750 M.C. driving tests, Fleet (May 31st)

The 750 M.C. held its driving tests for the Bellamy ” Breadboard ” Trophy, which it contests with the Hants & Berks M.C., on new ground between Aldershot and Fleet. The location was practically ideal, with plenty of space, no public, not a house in sight and with tarmac roads. It is normally an Army driving site on the expanse of rolling, sandy, military common-land which characterises this part of Hampshire. Permission to use it is required and special insurance against damage to W.D. property—of which there is but one shed and some lamp-posts. Coronation flags lent an air of gaiety to the marker tubs and even the loudspeaker entered into the spirit of sport, being amounted on a fast-looking 4½-litre Invicta, and a mobile canteen made the day’s sojourn on this barren locale bearable.

An excellent entry was obtained, embracing plenty of family saloons, Erskine Hill’s Bugatti, many of those improved versions of Sir Herbert Austin’s genius, some with Ford Ten engines, amongst which the animated ” Chummies ” and a splendidly original ” Cup “model Austin Seven stood out a mile. Garaging, zig-zag, width-judging, regularity-lapping and similar tests, resulted in a tie for first place between Geoffrey Tapp’s Buckler and Paul Pulver’s Lancia Aprilia, entered, respectively, as 750 M.C. and Hants & Berks M.C. On aggregate marks the 750 M.C. recovered their ” breadboard.”