V-to-C Miscellany, September 1992, September 1992

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The popular Bentley Drivers’ Club Silverstone Race meeting, with other makes fighting it out against the winged-Bs, takes place on August 29; a parade of Bentleys at noon will open the racing. The Club is also supporting the loM TT event on September 25/26, remembering that it is 70 years since WO first raced there, in a 3-litre. The bends of the MRC course include the famous Ramsey hairpin, Water Works, and the Gooseneck, and there is to be a floodlit speed-trial along the Promenade.

The Frazer Nash Section of the VSCC is holding a speed-trial at the new Cornbury Park course of the Benjafield RC. on August 30, vintage cars will run in the appropriate classes at the Brighton Speed Trials on September 12, and the Benjafield Racing Club has its own event at Cornbury on September 20.

Subject to RAC approval the Shenstone and DCC will, at some meetings, use a longer course at its Curborough speed trials, at which the VSCC has an annual fixture, by taking competitors twice round the loop between the start and finish lines. The Aston Martin OC goes to Curborough on September 27, the MAC will be there on October 4, and the BARC on October 10.

The Midland AC, founded in 1901, and the Shelsley Walsh Club, has its own magazine, Mixture. The Editor is Jeremy Bouckley and on the front cover of the current issue is a picture of Bert Hadley on the line at Shelsley in a twin-cam Austin with experimental twin rear wheels. The Midland Motor Museum at Bridgenorth has been taken over by Shrewsbury-based Morris Leisure, who have ambitious plans for its development and extension as a leisure centre, based on the 25-acre site at Stanmore Hall.

The Singer engine used in the machine which Victor Horsman, before he went over to Triumphs, raced at Brooklands in 1912 has come to light in the Liverpool area and is to be installed in a Fafnir frame, unless anyone can come up with a Singer frame of the correct kind.

Those who recall the high-class publications On The Rood and Rolls-Royce Bulletin which Rolls-Royce circulated to owners of RollsRoyce and Bentley cars in the late 1930s, may like to know that the policy was re-introduced some time ago, in the form of the prestigious magazine Quest, edited by Chris Walker, “for owners, enthusiasts, supporters and friends of Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars”. Issue Twenty One contains articles about the restored Raffles Hotel, banking in rural Scotland, hand-made paper, the craft of farriery, and Barnato’s millions. That it is not just a subtle publicity ploy (apart from it not being on the book-stalls) can be judged by the fact that pictures of any prominence of the relevant cars appear on only six of its 61 editorial pages.

In 1934, when Albert Deavin was working on the shop-floor at the lnvicta Car Company in Flood Street, Chelsea, there came from the office a simple request: could the new owner of an S-type please hear the horns? No problem, for Deavin and his workmate Bannister pushed the nearly-completed car as close as possible to the open office window where the telephone receiver was extended and blasted the horns… all the way to India, where the new owner, an Indian Prince, listened approvingly! The completed car finally left for India on 6th March 1934 but returned to England just two owners later, in 1991. Albert Deavin saw the car again after 60 years, when he visited Derek Green’s workshops to help with research on the forthcoming lnvicta book. Are there any more old employees out there? If so, please contact Derek Green, on 0252 842653.

Hatfield Charity Air Day, in association with British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Ltd and London Business Aviation Ltd, takes place on 20th September. The De Havilland Moth Club and members of the Vintage Sports Car Club will be holding a second Charity Air Day at Hatfield Aerodrome, following the success of the first event in 1990, where the combined efforts of the D H Moth Club and the VSCC proved that mobility in the air and on the ground is what vintage machinery is all about. Admission to the public will be £2.00 per person, but VSCC-type cars arriving will have free entry for cars and occupants. £30.00/£35.00 will buy anyone an extended circuit flight in a proper aeroplane of their choice from a Moth selection through Gipsy. Puss, Tiger, Hornet, Fox or Leopard, a Dragon Rapide o rDove, and probably a Stampe (come early to book a flight). It would be appreciated if vintage or P V T owners could assist by ferrying punters in their vintage cars from the public area to the aeroplanes as before, when the combined experience made so many people’s day. It is intended to be a noncompetitive picnic day and there will be a midday flying display of De Havilland aircraft. No need to contact the organisers in advance, just arrive on the day.

A reader who says he was most interested to read the article about Harold Dew’s 1911 homemade monocar in the July issue, has found a copy of Newnes Practical Mechanics magazine for 1949 in which a set of blue-prints with constructional details were available for 10/6d (52 1/2p) to enable people to build another little monocar, for which 60mph and over 70mpg were claimed, for a building outlay of £20. “Many hundreds of these cars have been built” boasted Newnes. The design, forwhat appears to have been a threewheeler, was that of the magazine’s editor, F J Camm, so that his paper was apparently sometimes referred to as “Camm’s Comic”. Does anyone remember the Camm monocar, none of which seem to have survived?