Veteran-Edwardian-Vintage, April 1957

A Section Devoted to Old-car Matters

The Vintage S.C.C. held its ordinary general meeting at Heal’s Restaurant in Tottenham Court Road on March 14th. The President’s and Director’s report revealed that the club’s subscription income is higher than ever but membership has not maintained its previous rate of increase, indicating that the club may be reaching its maximum of about 3,000 members. Despite rising costs of every kind, including increases in the salaries of Secretary and Assistant Secretary, a profit of £39 was shown on the year’s trading, in addition to entry fees of new members. The capital fund stands at £2,479. After these sordid matters were disposed of, Harry Bowler was elected as the new President. It can be said that Bowler has devoted most of his life to motoring matters, for he built and raced clockwork cars at Cambridge, evolved a Waverley-G.N. hybrid in the late-‘twenties, and drove a four-seater 3-litre Bentley at Brooklands, before turning into a 4½-litre Lagonda enthusiast. Calm, unruffled, he should ably carry on the great tradition set by the earlier Presidents, Messrs. Lycett, Pomeroy, Kerslake and Clutton. The 1956 trophies were presented, as follows:—

Lycett Trophy: R. E. B. Noble.

1,300 Trophy: B. E. Brown.

Seaman Historic Trophy: J. T. Stuart.

1908 G.P. Itala Trophy: A. F. Eminson.

Hill Climb Championship Trophy: P. J. Stubberfield.

Kane Trophy: J. C. Tozer.

Thoroughbred Trophy: Dr. D. P. Harris.

Inter-Section Team Trophy: Midland section.

Proxime Accessit Trophy: G. G. McDonald.

Edwardian Trophy: S. J. Skinner.

Seaman Vintage Trophy: A. F. Eminson.

Pomeroy Memorial Trophy: L. S. Richards.

Eastern Trophy: J. W. Nix.

Light Car Trophy: J. D. Rogers.

Edwardian Racing Trophy: K. Neve.

Talbot Cup: Miss P. Stocken.

E.R.A. Trophy: J. T. Stuart.

The V.S.C.C., as usual, opens the Silverstone racing season with its meeting on April 6th. Besides 5-lap handicap and scratch races for vintage, Edwardian, p.v.t. and vintage light cars, and a 10-lap All-Comers’ Scratch Race, the G.P. Itala Trophy Race will be contested over the same distance by historic racing cars, which always results in a nostalgic field and a good race. Also, the first of the Motor Sport qualifying races for sports cars will be run off. Entries have closed. The 5-lap handicaps were soon oversubscribed and amongst interesting cars due to run are four blown Amilcar Sixes, the 1910 chain-drive 10-litre Fiat, Clutton’s 1908 G.P. Itala, two E.R.A.s, a fantastic V16 Maserati and the very fast Bentleys of Macdonald, Burton and Maclure, etc., etc.

Racing starts at 12.45 p.m. Admission is free, by ticket only, obtainable from T. W. Carson, Brook Cottage, Bishop’s Green, Newbury, Berkshire, on receipt of a stamped addressed envelope; parking costing 5s. per car. This is a meeting you shouldn’t miss.

If you want to wish good luck to the British contingent in next month’s contest between the V.S.C.C. and the V.M.C.C. of America, go along to the Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, at 9.30 a.m. on April 10th, when Sir David Eccles, M.P., is due to send the cars on their long journey.

Recent reference to a Butler-Lacey car in these columns has caused much controversy. We can find no record of such a make, but one correspondent says his father recalls being shown a tourer in a Suffolk garage after the 1914/18 war which purported to be a Butler-Lacey, another letter claims that the name arose as a result of a joke played on two friends of the writer’s before the first World War but may have been adopted subsequently by one of the mushroom firms that sprang up after the Armistice, while yet another correspondent, writing from Rickmansworth, says that only recently a member of his golf club asked if he knew anything about this elusive make, because this person had spent a Scottish golfing holiday in one after the Kaiser War. More concrete evidence comes from G. Oakwood, who claims that his godfather described to him a Butler-Lacey owned in Paris in the early ‘twenties. Apparently many offers were made for it but the owner refused them all and as he ended his life a cripple the car probably “lies mouldering in some French backyard.” Finally, another reader is very interested in purchasing one. After which we are delighted to hand over this section for readers to run themselves in—