VCC replica reliability trial

WE ARE as enthusiastic about replicas of historic trials and similar events as we are adverse to replicas of most historic cars. So it is good news that from May 13th to May 15th this year the Veteran Car Club is to reenact the Old Manchester MC 3-Day Reliability Trial, sponsored (as one apparently has to be, these days) by the Forward Trust Group. This trial was last run in 1908, having been instituted in 1906. It went from Manchester to Stratford-upon-Avon, a total of 400 miles, and the results were based on reliability, hill-climbing prowess and petrol consumption. The 1908 event had 22 entrants and 18 starters and the winner was H. Hollingdrake’s 35/50 La Buire, with a 20-h.p. Bell and a 15-h.p. Humber as runners-up.

The VCC is using very much the same route, with overnight stops at Aberystwyth and Hereford and lunch breaks at Bala, Llandrindod Wells and Cheltenham. We hope they apply the 1908 marking formula and that they will receive at least as good an entry of pre 1919 cars as the Manchester Club did pre 1909 cars 65 years ago. There are to be two classes: single and two-cylinder cars up to 1911, and all types from 1912-1918 inclusive—which seems tough on the older models! It is to be expected that a few of the actual makes which competed in 1908 will enter, such as Humber and perhaps Siddeley and Argyll; but the going, even in Wales, is not likely to be so tough as it was in 1908. Already Graham Hill has entered a 1911 Rover (surely not a single-cylinder) and no doubt the Editor of MOTOR SPORT will be watching fairly closely on your behalf.