BEADED IBEELS I

N.Z. VETERAN AND VINTAGE MOTORINGS E PT E MBE R, I 9 6 3

o pr

I ....

I~,

"HORSELESSCARRIAGE"

In 1893 the first succe ssful gasoline powered motorcar in the United Slates cruiseddown the main streets of Springfield , Ma ss., at a speed of five miles an hour! Thiscar was made by two brothers, Charles E. and J. Frank Duryea.

In 1896 Henry Ford drove his first car out of the machine shop in Detroit. Later,his system of machine-made, interchangeable parts, and assembly line production,put motorcars within the price ran ge of the man-in-the-street .

By the beginning of the 20th century, 8,000 motorcars were registered in theUnited States. These were powered by steam, gasoline or electricity, and even thenthey did not look much like the original "Horseless Ca rr iage."

Some of the laws passed in the early days of the motorcar make us chuckletoday. For instance, one community ruled that if a horse refused to pas s a motor­car the driver of the car must "take the machine apart • • • and conceal the partsin the grass." In some places motorcars were banned entirely, and angry farmersguarded their livestock with shotguns against these "contraptions of the devil."

It is easy to see that early motorists were indeed brave pioneers, often runningrisks th at would be hard to imagine today, for they also had to contend witbthe discomfort of rough roads, open driving seats and temperamental engines. Timeshave changed and those first motoring enthusiasts would be the first to appreciate theadvances made both in car and tyre design since the exciting, stimulating days of the

"Horseless Carriage."

FIRESTONE Tyres since the earliest days of motoring, have set the

standard of reliability, economy and safety. Today's motorist, like his

father and grandfather before him, looks to Firestone for EXTRA mileage

and EXTRA reliability.

Beaded Wh eels is th e voice of the Vintage Car M o vement in N ew Zea land and of the Clubs whose effortsare fostering and ever widening th e interest in this mo vement and fo rm rallying poin ts for that ever increasingband o f enthusiasts. T he fascination o f age itself or revulsion from the flashy medio crity of our present dayis drawing an increasing num ber of motorists back to th e individuality , solid worth, and fun ction al elegancethat was demanded by a m ore discriminating genera tion and it is to th ese that we dedicate-

ll )' courtcs v A. An ders on

COp y DECEMBER ISSU E CLOSES

N O VE M BER 15th

Beaded W heels is P u blishedQuar terly by the

VINT AGE CAR CLUB OF N .Z. I NC.

20 H ACK THORN E R OAD

C URISTCHURCH, 2, N EW Z EAL AND

Yearl y Subscrip tion 10/ - post free .

Individu al co pies 2 /6 eac h .

Editor: M rs M . J. AND ER SO N .

A ssistan t Edit or: R . P ORT ER.A nde rsons Lin e, Car ter ton

Copy must be typ ed o n one side of paperand sen t to the Ed itor, 20 H acktho rne

R oad , C hr istchurch .

SEPT., 1963

ON TH E COVER of this issue you will find ashot fro m the Presiden tia l a rchives which ispart icularly apt at this mom ent in the Club'sstory. At the Annual Meeting just concludedwe say " Vale" to Past-Pr esident R ob Shand,who has guided our destinies for the past tenyea rs and "Salve" to a new class of veh icles toour ranks- individual exam ples of Post Vint­age T horoughbred s.

1

EDITORIAL

" BE ADED "'lIEE LS" DIR ECTO R Y TO THEV INT AGE CAR CLU B'S OFFICERS

Na tiona l Executive : P residen t, A. A. Anderso n , Ch ristchurch ;C lub C a pta in, L. G . W itte, -d B.) qn jJ-;JJIt\ ~ uo l iJU1 PP;).L

tain an d " Beaded W heels" Ed ito r, M oll ie A nderson,Ch r istchurch; Comm ittee , L. B. Southward (W ellington),R . Porte r (Car ter ton), H . B. F oste r (Ch r istchurch), N. C .Adams (A uck la nd ).All co rr espondence to Club Secre tary , E . A. Bailey, P .O .Box 2546 , Ch ristchurch.

Northhmd Bran ch : C ha irma n, P. V. Mc C rea dy ; Secre tary,W. J. Voyce, 13 K owha i A ven ue, Ka ikohe.

Auckland Branch: Cha ir ma n, H . Rob inson; Secr et a ry, H . D .K idd, P.O . Box 3382, Auck la nd.

Ba y of Pl ent y Br anch: C ha irm a n. L. Coupe; Secre ta r y, A.and D . Carneron , 97 C hurch ill Ro ad, T auranga,

Hawkes Bay Br anch : C hair ma n, T. B. La wr ic; Secr e ta ry, L.1. D . P riest, 305a Co l tinge Road , H as tings.

Wellington Bran ch: Chairm a n, R . Ivin; Sec ret ary, J . Elworthy ,6 Pemp sey St reet, Silverstr eam .

Wanganui Branch: Cha irma n. B. A. Ta skcr: Sec retary, J. B.K irkwocd , 12 G odwin Crescen t, W a nganui.

M an aw atu Bran ch : C ha irma n. H . C. B. Wychcrlcy: Secre tar y,M iss C. S . T ownshe nd, 300 R uahine Stree t. Pa lrnersto nNort h. .

Taranaki Bran ch: Ch a irma n, K . K ireher; Secr et ar y, C. K irk by,P.O . Box 486, New P lymouth .

Marlborough Branch: C ha irman: L. G iffo rd; Secre tar y, J. D.F inn ie , 114 M uller Road , Blenhe im .

Ca nterb ury Branch : C hairman . E . J . S. Walke r; Sec reta r y,J . S. P . Pal mer, 10 T orquay Place, Bry ndw r, Chr istchur ch.

South Canterbury Branch: Cha irman, 1. Sullivan; Secreta ry,T. M. Wi lso n, P .O. Box 201 0, Wash dykc,

North Otago Branch: Cha irma n, W. G . Sp ite; Secre tar y.J . T. O 'Br ien, 18C R .D ., Oarn a ru.

Otago Branch: Cha irma n , R . E . N. Oukley; Secre tary, S. M .Joh nson , 46 M a itla nd Stre et , Dun edi n.

Southland Branch: C ha ir man . E . R . E unso n; Secre tary , J. W .Barn es, 206 Bluff R oad , In vc rca rgill,

The Veteran and Vintage Car Club (Waikato Inc.): Secre­ta ry, L. D eath, p.a. Bcx 924 , H am ilton .

Page1257

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IN THIS ISSU E

Edito ria lRoad TestWas It Reall y Worth It" A pres rnoi le Del age "International Rally, 1963Vintage and Veteran Motorcycle

NotesBook ReviewCamera Review ......The Heavy Metal. Part 6Photo Quiz ....A Bit of Motoring HistoryGuess Who ......Auckland NotesNorthland NotesB.O.P. NotesWaikato NotesTarana ki N otesH awkes Ba y NotesWanganui NotesWellington NotesNelson NotesCanterbury NotesSouth Cante rbury NotesNorth Otago NotesSouthland N otesG eneral N otesLetter to th e Editor

V OL. IX, No. 35

COVERSee Edi to rial

PA GE TWO

The cover shows Rob in the first Maire­hau Road R ace in 1951 in his famou s " work s"Railton, th e light sports machine of Brooklandsfam e which should be a worthy subject for theClub's attention under the new cat egory nowthat Rob is a ble to devote some time to his carsin place of the cares of office.

To many members Rob will be relati velyunknown as an active com petitor, largely owingto the ten years he has spent on the task ofbuilding th e Club up to the position it nowoccupies.

In the late 'forti es and ea rly 'fifti es how­ever he was famili ar on most circu its andsprint courses in N .Z. and your Club wa s inthe forefront of organ isin g major sporting fix­tures, culminating in our organ isation of theN .Z. Hill Climb Ch ampionship in 1951, atwhich we were host to overseas drivers as wellas the cream of all N .Z. competitors. In spiteof his close interest in open motor sport , Robwa s the first among us to see how thi s type ofevent was detracting from our prime interestsof Vintage and Veteran activities, and led themov e towards complete concentration on our

ROAD TEST

Rally results South Island Easter Rally1963. Second plac e Vintage concourse. JimSullivan. Vauxhall!!! Mmm, must have acloser look at that car ; and it so happenedthat a few weeks later the Vauxhall wa s madeavailable to me for a Beaded Wheels RoadTe st.

When looking at the car one notices itsvery Engl ish sporting lines and the very nicefinish in general. Knock on wire wheels, alu­minium bonnet , brass Lucas lighting, etc .

This car was built April-May 1926, andits serial number LM3380 . Originally ownedby a Mr Samuel Ellis, of Eskdale. Napi er, thecar passed through about 16 hands until J imacquired it 13 months ago from Trevor Timmsof Dunedin, who had done about 90 % of therestoration work.

Production by Vauxhall s of the 14 /40'sreached 30 cars a week in 1925. The modelstarted in 1921 with di sc wheels and three­speed gearbox and lat er had the wire wheels

SEPTEMBER. 1963

primary aims a nd obj ects. He took office asPresident in late 1953 when membership haddwindled to a mere 36 and initiated the poli cieswhich have led us by hard work and not afew disappointments on the way, to our pres­ent position on the threshold of an Interna­tional Event of almost unbelievabl e scope.

