The roads of the 1920s
At the end of 1928, Owen John was commenting in his diary on a Citroen Six chassis which was on display in the company's palatial Devonshire House showrooms in Piccadilly at the time of the Olympia Motor Show. I am not certain when Citroen took over these strategically placed and historic premises, but it was probably there that I went with my mother in 1924 to buy a car....
THE B.A.R.C. EASTER MEETING
THE 23-LITRE NAP1ER-RAILTON RETURNS TO BROOKLANDS TO WIN BROADCAST TROPHY AND SET UP NEW RACE RECORD—BIMOTORE ALFA TAKES NEW MOUNTAIN LAP RECORD—SOME CLOSE STRUGGLES FOR SECOND PLACE. Sure sign that the winter months are over—Brooklands has re-opened, with all that that means to enthusiasts who feel the need of a taste of motor-sport at least once a week—for even on "...
A section devoted to old-car matters
The Renault Rally at Acton (May 30th)
It is always encouraging when a manufacturer shows interest in the older models on which present prosperity has been built, and congratulations are due to Renault Limited of Acton for the support it received for the first Rallye Renault, from entrants, modern owners of Renault cars, and the public. It was the idea of Mr....
No 44: The Beardmore
Last summer I met Mr. George H. Allsworth who, although in his 94th year, was able to recall the early development of the motor car very clearly and who in vintage times was intimately connected with that renowned Scottish Make, the Beardmore.
Mr. Allsworth, born in April, 1876, went as a young man to assist Lord John Scott-Montagu, father of the present Lord Montagu, with...
Vauxhall Staff Car
Sir,
Your piece in the June issue about the Vauxhall D-type Staff-car was most interesting. Last year, quite by chance, I acquired two old War Department photographs showing a D-type Staff-car bearing the WD serial LC^0721. I recently sent them to Vauxhall Motors Ltd. suggesting that their car, serialized IC^0721, may in fact be the very car pictured, and should therefore...
(Sept 22nd)
In contrast with the previous big race meeting at Oulton Park the weather was fine for the September 22nd meeting. Generous prize money was offered. Coopers took the main event, Salvadori in the Formula II model being the winner of this Gold Cup race sponsored by the Daily Herald. This event resulted in a big contest between Lotus and Cooper cars, the Lotus exponents being very hard...
Not Leonce Girardot who, in the heroic age of motor racing, earned this title by the number of times he finished second (he won some races too!), but a crimson Austro-Daimler which, in my teens, I would very much have liked to own. It had been raced hard at Brooklands by George Newman, who also drove a Salmson. He had a well-known motor business in London's Euston Road, and incidentally went on...
Tickford's time trial
Although robotic mass production, preferably measured in millions, is seen as the only profitable avenue for multi-national car makers, Great Britain plc has found alternative ways to make money from the car business.
Selling circuit expertise is exemplified by March Group plc becoming the first racing car manufacturer to go public on a capitalisation exceeding £14 million....
I read Emma Tennant's memoir Strangers thinking it might include something on David Tennant's Beardmore and a racing `Sascha' Austro-Daimler, or the ownership of Leyland Eights. Not so, and as the book, a good recall of life in England before and after WWI blends fact and fiction, one cannot be sure about the cars it does refer to.
Lord Glenconner's new Lanchester which arrived in 1912 is there...
In "The Duchess of Jermyn Street" by Daphne Fielding (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1964) which is about the life of Rosa Lewis who rat) the legendary Cavendish Hotel, there is a reference to Rosa's Daimler which should please members of the Daimler & Lanchester OC. Although the famous Hotel once had its horse-'bus, in later times Miss Rosa had "an ancient Daimler even more old-fashioned and regal...