A 15 hp Daimler

Sir,

I was quite taken with the “staff Daimler’. in the March ’80 Motor Sport.

Enclosed is a picture of my 15 hp Daimler, No 1276.

The car was delivered to Malaya in about 1912 and placed in storage in 1915. It resurfaced in 1955 and was restored over about ten years. Obviously not the officer’s car, but very similar and there don’t seem to be many left.

Richard Riddell, MD, San Clemente, Calif.

More V-E-V Odds & Ends —

A reader has drawn our attention to a TV programme about the pioneer aviator and aeroplane manufacturer, Robert Blackburn, which was shown in the North of England recently and also resulted in an article in the Yorkshire Post. One shot showed a traction-engine pulling the giant Iris seaplane out of its hangar by the Humber estuary, and there were earlier films of flying from Filey Sands before the First World War. The same reader is researching the Norfolk car, which was made in small numbers around 1904 by A Blackburn & Co, textile machinery manufacturers, and which is rumoured to have had some association with either Rolls-Royce or Royce & Co. This year’s Yeovil Festival of Transport, which takes place on August 9th/10th at Barwick Park Showground, and is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz (GB) Ltd, has as its President Lord Strathcarron, Motoring Correspondent of The Field. Details from: CK McGee, “Dalkeith”, 38 Kenmore Drive, Yeovil. The fourth annual Rotary Motor Gala organised by the Rotary Club of Bognor Regis will be held this year on August 17th, Details from: C Sayer, 8 Wren Crescent, Bognor Regis, West Sussex P022 9BZ. The Historic Commercial Vehicle Club had an item of its AGM agenda proposing that it accepts vehicles made up to the end of 1949, instead of to the end of 1939. There is a move afoot to form a Society for Mechanical Horses, and the London Vintage Taxi Association is active. A Norfolk reader asks the owner of a 1927 Chummy Austin 7, Reg No YT 2732, to contact him — letters can be forwarded. The National Motor Museum has added to its archives the records of some of the coachwork made by James Young Ltd of Bromley, a number of the documents having been rescued just in time from a rubbish skip. The 1980 Rally of the Giants, organised by the Pre-’50 American AC, will happen at Burford on July 5th/6th