Miscellany, December 2003
The present owner of the low-chassis S-type 4.5-litre Invicta which the late Bugatti exponent Lindsay Eccles owned until 1947, and who has had the car for the last 30 years, is anxious to discover what happened to it after Eccles disposed of it. Its Reg No is UY 9516 and it has what appears to be a body by Carbodies, except that both the passenger’s and driver’s doors are cutaway, unusual on these two/four-seater bodies. Also, the body is aluminium, whereas in Lindsay’s day the car had a fabric body, which may have been damaged when this driver went into a cul-de-sac at high speed. Letters can be forwarded.
* * *
It has been pointed out that in my recent discourse on Austin 7 racing history I said the only GP an A7 had won was the South Australian race, omitting the late Doug van Riet’s victory in the 1937 Rand race. My apologies to his memory…
* * *
An 86-minute video of the STD’s Talbot Commemoration Rally and other Talbot material, based on the 53 cars at the rally, is an ingenious record of a unique event and is obtainable for £14.99 post-free from the STD Register, c/o James Fack, Orchard Farm, Shareshill, Wolverhampton, Staffs.
* * *
This year’s Bert Hadley Memorial Championship, in memory of the pre-war A7 racing driver, was won by Stewart Arkley with a Gould Ulster Special. The Murray Jamieson Trophy, named after the great designer, was won by Alan Fairless in a 1929 Ulster Special, while the Kay Petre Award was won by Julia Constaninos in her 1934 single-seater A7. Nick Allen took the Newcomer Cup driving a 1926 Sprint Special.
* * *
The latest compact Shire Album is Number Plates by Dave Moss (ISBN 0 7478 0566 0, 32 pages, £3.50). It tells you everything you may wish to know about them, except the alarm motorcycle users expressed as to whether the 1920s prescribed-size plates were too large for their machines. But excellent, with history, registration letters relating to counties, etc. Useful and enjoyable.
* * *
A reader who owned a 1932 TJ 12/50 Alvis wide two-seater from 1961 to ’69, which is unknown to the 12/50 Register, would like to trace its whereabouts. Dan Margulies advertised it for sale in 1977 in Motor Sport. The engine and chassis no was 9681, reg no is or was TS 9939. Letters can be forwarded.
* * *
For aviation followers the latest book in the Rolls-Royce Historical Series is No33, about the Nene and Derwent R-R engines used in the Soviet Union. Non-members can buy it for £12 from the R-R Trust, PO Box 31, Derby, DE24 8BJ.
* * *
In the recent piece about SCAR cars I asked if anyone had memories of them. When I saw a heading “Living with a SCAR” in a magazine someone had left behind I turned to the article, only to find it referred to female tattoo treatment. But I was reminded that perhaps we did not make it clear that the TV in the car’s name derived from the factory making these cars being in Reims, hence its destruction during WWI.
* * *
The VSCC Marches Rally on October 11 produced two winners of First Class awards: B Roberts (1927 12/50 Alvis) and P Faster (1928 Sunbeam 20).