It is entirely to R ob that we owe the factthat a strong nation-wide org anisation willgreet our vis itors in 1965 and not the dis­jointed parochiali sm that marks New Zealand­ers' a pproach to almost every o ther sport orhobby . Only an exce ptionally clear-sightedmind could hav e devised the con stitution thatunites us all from North Cape to Bluff , jus tas onl y a tactful yet vigorous personal ap­proach could have ensured its adoption a ndsuccessful application.

We owe R ob a grea t deal o f gra titude forhis work over these past form ative years ofour Club and trust that his well-earned respitewill allow us to see again that unmistakablejaw jutting out over the bonnet of the TT.Sunbeam in full cry !

1926 14/40 VAUXHALLBy Brian A . Goodman

and 4-speed box added . Production finished in1927. In that year (1925 1927) it was sold inBritain for £650. Now for some technicaldeta ils : -

Weight: Slightly over 1 ton .Motor : 4 cylinder s ide valves .Max. revs. : 3200 . De velops 42 b.h .p ,Fo ur speed gearbox.Ca pac ity: 2297 cc. Battery: 12 volt.Stroke : 130 mm . 13.9 h .p .Bore: 75 mm . Tyres: 525 x 21.A feature of the car is the gre at use of alu-

minium right through the car, the cylinderhead . crankcase, sum p, gea rbox casing, rearaxle housi ng, and body all being constructedof this metal. The spa rks are supplied from aWatford magneto and the cooling is done bya fan and a water pump, which is cast ontothe head. An interesting point is the radiatortemperature gau ge which is cast into the win gedradiator ca p. This is the mod el that had heavyfilled weights attached to the lower half of the

SEPT EMBER. 1963 PAGE THREE

The Vauxhall family "baby" By co urtesy D. D. Goodman

big ends and the se had a habit of breaking offby the big end bol t head s and goi ng th rou ghthe sum p with the grea tes t of ease and mu chnoi se. Becau se of thi s J im has fitted d ifferentrod s a nd pistons and subse quently ha s a mu chhigher compression rati o now . This has mad ethe differ ence of on e gear on hill s, i.e. wherethe Dun edin motorway required second gea rbefore, it ca n now be taken in 3rd. It is prefer­a ble to ent er the ca r from the left hand sideow ing to the position of the hand brake andthe cha nce of gett ing the gea r lever up the legof your trou sers (be o .k. for Scotsmen though).Th e seat ing seems just right and a ll controls arevery easily reached . R elease the hand brakeand yo u ja m your hand in between the leverand the side of the bod y. Try aga in, beingmor e careful of tho se a lready bru ised knuckles,and eve ry thing goes fine. The big mom ent hasarrived and you engage first gear. R elease theclutch and you reali se you are driving a thor­ough-b red . Up through the gears, accelerat ingsmartly. and the car proves that it is all itlooks. The gea rbox wo rks nicely but has threenoises, 1st , 2nd , and 3rd gears, Jim muttersthat the teeth are just a b it worn . Into top andyou find that it is very qui et. At 40 m.p.h. a ll

you ca n hear is tyre noise but thi s ca r has quitea bit left after th at speed. At 50-55 the car isvery ha ppy. No vibra tion a nd no no ises exce ptfor a wonderfully healthy exha us t note . T hesteer ing has just the right amount of feel a nd isdeadl y acc ura te (l ~- turns from lock to lock)although the turning circle is very poo r at slowspeed. The four wheel brak es are quite spongybut can with the help of the hand brak e, wh ichop erat es on a separa te se t of interna l ex pand ingshoes in the re ar d rums, pull the car up veryqu ickl y and smo othly. Maybe the ca r was builtfor tall peopl e as with my 5ft. Ilin . frame 1seemed to be lookin g through the steeringwhee l instead of over it.

Even so the red leath er sea ting is ex tre melycomfo rtab le. The ride is very smooth, du e to.no dou bt the long (5ft. approx) ca nti leversprings on the rear and semi-elliptic on thefron t. Th e 14 /40 corners quite fast and withno fuss or bother. A very ligh t vibra tio n is feltwhen accelera ting ab out the 45-50 mark andthat was the on ly sha ke I co uld find.

A very attracti ve mahogany dashb oard con­ta ins on the left a rev. cou nter, on the right aspeedo, in between oil pressure an c! am p.gauges . a cho ke and starter sw itch. Up to p a

-PAGE FOUR

dash light which switches on when you twistit, and a round knob whi ch operates the airvent in front of the wind screen. Along the bot­tom is a row of black on-off switches.

When usin g the high speed reverse you haveto make sure that the shift lever is hard backagainst the seat, or it will jump out of gear.This happened at a recent displa y and spec­tators were heard to rem ark, "That car mustha ve a two speed reverse" as the gear wasbein g re -engaged . No accelera tion test s weremade as both the owner and tester belie ve thatthis is unn ecessary flogging of a fine old car.

The Vauxh all averages 24 m .p.g. at its cruis­ing speed. Th e interior deserves mention also;the red leather sea ts are very comfortable andthe floors are covered with wine carpets. Thedoors are covered in the same leather withvarnished mahogany woodwork. The fold downtool box behind the front sea t also providesa comfortable foot rest. The rear seat backpushes forward to reveal a space for holdingthe sid e curtains . These ca n be left on when

SEPTEMBER , 1963

the hood is down.The V auxhall crest on the radiator too k my

eye a nd Jim explained its origin. Fulk L eBreant , soldi er of fortune in King John 's time.bore the Griffon crest, and was given the Man orof L uto n, and an heiress bride, M ar garet DeRed vers, for serv ices to the Kin g. Fulk tookover Margaret's Tombeth home whi ch becameknown as F awk-Hall and so Vau xhall. OnKin g John 's death Fulk was exiled and d iedpenniless in Fran ce. But V au xhall thrived andbecame a famous pleasure garde n in L ondon.Ale xander Wilson, founder of the Vau xh allIron Works nearby, used the Griffon as histrade mark and so when Vauxhall ca me toLuton in 1905, Fulk's crest returned to itsoriginal home. Very interesting, we say .

Well th at ended our Road Test? and m ythought s were on a very nice car as we left.rn my o pini on, thi s is most definitely the mo stdes irable vintage car in this part of the mo ve­ment and on e whi ch mu st surel y give countlesshours of pleasure to its owner.

By co ur tesy R. D. Cr oss

Under the bonnet.

IT REALLY WORTHSEPTEMBER, 1963

WAS"The only bike I can remember seeing

was an old 1906 MINERVA about ten yearsago. It's buried in a dam and when I collectedthe ZEDEL the handlebars were still out ofthe ground . Been buried about 30 years some­where out near TINUI."

The topic was vintage motorcycles and Iwas speak ing to Lou Rinald i one evening as Icollected some beaded edge rims he had prom­ised me. "The farm is on the right-hand sideof the road and you have to cros s a creek toget in to the homestead," he continued.

Well! It wasn't much to go on but if stillthere it would be worth ha ving, so I decided totry and locate the farm . After a dozen or sotoll call s I eventually found the place andactually spoke to the person responsible for theact of destruction.

"Any chance of gett ing it out?" I queried."Not at the moment. It's under about five

feet of mud and water, but wait until next sum­mer when it' s dried out , then you can ha ve atry," Mr French replied.

Came the summer and one day I was yarn­ing to a friend , Jack Hounslow, and the subjectof the MINERVA came up . After a whileJack said he could borrow a metal detector fora day, which would make the job a lot eas ier.A ring to Mr French that evening resulted inthe all clear being given, so we arranged tomeet him that Sunday.

Sunday dawned overcast and drizzly butnot bad enough to postpone the trip. I col­lected Jack and Mich ael, another vintage en­thusia st , and away we went , arriving at thefarm a little after 9 a.m. Bill French. theowner's son, met us and after a general intro­duction all round we visited the scene ofoperations.

The dam was a dried up creek in a gullysituated between two paddocks with severalwillow trees and scrub and manuka along thesides. The rain didn 't help much but it easedoff and we set to work. Jack set up the de­tector and began a systematic coverage of theground where Bill thought it lay. Variou ssounds came from the detector headphones butno definite whine giving us the locality of themachin e. At one place we had a good contactfor about six square feet, so Michael and Ireached the shovels and commenced digging.

PAGE FIVE

IT? The Story of An Old MotorcycleBy G. Bull

After a while we had a check with the detectorand were amazed to find no contact. A carefulcheck of the equipment confirmed that it wasoperating sati sfactor ily, so we concluded theoriginal contact was the metal studs in Jack'sboot s. 10.30 came and Bill decided to go tothe homestead to get his father and give us theapproximate locality of the bik e. While upthere he would put the starter batteries in thetract or and brin g that down also .

