Miscellani

Further information surfaced at the Beaulieu Autojumble about the MG J2 which Luis Fontes raced before the war, and which a reader is restoring. There he happened to meet Mr J Hewson, who had bought the MG in 1936. In 1945 it was in New York and was raced in the 1948 Watkins Glen GE Another opportune and incredible discovery was the unused box of spares for the car sent out from Abingdon to Le Mans in 1934, still labelled ‘Jacques Menier, Paris’, then presumably the owner, and which will now be used for the rebuild. Menier did not drive at Le Mans in 1934. But could he have owned the car with which Mme Itier and C Duruy finished 17th, and further, could he have been a relative of the Menier who owned the 1914 Indy Peugeot, referred to last month?

The Preston & District Vintage CC has colour pictures in its magazine The Klaxon It had a kart meeting at Warrington in November and its Dinner is on December 15. Secretary: Andrew Craven, Shelley House, Lancaster Road, Catterall, Garstang PR3 OHN.

The VSCC Driving Test meeting was held at Madresfield on September 23, on the one-time Speed-Trial straight at this pleasant and politically interesting venue. Five tests, including the fast/slow frolic, were tackled by 73 entrants, ranging from Neil Murray’s 1905 Type-Z De Dion Bouton to Keith Knight’s 1937 4.3 Alvis. The best performance was made by Harry Colledge in a Chummy A7. Maggie Shapland in a 1925 Talbot won the Ladies’ Trophy, and Juliette Walker The Montagu Trophy with a 1912 Hispano Suiza, just after I had been asking where the Affonsos had all gone.