April 2002 news

Rockingham Revival

Last year’s Coys Historic Festival at Rockingham was a bit of a disappointment for fans
and organisers alike, with none of the ambience and bustle of the Silverstone event. The
tickets were expensive, visitors had long treks from the remote car parks, and were
banned from the paddock unless they coughed up lots more cash.
This year however a new event over the weekend of May 25-26 promises to be much
more worthwhile, being aimed at the average classic car enthusiast who is as interested in
mingling with the cars and drivers as he is in watching the track action.
The theme for this year will be the Great British Sports Car, and will be organised in
conjunction with the MG Owners Club. Other marques will of course be present with
Triumph, Jaguar, Austin Healey et al. in abundance.
A programme of sixteen races will take place over the two days, and already 450 cars are
entered. A two day ticket is very reasonably priced at £12 or you can go in on Saturday
for a fiver, or Sunday for a tenner. Sounds good to me!

Healey Fiftieth

1952 was a significant year in British history, being the year in which King George V
was superseded on the throne by our present Queen. Royalists will be celebrating the
Golden Jubilee in appropriate manner, but fans of British car will have their own fiftieth
anniversaries to celebrate.
Fifty years ago with the government still trying to impose strict quotas on the sale of cars,
most manufacturers settled on minor updates to their existing models, but Austin brought
out their new Somerset as a replacement for the successful Devon, and finally got the
A30 into dealers’ showrooms.



Later in the year at the Earls Court Show, Austin boss Leonard Lord made his historic
deal with Donald Healey and the Austin Healey 100/4 was born.
A series of events from the 28th July to 4th August, will mark the Austin Healey’s fiftieth
anniversary.
It is expected that over 500 Healeys will gather at the event’s Wokefield Park, Berks.
Base, from where they will visit, Thruxton, Prescott, and take part in various parades.
For more details call the event’s project director Phil Gardner on 01202 814277 or visit
www.austin-healey-club.com
Read more about the Austin Healey 100/4, 100/6 and 3000 in the Classic Car Quest
buyers guide.

Fortieth Anniversaries

Ten years later, life in Britain had changed beyond all recognition. Gone were tha days of
rationing and restrictions to be replaced by the days of “You’ve never had it so good”.
The Swinging Sixties had arrived.
Launched in 1962 were four significant new models - the MGB, Triumph Spitfire,
Triumph Vitesse BMC 1100 and Ford Cortina.
Although being based on the lowly Austin Cambridge floor pan, the MGB was soon
accepted as a true sports car and went to sell over half a million examples over the next
eighteen years making it the best selling sports car ever - at the time.
The Spitfire had equally modest underpinnings being based on the Herald, but also built
up a huge following, despite its Handling shortcomings. The Vitesse was created by
shoe-horning a 1600cc version of the six cylinder Vanguard engine into the herald
chassis – later increased to 2 litres.
Meanwhile the 1100 - introduced initially as a Morris - soon spawned Austin, MG,
Wolseley, Riley and Van den Plas derivatives, and went on to become Britain’s best
selling car for several years.
Throughout its life the 1100 range suffered from stiff competition in the form of the Ford
Cortina. Also launched in 1962, the Cortina appealed more to the all important fleet
buyers than did the 1100, on account of its rugged simplicity, and ease of maintenance.
Its styling and technical spec may have been a bit dated, but as a package they provided
just what the customer wanted, making the Cortina an instant best seller.
Read more about all these cars in the Classic Car Quest buyers guides, and in the
meantime watch out for news of celebrations for all these popular marques.



It really is forty years ago since the Cortina arrived.

Ridley Special returns

Way back in 1972 when I had just bought a 1930 MG M type in bits, I met a couple of
young MG Car Club members - students by the name of Maurice Gleeson, and Mike
miles – who had acquired the remains of an old Brooklands racer known as the Ridley
Special. Thirty years on, after what must be one of the longest running rebuilds of all
time it is now nearing completion.
There was fierce competition in the 1930’s for class “H” speed records for 750cc engined
cars, with the honours regularly switching between Austin and MG. Imagine the shock
when complete amateur Lord Ridley, aided by talented engineer George Sartoris,
designed and built a car from scratch which was to beat the two motoring giants at their
own game. On the Brooklands oval he successfully took the flying mile record up to
105.42mph, but during a later attempt - with a re-worked cylinder head boosting power
even further - he left the track and wrote the car off against a tree.