H e eventually arrived back witb his fatherand a large International bulldozer, quite pre­pared to spend all day if necessary to find thebike. Mr French thought the bike lay someyards from where we had been trying, so aftera short discussion Bill mounted the dozer andbegan to cut a trench between the two esti­mated positions. The first hour and a half sawus eagerly following the blad e of the tractor asBill went back and forth scooping out a largetrench in the bed of the creek. A large moundof dirt gradua lly built up at one end as Bill andthe tractor slowly cut deeper and deeper. E vent­ually the trench was cut to about six feet deep,twelve feet wide and six ty feet long. Jack.Michael and myself were by now of the opin­ion that the bike was now some place else orthat som e person had acquired it yea rs ago .

However, Mr French and Bill were not tobe put out by thi s, and decided to cut thetrench back into the hillside from wher e thebike was thrown. Another hour saw thetrench progressively moved sideways aboutthre e feet into the hill without any sign of thebike.

By mutual consent an adjournment wastaken for lunch at this stage, and whil e Bill andhis father disappeared in the direction of thehomestead we sat down on the tractor and sur­veyed the havoc we had cau sed as we had ourlunch. The ra in which had been falling at oddtimes during the morning started again and Ithought of wha t I could have been doing athome instead of being on a 'wild bike cha se'.

Jack however was more optimistic of usfindin g it, and aft er we had had our lunch hedonned the detector head phones and begancoverin g the sides and botttom of the trench,while Michael and I had a genera l ramblethrough the undergrowth along the sides andends of the creek. No luck however . and

PAGE SIX

eventually our farmer fr iend s appeared overthe brow of the hill and we di scus sed the nextph ase of opera tions. The exact area of gro undwhere Mr French estimated the bike lay hadnot been exea va ted so we de cided to try thereas a last resort. The only snag was that bynow several tons of dirt from the trench layove r the spot. A sha tte ring ro ar from the tra c­tor ech oed along the creek as Bill comme ncedto remove the dirt fur the r along.

This took ab out an hour before the orig­inal top so il was exposed and he could sta r tcutting down into the hard ground. J ack and I

SEPTEMBER, 1963

on th e petr ol tan k, find ing ou t i ts shape andsize, as with veteran m otorcycles the tank shapeoften gives a good ind ication of th e mach ine'sage.

A trench was du g co mplete ly around thebike so we cou ld get under it and lift it up th er ight way . This we eventuall y accomp lishedand gazed upon the obj ect of our search. Norims, spokes or rnudgards, se veral holes in thetank and a badly co rroded a lloy crankcase, butotherwise appeared to be in reasonable orderin spite of its twent y-seven years buried , as itwas in 1936 that it was discarded .

The "unearthing". By cou r te sy F . B ull

were qu ite excited again and ke pt follo wingbehind the blade keenl y wa tch ing for any partsto be exposed.

"Can 't be far aw ay no w," said Mr French."T his would be about the place from what Ican remember." Suddenly Jack leapt for wardbehind the tractor blade and ca me back gr in­nin g all over his face as he sh owed us a pedalwith a bright shiny thread one end where ithad been wrenched out of its crank by thetractor blade. Bill eased the tra ctor back tillit was well clear of the spot, then we tried withthe detector , bein g rewarded with a very sa tis­fying contact. Spades and shove ls were seizedand within a few minutes the engine and sun­dry frame parts were exposed . I conce ntra ted

The only hard work left wa s to carry it upthe bank to the tra iler , and thi s we d id as Billbrought the tractor up from the creek onto theflat surface of the paddock . F inal thanks andgood byes were sa id, a nd some tim e later wewere back in town . A ho se soon washed off thelast of the mud and revealed the machine in allits glory . During the week I di ssected the bikeand was quite pleased wi th wha t I fo und. Thetank wa s of no furth er use, but as it' s completewith all ed ges and corners it is perfect as a pat­tern for a new on e. The fr ame and forksa ppear quite sound, a pa rt from the usual ru stpitting. Both wheels hubs can be used. togetherwith the ped alling gear a nd va rio us framebrackets. Th e ma gneto, exhaust pipe, muffler,

SEPTEMBER , 1963

handlebar levers, and carburettor are all inrepairable condition. T he engine ha s "had it",The alloy crankcase was corroded away com­pletely and the fins on the barrel break off atthe slightest touch , Flywheels and the pist onare in good sha pe, together with some enginepa rts whi ch are made of brass,

A brief specification of the machine maybe of interest and is as follows : Approximatel y500 cc. en gine.

Variable sp eed engine pulley. (Th is couldbe an optional extra.)

Fully sprung lead ing l ink front suspension.

PAGE SEVEN

Two-lever Brown and Barlow carburettor.Magneto driven by double eccentric crank.External contract ing rear brake operating

on hub worked by cam act ion when ba ck ped­a lling on pedals.

Seat sprung by action similar to Indiana nd Harley-D avidson.

At the time of writing all parts are awaybein g chemica lly cleaned and deru sted, so thereI leav e you with one thought:

Wa s it really worth five hours' diggingwith a bulldozer ?

IIAPRES MOl LE DELAGE 11

Shivering beneath three complete sets ofclothing, with a blanket over my legs, andgla ncing venomously at the stuck open windowin the left hand front door through which anicy blast blew str aight off the frozen centre ofthe North Island, I muttered : " You MUSTbe mad! "

Only madness, I thought a t that moment,would dri ve any normally sa ne person to setout on such a fool's errand as thi s. Fi ve hun­dred and fort y mil es. half of them towing asecond vehicle. in the middle of winter sure lyrepresent ed some form of insanity.

The whol e thing star ted some months pr e­vio usly. " I think I' ve found a car for you ."sa id someone who I had always thought of asbein g a friend. " It 's a Delage that need s abody."

" Oh, good ," I replied. This had long beenmy hope: to obtain a suitably noble vehiclefor restorat ion. Now , apparently, fortune wasreally directing a smile in my direction. I waslater to think that perhaps I had been wrong.and that the smile wa s really a machievellian.a sad ist ic, gr in of sheer malignancy. But asI say . that came later. F or the present I wasengross ed with the prospect of joining theranks of those who have dili gently forsakenall in the cau se of finis coronat opus.

T he fact that in order to obtain thi s rev­ered mon ster as my own I had first to procureand barter with certa in parts from yet a notherautomotive conveyance , a nd that thi s othermachine was situa ted a good day's tra vel in theoppos ite direction, did not deter me one bit. Idid that part of it gladly. A sort of warming-

up proc ess for the "big haul" . Nothing likege tting your hand in.

Came the day. We (two eo-fools andmyself) set out from Auckland on the morningof a d ismally wet F riday. We should ha vetaken the weather man 's grim omen at facevalue and stayed home. After all , 540 mile sin the rain and free zing cold is a bit of anordeal. .. . Especially when you are se tti ng outin a "d irty-thir ty" Morris Fifteen Six that lack s,a mong other thin gs, a window in the dri ver 'sdoor. However, thi s hole in the wall was ren­dered a little less of a nu isan ce by the Hom­burg that was produced out of nowhere for thedri ver to wea r. E ver worn a Homburg pull eddo wn over your right ear while dri vin g a some­what loaded vehicle out of a large ci ty? Tryit somet ime . . . you' ll be am azed a t the varietyof look s that will be directed toward s you .

Mer cer for lunch. Cambridge for after­no on tea . Taupo for dinner. By thi s time theweather had won, and we had called on afri endly and commiserating wrecker on the sideof the road. Not to get rid of the Morris. youund erstand . but simply to add a sid e windowto our equipment. Ju st as well we did!

Taupo on a dark and very windy mid­winter's night. Icy blast from th e lake sendingspray over the road . Fro st beginning on th everges . The whiskey under everything in th ehack! Onward, on ward . . . .

Turangi, tall-treed astride the road. N olight s 10 gree t us, no welcome co ffee-stall. Fish­erm en's baches closed for the winter. So uth­ward to W aiouru.

PAG E EIG HT

If ever the Tourist Publicity Departmentwan ts to draw tourists away from the soft lifeof the lake s and streams and get them into theciti es to boost their holiday spending, I hopethey come to me. I'll give them an opus on thesubject of snow on the Desert Road at nighttim e. Gua ra nteed to put anyone off travellingby road in winter for the rest of their naturallives. Anyone who doubts my reasons for thisshould drive south along this fro zen Sahara ofa road with a wes terly blowing rain , sleet andeventually snow horizontally across their path.

Wip er blade putting up a game struggleto right , and racing across with a thump toleft . T he sheer savagery of the wind showingup all the flaws of body construction of thethirties. Brittle-cold hands on the wheel.Thankfully fewer than thirt y miles to go.

And then Waiouru in the middle of thenight with (you guessed it) no petrol pumpsopen, and the only sign of life the soldiers col­lecting their baggage from the stationmaster.Incredulous looks from them when they spotthis 'orrer approaching, and only dumb staresin answer to my question about obtaining pet­rol. Back to the car, where eo- fool No . Onehas located bottle of whiskey, and is proc eed­ing to pour large dollops into quarter full bot­tle of ginger ale. Two of those and we'd get toTaihape on the sme ll of the bottle, and to hellwith the petrol.

