Veteran Edwardian Vintage, July 1975

A section devoted to old car matters
Another Talbot saved

The 1934 Talbot run at Brooklands by Dr. Roth was notable for being fitted, in 1935, with a single-seater body based on those fitted to the 1934 Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix cars. Those who have Anthony Blight’s “bible” on the Roesch Talbots will be aware of how this particular car fitted into the remarkable saga of these cars.

Many great cars vanished during the war but it seems that the Roth Talbot was later discovered, re-registered JJ 93, by Rex Leppard, who commenced to rebuild it. The car was originally AYL 2 and was, we are informed, identified by the steering box mountings, arranged so that the steering column cleared the accumulator, choke and hand-throttle knobs filed off for the very good reason that the racing Doctor used to catch his cuffinks on them. There was no door on the near-side of the body, in the touring form in which Dr. Roth raced the Talbot originally.

AYL 2 has been rebuilt by Julian Scott of the Dove Precision Engineering Company of Hove and our photographs show that it is again in immaculate order, and resembles one of the 105 team-cars, except for the cowled radiator.

VSCC Silverstone

The Vintage Sports Car Club will hold its second Silverstone Race Meeting of this season on July 26th, commencing at 13.15 hours. It will include the Hawthorn Trophy Race for post-war racing cars and the Boulogne Trophy Race for vintage racing cars. Another event, apart from the 5-laps handicaps, will be the Pre-War All-Comers’ Race, and there is also to be a Fox & Nicholl Trophy contest confined to sports cars, to the VSCC formula, of 3-litres and over unsupercharged, and 2,250 c.c. and over if supercharged.

There may be a separate Edwardian race if sufficient entries come in and during the afternoon a Parade of Bugattis of all ages and types will be featured—what better, for sound, smell and spectacle!

The usual spectators’ arrangements apply, except that the Paddock is now no place from which to watch races over the Club circuit (alas!) and dogs are not wanted. As this meeting follows the VSCC Oulton Park races, the position in the MOTOR SPORT Brooklands Memorial Trophy Contest should be warming up nicely—or will 24-litre of BentleyNapier still prove dominant ?—W.B.

V-E-V Miscellany.—The chassis of a circa-1911 Phoenix cyclecar, the London-built two-cylinder chain-drive model, unfortunately in poor condition, has been bought by a reader in Belfast, who would welcome any information about these cars. A 1925 BSA motorcycle and sidecar that was in regular use up to about eight years ago has been stored since its owner’s death in a lock-up garage in Herefordshire, but is not for sale. A 75-year-old reader who served his apprenticeship with Bean has sent us two postcards bought by his father when he stayed in France preparatory to tackling the Alps on a bicycle. They show three cars outside the Hotel Restaurant des Voyageurs at Virieu-le-Grand (Proprietor, Charles Ostertag), of which one is a closed Renault with protruding scuttle-radiator and square lines of a just-post-war model, another an open Model-T Ford tourer with balloon tyres, and the third is a typical French sports-tourer with pointed-tail touring body having a rear windscreen—perhaps a Mors or Voisin. The date would be about 1925.

We are informed that at least 80 carefully picked veteran and vintage cars will be on display at Lancing College, Shoreham-by-Sea, on July 5th, in conjunction with a cricket match and exhibition to further the cause of restoring the 1868 Chapel. John Bolster is to commentate and a short service in the Chapel will be conducted by the Rev. Michael Staines, who intends to drive down in his Morgan three-wheeler. The Riley Register is holding its Coventry Week-End Rally on July 5th and 6th, based on the Esso Hotel, Walsgrave, Coventry. The Register celebrates its 21st anniversary this year and the Coventry event will include a visit to Coventry Museum, a treasure hunt, and a parade, commencing at 9.15 a.m., to the Concours d’Elegance venue at the hotel grounds, where the great assembly of pre-war Rileys takes place by 14.00 hours. The Standard Register holds its 16th annual National Field Event at Knebworth House, Knebworth, Hertfordshire, on July 13th, commencing at 10.30 a.m. Entries will cover pre-war Standards, Triumph razor-edge saloons, SS cars and post-war Triumph roadsters, and the programme embraces Concours d’Elegance, Concours de Confort, driving tests and an economy contest based on mileage to the event. Details (s.a.e. please) from: D. Hanson, 3, Cranford Park Drive, Yateley, Camberley, Surrey. We deeply regret to have to record the death of Bob Archer, General Secretary of the Motor Cycling Club. What sounds like a just pre-war Singer Roadster has been found in Scotland. A reader living in Lowestoft, where Brooke cars were made between 1901 and 1913, is hoping to collate any known facts about them and appeals to fellow readers for pictures, technical details, documents and reminiscences. Letters can be forwarded. Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Cooke have opened a private vintage motor museum and workshops at Saddington, near Leicester, the Bull Nose Morris Club being present for the ceremony. In South Africa T. E. Fonternal has almost completed his rebuild of the 1922 Crossley-Bugatti raced here by B. S. Marshall and Lancaster, and is anxious to obtain details of its racing history and if possible to contact H. G. Mundon who worked on it. A 1926 FN saloon, carefully looked after from new by one owner and on the road up to about 1971, is reported from Middlesex. This was of special interest to W.B. as he owned a similar FN saloon for a short time after the war (Fabrique Nationale, not Isleworth), which was rumoured to have an engine in it from one of the cars that competed in the 1928 TT. It was, however, impossible to make the brakes work and the car was soon sold and was last seen near Aldershot. Another item of interest to the Editor was being told recently that when the Hon. “Billy” Walsh lived in W.B.’s house in 1911, he used to be driven about the Welsh lanes on a Model-T Ford, seated with his back to the driver in a high-perched wicker seat that had been put on the chassis to accommodate him! If any Welsh reader happens to have a picture of this splendid mode of transport, W.B. would be delighted to see it.

There is to be a great stationary-engine rally at Beaulieu on August 3rd, which will presumably raise the prices and increase the scarcity of such machinery; they now have their own journal, The Stationary Engine Advertiser, obtainable from Lodge Wood Farm, Hawkridge, near Westbury, Wilts. The trophy awarded to C. V. Gros for winning a race at the Armistice Meeting at Brooklands in 1922 with a Bignan Sport is still in the hands of the family, a member of which was the English importer of these rare cars.