Lord Ridley poses in the car at Brooklands before its ill-fated record attempt

Salvaging the purpose made mechanical parts – including the dohc engine – he installed
them in an Amilcar chassis, intending to build a fast road car. The car was never finished,
but ended up many years later in semi-completed condition in the museum at Beaulieu.
Over the ensuing years Mike and Maurice have fabricated all the necessary parts –
including chassis, body, front axle, hubs etc. to return the car to its original Brooklands
racer form.
This is a fantastic achievement, having been achieved with only the scantiest of
information, but endless reserves of perseverance, and soon the finished car will return to
the track.
Meanwhile this tiny car can be seen on display in the Weybridge museum alongside the
more usual Brooklands giants.

No More Alfas.

Not in my garage anyway. The editorial Alfa 156, with less than 12,000 miles on the
clock has just emerged from its second four week visit to the main dealer to have a
recalcitrant selespeed gearbox fixed. First time it packed up just before Christmas took
until the end of January to put right and cost me £700. (only one year warranty on Alfas)
Five weeks and only 400 miles later it went again and this time defied all attempts to fix
it. Twenty seven main dealer hours, a new control unit, new clutch and new gearbox
casing later, it finally condescended to change gear.
I have now sold it, and my lovingly restored Giulietta Spider in disgust, taking a
substantial loss on both.
Replacement transport is a cheap “N”reg Probe 2.5 litre with 45,000 miles and several
careless owners. More rattles than Mothercare, but performs impeccably, has an
enormous boot and returns 27-30 mpg. Happiness!

XJ13 Model

During my previous incarnation at Proteus Cars Ltd. I built a number of replicas of
Jaguar’s beautiful but still born XJ13 mid engined racer. The XJ13 was built as a test bed
for the V12 engine, but was never raced at LeMans as intended, for PR reasons, and
when it was wheeled out for a publicity film was spectacularly written off with test driver
Norman Dewis at the wheel.
Fortunately Jaguar rebuilt the car and it still makes the occasional outing from the Jaguar
Daimler Heritage Trust where it lives in retirement
Until recently there wasn’t a decent model of this beautiful car, but Autoart have recently
introduced one in their 1:18 scale range to complement the C type, D type, and XKSS.
The accuracy and detail have to be seen to be appreciated, with even the smallest part
faithfully reproduced, and every rivet in the right place.



At £60 it’s a bit pricey, compared to the £35 for the other Jaguar models in the range, but
I managed to talk the missus into getting me one as a birthday present.
See the full range at www.autoartmodels.com

Salvage Squad

The first (and only?) series of this entertaining Channel 4 programme has now come to an
end, and Monday nights will not be the same. For me though it was spoiled by the
ridiculous claims that the restoration jobs were achieved in such short times. The Bristol
401 was a typical example having been totally restored - or so they would have us believe
- from a complete wreck to a concourse winner in two weeks. Having restored several
cars from complete wrecks to concourse winners, I know that this is simply not possible.
How many people are now going to go out and buy an old wreck thinking that with only
a couple of weeks work it will be back to its former glory? Worse still, how many people
with old wrecks to sell, will ask ridiculous money.
Come to think of it, no change there then!
“Couple of weeks work, that’s all it needs guv. Be good as new again, mark my words,
I’ve seen ‘em doin it on the telly.”

Parts Website

Owners of British classic cars can now seek out their missing bits and pieces on a new
website. West Drayton, Middlesex based parts dealer Howard Robinson specialises in
stuff for over 25 year old cars, mainly British, but has some foreign rubbish as well.


Motoring art website

Bob freeman, the artist who produces those brilliant pencil and water colour sketches of
cars and engines which are often used in the car magazines now has an entertaining
website where you can view his work. Freeman is moving from London back to his
native Yorkshire and is having a sale of his work. As well as viewing his work on the
website you can read all about his enthusiasm for classic motor bikes, and all things
mechanical at bobfreeman.