The Bentley D.C.
The Bentley D.C., following its successful Snowball Run of Easter 1962, is staging five “Bentley Days” this year, as follows :
3-litre Day—March 29th : (Too late to announce.)
4½-litre Day—April 26th : Officers’ Club, Tidworth.
“Heavy Metal Day”—June 6th : Donington Park, picnic in front of Old Hall, 11.30 a.m., and drive round old G.P. course at 3.30 p.m.
Derby Day—August 30th : Not on Epsom Downs, but at Oulton Park, around 11 a.m.
Crewe Day—Sept. 27th : No details yet, but, we gather crew-cuts are essential.
We cannot emphasise too strongly that these are private B.D.C. parties. We mention them because the sight of lots of Bentleys passing by is likely to give much pleasure to road-side spectators.
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The death is announced of Mr. E. Hudleston Channon, aged 82, claimed to have built the first and only aeroplane made in Dorset. Apparently he made aeroplanes with his brother in a hanger near Maiden Castle and tested them on a 100 yard down-slope there, and at Moreton Heath and Affpuddle Ridge, between 1908 and 1910. His father, Edward Channon, is said to have built a car in 1905, following ownership of a 3½ h.p. Benz, a Mors and a Locomobile steamer. This was followed in 1906 by a White & Poppe-engined landaulette, of which three were built. After the aeroplane venture the firm took over the agency for Arrol Johnson and Overland cars. They became Morris agents in 1916.
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The Standard Register has to date traced 150 pre-1931 Standards, while the recently-formed p.v. section lists 45 cars, including a number of Avon Special Standards. Hon. Registrar: J. R. Davy, Standard-Triumph Sales Ltd., Coventry.
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Miscellany:—The 1923 Horstman unearthed in Wiltshire, as mentioned last month, turned out to be an aluminium-bodied, outside-exhaust sports model, laid up about 1928 when third-party insurance became compulsory. Stirling Moss drove Bergel’s G.P. Bugatti and Waller’s E.R.A. recently, after he had expressed a desire to see what Historic racing cars were all about. Rob Walker has made a splendid job, we hear, of rebuilding the Seaman 1927 1½-litre straight-eight Delage. The V.S.C.C. is wisely forming a small sub-committee to debate which cars are eligible for Historic racing car events, and which are definitely not eligible. The Lea-Francis O.C. will gather after the V.S.C.C. Silverstone Meetings at the Swan & Castle in Buckingham and after the V.S.C.C. Oulton Park Meeting on the following day, June 21st, for driving tests at Stanford Hall, near Rugby. Sleighton Charities Gala Committee is hoping to hold a vintage and veteran rally on June 27th (details from: A. Barrett, 44, Rowland Street, Sleighton), old cars are asked to parade at Main Traction Engine Rally on May 18th (details from: J. J. Lott, Springfield House, Lyminze, near Folkestone) and Penistone & Moorland M.G. Concours d’Elegance on June 21st will be mainly for old cars (details from: Cmdr. H. G. K. Bramah, R.N., Redminster, Thurdstone, Sheffield, Yorks.). A 1919 G.N. which has been in the same shed since 1938 has been discovered, but is not for sale. A First World War Harley-Davidson combination is seeking a kind home. Another of those rare, just-not-vintage 13.9 h.p. sports Austins lies in a Hampshire garage. The Bean O.C. Weston-super-Mare has been cancelled. There will be a Paris-Rouen old-car run on June 26th to commemorate the first road race, or trial, over that route on July 22nd, 1894. Barker’s 1922 Peugeot quadrilette was present at the opening of Distributors Peugeot Ltd.s’ new show rooms in Croydon recently. Some parts of the 1914 T.T. Hudson, mentioned in “Cars in Books” last month, are in the possession of a relative of the late Lt.-Col. A. Rawlinson. An attempt was made in Birmingham on March 15th to revive the Armstrong Siddeley O.C. The Montagu Motor Museum is adding railway items to its comprehensive exhibits. The Ford Motor Co. intends to repeat last year’s successful Model-T Brighton Run, the date being May 24th.
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The Registrar of the Post-Vintage Section of the Standard Register, R. E. Levin, is anxious to obtain details of the Standard V8 project after it passed into the hands of E.R.A. It is thought that three Standard V8 cars were made prior to the war, one of which, a convertible, took part in the 1939 R.A.C. Rally.
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Readers’ discoveries this time include an Austin 12/4 engine, some Morris-Cowley spares, a vintage Type SM Tagonda, an old, circa 1935, Sunbeam rotting away. Data is requested about a 1924 Amilcar a reader hopes to import from France, about a 1919 16-h.p. Vulcan which is being restored, and about a Ruby-engined Georges Irat which has just been bought. Letters can be forwarded.