VETERAN EDWARDIAN VINTAGE, April 1960

A Section Devoted to Old-Car Matters

IT IS A LWAYS NICE to see a 30/98 Vauxhall competing. Here is the car which B. Gray of the Cambridge University A.C. drove in the Speed Trials at Snetterton last month.

V.C.C. 1960 FIXTURES

THE Veteran Car Club of Great Britain announces that its first fixture will be the Headquarters Opening Event on April 23rd/ 24th. This consists of a rally to Cheltenham on the Saturday and a repeat on the Sunday of last year’s extremely enjoyable Prescott Hill-Climb (delete ” speed ” in this instance I). The Concours d’Elegance for veteran cars will also be held again. The diamond jubilee of the 1,000-Mile Trial will be celebrated by driving over part of the route which this trial covered on April 25th 1900.

Other 1960 fixtures include the Blackpool Rally on May 7th, Brighton Rally on May 14th, Paignton Rally on June 18th, and E. Anglian Rally on July 9/10th. There will also be a Midland Rally on July 23rd/24th, a N.E. Section event on September 10/11th and subsidiary events—those who enjoy seeing really old cars in action should enter these dates in their diaries now. The V.C.C. will also support invitation events in Western Germany, Cannes, Lyon, Rome and Zandvoort and the Bristol M.C. & L.C.C. Veteran Car Rally and Trial of July 2nd. Details and applications for membership to 14, Fitzhardinge Street, Portman Square, London, W.1. (Welbeck 1661). VINTAGE AND VETERAN CONTESTS ABROAD

The spread of vintage and veteranism is nicely illustrated by the number of international engagements open to such vehicles. For example, on May 26-29th an International Rally to Western Germany will be organised by the Allgemeiner Schnauferl-Club and supported by our Veteran Car Club.

At Whitsun (June 5/6th) the Circuit International de Vitesse des Vieux Tacots is scheduled to happen at Cannes. Details from the secretary, 21, Quai Saint-Pierre, 5, Rue du Porte, Cannes. Some expenses will be met. On the same date the A.C. of Italy and Autorama will hold an old-car rally near Rome and offer free petrol and accommodation. Details from Signor V. Moretti, Scuderia La Manovella, Club Romano Di Vecchie Automobili, Via Guidabaldo Del Monte, 24, Roma, Italy.

From June 11th to 14th the commemoration rally from Paris to Lyon in connection with the 60th anniversary of the Gordon Bennett Cup Race is scheduled, again with some help over expenses for drivers of competing cars. Details from M. Lucien Loreille, 24, Rue Wakatsuki, Lyon 7, Rhone, France.

We have already referred to the Coppa Monza race for vintage sports cars on May 26th (page 155, last month). Finally, on October 9th the Pioneer A.C. of Holland have a Tradition Rally for old cars from Utrecht to Zandvoort, the £2 entry fee entitling a competitor to coffee, lunch and tea and a night in an hotel at the finish, 30 litres of petrol, a plaque and a souvenir. Details from Jhr. J. W. van Iddekinge, Keizersgracht 484, Amsterdam C, Holland. While we can take no responsibility for what transpires, there are few better adventures than taking a vintage or veteran car abroad, so those interested should apply early for entry forms and regulations. THIS YEAR’S EASTER PARADE

This year’s Easter Parade, which includes well-kept veteran, Edwardian and vintage cars, takes place in Battersea Park on Easter Sunday. Details from R. C. N. Thomas, London Publicity ‘Committee, Britjph Travel and Holidays Association, 64, St. James’s Street, London, S.W.I.

The month’s discoveries include a Jowett saloon, circa 1924, described as derelict but complete, in a Cambridge scrapyard, a I.h.d. Doble steam car in Essex whose only owner, now aged 84, took it to Canada as a new car and brought it back to England with him, and an Essex rotting away in Staffordshire, with a sleeve-valve Daimler TQP6-30 to keep it company; the Daimler has lost its prop.-shaft but has four new b.e. tyres as spares. There is also a report of a very sound and original Austin 12/4 saloon in the same place, and many old lamps and radiators.

It is also thought that a 1923 OE 30/98 Vauxhall and a 1929 10/25 Rover with fabric Sportsman’s Riviera saloon body may be for sale in Buckinghamshire. Letters can be forwarded.

Those who are interested in The Valveless car, that curious twocylinder two-stroke with its engine which was made from 1908 onwards in the Park Works, now occupied by David Brown Ltd., will find an interesting illustrated account of it in the D.B. Newsletter dated Jan./March 1960.

At an Edinburgh garage we hear that a sleeve-valve 1926 WillysKnight saloon in completely original condition still exists, last used in 1936, together with a chassis and another saloon in somewhat stripped condition. At the same garage there are two model-T Ford chassis, circa 1920, the remains of an Austin Twenty converted into a van and a 1919 Studebaker chassis.

The reader who informed us of the above says that he knows of only three Willys-Knights in running order, one owned by a director of the above-mentioned garage, and two owned by Sir Donald Pollock, consisting of a tourer and an immaculate blue and black saloon which is apparently on view at a garage in Drummond Street. Edinburgh. Any more ?

The late owner of a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I saloon which successfully towed a 2-ton caravan from Somerset to Pembrokeshire, including successful negotiation of the reputed 1-in-4 gradient at Shepton Mallett, offers the special tow-bar he used to anyone contemplating similar feats of strength with one of these cars—he has disposed of the Rolls-Royce in favour of a Blue Label Bentley. • « *

The Fourth National Aids Day takes place at the Crystal Palace this year on May 22nd. Details from N. D. Purday, ” Windjammer,” 26, Stanfield Road, Quinton, Birmingham 32.

A V8 Cadillac repair manual, circa 1918, is offered by J. M. Shutes, 53, Upton Road, Slough, Bucks, to anyone working on one of these cars. •

There is a vintage Sunbeam with spare engine and gearbox and some later D.K.W. spares in a breaker’s yard near Lancaster.