Taihape duly sur rounded us, and I hope theblok e at the side of the post office didn't mindwhen I shared his temporary and very urgentdesire to inhabit for a short time the shelteredspot behind a shrub.

Cold night . Tortuous rain-wa shed trackwinding upward out of Taihape into the hills .Farm gates and a muddy path. Co-jool twogets left in rain at the gates-too muddy to riskstopring.

~ ourney's end was the tractor shed , seem­ingly given over to the permanent storage ofassorted cars of great age. The hour was thatof the witch es-though what witch would ven­ture Out on a night like this with her broom­stick? It was here and at that hour that I gotmy first glimpse of the car we bad come 270miles fo r. We were all tir ed and cold , but thatdidn't stop us from crawling into, over andunde r this veritable prize.

Hayshed on a L]lcL ' ,hillside. One wall opento the wind , rain Cll1d\'heltering sheep. Hay­bales digging into our ribs all the weeping night.

SEPTEMBER. 1963

Breakfast out of a cold flask of soup .By the time we had rounded up one

George Gibbs in Taihape, downed several hotcups of tea and gladly accepted the toa st hisgood lad y provided, I for one was willing toforget the rigours of the previous day and night.So back out to the farm, where we checkedtyres. oil levels, brakes and steering, beforehitching up to George's Landrover for the towup to the new devi ation out of Taihape. Ju stas well George offered to set us so far on ourway, because eo-fool two drove behind in theMorris, only to report when we stopped thatone of the Delage's wheels was wobbling in thespokes, and it was doubtful if we'd make itanywhere on that one.

Wheel chan ging on the side of a busy road.Raw, bitt er cold eating through to the skin.Rigid tow bar like an icicle held horizontalby the wind. Hands numb.

Once we had the wheel changed, Georgebade us farewell and good luck, and we wer eoff back up the long road to Auckland. In day­light , the Desert Road is even more bleak thanit seems in the dark. Once I got used to thefeeling of running up the tail pipe of the Mor­ris when we slowed, 1 had time to look around .Snow tussock filled the landscape. To thenorth and west the mountains rais ed theirsnow-ca pped slopes a bove the cloud. The sunshone down, but there was no warmth in it.Waiouru was twenty miles away, and the windwas whistling through the stuck window in thepassenger's door. The window in the driver'sdoor was non-existent. "You MUST be mad ,"I muttered to myself. Then I tempered thi swith the thought that I would hav e been evenmadder had I followed my ori ginal intentionand thrown the non-original balloon body int othe ditch before sett ing out. That would havebeen sheer insanity!

Snowman by the side of the road. Tanktracks in the black earth. Cold air turnin g theMorris's burbly exhaust into ([ crackle of sound.No other traffic; only our two cars elephant­walking the long ribbon of road-the blindleading the blind.

At Waiouru, a friendly service stationhand allowed us to make use of his shelterwhile we tore the door lining from the Delageand tried to get the window up . Succe ss!

Lunch was obtained at a mist-windowed,closely shuttered stall that was like an ovenaft er the Antarctic we had left outside the door.

SEPTEMBER, 1963

It was here that we found that a mixture ofhalf a bottle of brandy went well into half aflask of steaming coffee; the first sip was hardto take, but the rest was luverly.

On to Tura ngi , Co-fool one joins me inthe Deluge, and supplies cigarettes and stimu­lating conversation . Snat ches of song to thetune of "A 11 clair de la Lune" escape from hisfrozen lips: " A pres moi le Delage ..."

. . . he sings in a cracked baritone . Con­sider putting this comic out on the road, andchange my mind. He could be helpful in ajam; a few pounds of sugar and him in the potshould boil up well . . .

At Turangi we had a change of drivers inthe Morris, and eo-tool one, who had beensuffering from an ear complaint, and had spentthe previous day and night hidden within thefold s of a voluminous scarf and parka, emergedto tak e his turn. So long had been his sojournwithin the various garme nts that covered hisface that I was surprised to see just what helook ed like in the raw. Headwise. Not a prettysight, what with stubble on his chin , andtousled hair. Then realised with a shock that1 probably look ed the same beneath the Hom­burg that was st ill jocularly known as the"driver's hat".

Up, down, round, "Danger, Ice On Bends" ,rain lip ahead. Bottom gear lip the hills.Juggling for the line throu gh the bridges. Steamscreaming [rotn the overilow pipe on theMorris.

Lake Taupo from the south wasn 't anycalmer than it had been th e previous night.Spray still whipped across the surface, and thewind hadn 't dropped . E ven at three in the af­ternoon the temperature was only just abovefreezing point. So we decided to spend the nightin Taupo . rather than travel on to Tokoroa. Wehad no light s on the Delage, and it would havebeen more than just dark by the time we ar­rived there. Anyway, the chance to stop for ahot meal and a warm bed for the night was justtoo good to miss. Tomorrow, as has been saidbefore, was another day.

Dim light of early morning. Shiveringhands holding the can of radiator water. Chillwind whisking the drops around. Skies lower­ing to the north . Long drive ahead.

By thi s time the Morris had clocked upwell over 300 miles, and the stra in was becom­ing obvious. Those hard climbs out of Taupohad her down in bottom gear, and the long easy

PAGE NINE

grades that had made the trip between Tokoroaand Taupo smooth downhill dri ving were seem­ingly endless grinds now, when we couldn't getout of third . Boiling came easier , a nd waterwas needed more and more often. We didn'tknow then , and weren't to reali se until muchlater, just what was happening under the bon­net of that ma chine. We simply shook ourheads and said to ourselves that she was "worthher weight in rocking-horse droppings" .

I again toyed with the idea that there werelot s of places on the side of the road where anold saloon body would never be noticed. Buteach tim e I thought seriously about it downcame another shower of rain. It was all addedweight with the bod y on, and although weightwasn't one of the problems, it would havemade the going easier had we beeo able toleave some of it behind .

Tokoroa on Sunday morning. Church forthe children running uncaring in the wet grassand the biting cold. St eam from mill digestersmaking a little weather condition of its own.Flat , barren town in a fertile plain. Timber andbricks house humanity, but don 't represent it.More rain ahead.

In spite of the growing reluctance of theMorris, we were making much better time thanwe had the previous day. Atiamuri, standingMohican-headed at the side of the road, hadflashed by, and Putaruru wasn't really so veryfar a head . Yet it wasn't more than mid-morn­ing. At this rate, it looked as though we wouldbe in Auckland for afternoon tea. It wasaround this time that I found that the smallpump affair in the centre top of the Del age'sda shboard was for activating the big Le N ivexpetrol gauge. Ah , the wonder of it!

Putaruru deserted in the rolling slopes ofhills. Coffee and biscuits by the railway sta­tion. Change of drivers. We'r e all fools togetherin this . . . .

The run down from Putaruru to junctionwith the Great South Road near Cambridgewas easy . Plenty of time to try winding theclock and find that after stand ing for so long itstill worked . Other traffic was becoming morefrequent now, and many were the inquiringglances that tried vainly to read the housenam e on the big blue-en am elled radiator badgeof the Delage.

Cambridge was another water stop, andominous crackles and spitting sounds wereissuing from the Morris's engine-room. There

PAGE TEN

was no sign of anything gravely wrong, though,a nd we dro ve on toward Hamilton for lunch.

Bare poplar s near the river bank. Drycows out in wet rain . Hamilton folk o n churchsteps. Clock stri king noon. Hungry,

We sto pped for lun ch at the house of fel­low vintager Eric Browne, who was naturallycur ious as to wh ere we had found thi s prize of'a car. Eric's Standa rd. dr iven eithe r by himselfqr ju st as capably by hi s wife Joan , is no newsigh t a t club events in the area- and beyond­~nd th e spontaneou s greeting we got was warm­ing on the now -sunn y but sti ll chi lly day.

W e put through ph one ca lls to Aucklandfrom there. "H ome a t 4 .30," we told them, andse t off to make the for ecast a reality.

T e Rapa out of sight behind. Petrol , oiland water. Boiling already. Wh at to do if . . ?' .. R angiriri found us pu lled in at the sid e of(he road. Co-foo ls On e and T wo ha ve po int ed~u t th at the Morris is overheating. "S he's boil­ing all the time , and pinking like mad ," theysay. It's a vicious circle. R etard the spark tostop pinking, and that makes her run hotter..IH as the tim ing slipped?" "No. If it had itwould have been toward reta rd , and wouldn'tcause pi nk ing." So we wen t on to Te Kau­~hata , where we di scovered th at the spitting wehad heard earlier was co ming from a water leakon to the exh au st manifold. Bung in a sea lerco mpound. fill up a nd hope.

. Taupiri, Huntly, Mercer. Rain. BombayDeviation coming up. A uckland beyond . "lhope I hope 1 hope . . ."

The sealer seemed to have done its jobtemporarily. We topped the deviati on in sec­ond- wonde r of wonders-and so mehow thejourney, with less than thirty miles st ill to go,see med a lrea dy over. Slowly th rough th etown s: Papakura , pa st , and o n to the newmotorway.

