V-E-V Miscellany, March 1977, March 1977

According to the Carmarthen journal the 27-litre Thomas Special “Babs” rnay be brought back to Pendine on the 50th Anniversary of the death of Parry Thomas, later this month. The Pendine Community Council is said to be planning to commemorate Thomas’ last bid to raise the Land Speed Record. But if this is to include a carnival and fireworks display on the cliffs overlooking the sands where Thomas was fatally injured, as well as a vintage vehicles’ rally, we think it will be in exceedingly bad taste. A recent exhibition of the photography of Tom Kent who died in 1936 in the Tankerness House Museum, included a picture showing three cars, three motor-‘buses and a taxi, taken circa 1907, in Orkney. The cars appear to have been a Gladiator, a Darracq and a tiller-steered curved-dash Oldsmobile. The Standard Register’s National Rally will be held this year on June 11th/12th at Stratfield Saye, near Reading, Berkshire. We have just discovered that in 1975, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the DH Gipsy Moth light aeroplane, a large scale-model of the machine in which Jean Batten did her epic 21,000-mile out-and-home flight from England to Australia in 1934/35 in a total of less than 32 days, was flown at the Melbourne Air Meeting in Australia by its builder, Capt. Miles. The last issue of the Meccano Magazine to be published from the well-known Busses Road premises of Meccano beds photograph of a model of the NMM’s 1904 Brushmobile, which the Editor of Motor Sport has thrice taken on the Brighton Run, and instructions for making a lockable Meccano differential unit. This year’s Yeovil Festival of Transport in Barwick Park takes place on August 13th/14th. Details from A. C. K. McGee, 38, Kenmore Drive, Yeovil, Somerset. Last month the Cambridge University AC had a class for veteran members at its Snetterton sprint. The Club is 75 years of age and its Secretary, Mr. P. J. Freundliche, of Downing College, Cambridge, is anxious to melt down ex-members of the CVAC. The Jowett CC is holding its Annual Rally in Lister Park, Bradford, on June 4th/5th, so Jowetts will be returning to their birthplace. Entry is free: details front G. Wilson, 201, Parkside Road, W. Bowling, Bradford, BD5 8PG. The Wessex VPC’s Motorcade ’77 is due to take place at Breamore House, near Fordingbridge, on July 10th. Goodyear opened their Wolverhampton factory in December 1927, five months after it was announced they would go there, and within 18 months the millionth tyre came from is mould. Today the plant employs nearly 54-thousand people and covers 92 acres. The Goodyear Pensioners Club has 38 members who worked in that original tiny enamelware factory. The Humber Register won the annual friendly Inter-Register contest that is contested by seven one-make clubs, by 5 1/2 points from the STD Register.

The Sunbeam MCC’s pioneer Run for prewar motorcycles, from Epsom to Brighton, an event no two-wheeler enthusiast would wish to miss, takes place on March 20th. The Bean CC has its Daffodil Run to Bournemouth on April 17th, followed by its Annual Beano, this time in Gloucestershire, on May 15th. The Historic Commercial Vehicle Run from Battersea to Brighton, another important fixture not to be missed if humanly possible, takes place on May 1st. For those who don’t want to miss any of this year’s VSCC main fixtures, the first Silverstone Race Meeting is scheduled for April 16th, the Oulton Park race meeting for June 18th, the Shelsley-Walsh hill-climb for July 9th, the second Silverstone race meeting for July 30th and the Prescott speed hill-climb for August 13th/14th. The light cars of the VSCC go to Wales again on April 2nd/3rd and tackle a replica of part of the 1924 RAC Small Car Trials, including an ascent of Bwlch-y-Groes on the first day.- W.B.