Miscellany, August 1999

The VSCC of America has added selected cars made before 1960 as eligible for its events, plus some later ones if specially approved, as well as pre-war cars. The list includes post-war HRG, Jowett Jupiter, SU-carburettored Morgans, Peerless GT, Swallow Doretti, Veritas and some TVR, Turner and Tojeiros. My hope is that the VSCC will never copy…

The Morris register is fortunate to have historian Harry Edwards as editor of its Journal. In the Spring issue he has erudte articles on petrol and oil centenaries, with pictures of Jack Elliot Duckham and his chauffeur-driven Morris 16/6 saloon with Perkins Wolf diesel engine, and of Alexander Duckhams in his s/c 1939 Morris 8 tourer.

The Daily Telegraph says one Boeing 747 crossing the Atlantic creates more pollution than 40,000 vehicles travelling from London to Leeds. Aeroplanes do not have catalytic converters, and when fuel is dumped in an emergency the pollution factor is many times more than from i/c engines.

At the VSCC Colerne speed trials, a straight-line sprint, Andrew Day’s s/c 8-litre Bentley made 1-TD in 23.01sec, beating all the more modem entries. The fastest lady was Sarah Baker, in the 1917 Th. Schneider aero-car (30.84sec). Class winners were (vintage/overall, R = record): D Venables (1929

Frazer Nash)/P Evans 1937 H RG); E Goldsmith (1926 41/2 Bentley)/A Pugh (1939 FN-BMW); T Delaney (1928 Lea-Francis)/J Mowatt (1936 Morgan Spl)R; A Day (1928 Bentley SpI)/ditto, R; Miss P Barwell (1930 A7)/A Painter (1934 MG); T Crowther (1930 Rally)/N Mason (ERA R10B)R; S Goodman (1929 Bugatti)/R King (1938 Delage); J Wilton (1961 Cooper)/B Eastick (1955 Jaguar)R.

The June issue of Aeroplane had a picture of Elly Beinhom (Frau Rosemeyer) at the air show to mark the opening of Chigwell Aerodrome in September 1936, where she demonstrated a Messerschmitt Bf108. She was of course the wife of the famous Auto Union driver who won the 1938 Don ington GP. Did he fly from Germany with her, or was he too busy winning GPs for A-U ?

Brooklands Books, being privileged to reproduce articles from the leading motor papers, have branched out into volumes recording particular races. Following their Le Mans and Mille Miglia books, Brooklands now has three on post-WW2 Targa Florio races, a hardback at £34.95, covering 1948 to 1973, the reports including those from Autocar plus MOTOR SPORT, so you get the accounts exactly as written after each Targa, and the results are also listed. Soft-cover books on the same race from 1955 to 1964 and 1965 to ’73 are also available, for £13.95.