A uckland at last. Over the bridge andhome. No t far now. Tr ick y in the traf fic. Car­filled Sunday afternoon. Int ersections a realproblem .

Our forecast looked like being correct. Itwasn't lon g after four when we sta r ted up thebridge, and the downward free-wheel ing was arest for the Morris . But d isaster lay ahead .

As we pulled slowly, so very slowly, awayfrom the toll plaza, everything seemed to hap­pen at once. A phutti ng so und sta rted a nd grewquickl y to the complaining shr iek of a blownrc"j 'T, <,ke t 1111 der oressure . Blue smoke issued

SEPTEM BER, 1963

Home at last. (The body is now off!!)By courtesy W . Ca p per -Bta rr

from the bonnet louvres. Power, never there inan y grea t qu antity, dr opped to almost nil.

Worried looks from front car to rear.Hopeless shrugs. No clues. "Loud was the dinof hissing, with com plicated monsters head totail . . ."-Dante.

We limped to Takapu na to deli ver Co-foo lOne. Wh at to do, wh at to do? We'd broughtthe Del age a long way , co uld I bear to ha veto leave it now, des erted, o nly two mil es fromhom e. N o!

The so lution was provided by a moderncar. It wa s a slow drive. and a hard pull forth e small saloon , but some time lat er we roll edthe Delage down the dr ive. The Morris limpedlam ely, minus oil press ure, power, evennessand grace . int o her ga rage, and stopped withth e stench of baked oil hanging around her likean au ra.

Hot soup. Warm fire. Clean clothes.Quest ions, answers. Consolations. Worry.

Ne xt day we inspected the Morr is. She 'dreall y fou ght on to the grim end, a nd it wasreally on ly th at small leak that had led to a llthe troubles. It had eventua lly widened , untilthe whol e to p of the motor had been drainedof water. Result wa s that the he ad of th e mot orhad got a lmos t red hot, oi l had turned to thecon sistency of wa ter, and the he ad gasket hadblown. As well, the ex ha ust va lves had burntout until the y looked like halfmoons on hat­pegs, and the ignition wiring had baked topowder.

Ma dness? More than likely . L ong haulthat. Big job ahead. Bod y to build. T wo years'work , Mental pictu re growing of the result .Open four-seater. Delage D.I. Series 4. N ice.

Perhaps after a ll you don 't have to bemad . But it he lps.. . .

SEPT EMBER, 1963

INTERNATIONAL RALLY, 1963PAG E ELE VE N

A. Dray

"T he I nternational Rally began in Bri ght onon Friday morning, 10th M ay, where all ca rswere expected to be assembled on M aderiaDrive by 9 a.m. M alcolm D ickens, my brotherColin a nd myself arose very early, had break­fast , then left Putney for Brighton at 6.15 inMr L. B. Southward 's 1904 Wolseley, whi chhe had very kindly left in England and loanedto us for this event. It was not a very nicemornin g, quite overcas t and wind y, and itrained lightl y on the way to Brighton, but thecar was running very well indeed and withvery little traffic about we mad e Bri ghton in2t hours. Cars of all ages and type s were

, running around Brighton , but we mad e our wa yto the assembly po int on M ad eria Drive. TheWol seley was filthy , so we had a n hour to docleaning etc., a nd we sta rted off on time a t10.15. The Mayor of Brighton, Mr W. H. G.Button, prese n ted eac h car with a very n iceplaque and wished a ll competitors good luckand a reliable run.

The route went through some lovelycountryside and was 56 m iles for the vet erans,with a lunch stop at the country estate, R et­worth Park. This stop gave us time to looka t some of the car s a nd what a beautiful select­ion there was- 300 altogether, and I wouldthink it must hav e been the firs t time that sucha collection of ca rs of thi s type had been as­sembled anywhe re in the world.

We arrived a t Bognor Re gis at 5 p.rn.,where we were directed to Butlins holidayca mp . which had und ertak en to pro vide all theacco mmoda tion for the rally . The place norm­ally hold s 10,000 people but we had only 750dr ivers a nd passengers and 180 mar shals, so itwas rela tive ly em pty. On Friday evening aftera very nice dinner we saw the Shell films,'Heroic Days' etc., wh ile the International Fed­era tio n held its meet ing.

Satur day morning we were up ea rly, hadbreakfast , and drove out to Goodwood, tenmiles away. for the day's events. We arr ived atGoodwo od at 9.30 and the co ncours was at 11a.m. , so we cleaned the Wolseley fra ntically for1-} hours and by the tim e the jud ges turned upit was looking quite respe ctable agai n. Duringthe da y we did a series of the usual type ofdri ving tests and later in the afterno on demon­strations were given a ll the track by the fasterca rs of a ll periods a nd th is proved most popu ­lar indeed. The 1908 Itala of Mr Sam Clu ttonca me burning down the stra igh t at abo ut 65

with a big wh ite Me rcedes close on its ta il, andlater Mr Stan ley Sears' 4-} lit re superchargedBentl ey was run a round the tr ack with a similartype car, a sup ercharged M ercedes, followingclose ly.

Af ter th is dem onstr at ion a ll the ca rs wenton to the track and assem bled for the grandparade, a nd some were sent the opposite wayfor the final conc ours judg ing. We were for ­tun ate enough to be in th is group and when itwas whittled dow n to five cars and we were stillin we were quite thrilled . They picked wha tthey wa nted and we were sent to jo in thegrand pa rad e, whi ch filed past the stand s veryorderly, and then every one began to take offa round Goodwood at their ow n spe eds. Th iswas quite exc iting and a bit dangerous bu t it allwent off well an d we had ano ther go on ourown la ter on . Everyo ne then dro ve back toButl ins, par ked , and we wer e given the mostfa ntas tic Bu ffet Dinner , where we had every­th ing and it was a wond erful sp read . Soonafter this they held the pr izegiving and speechesin which the Wol seley won the concour s pri zefor the whol e rally and an othe r cu p for beingthe best ca r from New Zealand . E ach foreigncountry received one of these for its best car,so we co uld n't miss.

Sunday morning the ra lly officially fin­ished . but some went to Lord Montagu's atBeaul ieu . We set off for London a t a quietpace, only to be passed ab out 30 miles on by aroar ing 3 lit re Bentley which pull ed up andstop ped us. It was M iss E lizabeth Navle andshe has a very nice boat -tail ed 3 litre with a4-} moto r. We were invited to lunch with Mi ssNag le and her nephew, where we had a goodcha t about everything under the oak beams ofa lovely old E nglish pub.

We arranged to ca ll in at M iss Nagle'shouse on our way throu gh Wa king, whic h wedid aft er see ing some other friends. and con se­quently left from Wa king at 9.15 p.m., so wclit a ll the lamps and motored u p to London,so ful filling one of my pet a mbit ions.

We met N.Z. membe r Bill T urn bull a t therall y a nd he was busy with the Buga tti sect ionbut was very pleased to see the New Zea landcar participating. A ll in all, it was a wonderfulrall y a nd the orga nis ing was superb. T he Wol­seley ra n very well and covered over 200 milesduring the weeke nd. T oday we greased theca r and packed it into the cas e for its retu rnhome to New Zealand ."

PAGE TWELVE SEPTEMBER, 1963

MANUFACTURED BY ­PRESCO PISTON·RING.CO. LTD. WELLINGTON

Douhles the Life

VINTAGE & VETERAN MOTORCYCLE NOTES

/

SEPTEMBER, 1963

A Forgotten Feat.-The story of the Christ­church-Hanmer record in the previous issue of"B.W." reminded us that some time ago wecame across some rather scanty details of aquite remarkable endurance feat , accomplished,as near as we could recall, about the 1911 or'12 era. We had made such a careful job offiling this information away when we first cameacross it, that when it occurred to us recentlythat it might be of interest to "B.W." readers,we had considerable difficulty in unearthing it.The few details we finally brought to light sentus off on a sleuthing expedition in quest offurther information, though when we finallyemerged, dusty and grubby-fingered, from pilesof ancient newspapers, we hadn't added muchmore to the record. We came to the conclusionthat a really outstanding feat of endurance,both human and mechanical, had received lesspublicity than it had deserved, and it was onlyby the medium of the few advertisements inconnection with it that we were able to form aclear enough picture to present to our readers.A Remarkable Ride.-At 4 a.m. on Monday,November 20, 1911, a Christchurch motor­cyclist, Mr A. E. Dendy, left the city on thefirst stage of an attempt to cover 1500 miles insix days under official observation. Engine andframe numbers had been checked by the clubofficials supervising the run (probably thesewere members of the Christchurch Cycling andMotorcycling Club, which conducted motor­cycle events at this period), and the rider's pro­gress was checked at intervals along the route.Just what the route was, the advertisementsvery tantalisingly omit to mention, except thatit included "some of the roughest and hilliestroads in the South Island ." Daily progress re­ports were posted in the windows of the J. A.Philp Motor Company in Gloucester Street, theagents sponsoring the attempt. And apparentlythis ambitious project went off without a hitch,as an advertisement in the "Press' of Monday,November 27 (a week after the start of the run)proudly announces the successful conclusion ofwhat was undoubtedly a remarkable effort."1501 miles in six days (it ran) including aworld record one day ride of 390 miles, withouta mechanical stop of any kind , and with onlyone puncture. using Continental tyres and belt."The claim of a world's record was hardly cor-

PAGE THIRTEEN

By GeoffHockley

rect, for earlier in the same year one A. E. Catt,of Northampton , England , rode a Triumph 400miles in six consecutive days (and incidentallyfinished a physical wreck). But there were feat­ures of the Cnristchurch man 's effort whichmade it compare very favourably with Catt'srecord . For one thing, the latter used a coursewhich did not include any hills. And it wouldalso be pretty safe to assume that althoughEnglish roads in those days were far fromgood, they were boulevards in comparison WithCanterbury's in the same period. It seems tous , therefore , that Mr Dendy's effort was no

.. G' DAYS RELIABILITY NON STOP RUNONA 3zh.p.TOUR S ~REMIER .

