in mud. J. J. Nicholson, driving a Ford, and N. W. Gibson with a Hillman Minx both made light of more deep mud on Easthouses, but G. Murray Frame (Singer) had a tough but victorious struggle, while Stanley Weston and N C. Sharp (both M.G.$) failed. Two Rileys retired and Scott-Hepburn did well with his M.G.

RESULTS

RESULTS

Premier Award, Sleigh Trophy : 3. Smith (FrazerNash B.M .W .).

Under 1,500 c.o. : W. K. Elliot (Riley).

Non-sports cars : E. Playfair (Singer).

Team Award : Frame, McDonald (Singers) and Elliot (Riley).

Runners-up : Weston, Sharp and Scott-Hepburn all driving P.B. M.G. Midgets).

NORTH-WEST LONDON M.G.

The Coventry Cup event was a most successful event. Only one man came through clean ; L. A. Welch, driving a supercharged P.B. M.G. Midget. Widlake failed all but five competitors, and Cloutsham nine. A ” To and Fro ” special test resulted in a tie between H. K. Crawford and F. Allott, respectively at the wheels of an M.G Magnette and a V8 Ford. Of the successes on Widlake were numbered W. L. Jackson’s 11-litre Frazer-Nash, Crawford’s M.G. Magnette, L. A. Welch’s P.B. Midget, J. E. S. Jones’ M.G. Midget.

An acceleration test on West Howetown was won by J. A. Bastock (blown P.B. Midget) in 11 secs., while R. Sandford’s Balilla Fiat was 1/5 sec. slower.

Doverhay claimed fourteen failures in a field of nearly seventy, and Cloutsham was the worst hill of all. Amongst the successes were Welch’s P.B., C. T. I. Taylor’s 14-litre Singer, C. A. N. May’s M.G. Magnette, H. L. Hadley’s ‘747 c.c. Austin, F. Allott’s V8 Ford, S. M.

Hot rocks’ 847 c.c. M.G., Macdermid’s 11-litre M.G., Langley’s blown sister car and E. H. Startin’s 972 c.c. blown Singer.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Coventry Cup : C. A. N. May (MM.

Runner-up: N. V. Terry (Frazer-Nash-B.M.W. . Whittingham Trophy : It. Sandford (Balilla Flat. &lord Trophy : L. A. Welch (blown P.B. M.G. . Brendon Cup : H. K. Crawford (it-litre sk M.G.). Owynne Cup : Cream Crackers M.G. Team.

GREAT WEST M.C.

Sixty-eight entered for the ambitious London-Bournemouth Trial, and sixtythree started, some from London, the majority the following day from Crewkerne, survivors of the previous day’s Coventry Cup Trial. The Wool Heath Tank Corps ground wrought great havoc, and many cars were bogged between tests, there being no firm roads and few direction indica

tions. C. M. Anthony (Aston-Martin), S. H. Allard and S. L. Chappell with V8 Fords, and Nash’s Talbot got up the two worst gradients—tests of about 1 in 2, slime surface—as did Mrs. Moss’s new Marendaz Special.

A. G. Imhof’s Singer Nine won the driving test which included quite a usefully-long straight to test acceleration, and C. M. Anthony (Aston-Martin) took only 5 1/5 secs. to win the brake test down an ” impossible ” gradient—some consolation, we hope, for bogging his car in a subsequent water splash.

No first-class awards figure in the provisional results.

BUGATTI OWNERS’ CLUB

The recent annual general meeting was well attended, and a merry gathering sat down afterwards to dinner in the

members’ room at the Green Park Club. It was moved that the Club should be run as previously, but some innovations were suggested, including the formation of club-teams to ” carry the colours ” in various events, and an additional dinnerdance during the summer, on less ambitious lines than the annual dinner at Claridges. A film show was given by Donald Monro, which included L. M. Ballamy’s “On Road and Track.” Prominent speakers were Alan Bainton and Esson-Scott. The Opening Rally takes place at Wansford on April 5th, Hon. Sec. : Eric Giles, 2, Queen Street, W.1.

GENERAL NOTES

Freakish special tests still figure far too prominently in trials. Organisers should try to incorporate tests that allow the wonderful performance of modern sports cars to be fully utilised. And drivers must be given something that interests them and is a sensible form of test.

