Miscellany, May 2002

For Jowett Jupiter fans Edmund Nankivell has The Jowett Jupiter, A Car for Road, Rally and Race (ISBN 9541144 0, Penmellyn Publications, 6 Kymer Gardens, Hassocks, Sussex BN6 8QZ, price on application). The author has had Jupiters since 1969 and his book is a variety of memories of these sportscars, with a Foreword by Gordon Wilkins, who rallied them. History, TV and films featuring Jupiters, lists of remembered ones including those on Motor Sport’s fleet (he even remembers how I praised easy erection of the hood on our road-test car), a Vicky cartoon-strip, great road journeys, race and rally accounts, and some colour shots make up this Jowett look-back; the frontispiece picture is of a street with tiny cars below, from which you are asked to spot the Jupiter. Fun, and nostalgic.

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The Pre-war Austin 7 Club Secretary is Mike Harris (13 Ashleigh Drive, Nuneaton, Warwickshire CV11 6SF); John Barks is Membership Secretary.

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An Australian reader wants information on the Marouba Speedway near Sydney, a one-mile steeply-banked track which opened in December 1925, apparently attracting some 70,000 people, who had to watch in the sun as the £100,000 of public subscription did not cover grandstands. After about 14 months of racing it closed, five drivers and a bike rider being killed there. Motorcycle racing continued until 1927, with two more fatalities, probably because the speed-bowl had the wrong re-entry angles to the bankings. More information would be appreciated. Le Champion took the huge Fiat ‘Mephistopheles’ to Sydney, but decided it was too fast to race at Marouba.