Club news, November 1944

We hear

Ronny Burnett has had the good fortune to acquire one of the last 11/2-litre sport Altas to be produced, a 1940 unblown car. What is more, he has also had the luck to get Geoffrey Taylor to service it, and it is now at Tolworth for overhaul ; this is not to suggest that this busy little factory can do such work for everyone. EV Busk, who competed with some success in Vintage SCC events with a “12/50” Alvis, has bought a straight-eight GP Bugatti with aluminium wheels, which appears to be a Type 35. Ken Wharton recently addressed the Smethwick Rotary Club on motoring developments since the very early days and found his audience very attentive and impressed by the speed attained by cars like Gabriel’s Mors fully 21 years ago. He is especially anxious to obtain photographs of his “Ulster” Austin in action at Donington, Madresfield and Brooklands during 1935-38, if anyone can help, and also to trace the car–GJ4879.

John Cooper has disposed of his Fiat 500 and Talbot 105, and has acquired a “Hyper” Lea-Francis 4-seater, which has two SU carburetters, but for which the blower is available. W/O DH Mater, RAF, writes to say the Bugatti he bought some time ago turns out to be a Type 22, and he hopes to obtain a “Full Brescia” as a stable companion for it. Lt Philip Shenton has taken over the Meadows Frazer-Nash which was last owned by poor Seale. K Hutchison looks forward to an early resumption of trials and, meanwhile, has amassed two Ford V8s, his Allard and Kitty Hutchison’s Fiat 500. Jenkinson now has the ex-Julian Fall Type 22 Bugatti, and Fall has given him a 1928 Autocar to go in the door pocket. Lacy would sell his very well-preserved 3-litre “Red Label” Bentley for £​100. A Guildford doctor has bought the ex-Alan Marshall “TT Replica” Frazer-Nash. Continental Cars Ltd. have agreed to assist in the filming of “Rake’s Progress,” by supplying three or four Bugattis, while Peter Monkhouse will also lend a hand, with his Type 51 Bugatti. Charles Brackenbury has the Le Mans V12 Lagonda which survived the flying bomb episode, for his official journeys, lucky man ! VL Parry, invalided out of the RAF runs an SS “100” on official journeys and craves an Allard for after the war. Adlards recently converted the ex-Zwick Allard to the low-radiator type with V-grilled radiator for a Mr Appleton ; Warburton is selling his Allard, the original Bugatti-tailed car. Macdermid has been home again and has been seen whistling about in a Humber Super Snipe with 9.00-in by 13-in boots. Leslie Bachelier is concerned with war production these days and gets around and about in an “1,100” Fiat, after using three “500” Fiats and “1,500” of the same make. He has, or had, an OE “30/98” Vauxhall chassis for disposal. Maclachlan is in a Worthing nursing home with stomach trouble, but it’s an ill wind, because, while there, he hopes to write for us the story of his famous single-seater sprint Austin Seven. HF Hart has met F/O Tony Morgan through Motor Sport, and they have been out in Hart’s Le Mans Singer and in Morgan’s “International” Aston-Martin, and they have met Capt AG Miller and Goodhew, the last-named having recently bought a Le Mans Lagonda from Brian Finglass. Hart is ridding himself of the Singer, because he has had the good fortune to acquire a 41/2-litre Bentley and an OE “30/98” Vauxhall for £20 the two, which cars he and Lillywhite intend to thoroughly recondition.

Up North Routledge has made an excellent job of a “Speed Twenty” Alvis coupe, with “Firefly” engine installed, fitting it with many extras, including a very neat central control for the self-change gearbox. This car is used daily in connection with aircraft servicing, and Routledge also has a very ambition’s AC Six-engined Alvis “Special” on the stocks ; he is also interested in a Riley Nine and is assisting an ATA pilot to convert a Girling-braked Riley Nine single-seater, in which someone put a Triumph engine, back into a 2-seater. GG Carmen recently came back from a German prisoner-of-war camp and addressed the Oldbury Rotary Club on the subject. He used to race an Austin Seven at Donington. Coil Nicholson is now a RAF Flt /Lt at a Middle East MU, and very staunch to 3 or 41/2-litre Bentleys ; he says he’d rather a bike than an Austin Seven ! A 1914 Daimler has come to light in Shropshire and there is a brass-radiator Model-T Ford with good tyres for sale for £20 in N Ireland.

F/Lt Shepherd, RAF, recently diced round Montlhery in a Jeep and reports both track and road course in good condition, and the lock-ups beneath the steep banking intact, although the grandstand and pits have disappeared. Delahaye, Champion and similar posters are still plastered about liberally. In France, Shepherd has so far failed to encounter a Bugatti, but has seen a very fine short-chassis Delahaye dh coupe and a modern Hotchkiss-Amilcar dh coupe. Shepherd’s own car is the ex-works, ex-Peter Eve HRG (EPH19), which he bought from Derrington. This car ran fourth in the 12-Hour Sports Car Race at Donington and was driven at Prescott, etc, by Curtis ; on a long, fast run it still gives 32 mpg. It was overhauled in 1940 and now stands beside Shepherd’s 2-litre “Speed Model” Aston-Martin fully-streamlined 2-seater. Shepherd’s father has a 3-litre Alvis saloon, his sister an Austin Seven “Ruby” saloon, and the family hack is an 11-hp Lanchester, so he has lots of motoring interest to look forward to when basic comes back. Shepherd’s past cars have included a Rapier, a Rapier de Clifford Special, a 3-litre Bentley, an Arnott blown AC “Ace,” and, since the war, two Austin Tens, two Morris Eights, an MG Magnette and an Austin Seven. The AC is now owned by a keen “Wren,” and the special Rapier is in the Midlands. Can anyone loan this enthusiast an HRG handbook, please ?

