V-to-C Miscellany, January 1995, January 1995

In Australia the winner of the VSCC of A’s two-day Alex Bryce Memorial Rally was an LM Vauxhall, followed by an LMS Delage and a Lancia Kappa. In the Mt Tarrengower hill-climb the vintage class winners were an A7, a 12/50 Alvis and a Type 35 Bugatti; the PVT class winners comprised Riley Lynx, D6 Delage and a Riley Special. G Hood won the Alvis Trophy and an interesting runner was the AC-Amilcar Special, while Peter Gidding had a Monza Alfa Romeo.

The Preston G District Vintage CC runs a number of events for appropriate cars, and issues a magazine called The Klaxon. The Secretary is Roger Brown, Ramsgreave Cottage, 5 Isle of Man, Ramsgreave, Blackburn, Lancs BB1 9BW.

There has been an aero-engined car renaissance — not I hope blamed on a recent book? Another of these monsters has been drawn to my attention by David Filsell. It was built in a St Etienne garage in the 1920s, using a war-time vee-eight Hispano Suiza aero engine in a Lorraine-Dietrich chassis. It made FTD at the 1922 Planfoy hill-climb in 4m 49.6s but crashed, killing its driver, Grus, and his young mechanic Rouchouse, at the 1923 Cote de Camp. As is customary in France, a fine memorial was erected to these unfortunates.

The annual dinner of the Historic Rally Car Register takes place at the Nottingham Gateway Hotel on January 21, when the GTA Historic Challenge awards will be presented.

The winner of the Motor Sport Brooklands Memorial Trophy for 1994, awarded on points to the driver with the highest score using a pre-war car at VSCC race meetings, which included the Croix-en-Ternois event, was Duncan Ricketts. The runners-up were A J Seber and T C Llewellyn. It worked out rather well, because Ricketts used mainly the ex-Seaman ERA R1B which was raced at Brooklands by G F Manby-Colgrave and bandleader Billy Cotton, the latter winning the last ever Mountain race there, in 1939, but also ERA R12B which Bira ran at the Track as “Hanuman II”. Seber’s Wolseley Special could be said to represent the Wolseley Hornet team which won the 1932 LCC Relay Race and Llewellyn’s Bentley those 8-litre cars so powered, that were well known on the concrete, although not over-bored or quite as lusty as his. The respective points were 142, 106 and 85. The Trophy will be presented at the VSCC’s AGM in March.

A Dinky Toy of a Bentalls’ delivery van made a record £12,650 at Christie’s recently, beating an earlier sale this year, of a toy Foden lorry at £5,515. A set of nearly 1000 Dinky Toys made £172,972. What price stocks and shares or the National Lottery?!