Inter-Register

Inter-Register

THE STD Register held a social week-end in Wal. on April 19th/20th and with it trombined a round of the annual Inter-Register competition, Inn points towards the I-R Challenge Shield. On the Saturday a fine assembly of Wolverhampton Sunbeams, and the odd London and Roesch Darracq, arrived at the Editor’s house, and went during the afternoon for a scenic tour of the Elan Valley via the Devil’s Bridge Mountain Road (“Unsuitable for Motor Coaches”), returning along narrow lanes and a 1 in 7 gradient to Abbey-cwm-ye. That evening a big gathering sat down to dinner at the Commodore Hotel in Llandrindod Wells. Interesting cars taking part included John Vaughan-Shaw’s very covetable 1925 15,40 Darracq tourer with its Graber headlamps neatly covered and its raked windscreen and the decking before the rear screen giving it a distinctly French grand-sports touch, Stephen Lalley’s rare 18/55 Talbot-Darracq two-scater on 880 x 120 Dunlops, a number of Sunbeam 16 and 18 saloons, a very site two-seater Sunbeam 16, Bruce Dowell’s lofty and impressive Sunbeam 2505000, an attractive Sunbeam Fourteen tourer. a Talbot 75 with partially home-made body, used daily, Services sporting Sunbeam Speed-20 with Carter-restored engine and OR body, a late-example of Roesch Talbot tourer, etc. A short drive in Roger Carter’s 1934 Sunbeam 20 tourer was a reminder of the power and flexibility of these cars, although its engine has not been down for some eight years. It hot synchromesh on 3rd gear and protects the rear-seat occupants with a folding windscreen. Those compact yet spacious Simbeam 16 coupt/s were driven by Wiggins and Frost, the latter’s helping STD to win the Inter-Register Contest. The Inter-Register Contest was devised many years ago to encourage the smaller one-make Registers to get together. For the start of the 1980 round there was this fine STD entr, the Humber Register fielded Diffey’s 9,20 tourer, an inunaculate 8/18 tourer, sods 1928 14/40 saloon. and Fiat put in two sports Balillas, an 1100 Mills saloon, and an OM, and this entry was supplemented by a lone Triumph Super 7 two-seater and an Austin 10,4 saloon. The last-rramed proved adept at the slow-running test but did not always “stop-astride”. Liston-Young. Joe. contrived to spin-out during the “wiggle

woggle”, in his sports Fiat, and someone else shattered a marker. But on the whole a high degree of driving skill was displayed. especially in negotiating markers at high speed with but 11/2″ to clear on either side, in these five tests at the admirable site at the Royal Welsh Showground at Bath Wells. It was all over to schedule and the only “casualties” of the week-end were the loss of a core-plug from the head of one Sunbeam 16 (cured with a cork and the loss of 21/2 teeth from the crown-wheel of a certain Humber. The latter

departed to Hertfordshire on an AA recovery trailer, however, even before most of the competing cars had started to leave, such was the efficiency of the AA on a Sunday afternoon in Wales, after contact had been made hoots period AA box! The next STD Register main-event will be she Wolverhampton Rally on June 28th/29th. — W.B. Ruulta s;;,:::21„,Austin 10.. 3rd Ovtrall: R. SoVier (Sunbeam