VETERAN-EDWARDIAN-VINTAGE, April 1970

VSCC POMEROY TROPHY CONTEST, SILVERSTONE (Feb. 28th)

THIS competition, for all cars over 2-litres, designed to decide the best all-round touring car taking part, was run in cold but dry conditions, the 54 starters (six non-starters) taking six tests, steering, acceleration-cum-braking, standing and flying 1/4-mile runs and a one hour high-speed trial. The contest is less comprehensive than the late Laurence Pomeroy, champion of the Prince Henry and 30/98 Vauxhalls, intended, because the former fuel consumption check and road stage have been deleted.

This year a dry road seemed to give many drivers a false sense of security and caused them to slide beyond the stop line. In the high-speed trial, run in two parts, there was the edifying sight of Johnson really pressing his 1951 Bentley Mk. VI saloon, the 1955 Bentley Continentals of Mann and Melville-Smith circulating together for a while, Bowler cornering fast in his Sebring Fraser Nash but the wily Conway driving no faster than he deemed necessary in his Type 43 Bugatti. Russ-Turner’s blower 4 1/2 Bentley soon expired and Hill’s Silver Eagle Alvis had previously broken a half-shaft. Star dicer was Corner, in his Firestone-shod Ferrari GTO.—W. B.

Results:

Pomeroy Trophy :E. N. Corner (Ferrari), Runner-up: Hine (Bentley). First Class Awards : Merrett (Bugatti). Bowler (Frazer Nash) and Morton (Bentley).

Second Class Awards : Sismey (Alvis), Wall (Ferrari) and Terry (Rover 2000TC).

Third Class Awards : Gilbart-Smith (AC), Setright (Bristol), Stretten (Fraser Nash) and Smith (AC).

VMCC “VINTAGE RACE OF THE YEAR”

THIS year the Vintage Motor Cycle Club will hold its full-scale programme of races for machines made between the wars, at Mallory Park an April 26th. Last year’s meeting has been described as “an unforgettable, almost unbelievable occasion”, with many old-timers present, riding appropriate vintage machines. So make a note of the date.

V-E-V Miscellany.—A Doble F34 steam car with saloon body, has been lent to the Montagu Motor Museum by the Chairman of a Blackburn Company and is expected to be driven down to Hampshire, averaging about 15 m.p.g. of paraffin. Some amusement has been caused by an article in My Weekly about owning a 1934 Bentley, which was illustrated by a drawing which clearly depicted a pre-war Packard. A reader has sent us an advertisement from the “Bicycling News and Motor Review” of 1906 for the Torpedo light car; it concerns the 6-h.p. water-cooled single-cylinder model which some authorities say was so had that a two-cylinder version was hastily introduced. What is interesting is that wire wheels were normally supplied artillery wheels being £3 extra, and that the works were said to be in the centre of Barton-on-Humber and to occupy seven acres, the offices and packing department being on the town’s outskirts – and in the picture served by horse-drawn drays. In Berkshire a pre-war Albion lorry, an old Morris lorry and some vintage cars have been seen in a scrapyard and a circa-1931 Singer Six saloon Is reported rotting away behind a Norfolk garage. In Scotland a 1936 Austin 20 hearse is being restored and in Sheffield those Sentinel steam waggons, once a fleet of seven, used by Brown Bayley Steels of Sheffield, are being sold, including a 1916 solid-tyred model which used about 1 1/2-cwt. of coke per 12-hour shift. Those who asked for entry forms for the Penshurst Pageant of Motoring are asked by the organiser to apply again, as their letters have been lost