Rumblings, November 2008

The impressive annual Triple-M Register 2007 Yearbook, covering the overhead-camshaft MGs, is now available for £9 inc postage, from Peter Hemmings, Folly Farm, Thornford Road, Headley, Berks RG19 8AN.

The MAC has asked us to request owners of Shelsley specials not registered in recent years to supply details of their cars to Robin Parker, 10 Earles Lane, Kensall, Tarporley, Cheshire CW6 OQR, as special classes for such cars are now held on a handicap basis at Shelsley Walsh.

At the Bugatti OC’s garden party, hot-air balloons were present and flights in them were available to members. I would have thought that driving a fast Bugatti would be satisfaction enough without enjoying an additional thrill; but tastes vary. I would have opted for remaining grounded…

That the STD Register is active as usual was emphasised at its national rally at Otley Hall with an entry of 60 appropriate cars, from a 1927 Sunbeam 16 to two 1936/37 Talbot 105s and a couple of 1936 110s.

A paper respect for rare cars is also evident in recent club magazines. The Singer Owner has a picture of a 1912 Singer motorcycle and wicker sidecar which took part in this year’s Pioneer Brighton Run, and the magazine of the Austin Seven Clubs Association has a piece by John Cliffe about the 1920 667cc Peugeot Quadrilette, questioning whether or not Herbert Austin copied some of it when planning his now immortal Seven. The Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, in the last issue of its Times, has a long description of the almost unbelievable 1919 2hp one-gear Cambro cyclecar, said to be so light it could run over a person without hurting them!

On the Austin-Healey Sprite and later MG Midget front, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sprite the remarkable number of 1200 of these cars rallied at Gaydon. The Macmillan Nurses and Cancer Trust benefited. Congratulations to the MGCC, MGOC, Midget Register, Austin-Healey DC and AHOC.

More up to date, there is the full history in the Lea-Francis magazine of the LeaF raced by the late Tom Delaney, which is now in the Coventry Transport Museum.