V-E-V Odds & Ends, October 1984

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V-E-V Odds & Ends. — Having driven home to Wales non-stop from VSCC Cadwell Park racing in the Alfa 6 in less than 43/4 hours, I went the next day over the Clan hills in the 1922 Talbot-Darracq to that most excellent Bishop’s Castle Steam Rally, at which traction engines, steam-waggons, stationary engines, models, shire-horses, ponies and traps, bicycles, farm tractors, indeed almost every nostalgic thing that moves, are to be seen every August Bank Holiday, together, of course, with vintage and veteran cars and motorcycles. This year the number of such vehicles was as great and interesting as ever, far too numerous to list. But I recall Sun and Clyno two-stroke motorcycles that seemed to particularly reflect the atmosphere of the old days, a 1921 Model-T Ford country ‘bus which would have been better if its “black radiator” had not been brassed, an exceedingly rough and rusty 1931 K25 Renault tourer, a once-familiar pre-1914 Unic coupe, a non-familiar Edwardian Brasier on modern-size tyres, Reg Worthing’s Ford-T “racer”, a 1935 Austin 16/6 displaying many of its former licence-discs as a sort of DVLC nightmare, Guest’s 1929 Riley 9 Monaco with very clean engine, a too-brassed Morris Minor saloon of the same age, Burgess’s smart 3-litre VDP Bentley, a very “boy-racer” A7 with lots of interesting non-standard mods, a postvintage Daimler keeping company with an earlier Lanchester, a very nice Edwardian lhd Buick tourer with lining along its

dumb-irons, a Model-A Ford Tudor saloon, and the usual large Austin display. A veil/ English occasion, with the traction-engine parading to Elgar’s “Pomp & Circumstance ‘ March. But a pity all the car exhibits cannot be listed in the programme, and correctly numbered. . . . At VSCC Cadwell the course-patrol cars were a couple of 29/90 hp British Salmsmis, one slab-tanked, the other with a flowing tail, the small but active BS Club having a gathering there. The Hon General Secretan’ of the BSA Front Wheel Drive Club is doing research into BSA vehicles, especiallY the FWD cars, etc, and would like to hear froT all former employees of the CompanY, hrs P. D. Cook, 13, Rosemary Crescent, Guildford, Surrey GU2 6XL. —