V-E-Vodds & Ends

V-E-Vodds & Ends.—To set the record straight, let us correct, unprompted, the results of the big racing-car class at the last VSCC Prescott hill-climb. These should have read: 1st A. Cottam (Connaught), 43.24s.; 2nd P. Van-Rossam (Cooper-Bristol), 45.77s,; S. Phillips (328 BMW), 45.87s. We hear that the Lea-Francis show at Coventry Museum was very well staged and that the Lea-Francis OC’s 21st Anniversary took the form of gathering at the old Much Park Street site in Coventry, driving tests, a Concours d’Elegance and a tour of the onetime Lea-Francis test route, an occasion attended by some 20 entrants, ranging from a 1914 motorcycle to a 1960 Leaf-Lynx. The Autumn Journal of the Morris Register contains another of Harry Edward’s painstaking histories, this one devoted to Hoyal bodywork, while the current magazine “Sphinx” of the Armstrong-Siddeley OC reports on a successful Woburn rally with the Daimler/Lanchester OC, describes how to fit flashing trafficators to a Sapphire, and contains a fine period picture of a K-type London open-deck omnibus nosing out into a busy suburban road. An interesting arrival at the aforesaid Woburn rally was the ex-Armstrong Siddeley Motors works fire-engine, a Commer with a side-valve six-cylinder engine similar to that of a Humber Super Snipe, the vehicle bearing its original insignia. According to the Mercedes-Benz Club’s Gazette, David Scott-Moncrieff has found a 1930 38/250 MercedesBenz chassis in a barn which cost less than £200 to acquire—which sounds incredible but one does not know how long ago—and which he is restoring for use in VSCC races and hill-climbs. The 1926/29 Arab advertised in Motor Sport last September has been purchased by A. B. Demaus, the Humber enthusiast and historian, who would appreciate information on this rare make.

At the time of the Castrol Extravaganza we referred to the excellent history of motoring and motor racing, largely pictorial, that had been produced as part of the celebrations. Copies of this book “Wheels, Wings and Water” is available while the supply lasts by sending 30p to Castrol Ltd., High Road, Cowley, Near Uxbridge, Middlesex and mentioning Motor Sport. The postponed Castrol-Datsun International Veteran and Vintage Rally is now to be held in Ma!ell next year, starting from Durban and finish at Cape Town. Details from: J. C. Thompson, PO Box 1175, Pietermaritzburg 3200, Natal, S. Africa. The Brighton Rim, which takes place on November 3rd, has become a popular fun-show as well as the enthusiasts’ adventure of former times, judging by the first RAC hand-out we saw about it, which proclaims that the entrants include a lifeboat hero, a World Champion racing driver (J. Stewart), an American millionaire, a “disc-jockey., a TV celebrity and does not omit to mention that Griffin’s 1904 DC Dion Bouton “is a film star in its own right”!

The remains of a Lagonda are said to be rotting in a yard in South London and a Gloucestershire scrapyard to contain a derelict Sunbeam Tourer. A large number of pre-War cars from 1922 Mathis to Ruby Austin may soon come on the market.