Miscellany, May 2003

During the Donington VSCC meeting another anniversary party for Tom Wheatcroft will be held. Kevin Wheatcroft is also to have a monument erected to Roger Williamson, and have the Pat Fairfield memorial relocated on the 60th anniversary of Pat’s Le Mans accident.

* * * * *

Among my paperwork from the past is a Trojan bhp chart for their XL engine, based on hill-climbing performances. It gives power absorbed by gradient, road resistance and gravity. Starting up a 1-in-20 hill at 19mph uses 5.55hp for acceleration, so 24.4mph is achieved until no more pace is left. If a Trojan doing 20mph encounters a 1-in-8 hill, speed will drop to, and will remain at, 17.2mph. It’s all beyond me, so I have sent the graph to the very enthusiastic Trojan OC.

* * * * *

If no original of an historic car exists a decent replica has to be the next best thing. At the Amateurs de Vehicules dEpoque meeting in France last year the only English member of this small club saw what seemed to be a very accurate recreation of the long-distance Yacco Citroën record-breaker illustrated recently in Motor Sport. Our informant attended the event in his 3-litre Bentley, and the owner of the Citroën told him he must be very wealthy, as his had two bonnet straps whereas his had only one…