Letters from readers, July 2004

Sir,

In a recent Miscellany Bill Boddy mentioned the vintage Bentleys of TG Moore, one-time owner and editor of Motor Sport. Moore was also a Frazer Nash man and drove ‘chain gang’ cars in the Ards TTs of 1931 and ’32, with W S Braidwood [also an editor of this magazine] as his co-driver in ’31. But was Moore number 23 or 24 in that race?

This was the debut for the TT Replica-style Frazer Nash, of course.

In the 1932 race he shared number 12 with RGJ ‘Dick’ Nash, but one of them crashed the car at Ballystockart.

Moore was famous for having his Frazer Nash in well-used ‘non-concours’ condition. But was he a Manxman, or an Englishman settled in the Isle of Man (like myself)?

As regards Farman cars, there is, as far as I know, an open ‘Torpedo’ Farman of about 1920s vintage in the car museum at Batley, West Yorkshire.

Another Ulster connection: in your obituaries you stated that Ronnie Adams competed until the mid-1960s. Well, he was competitive until the mid-1990s! I saw him drive his Daimler Dart SP250 in one of the Manx Classic races on the Willaston circuit. Unfortunately, he broke his collarbone after flipping it over. I believe it was the 1994 (or ’95) event, when he must have been in his eighties!

Steve Beresford, VSCC Chain Gang section