Still more profiles
We have received four more “Profiles,” those two-bob-a-time surveys of famous cars. How long it can last, who will buy these miscellaneous but conscientiously contrived soft-cover, uniform 12-page offerings, is a subject of speculation in the publishing world. At present the outlook apparently is set very fair indeed and the high standards being maintained by the selected experts given the task of Profile authorship must surely ensure a continuing, even enhanced, standard of research and writing, even if some of the fainter-hearted would-have-been historians get cold fingers.
As it is, No. 13 covers the Model-T Ford by Anthony Bird. To impart anything new about the Model-T is almost impossible but this Bird has achieved, by going over the famous design from the viewpoint of its short-comings, with particular reference to difficult starting, without in any way disparaging this immortal automobile. For this, Model-T Register members will undoubtedly part with their florins. . . . Gordon Davis’ paintings are as varied as is possible with this subject matter but the bonnets of his 1923 and 1927 models seem a trifle elongated.
No. 14 is an erudite study of a car all too often dismissed in a few lines, namely the Type (or Tipo?) RL, Alfa Romeo by those knowledgeable Milan-fanciers Peter Hull and Luigi Fusi. The car’s designer, Giuseppe Merosi, is given due credit. No. 15 allows Wilson McComb to recall the glories that were the K3 M.G. Magnette’s, and who better. Of K3s hashed about in recent times he writes: “Often the result was to spoil the whole charm and character of the model, but such aesthetic considerations do not always occur to a man who is bent on winning some silverware.”—and you can say that again! Whether Eyston’s audience with the Pope when the M.G. drivers were in Italy for their successful class onslaught on the 1933 Mille Miglia should be regarded as a “junketing” is open to question, and something seems to have gone wrong when Horton is credited with the Brooklands’ Outer Circuit Class G record at 117.03 m.p.h. in 1934—what he did take was the Class G British and International Hour records, the Class Outer Circuit record standing to his credit at 119.72 m.p h., but that’s splitting hairs.
No. 16 has Douglas Tubbs recalling in his inimitable style what the Jowett Javelin and Jupiter were all about, his kind reference to Motor Sport’s article on the development of these flat-four engines reminding me of what a headache sorting out all this data involved at the time. All these Profiles pack in a great deal of very readable and reference-worthy information, as well as excellent illustrations. I gather that the next batch will cover the 40/50 Napier, 1 1/2-litre G.P. Delage, S-type Invicta and Le Mans Frazer Nash. I do not know, but can almost guess who the authors will be; if they are accurate and if possible tell the Profile reader something he or she didn’t know before. their labours will not he in vain.