V.E.V. Miscellany, December 1969

Through a chance encounter, Major Lambton discovered in south Wales the original 2-litre Alta engine and gearbox for his HWM, which in recent times has competed at Wiscombe hill-climb and elsewhere using a Jaguar power unit. The Alta engine had been built into a road-going special. The ex-Charles Follett 12/50 Alvis, which was raced at Brooklands, is being rebuilt in Dorset and, near by, a country garage had in its showroom excellent examples of flat-radiator Morris-Cowley and Major saloons and vintage Wolf and Norton motorcycles. Whose was the vintage Austin 20/6 landaulette which motored through Llandrindod Wells one Saturday morning recently, when we were exercising a 1930 Sunbeam? The September issue of Printing World contained a picture of Thomas C. Newman’s 1920 Perry light car with its o/s back mudguard and tyre removed so that a flat belt from the wheel could be used to drive printing flatbeds in his works when electricity was cut off during the General Strike of 1926. The car performed this duty for a week and the Daily Chronical never missed an issue.

The Lancia MC hopes to stage a rally at the top of the Sestrie Pass in 1971 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the make, this being where Vincenzo Lancia and some of his collaborators took the prototype Lancia for a test run on 1911, pausing for a congratulatory meal and a game of bowls. The Alvis OC is considering a round-Britain run next year to commemorate the anniversary of the Alvis. Information is sought by a reader about the Douglas sidecar outfit which was built for the abandoned 1934 Sidecar TT and later race at Brooklands by Jack Douglas. It has a Swill-built Dixon banking sidecar and a 596-c.c. o.h.v. engine, No. 10, the frame number being OF 218. The outfit may have held the 750-c.c. class Mountain lap record. Letters can be forwarded. Evelyn Home must have pleased Woman when she admitted to driving as soon as she was 17; her first car, in 1933, was a 1926 bull-nosed Morris-Cawley tourer which she remembers as “A sweet-tempered, reliable old-faithful”. But why, after telling us that the crash gearbox called for double-declutching for each gear change, does she admit to stopping the car momentarily, before surging forward in a new gear!? The ex-Dixon 2-litre Riley owned by Adrian Liddell is to be rebuilt to original specification, the Tecnauto i.f.s. with which it was subsequently equipped having been damaged. In Radnorshire a 1927 277-c.c. Triumph motorcycle was restored in six weeks from near-scrap to a condition which won it a prize at this year’s Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells and the same rebuilder has now found locally a 1923-New Imperial. The Llandrindod RDC is having its steam roller overhauled for further service.