VETERAN TYPES

VUTEIPAN TYIDIES

There are still quite a few enthusiasts who seek to run real he-stuff motor-cars, or who have an appreciation of cars with notable histories, and in the past Veteran Types have been given a considerable amount of space in MOTOR SPORT.

Some interesting developments have of late taken place in this sphere of activity.

Thus John Morris, of the S.U. Carburetter Co., Ltd., hopes to have the 200 h.p. four-cylinder four-seater Benz running again by April. The gearbox, which was in about fifty pieces as a result of a speedy outing on Southport sands, has now been successfully welded. The engine has been fitted with a booster magneto and two semi-downdraught 21.” S.U. earburetters, and is reported to start extremely easily. The famous 21-litre Piat ” Mephistopheles” is intact and in fine running order, and said to make occasional trips on the road, when it gives 12 m.p.g. if the revs. are kept down to about 750 r.p.m. In the same locality is one of the racing 5-litre straight-eight G.P. Ballot cars, which has a 108 m.p.h. Southport Certificate, and gives 20 m.p.g. on the road. Its owner runs a 1921 30/98 Vauxhall and used to possess one of the Parry Thomas-designed, 1 -litre SpurrierRailtons. Also in this locality is a sleevevalve chain drive four-seater Daimler with no accelerator, two gear-levers, and

a mixture control worked with the left foot. The aero-engitted car described by a correspondent in MOTOR SPORT in Derember 1933, and believed to be one of the Chitty ” replicas,” has been sold for ,f,3

as scrap and completely broken up and the same fate h as definitely overtaken ” Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang I.” Clutton and Pitchford are sharing the ex-Dunfee 1921 3-litre G.P. Ballot, the 1914 T.T. Sunbeam four-seater is stored at University Motors, a pre-war Minerva landaulette is running about in Cheshire, and we know

of several early Rovers up for disposal. Two big 1907 Fiats and a pre-war Audi have turned up in London, and Tim Carson has an Alphonse Hispano and the T.T. Vauxhall-Villiers. J. Pole has unearthed a 1906 three-cylinder Vauxhall.

The Old Light Car Run mentioned last month has occasioned some interest in early small cars. The Swift cycle-car has been broken up, but another one, in really good order, has come to light in London, and a Peterborough enthusiast has unearthed a pre-war two-cylinder Humberette.