V-E-V odds and ends

Records are made to be broken and some pre-war ones fell at the sprint meeting held at RAF Elvington last month. For instance, Tony Densham at last broke the British f.s. kilometre record, held by Sir Malcolm Campbell and the Napier-Campbell since 1927—but by less than a m.p.h. per year! His 7-litre Ford-powered, specially modified, dragster did 207.6 m.p.h. to Campbell’s 174.88 m.p.h. with 24-litres of Napier engine, on sand. Patsy Burt, whose father raced Frazer Nash and Burt Special cars at Brooklands, broke R. J. Munday’s Brooklands f.s. kilometre diesel record with the Perkins-powered Thomas Special, in a Mercedes-Benz 220D saloon with exhaust-driven supercharger, 5-speed gearbox and non-standard (larger) wheels. But he only improved on this 35-year-old record by 8.8 m.p.h… . Granted there was a longer run-in at Brooklands. Leo Villa watched the runs, accompanied by a fine scale model of the 1927 “Bluebird”.

A reader who no longer drives, due to arthritis, asks us to try to discover the whereabouts of the 1928 1-1/2-litre sports Alfa Romeo he once owned, Reg. No. TE 4327, which finished 11th in the Six-Hour Race at Brooklands, driven by Bruno. He sold it in 1948 to a Mr. Harrison. Rumour has it that a racing Sunbeam, possibly a 1922 GP car, has turned up in the backwoods of Queensland, Australia, where the best part of 39 pre-1921 Talbots were discovered recently in Victoria. A derelict 1934/7 Armstrong Siddeley saloon and a Triumph Super-Seven chassis are reported to lie in an orchard in Nottingham and a Terraplane tourer in sorry state lies behind a Somerset garage (letters can be forwarded). Describing the expansion of E. Channon & Sons Ltd. premises in Weymouth (they had the first Morris franchise in Weymouth and Dorchester), which date back to 1910, a local paper referred to their 10 h.p. Channon car of 1905, of which four were made. Apologies to M. H. Morris and W. A. G. Morris for garbled reporting of the final race at the VSCC Thruxton Race Meeting, which gave the fastest lap in text and picture to Bill Morris’ 1-1/2-litre ERA when, in fact, Martin Morris achieved this in his 2-litre ERA. Incidentally, next season there should be great rivalry between this ERA and Neil Corner’s latest acquisition, R4D. We regret to learn of the deaths of Harry Rose, the great Bentley enthusiast, and of J. A. Joyce, the AC racing driver who died suddenly at the age of 74, at Wareham.

At the previously referred to ABC Rally, about 15 ABCs, a Belsize-Bradshaw and a Matador-Bradshaw, supported by Bean and Swift cars. John Stevenson & Sons Ltd. were recently entrusted with packing an immaculate 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost landaulette for shipment on the S.S. Port Townsville to Australia. The car is the property of P. W. Markham, Reg. No. R 2084; the absence of front brake drums caused a crating complication!

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N.B.—Owing to pressure on space “Vintage Postbag” has to be held over until next month, when an interesting selection is due to appear, including further 1914 GP Mercedes history.