V-to-C Miscellany, May 1993, May 1993

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Entries are already coming in for the sixth Classic Marathon to Morocco, with an adventurous new route to Casablanca. But Philip Young wants more long-legged pre-war cars, to add to Sandra Holt’s ex-works MGA and a 1930 Ulster A7, Roger Andreason’s MG Magnette, Andy Beaumont’s 3.4 Jaguar, Mike Cornwall’s Autoglass Rover, Paul Dingle’s TR4, Freddie Giles’s MGA, Roy Hatfield’s aero-screened Healey 100 and Peter and Sue Noble’s Lanchester. Contact the rally office at 85/87 St Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9TU.

The ‘Forgotten Makes’ article on the Hermon has brought in some interesting information. One reader recalls that someone in Canterbury took a chassis in lieu of a debt settlement and had it bodied by Blyth Bros, and a member of the Salmson OC had a Hermon in Dover, at least until 1980. Peter Perry of the British Salmson OC has sent us pictures of the prototype chassis with single Solex carburettor and remote gear change, which had a two-seater body with cycle-type wings and aero screens behind the main windscreen, and a pear-shaped grilled radiator. The Hermon raced at Brooklands had a cowled radiator and neat two-seater body, with streamlined tail. The Boundary Road Garage was owned by Lt Comdr Shaw, son of the Rev Shaw, and A B Lavy, who drove the racing car, used a vintage Wolseley saloon on the road. Other cars at the garage at the time included a vee-radiator Alfa Romeo tourer, Marquette saloon, and the inevitable Ruby A7.

We hear that what may well be the last time a Klausen speed hill-climb happens will be on July 24/25, for motorcycles as well as cars. The last event there took place in 1934 and now the Swiss Government has apparently relented and agreed to close the 1237-metre hill with its 135 bends for a final event at this classic venue. Details from Klausen Memorial AG, Postfach 38, CH-6460, Altdorf, Switzerland.

On the aero-engined front, we hear of a V12 Liberty-engined Pll Rolls-Royce, and a Hispano-Suiza with a vee-eight aero-engine of that make in course of construction. Also that the Auto-und-Technik Museum at Sinsheim, Germany, has a pointed-radiator Adler with a 23-litre Maybach MblVa airship engine. This may well be a car which ran at the Fanoe beach speed trials after the war.

Then there are the Morley’s Napier-Bentley, Walker’s Curtiss-Monarch, and Boswell’s Bequet-Delage, raced at VSCC meetings, and Roger Collings is hard at work on his 20-litre Maybach-Mercedes, in the best Chitty-Bang-Bang idiom.

Last month we mentioned that many Motor Sport readers started taking the magazine from around 1945 to 1950, some much earlier. We have since heard of a reader living in Cumbria who bought No 1, when we were the Brooklands Gazette, back in 1924. This beats WB, who saw No 2 at the Marylebone Station bookstall at the age of 11, and having bought it, ordered No 1 and subsequent issues.

Bugatti lovers have a rare chance to see the ex-King Leopold of Belgium Type 59 at the BOC meeting at Prescott on May 22/23. Driven by J P Wimille in 1937, it has been little changed since, and it will be joined by other examples of the particularly elegant T59 during this weekend of classic activity. Contact BOC, 0242 673136. W B