Club News, September 1951

Club News

WE HEAR John Whitehead now Itas the ex

John Whitehead now Itas the exBriggs shortened ‘Lancia Lambda•and has reduced further its weight and fitted a smart new body. Another S. Wales enthusiast, Alan Ford, is running a nice 3-litre Invicta and restoring a veteran Darracq. F. and E. Stoneham now print their house Magazine Torque. This is a ” must ” for those who want to keep flu fail with new motoring books. and the way to secure one is to send a postcard now, mentioning this paper. Thin• is no

,chartle. A race took place tI ii 0.11(•I’ day behveen Giles Routanes’ wank toot Stevens t rail ion engine ” Eileen ” and Arthur Napper’s Marshall t raetion engine “Old Tinter.The course w;ts in it field incur Nettlelied :ttel 6′ Old Timer ” won. Grand fun; this, but in this country you can’t have much fun without interference and a zealous polieciron (not plain clothed!) stopped ” Eileen ‘• and queried her agricultural licence, with the result that Mr. Ronemes was fined £5. No wonder peop:e emigrate! That attractive and spacious Belsize Six tourer was seen again, in the lbsley Paddock.

We regret that in last. Or cit flit artiele on the Hawthorne Rileys Ivo stated that the ears Wore preparecl for racing by C. 13. Bickel!. Actually C. B. Biekell was killed in a pre-war Ulster G.P. motorCycle race ; it is his brother, J. W., who pules the alleys. Betty Haig and Barbara Marshall have been playing with a 1924 ” 12/50-” Alvis Super Sports, which pulls a trailer on demand and which Betty. says “goes all right.” R. G. Bracewell, 19a, Great .Victoria Street, Belfast:, has acquired the ex,Shorrock Marshall-blown ” Kfl ” M.G. Magnette and wants data about this type of M.G. Another 1926 ” 10.8″ Clyno tourer was encountered recently, serving well an owner in Parson’s Green. Mr. Neville Gwyn Gwynne, of ‘Albert and Gwynne Eight fame, died, aged 82, after a fall at his ”home at ‘Piddinghoe, Sussex, last. July. Major T. W. Stubbs is building a very -fine 1 in. 1 ft. Model of the 1908 G.B. Mercedes. Complete with chaindrive, this model is extremely accurate, has the blessing of Stuttgart and will be driven by a 5-e.c. water-cooled engine. Very detailed, if not quite so realistic, is a i-scale model ” ‘re ” M.G. Midget built by L. A. Hancox and powered with 1.3-e.e. Mills _engine. We hear that racing drivers have been a bit reluctant to complete questionnaires for ” Who’s Who iu the Motor Industry,” but that our recent reference to this forthcoming book hurried some Of them along. Will others who have been forgetful please get busy, appeal the publishers, Roland C. Bellamy, of Grimsby. R. P. Armor, 112, W. Vida Way, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A., who recently restored a 1932 Auburn .Speedster, seeks photographs and data on the Auto-Union-built Audi, as he is hoping to rebuild a crashed example to original condition. A 1928 Crossley has turned up in Wales, apparently in good

condition, a 3923 one-owner G.W.K. in Sussex and a 1925 BeLsize Six in London.

R.A.C. TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP The R.A.C. announces that this

The R.A.C. announces that this year’s Championship Trial will be held over a new course in Wales, on December 151h. Events giving entry to this Championship will in future be known, not as ” Classics ‘ but as Championship Qualifying Trials. Those remaining to be contested are :— Sept. 1st.—Davis Trophy Trial.

23rd.—The Knott Cup.

Oct. Lith.—Allen Trophy Trial.

„ 20th.-31.C.C. Sporting Trial.

214.-1′{igh Peak Trial.

Nov. 4th.—Knowland Trophy Trial.

„ 10th.—The Cheltenham Trial.

„ 1 I th.—Bossom Trophy Mal.

„ I71h.—C,ottinghain Memorial Trophy Trial. „ 24th—Roy kedden Trophy Trial.

25th.—Kentish Border Sporting Trial.

1)4c. liit.—Moncester Trial.

Entrariti; from Scotland will still be selected by the Royal Seottisli Automobile Club, those from Northern Ireland by the Ulster Automobile Club.

To qualify for the Championship a driver must have finished as one of the first twelve in three of the Qualifying Trials.

WITHOUT COMMENT

The following Editorial opinion on motor-racing appeared in the July issue of the Austin Magazine.

“There is something of a revival of interest in motor-racing, and various exaerodrome or ex-horse-racing tracks are being tried out for the 90 to 100-m.p.h. circuit cyclones with which the crack drivers of today contest for honours. Yet to me it all sounds a degree unrealistic. The ears bear no relation in name or design to anything on the road today. The drivers—many of them, anyway— have foreign names. Even when a car of familiar name is participating the commentators give it a foreign pronunciation. The menu is very much in French. And if there is anything more pathetic than a B.B.C. commentator trying to get excited as car after car screeches past his microphone all sounding precisely the same and audible for just about two seconds each— heaven preserve me from having to listen to it. I suppose I have now earned the opprobrium of the motor-racing fans. But they can carry on. I have not suggested that they should be stopped or impeded in their enthusiasm. All I ask them to do is to get on with it ilfilliont me.”

OPINION

Uncle Tom MeCabill, who writes in powerful Americanese of motoring matters for Meehan ix Illustrated, did a test last June of the American under-750-ex. Crosley Super Sports with 10 to 1 compression ratio. He found that it would outaccelerate a “TI) ” M.G.-0-50 in 13.9 sec., 60 in 19.7 see., 70 m.p.h. in 38.5 sec., but admits, ” Don’t think for a moment that if I were offered my choice of an M.G. or a Crosley as a gift I’d take the Crosley. The M.G. is a top quality machine front its upholstery to its radiator eap and the Crosley Super is a tin tub on wheels with a fine engine.” A Month toter MeCithill tried the DB II Aston-Martin but didn’t_ (are a bit for its roadholding : ” Keeping this over-steering job on a straight line called for a phenomenal

amount of restraint not to understeer [?].

I got the feeling this little rabbit wanted to head for the woods–and there were some bad moments when I felt like a guy who finds himself in bed with a king cobra.” Well, Uncle Tom, we haven’t been in bed with a snake of any kind but we did do our 0-100 m.p.h. acceleration test in the DB II amongst other traffic on last winter’s sheet ice, having to brake hard as soon as the speedometer showed the desired reading. We did this without trouble ; when McCahill tried a corner at about 50 m.p.h. he ” had plenty of trouble making it ” but was able to try it in o Frick-Tappett Cadillac-Healey and ” took it easily at better than 70 m.p.h.” Trying for speed on a smooth road Uncle Tom got 122 m.p.h [!] and “was just beginning to warm up a bit to this little barge when all of a Sudden, at about 120 m.p.h., on an absolutely dry road, the Aston started a four-wheel slide to the right.” He is convinced that a D13 II “one of the best looking wheelbarrows on the highway ” is ” no car for the amateur driver to wheel around at. speeds above

100.” Ile thinks the XI{ 120 Jaguar is ” a better and safer all-round road car.” After which we are safe to bet. that Torn MeCithill is not on John Wyer’s list of potential team drivers for AstonMartin . !

The new addressof Barclay Inglis, Hon. See. of the Eight Clubs Organisation is : 35, Frognal, N.W.3.

SACKCLOTH

In writing of the good handling qualities of the 1951 Morris-Oxford saloon last month the Editor said the tendency is to ” over-steer.” -Needless to say, he meant ” under-steer.”