V-to-C Miscellany, May 1994, May 1994

V-to-C Miscellany

The Rover Sports Register will hold the National Rover Rally at Belvoir Castle, near Grantham, on August 22, and after the recent BMW takeover of the longestablished British company, this will be a poignant event, with the once-so-English “Betjeman aunties” and other models, including flat-twin Rover 8s, on display. A Daily Mail feature, Questions &

Answers, queried how the expression “everything is all Sir Garnet” came about. The answer was that it refers to the high opinion in which Viscount Garnet, Joseph Wolseley, was held — Oueen Victoria called him “our only soldier” when he was in sole command of the British Army. A letter from a member of the family added that Sir Garnet not only coined the term “Tommy Atkins” for the British soldier but helped to establish the Wolseley motor company, by financing his youngest brother Frederick York, when he was associated with it before WW1 and finances were low.

Plans are already going ahead for a Icommemoration next year of the 60th anniversary of the first appearance in the official MG colours of the works team of ‘Cream Cracker’ trials cars, in the 1935 MCC Land’s End Trial. Not only does organiser Ian Williamson hope to have a Land’s End Retrospective running at Easter in parallel with the full MCC trial, with support from other pre-trial cars such as Singer and A7 etc, but to hold at the end of April 1995 a reunion of the works MG ‘Cream Cracker’ and ‘Musketeer’ trials cars at The Bear on Rodborough Common, followed by a formal dinner for those connected with these cars, to which MGCC and MG Company personnel will be invited. It is hoped Steve Dear and John Thornley will attend, and that there will be an assault by selected cars on hills such as Nailsworth Ladder and IIles Lane, which were used for the 1934 Abingdon-Abingdon Trial. Contact Ian Williamson, on 0993-823366.

The Gwynne Eight Register is to repeat last year’s rally to Fowey, Cornwall, when eight Gwynnes were lined-up at Bill Peacock’s house. The date this year is April 15/17.

The Lea-Francis (below) OC has its 32nd Stanford Hall Rally on lune 5. Its magazine, The Leaflet, for February had an article on the first Lea-Francis car, of 1903.

The ever-enthusiastic Trojan CC is to have a Spring Meeting at Steyning on May 8 and its summer turf-turf to The Verzons, near Ledbury, the county house built in 1790, on July 3. Open to anything Houndsfield, even the patent camp bed. No 140 of the Club’s News/ettercontained a piece about the 98 cc Trobike (of which some 23 seem to have survived and would also be welcome) and the restoration of a rear-engined Trojan Blackdown tourer.

The Historic Section of the BMW CC (secretary Mark Garfitt, 126 Llantamam Road, Cwmbran, Gwent NP44 3BD) will hold its Spring Rally at Dunkeswell, near Honiton, Devon, on May 6/8.

t is good news that, in the fire which is I reported to have destroyed a number of old cars, the 3-litre Bentley, chassis No 5, engine No 1 (below), which was originally the Hillstead demonstration car, being near the door of Jim Pikes’s premises, was unharmed, apart from being covered in a thick coating of soot.

Lord Montagu officially opened the Edwardian Garage section of the Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham. One of the cars in this museum appears to be a 1912 30/50 hp Armstrong Whitworth landaulette but has, in fact, a modern chassis and mechanical parts, in order “to provide reliable transport for the museum’s visitors”. It was built by Royles of Staindrop, Darlington. They can be forgiven, however, because they restored recently a genuine 1911 Armstrong Whitworth, for the Science Museum. rr he Mercedes-Benz 220SE of Nicky Porter and Andrew Bodman won the Fifth Monte-Carlo Challenge, from two Volvos and the Ron Gammons/Paul Easter MG-A. It got its picture, in the snow, on the front cover of HRCR’s magazine Old Stager. The event drew in cars of the kind associated with real Monte-Carlo Rallies of the past, and a Bentley Continental SI finished 89th

The Lord Mayor of London is due to start the Classic Marathon from Tower Bridge on June 6, the finish being in Cortina on June 10: Stirling Moss and Paddy Hopkirk are among the entrants.

Afine colour-picture of Proby Cautley’s Bugatti in action at Prescott graced the cover of the February/March issue of Speedscene, which is devoted to all aspects of sprint motoring.

What a wonderful club the MCC is! At Easter it ran its Land’s End Trial as it has since 1908, for the 73rd time in fact, with the unchanged format of night section and famous hills to be climbed, non-stop if possible, by participants who are competing against the club for the awards. This time the entry comprised 125 motorcycles and 237 cars of various types, necessitating large numbers of hardy marshals, which took in such observed sections as Beggar’s Roost, Sutcombe, Darracott, Crackington and Blurhills Mine, and finished, as is traditional, at Land’s End itself. Too much apparently for the one-time full reports in the motoring papers, the riders and drivers now tell of their experiences in the Club’s magazine Triple, edited by Tom Threlfall. If you are interested in the MCC Edinburgh trial on October I , the person to contact is Mike Furze, 405 Chartridge Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Bucks HP5 2LS.

The Norfolk Centre of the 750 MC will run its Austin Allsorts Rally on June 5, from the Fritton Lake Countryworld, near Great Yarmouth, on the A143. Open to all Austinbadged vehicles, including Austin Healeys (above), there are many attractions at the rally centre. Entry forms from: Paul Mitchell, 112, Tuttles Lane West, Wykmondham, Norfolk NR15 ODZ (0953 604304).

It is always a pleasure to visit the Shuttle 1 worth Collection of historic aeroplanes and cars, or watch the flying, including that of model aircraft, at Old Warden. On August 21 the Transport Trust is combining with it to hold a special event there, open to the public and embracing flying displays and parades of vintage and post-vintge cars and other vehicles of all types. Gates open 10am, aim for Biggleswade, just off the Al . oth the VSCC and the Rolls-Royce EC have published the 200th editions of their respective magazines, the VSCC Bulletin and the R-R EC Bulletin. The former first “took print” in 1937 and the R-R EC journal did so in 1963. The VSCC publication was enlarged some time back to enable bigger photographs to be used, but the Rolls-Royce journal has retained much the same format for many years. The current issue has a long report of the 1993 Alpine Rally re-enactment, descriptions of the club’s annual rally at Lord Spencer’s Althorp estate and of other events, as well as the usual content, and an insert again reminds me that this club must regularly enrol more new members than any other. Both magazines are much appreciated; the editors at the present time are David Thirlby and Lt Col Eric Ban-ass. W B