PROGRES S RESl/aS POSh'l) HERE. .

~ ....

Iron Man 1911. An inspiration to prospectiveHaast RaIly-ites. By CO la t e s y G. H ock lo v

mean one, and that he was deserving of a littlemore kudos than he appears to have receivedat the time.A "Premier" Performance.-For his long rideMr Dendy used a 3} h.p . single-cylinder Prem­ier, a make which sold here in moderatenumbers in the years prior to the 1914-8 war.Although our memory is slightly hazy on thesubject (at the time of Mr Dendy's feat ourmotorcycling activity was confined to vieingwith other equally motorcycle-crazy kids incollecting lists of makes) we do recall the Prem­ier as being quite an attractive and well­finished machine. In workmanship and finishit was probably the equal of some of the morepopular makes, such as Triumph, King Dick,and a few others, and in one or two designfeatures it may have been superior-its front

PAG E FOURTEEN

fork, fo r instance , wa s considerabl y more" spr ingy" than those fitt ed to so me of its rival s.T he very ea rly Prem iers used White & P oppeen gines, but later models. as us ed by MrDe ndy, were eq ui pped with th eir ow n poweruni ts. whic h featured (on th e sing le-cylindermode ls) th e unique auxiliary exh aust valv ewh ich for some years wa s a feature of thi smarq ue . T he two exhaust p ipe s (one fr om th enorma l exh aust port and on e from the sma llextra exhaust va lve mounted on the front ofthe cylind er) may be seen in the photograph .It was consider ed by m any de sign ers of theperiod th at a little extra scaveng ing of th eexha ust ga ses paid di vidend s, as witn ess theaux ilia ry exhaust ports on many early ra cin gmachi nes. T he device used by Premier pr ob­ably kept the eng ine a little cooler, an import­a nt factor in those day s, whe n the av erage side­by -side val ve cyl ind er di storted conside rably,and there may have been some basis for thePre mier slogan- " W hen you see a ' 3}' climb­ing like a '6' . it' s a Prem ier !"

Sixty-Quid Record-B reaker.- The loc al pri cesfor Premier mod els in those d ay s see m pr ett yreaso nable when looked a t more than fiftyyea rs lat er. The 3} h.p. single "fi xed eng ine"model sold for £60, a nd a hub clutch modelse t you back a n extra tenner, while for justfifty bo b mor e you could indulge in the luxuryof a 2-spe ed gea r. Al so a va ila ble wa s a 3} h.p .twi n to the sa me specificat io ns as th e s ingle atan extra Iiver in each ca se . Premier sa les ap­paren tly rece ived a considerabl e fillip as are sult of M r Dendy's ride, as in an advertise­men t in th e "Press" of D ecember 9, 1911, theagents reported th at sa les had doubled and thatextra ma chi nes had been ca bled for. Well , itwas a stout effort, an d we should blush forsha me when we find ourself wondering if ourgarga ntua n gas -gobbbler will cart us a ro u ndth e H aast R ally route without letting us down!Remember th e Clyno ?- A s L yell Boyes re­marks in h is qui z session, " one thin g lead s toa not her", a nd we encounte red an exa mple ofthe tru th of this pr ofound sayin g when. whileengaged in di gging up some dope on the" Premier" story which you ha ve ju st read (wehope), we came ac ross anoth er clipping wh ichwe had filed aw ay and for gotten . Although itdoesn't refer to a ny feat of end ura nce, it' s int er ­est ing in tha t it recall s a make which wa s onceco nside rab ly po pular as a sidecar machine in

SEPTEMBER , 1963

many cou ntries of the world- the Clyno, manu­factured in Englan d by the Clyno EngineeringCo . in the years 1911-23, after whic h the makersconc en trated on car m anufacture . The ea rl iestspecimen which we recall seeing on loc al roadswas a 191 3 model, as dep ict ed in the accom ­pan yin g photo. In thi s yea r, too, the makersintroduced a well-made little two- stroke, dis­tinguished by its slop ing cylinder and unitengi ne-gea rbo x co ns truct ion. But th e C lyno isremembered for its larger twin-cylinder "5 -6h.p ." mod el, which won fa me as a sidecarhauler, more than for its light sol o model. A sea rly as 1911 a Clyno ou tfit driven by FrankSm ith mad e th e first asce nt of Porlock. thenotorious British trials h ill, wh ich had hithertodefeated all efforts by sidecar outfits. TheSmith-Clyno com bina tion was a con sisten t goldmed al winner in the major English trials forsevera l yea rs- and, stra ngely en ough, at abo u tthe same period a Clyn o outfit piloted by adriver of the sa me nam e was performing cr ed­itabl y in our own local reli ab ilit y tr ial s. Prob­ably man y old-timers will recall the po pul ar"Smil er " Smith piloting his Cly no an d "cha ir"in man y Christchurch club events.An Apt Slogan.-L ike mo st moto rcycle manu­facturers. th e C lyno people used a slogan whichwas featured in all their advertising (we thinkwe must compile a list of sloga ns one of th esed ays)- some of them readily lent themselves todi stortion , with results generally humorous a ndsome times unprintabl e, and in the cas e of theClyno it was sim ply " CLYNO-THE SIDE­CA R MOTOR CYCLE". And that it was alust y eno ugh puller IS ev ide nt by th e accom­

... ".;

ll ;:.' co u rtesy G. H oc kl c v

Class-s-and a Clyno,But how did those hats stay on?

SEPTEMBER, 1963

panying photogr aph , whi ch was taken on theoccasion of a demon str ati on of the machine' scapabilities sho rt ly afte r it had been introducedin Christchu rch by the agents, Cy cle and MotorSupplies Ltd . An ad vertise me nt accompanyin gthe picture sta tes " T he king of motorcycles forsidecar wo rk is undoubtedly the 1913 model3-sp eed twin-cylinder C lyno . Th is wonderfulmachine acc omplished an a bsolutely non-stoprun from Papanui to Akaroa and return. Timetaken wa s 2} hours each wa y, and a howlingside wind wa s encountered for most of thejourney. The sideca r carried two adult passen­ge rs and the weight of the driver and passen­gers amounted to more th an 30 stone." Anexcellent performance, ind eed , considering the

BOOK REVIEWWhat a n extraord inary mi xture ! This was

my immediate impression on op ening andrather hurriedly thum bin g th rou gh the pagesof " A utomobile Quarterly" , th e American con­noi sseurs' period ical of motoring. But ha vin gsett led myself comfortabl y, I was pr epared torevise my rather hasty o pinion formed a t aquick gla nce a t the co nten ts.

Yes, the bo ok is still a mi xture but a lotof research has go ne into its prepa ra tio n.

It ha s for read er s who are interested inearly motoring and th e evolut ion of the motor­car, Renault F reres in th is inst an ce wr itten byVan Varner. The ar ticle covers the life historyof Marcel and L oui s, a lthough recounted manytimes before, but supported by some excellentphotographs of production and experimentalmodels.

And aga in , very suita ble for those moreinterested in pictures a re cop ies of truly ma g­nificent action paint ings by Roy Nockolds ofsome of the world 's leading racin g drivers, butsalted wi th the odd Vi ntage and Edwardiansubjec t.

H ar vey B. J an es expounds his th eories onthe merits of front wh eel d rive ; his ar gumentthat a horse pulls a ca rt and does not pu sh it,I feel is not very co nvinc ing. Body de signof Pininfarioa by John Wh eelo ck F ree man Ifound very int erest ing a nd well com piled , a lsosuitably illu str a ted by outsta nd ing models todate.

There ar e exquisite photogr aphs of vehicles

PAGE FIFTEEN

sta te of th e Christchurc h-A karoa highway inthose d ays-it was bad en ou gh when we firstsa mpled it, some five or six yea rs after thi s.But su rely the crew of the C1yn o didn't bravethe rigours of the trip attired as in the photo ?M ayb e, of course , the picture was tak en beforethe sta rt-i n whi ch case, we shudder to thinkwha t th e gents ' tast eful dark suitings, win g col­lar s and "as now worn" headgear must havelooked lik e a t the finish. And as to the stateof th e be-furred lady occupying the nose of th esideca r and cudd ling the sup ercilious-look inglap-dog, i t simply doesn 't bear thinking about!But our guess is tha t they pu shed off home fora shower a nd a ch an ge a t the conclusion of thetrip , befor e having their p ic tures taken.

