Miscellany, August 1998

Motor club publications are of an increasingly high standard. The Alvis OC produced a truly fine souvenir book for its Brooklands Rally in June to commemorate the Alvis win there in the 1923 200 mile race and other Alvis successes there. Copies of this cost El and some may still be available; contact Charles MacKonchie on 01892 832118. It’s well worth having!

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Hants & Berks MC are having a ceremony to recall the Great Auclum hill climb course, then in the grounds of Neil Gardner’s house (he used to drive Delage II at Brooklands before having it converted into a coupe).

The course, with one banked corner, was used prior to World War II and again afterwards. The club invites all those with any association with the venue to join in; contact Stephen Longrove on 01344 77012.

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Collecting historic motoring items is a popular pursuit. Which reminds me of how frustrated I felt when I went as a schoolboy, in my school cap, to the Brooklands ARC office in Pall Mall, to obtain their Yearbook. Proffering my shilling to the secretary, Kenneth Skinner, he informed me that this was not available to young boys. Only by posting a postal order was the hallowed yellow-cover record of the season’s racing secured… On another occasion when I craved a Rolls-Royce Phantom III catalogue I went to the R-R showrooms in Conduit Street, wearing my school cap, only to be told by the commissionaire that it had to be paid for. Knowing this was not so, I found a ‘phone box and rang R-R to say I was considering buying a new car, so had sent my boy to obtain catalogues, which Daimler, Napier, and Hispano Suiza had willingly provided, so that I was surprised that RR made a charge for theirs. This produced an apology, and the next morning the magnificent publication arrived. I still have it! Wrong of me, I know, but I was very enthusiastic. Perhaps I should now refund the postage to VW?

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A reader in Queensland has found a T-head Austin engine and close to it a cruciform chassis. This appears to be what was once an Austin truck of 1910/14 vintage made in the Austin factory.

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The accompanying photograph received from a reader is of a Salmson with an experimental rubber front suspension system; can anyone enlarge on this?