Miscellaneous matters
Inter-Register
On the day following the annual Sunbeam S.T.H. Register dinner and social in London, a meeting was held at the home of the Hon. Registrar, Mrs. Winifred Boddy, to discuss this year’s Inter-Register contests. These were decided as an S.T.O. Register Concours d’ Elegance and Navigational Rally to Beaulieu on April 19th, a Fiat Register Trial in Surrey on June 21st, the Humber Register Great Witlley Trial on August 2nd, and an Alvis 12/50 Register Night Navigation Rally in Bucks on September 26/27th.. The contest was won by the Fiat Register in 1957 and by the Sunbeam Register last year. This year the Bullnose Morris Club joins in.
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Lydstep Hill-Climb
This year’s event will be held on March 21st and Supplementary Regulations will be available the second week of February. There will be classes for racing, sports and saloon cars. For further particulars apply to the Secretary of the Event, A.L. Bennett, 106, Haven Road, Haverfordwest, Pembs.
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“Cat’s Eyes” Rally
The. first National rally of 1959, the “Cat’s Eyes” organised by the Thames Estuary A.C., will take place on February 7/8th. This year’s event, the sixth in the series, will again have two starting controls. One will be situated at Little Brick Hill, near Bletchley, Bucks, and the other will be at Lamb’s Garage, Woodford Green. The finish will take place at Southend, where two tie-deciding tests are to be staged.
Competitors are limited to 240 by the R.A.C., which is the limit for any road event in this country. Last year an entry of over 150 took part, and an even larger number of competitors is expected for this year’s event.
The start will be at 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 7th, and should cover about 400 miles of main and secondary roads, with no sump-damaging sections to worry about. The organisers hope to eliminate timing troubles by the use of Ingersoll pocket watches which each competitor will carry.
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O.R.M.A. announce another dance, at the Century Hotel, Wembley Park, on February 27th. Tickets from Mrs. M. Wheeler, Kent House, Market Place, Oxford Circus, W.1.
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Simca announce that the Flash Special engine now develops an extra 3.7 b.h.p., a maximum of 60 b.h.p. It is used for the P.60 Montlhéry, Monaco, Plein Ciel and Oceane Simca cars.
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High standard
A contemporary reporting on the modern Rolls-Royce describes it “the highest standard of terrestrial transport so far attained in the recorded history of the world,” notwithstanding the fact that on its continental jaunt of 3,360 miles, two days’ delay had been occasioned, respectively, by failure of a dynamo bearing and failure of a universal-joint rubber boot on the propeller shaft and that near the summit of the St. Gotthard Pass the car stopped due to lack of rear-wheel adhesion on a surface that caused no trouble to a VW, a Fiat 600 and a 1,900 Alfa-Romeo. The Rolls-Royce was driven into Paris on the return journey with a total failure of the dynamo.
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New British and U.K Auto-Union conessionaires
Mercedes-Benz (Greta Britain) Ltd., of Brentford, Middlesex, will, on January 1st, 1959, take over as concessionaires in the U.K. for Auto-Union; this move follows the amalgamation of DaimlerBenz AG and Auto Union the previous January.
Auto Union’s DKW de-luxe coupé will be added to the full Mercedes-Benz range of cars at the Brentford and 10, Albemarle Street W.1. showroorns and will be backed by a comprehensive service and organisation.
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Imitation is…
. . . Robert Glenton writing in the Sunday Express of January 11th about the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud: “Some years ago I once said that at 100 miles an hour in a Rolls the only thing one could hear was, the clock.”
Laurence Pomeroy, F.R.S.A., M.S.A.E., writing in The Motor dated February 19th, 1958., about the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud : ” … at 100 m.p.h. the noisiest thing on the car is the clock.”