AUTOMOB ILE QUARTERLYPublishers: Doubleday & Co.

in the H enry F ord mu seum, a nd finall y an ex­cellent a rt icle written by Jan P. Norbye, " T heA ston M artin a t th e C rossroads", wh ich is awell writte n a nd illuminating history of DavidBrown's influ ence in the marque.

I can recommend th is book for the ma g­nificent pl at es it co nta ins and feel it is excep­tion all y sui table for tho se who enjoy light andeasy read ing.

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Licensed Motor Vehicle Dealers

PAGE SIXTEEN SEPTEMBER, J963

WANGAI

B y cour t es y K. w ri zh t

Same pump, same Rally, Ross Jones' rare 505 Fl at and the Chrys ler 77 roadster of " Dexter" Bassett.

MORE HI

By co ur t esy \V. Brown

The Hooker Thomas, well known Muriwai competitor taken a t Oreti Beach, 1926.

SEPTEMBER, 1963

I RALLYPAGE SEVENT EEN

By court esy K. Wr iuh t

Len Southward within 1913 Austin, replenishing fuel supplies prior to start.

fY METAL

By cou r t es y \V . Brow n

Irvine's Bugatti , wiuner of the Light Car Cup 1925, again taken at Oreti the following year.

PA G E EI GHTEEN SE PTEM BE R, 1963

THE HEAVY METAL-Part 6 By W. Ca pper Starr

FEBRUARY 21, 1925-The nam e of C. W. F. H amilton is prob­

abl y not an unknown one to most of the vint­age enthusiasts in th is country. He is, as well ,known both here and overseas for some boator other that has n't got a propeller. But if wecould go bac k 38 yea rs, to Febru ary 21. 1925,we would find a somew ha t younger Mr Ham­ilton at Muriwai Beach .

M ind you , there wo uld have been a lot ofoth er peopl e there as well, though a comparisonof th e specta tors at the Muriwai Beach MotorR aces in 1925 with those of the previous yea rwould ha ve show n a dr op in atte nda nce. Thiswas not, however , du e to an y lessenin g in thepopularity of the races, but was instead du e tothe infantile paral ysis ep ide mic that was ragingaround at that tim e.

An yway, C.W.F. wo uld have been there won­dering just wha t the outcome of the da y' s run­ning was to be. He need not have worried;1925 was the yea r of the Sun beam ; it was theyear that saw the seco nd win by an En glishcar of the cove ted Ne w Zealand Motor Cup;and it was the year that Mr C. W. F. H amiltontook the prize that was to go for keeps to MrR . B. Wilson the next yea r.

From a specta tor point of view, 1925 wasan interest ing year in that whil e there werefew of the neck-and-neck strugg les of the pre­vious years, du e to the sho rtening of the racingcircuit so that no fewer than seve n turns wererequired for the 50 miles of the big race, therewas compensati on in the clea r views availablefrom the natu ral gra nds ta nds behind the judge' sbox of a ll of the turning. No more d id thecar s rac e awa y out of sight to rea ppear for thecheckered flag with no-one the wiser about howmuch tussle and rou gh driving had passedbetween start and finish. As well, the sta rt ingsystem previously used in the cu p events wascha nged to mak e way for a rollin g start thathad every comp etitor away a t the same timewith no danger of a ny co llisions.

The Li ght Car Cup Race, run ove r thesa me 50 miles as the New Zealand Motor Cuprace, was won by Mr A. lrving's Bugatti , andman y were the people who were taken by thesma ll car 's perfection of running and smooth­ness. The ca r returned a time for the eve nt of41 minut es 18 seco nds , giving an overall aver-

age of 72.5 m.p. h. . with a clocked fastest runof 85 m.p.h .

T he day' s rac ing programme turn ed in thefollo wing results :

Tour ing Car Handicap, run over 5 mileswith one turn. This was won by C. Paine, driv­ing a Bui ck , ahead of C. G. Goodman 's Cha nd­ler. Both cars sta rted off the 40 second mark.T hird place was tak en by F. Ballin in a Stand ­ard , (1 min. 20 secs.) . T he scratch man got abit lost at the pos t a nd lost, as well, all cha nceof the race. The main field of eigh t sta rtersdeparted down the beac h in a bunch, but thelimit men were a lon g way out aft er the tu rn .Pain e won the race with a time of 5 minutes25 seco nds, 50 yards ah ead of Goodrnan , wh oin turn was th ree times that d istance ah ead ofBal/in.

As we've said already, the next race on theprog ramme, the 50-mile Li ght Car Cup, waswon by Ir ving's Bugatti , and behind him cameH. Holl iday in a Ru gby, and a Rollin car en­tered by Dexter Motors and dri ven by Cy ril"Rusty" R usden. F rom the rolling start theBugatt i seemed to have the advantage , but J .Bu chan an in a Ho rstma n was push ing it ratherhard-perha ps too hard , as will be seenshort ly. Some 8 minutes aft er the start, twodots rap idly screa ming down the sa nd turnedout to be the sa me two cars, still in the sameorde r. bu t at the second turn the Bug got int otrouble and Bu chan an took the lead. A minutelat er the Rugby appeared 100 ya rds ahead ofthe R ollin and 200 yard s in front of anAr mstrong-Siddeley . An A ustin 7, piloted byMan gham , was sticking game ly to the race, butanother of the sa me breed had already fallenby the wayside. By the time the next turn atthe bott om of the beach was reached , there wasa sur prise for everyo ne . The Bugatti whinedinto view a clear two miles ahea d of the Ru gby.which was in turn hal f a mile in front of theRoll in. Shortl y afterwa rds . the Horstman, itsbr ief hour of glory go ne like Khayyam 's snow­flak es, pull ed in with a dry pe trol tank. F romthere on in the race was a procession, and thelittl e French product won by 3 minutes 22seco nds. with 30 seconds between the remain­ing ca rs. T he H orstm an was the sa me car thatDou glas Hawkes had dri ven in the 1923 J.c.c.200-mi le race .

SEPT EMBER, 1963

The Ladies' Handicap, over 2J miles , waswon by Miss E. Selby in a Buick. Second wasMis s H. Butcher in a Studebaker , a nd bothcars started off 8 seco nds . Mi ss V . L ove, in aChand ler, drove into third pla ce from scra tch .As in pa st years, the lad ies' race pr ov ided agood finish , with all th ree of the girls onlyslightly sepa ra ted . The winner's time was 2minutes 43 seco nds.

Ne xt o n the agenda for the day was the bigrace that so many people had come to see.As well as Mr Hamilton's Sunbeam, HopeBartlett's V au xh all (second) and S. An dr ew'sFord (th ird), the field includ ed Irving's Bu gatti ,D. Beau chop in an Itala, A. J. Bell in a Stutz,a nd Haydon in a sec ond F ord .

Again a rolling sta rt saw the com petitorsawa y together , with the Vau xhall- a Sydn eyca r over to try and ga in the hon ours-bein gfirst to get into the clea r. By the end of thefirs t lap. ho wever , the Sunbeam had 100 yardson th e Bartl ett Vauxhall , with the two Ford sclos e together and just hold ing the ir own overthe Bugatti. T he Stutz wa s well behind eve nat this early stage, and looked to be we ll outof the running. The on ly cha nge in th e pos i­tion s from then on was whe n Haydon 's Forddropped back , together with the Bu gatti. T heV au xhall . which had give n th e impression ofbiding it s time unt il the end, ju st di dn 't mak eit over the Sunbea m, which won comfortablyby 38 seco nds . Andrew's Ford led H ayd on 'sto the po st by 200 yards, and the Bu gatt i wasa clo se quarter mil e aw ay .

T he Junior H andicap. a 3-turns. 16-milesfarce of an eve nt. proved a bad entry for theBallin Standard that had taken a thi rd placin gea rlier in the day. Appar ently only three carssta rted thi s race, and H . Armitage in anArrnstrong-Siddeley, star ting off 30 seconds, leda ll the way af ter the first tu rn. J. Bu chan an inhis Horstrn an , off scra tch, looked like be ing awinner for a while, but he lost a tyre and hadto limp for mos t of the race fo r seco nd plac ing.M r Ball in' s fate is ob scured by time , but he

QUIZ - WHAT IS IT?Once aga in we have room for a qui z

pho to . Send yo ur an swer with as many de ta ilsas poss ible to th e Editor, 20 H ackthorne R oad,Christch urc h 2. N ex t issu e we wi ll let youknow just how r igh t you are.