In the recent Great West M.C. Trial there were alternative starts ; one from London (Egham) just after midnight, the other from Crewkerne, after breakfast. This hardly provided an opportunity to compare the support extended to these alternative starting points, because most of the competitors had to start from Crewkerne anyway, having been engaged on the Coventry Cup Trial on the previous day. But some of the Egham night-drivers seemed to think a straightforward run down would have been better, as only Middledown was put in as a break and this hill did not count in any case.

It is a pretty problem, as those who are penalised on sections not tackled by the day-section-only folk are likely to feel peeved, yet if the night section is a plain main-road run those who cannot get near the venue except by driving at night will go on their own. Personally, I feel that if a driver cannot keep awake for thirty-six hours at a run, he should not attempt a trial, while if he wants a supper, sleep and nice breakfast before his trial, well, there are plenty of events confined to daylight hours that should suit him. * rile Great West C.C. gave their members something to think about in this trial, some of the gradients and surfaces at the Tank Corps’ ground

being really appalling. Moreover, the route across country between tests was not always clearly indicated and many competitors got bogged and could be seen flying rather soiled handkerchiefs and releasing verbal and electrical S.O.S. messages in the hope of attracting the attention of Paul Hardy’s henchmen. Long’s veteran 30/98 broke its prop.-coupling on a 1 in 3 molehill, and stayed there awaiting a Tank Corps’ service vehicle ! Warburton, having unbogged his 30/98, towed out a sunk Midget, and Allard’s new Ford was rumoured to be ” up to its wheel-tops.” Certainly the car shown in ” The Star ” of Mareh 18th was in a pretty hopeless position and we hope that its owner has had it returned to him by now. Perhaps one can hardly blame Paul Hardy for, while some people said in no uncertain terms that what may be good

for tanks is no earthly good for cars, other drivers simply revelled in it ! Long will the writer remember the solid wall of inky water that broke over the Midget when his driver entered the Wool Heath Water-splash No. 1 at about 15 m.p.h. 1 That wall penetrated !

Those who are dubious of supercharging should take note of the splendid successes achieved in recent trials by blown motors.

The problem of ” comps.” versus standard tyres seems to be met fairly well by banning locked differentials when competition covers are used. But the difficulty of permitting supercharged cars to compete on even terms with unblown motors, and small blown cars with bigger unblown cars, is not lightly to be overcome. The Bugatti Owners’ Club—that select body of real enthusiasts —has for some time had in operation an ingenious individual handicapping system, which even takes into account the cornering capabilities of different cars and the limitations imposed upon the fast stuff by twisty sections. It is the outcome of some deep thinking on the part of the Club committee. Congratulations to J. Eason-Gibson on his fine show in the J.C.C. Rally. Incidentally, he found his 11-litre FrazerNash-B.M.W. saloon slightly more suited to the wiggle-woggle test than an open sports Type 55, which says much for the stability of what must be regarded largely as a small, touring saloon. Eason-Gibson is taking an important

part in the running of the L.C.C. Relay Race.

An attractive trials-car, in the form of the V8 Batten special, was recently put into serious production.

Those who ask that solid axles be accepted without question by trials organisers might ask themselves why such axles are not standard equipment on small sports cars. Controllability suffers and tyre-wear increases if no differential i. used, unless a very fine chassis and weight-distribution is achieved. And those who hesitate to lock axles on cars used for business as well as pleasure should surely be protected by trials’ promoters.

LIGHT CAR CLUB

The annual general meeting is due to take place on April 2nd at 6.30 p.m. at the R.A.C. Officers and Council and an Auditor are to be elected, the Directors’ Report received and re-association with the R.A.C. and re-affiliation with the A.C.U. considered, as well as more ordinary business. The 1935 balance sheet shows a surplus for the year of £22 against £18 at the close of 1934. At 30th September, 1935, there was £219 in hand. This year’s Relay Race, open to all sizes of cars, should be a great success, sporting and financial. The present directors are H. R. Godfrey, C. F. Widmann, W. E. A. Norman, J. Eason-Gibson and

C. Paul. Sec. : Harold Jones, 22, Basinghall Street, E.C.