Cyril Peacock is gradually assembling his “12/50” Alvis tourer, to which he hopes to fit a “Silver Eagle” gearbox and Hardy-Spicer propeller shaft. He has also had the extreme good fortune to find a beautifully-preserved 1927 27-hp Hispano-Suiza 2-seater, which has been laid up since 1938 and was apparently used only three months a year, the total mileage being only 43,000. Some 6.50-in by 20-in tyres are wanted for it, if anyone can help. Anthony Phelps, test pilot to the Lockheed Corporation, has been in Canada, but is now back in this country. His Opel “Cadet” has now done 56,000 miles, and when taken down did not, even need oversize rings. It has been recellulosed Bugatti blue. PheIps was able to run his sv Aston recently, and he is hot on the scent or a 2-litre Lagonda fabric saloon. A friend of his recently added a blower to a Triumph “Dolomite.” John Cobb still ferries for ATA, having been seen in a “Hellcat” recently, and Billy Arnold, of Indianapolis fame, is now in this country. In Birmingham a very sound semi-sports 1928 “12/50” Alvis was recently for sale for £40, with lots of spares, but its owner has decided to keep it, while a touring “12/50” of about the same date was offered in Hull for £30, and a 1931 TT touring “12/50” with three nearly new tyres, was available for the same sum in the North. Douglas Tubbs has temporarily laid up his DKW, and motors in a Fiat 500, while Gordon Wilkins is fully recovered and very busy down in the West Country,

Scottish Sporting CC.

We understand that a plot is afoot to recommence activities at the earliest suitahle moment. and that stock is being taken or how many cars exist suitable for post-war competition. T Leslie McDonald has recently had his special 11/2-litre, 4-cylinder Singer on the road after three years’ inactivity.

December “Rembrandt”

The next “Rembrandt” enthusiasts’ gathering is seheduled for December 3rd, and places thereat should be booked now. Full details are not yet available, but the arrangemeots will include lunch and afterwards talk and discussion led by Capt GET Eyston. Tickets cost 15s each for lunch and 3s each for the discussion only. The sum of 30 12s. 7d. has been handed to the RAF Benevolent Fund as a result of the September meeting, and in future such takings will be used to send motoring magazines to Forces overseas and to Prisoner-of-War camps. Rivers-Fletcher has decided to carry future organisation on his own shoulders and not to form a new organisation— which Laurence Pomeroy suggested could be called the Automobile Racing Association— at all events yet awhile.

Yoerkshire SCC

The Yorkshire Sports Car Club held another of its regular dinners recently in Leeds, at which W Boddy, the Editor of Motor Sport, was the guest of honour. It was learned with regret that the Wetherby speed trial course is unlikely to be available again after the war,

BOC

The Bugatti Owners Club AGM and film show had quite a good attendance. AC Whincop suggested that certain activities, such as the publication of “Bugantics” etc, might now be revived, but he was pointedly opposed by J Lemon Burton and the latter won the day.

Cover picture

This month’s cover picture reminds us that, but for Hitler, trials. would now be in full swing. The car depicted is a rather unusual one, Hayward’s famous Bayliss-Thomas. This was one of the larger-engined of these cars, made by the Excelsior Motor Cycle Co and was successful in a number of trials. The picture actually brings the mind to all manner of good things to come, trials to watch and compete in, unusual cars to unearth and restore, perhaps a “defunct makes” rally one summer’s day, and even post-war new models, for it is rumoured that the Bayliss-Thomas may be revived after the war as an economy post-war job.

The “Robin” Sporting MC

A new club, aiming to hold all manner of competitive events for both car and motor-cycle folk, the Robin Sporting Motor Club held a social evening at, the “Hand and Spear,” Weyhridge, on September 30th. The annual subscription has been fixed at 10s 6d. Hon secretary, Mrs Minnie Grenfell, “Chestnuts,” Brooklands Road, Weybridge, Surrey. (Weybridge 4047)

JCC

The Junior Car Club continues its monthly council lunches at the Connaught Rooms. At a recent gathering prominent guests were Mr Carlton Dyer, Director General of Communications Equipment for MAP, Col DC McLagen, secretary of the SMMT, Wing-Cdr TH Wisdom, Capt AW Phillips, AK Stevenson, secretary of the RSAC, and Ronald Newnham. Wisdom suggested that post-war races should be named to commemorate those racing drivers who have lost their lives in the war.

Sports Car Club of America

The first meeting of this recently formed club took place on July 12th and was attended by Everett Dickinson, Jack Duby, Arnold Engborg, Charlie Fisher, Ted Robertson, Chaplin Walour and many wives and guests. The cars comprised a Duesenberg, which was mistaken for a P-40 from a close-at-hand airfield at one stage of the proceedings, an SS Jaguar, a Mercer, a “Phantom” Rolls-Royce, and two Lancia “Lambdas.” Eight new members were elected in July, one owning six Packards of 1915-1920 vintages, a 1924 Stanley, and a 1911 Mercer, and the others weighing in with 1930 du Pont, Le Mans model G speedster, 1913 Mercer Raceabout, 1924 Mercedes phaeton, 1926 Cunningham V7 tourer, and 1921 Mercer Raceabout, 1920 Mercer Raceabout, 1926 Stutz 2-seater and 1920 Packard phaeton, Mercedes 1923 3-seater and a 1912 Mercer Raceabout. The July issue of the Sportswagen contains a nice tribute to Motor Sport and a reprint of our road test report on the “33/180 Benz, published originally in August 1927. Secretary Everett M Dickinson, 112 Chestnut Street, Boston 8, Mass., USA.