V-E-V miscellany, May 1971, May 1971

The Wolseley Hornet Special Club, which has 85 members, is hoping that the VSCC will relent and admit Wolseley Hornets to its membership—as well it might, having decided that Austin Nippies and M-type Midgets are p.v.t.s.! A duplicated Newsletter is issued and the Secretary is Sue Fretwell, Camus, 41, Brook Road, Fairfield, Bromsgrove, Worcs. A 1916 Sunbeam motorcycle with V-twin MAG engine, made for export to Russia, has turned up in the Midlands. It is hoped that a newly-restored 1921 New Hudson three-wheeler, a 1914 Morgan and a TB three-wheeler will be amongst the runners in this year’s VMCC Banbury Run. An article setting out the case for the Anglo-American Sports Bastards appeared in the March issue of Multicylinder, the duplicated journal of the Pre-50 American Auto Club.

Some young employees of British Leyland, among whom was the son of J. S. Hirons of GN and traction engine fame, following a hunch by an old employee of the company, burrowed into a cellar at North works, Leyland, recently, which had been sealed off for many years, in the hope of finding some parts of a Leyland Eight thought to have been stored there. This was of no avail, but they did unearth several early long parts, including bonnets, an inlet manifold, a sump cover, gear and brake levers, an inspection cover probably for a Leyland steam waggon and some old tyres thought to have been used on Sir Henry Spurrier’s Delauney-Belleville.

A 1931 Talbot 18/75 coupé, described as a good runner five years ago is looking for a good home as it is languishing in Kent.

The February issue of The Bentley Drivers’ Club Review, surely the biggest and one of the best-produced Club journals, contained a very interesting article about a 23/60 Vauxhall with a Rolls-Royce Hawk aero-engine bought in 1930 from Clares’ of Tulse Hill, with a spare Hawk engine, for £32. And the current issue of the VSCC Bulletin carries an equally intriguing piece about two more aero-engined cars, both built in Australia, a 57-h.p. Daimler with a 220-h.p. Hispano Suiza V8 engine in 1921, and a Minerva chassis in which a 200-h.p. Hispano Suiza aero-engine was installed in 1922. This suggests that, apart from the aero-engined Brooklands racing cars, there were more aero-engined cars on our roads in the 1920s and 1930s than is sometimes realised—if anyone has recollections of others we would like to hear from them.

Sometimes useful information is found in unexpected places. Thus the last issue for 1970 of Veterantics, journal of the very enthusiastic VCC of S. Africa, carried an article on the development of the Austin 12/4 and 16/6, with recognition and restoration data and in the December/January edition of Beaded Wheels, magazine of the Vintage CC of New Zealand, there is an article which presents a new angle on the theory that the 1914 TT Sunbeams were a crib of the Henri 1913 Coupe de l’Auto Peugeots. According to the Isle of Man Examiner there is in Douglas an Austro-Daimler saloon, originally owned by an Austrian Prince, the body of which has three compartments, and which was intended to run 600 miles without refuelling. It would appear to be a vintage model, with the famous A-D mascot.