PAGE NI NET EEN

fa iled to ap pe ar until aft er th e following race.(Per ha ps toheroas were popul ar even in thosedays. H e co uld have kn own a go od " possie'")

O ver the sa me dist an ce as the previo useve nt, the Ope n Handicap sa w L. Bedford(R ugby) off 2mi n 49secs, A. Haydon' s F ordoff 39 second s, a nd C. W . F. H am ilton 's Sun­bea m off scra tch in th e first three plac es. A lso­ra ns were the H olliday Rugb y, a Jewett , a nA us tin, the Vauxhall, R oll in and An d rew' sFord . Aft er a cert a in am ount of bother at thestar t, which saw the Sunbeam held u p andunab le to get away, Mr H amil ton had a lot ofgro und to ma ke up . But by the tim e the Bed ­for d Rugb y passed the flag th ere was s till aqua rter mil e of tra ck ah ead of the Sun beam,wh ich only ju st fai led to make second place inspi te of some fine driving a nd in increasingpace.

F or the last eve nt of the da y. G . Smi th a ndC. Goodrnan, in a pa ir of very evenly-ma tchedCha ndlers, fou ght it out over 175 yards of theaccelera t ion test. Smi th got a thi rd of a lengthin fro nt right fr om the sta rt, and both ca rsmaintained their positions a ll th e way.

As far as the Sa turday's rac ing went. thatended proceedings . and most of the spe ctat orswere on the ir way home aga in by four in theaf ternoon. There were none of the delays th athad marred the depa rture of th e crowd in p re­vious yea rs, and no co nges tio ns were report eda ll the wa y back to Auckl and .

T he follow ing day , however , two ca rs wereagai n out of the beach-this tim e to contest theAustral asian F ive Mile Speed R ecord , a ndaga in it was the day of the Sunbeam. The twocars were those of Mr H amilton and H opeBartl ett. and the tim e returned by the V au xh all .3 m inutes 19 3-5 seconds, was no good aga instth e Sunbeam 's run of 2 minutes 59 3/5 sec ­o nds . The Sunbea m's tim e gave a speed of100.27 m.p .h ., a lmos t 16 m .p.h . faster than thetim e set up in 1924 by S. A ndrew's Ford. a ndMr Ham ilton justly ga ined the reco rd .

(Next : 1926-27-28 : Stutz R ampant.)

ny courtes v C. D . Gcarv

PAGE TWENTY SEPTEMBER, 1963

A BIT OF MOTORING HISTORY By Re x Porter

A friend came across th is old photo andbrought it along to see if I were interes ted . Isur e was, and man aged to extract some rele­vant details. The sa id friend, Jim Svenson, isthe lad in cap sea ted in the middle of the Mer­cedes. and the pho to was taken in Feildingabout 1911 or 1912. He was then an apprenticemechanic at the ga rage of Wh ackrill andStewart.

The Mercedes belonged to Mr E . Short orMr Knight, and the driver is T ornmy Ryan.who is thought to be now in Taiha pe. It hasfour cylinders with O /B inlet and side exhaust.

The windsc reen on the Mercedes is a one­piece affair hinged from the top a nd in thepho to it is shown swung forward and up, sup­ported on two tall side-pillars (pr esumably toallow the photographer a good view of theoccupants) . The hood on the Singer is animmense affair , and Jim says that against ahead wind it cut the car' s speed do wn to a mere10 mph. Equipment includes gas headl amps,oil tail lamp, and appa ren tly no side -la mps. AStepney wheel is mounted on the side . "I oftenhad to use the Stepney, but on a back wheelwe had to put a leather strap round the spokes

By cour tesy J. Svenson

The car behind the Mercedes is a Singera nd the oth er one, only partly see n, is thatrar ity, a Wei gel. The ga rage own ed three Sing­ers and also the Weigel. a ll of which were usedfor hire. The tract ion engine shows A rchieKeir at the helm. B e was at one time Mayorof M asterton. Standing behind is eith er BobMartin or Tom Fowler. This steamer was ser­viced by the garage , and my fr iend has viv idmemories of the very dirty job of re-tubing thebo iler periodically.

to stop the Stepney from creeping round . Itsteered a ll right even on a front wheel , but wehad to kee p the speed down. The old Singerswere quite reliable and they kept the dr iver wellocc upied, what with frequent gear chan gingand attention to the lubricat ion system, whichcon sisted of a pump a nd four taps, one ofwh ich had to be turned on every four mi lesand one stroke of the pump ad ministered . Theother three were opera ted at various long erintervals, usually when the driver thought of

SEPTEMBER. 1963

them. or if the bus seemed to be complaininga bit."

"One day I was driving a party of ladiesto a wedding at Cheltenham, and going downthe steep hill out of Collerton I ran in low gearbut still could not quite get round Devil'sElbow. We went gently over the edge of theroad and down the bank, but not my passen­gers. All six ladies had jumped out andpromptly fainted in the middle of the road."

The Weigel had a very big engine rated atabout 60 h.p. and the car itself weighed abouttwo tons. It was hard on its "Palmer Cord"tyres. It had no spark plugs, ignition being bylow-tension magneto and mechanical make­and-break inside each of the four cylinders. Abig glass-topped tank on the dash held the

GUESS WHOOne evening not long ago I was sitting

in the lounge of a Rotorua hotel sipping mypost-prandial coffee and idly contemplating asmall company seated there.

Earlier in the evening I had run my eyeover the line of vehicles parked outside. Thesewere :

A sleek-looking Jaguar Mk. VII; a 1956Vanguard . covered in mud; a 1961 Morris Ox­ford, with a coathanger on a hook inside; aneat little 3-cyl. D.K.W.-clean ; a Bel AirChev.; a Harley-Davidson motor-cycle of per­haps 1927 vintage, with sidecar; and a Rabbitscooter.

Looking at the folk there, 1 tried to fitthem into the various vehicles outside. Thesefolk were:

1. A man of about 35 with his wife andtwo charming youngsters, a boy and a girl.They seemed to be on holiday as the boy wasrigging a model yacht, probably for sailing onthe lake tomorrow.

2. The inevitable honeymoon couple, ob­livious to the rest of the crowd.

3. A balding austere looking gentleman,probably a banker, obviously nearing retire­ment.

4. An attractive girl of about 25 who

PAGE TWENTY-ONE

engine oil and several chains and sprocketscould be seen moving in the oil carrying it upinto troughs to feed to the engine. The oil-boxwas belt-driven from the engine. It was quiteimpossible to crank the engine unless the de­compressor had been set, and even then it wasa real strong-arm job. In fact, starting was atwo-man job-one on the crank and the otheron the decompressor lever ready to release itwhen the cranker had it turning, or, as moreoften happened, to swap places and give thecranker a breather. At one time the Weigel wasconverted to a bus with seats arranged in tiers,the rear one very high above the road. It held16. However, it was not a success. there werenot enough customers, and it was re-convertedto a 7-seater car.

by George Woodward

seemed to be rather interested in No . 5.

5. A somewhat handsome looking gentwho was sitting at the writing desk and mak­ing notes from various small pieces of paper.Obviously a commercial traveller. (This re­minds me of the story of the commercial trav­eller and the dirty shirt, which, however, can­not be repeated here.)

6. Two old ladies very busy talking aboutthe weather and the obvious.

7. A quiet man of about 45 who wasrather amused by the antics of the children.

1 became so interested in this speculationthat 1 made it my business next morning to beon hand after breakfast to see who went inwhat.

1 was right about the holiday family andthe muddy Vanguard, but was surprised to seethe two old ladies enter the Bel Air and driveoff with the utmost sang-froid .

1 was amused to see the commercial trav­eller and the attractive girl having a look tosee if the Rabbit scooter could be accommo­dated on the carrier of the Oxford .

But who do you think mounted the vintageHarley-Davidson and roared off with a happygrin? Why, the balding, austere looking bank­er nearing retirement-me.

*

PAG E TWENTY-TWO

NORTHERN NATTERAfter the number of times when var ious

club member s th rou ghout New Ze aland havedeplored th e fac t tha t a few of our better ca rsare sold ove rseas , it 's refreshing-and a nicecha nge to boot- to find so me intere st be ingshown in the ca rs that ar e ava ilable in o therco untries . This has largely been brought aboutby someone havin g noti ced that the Syd neyMornin g Herald run s a special secti on, a t thetail end of its "Cars for Sa le" columns, devot edto whatever Vintage mach inery happens to beoffering .

On e in par ticular tha t has a ttracted someconc rete interes t is a 1922 It ala sports, an d theinteres ted party is ardently hopin g that it willeve ntua lly arr ive on the wha rf in Auck la ndat somethi ng like it s true value- inclusive offreig ht costs.

W ithout ha ving gone into the qu estionver y tho ro ughly, it's hard to sa y just wha t theactua l cos t of tran sporting "old cars" fromA ustra lia wo uld be, but in th is case the mem berhopes that it will not be more th an £50- £60,Cl reason abl e figu re tha t doesn 't kn ock him outof the picture entirely.

+:.

Here in the No rth th ings are getti ng awayagai n as the new season op ens out. By nowone run , to Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, hasbeen held , the ho pe bein g that our own supportof Tauran ga 's eve nt will pro du ce a sp ri nklingof the ir ca rs a t our own H unu a Hundred inOctober.

T here 's a lot to be saicl for interclub par­t icipation in eve nts like these, and A uck lan d inpart icul ar look s favou rabl y on the scheme . Wecan even point with so me pr ide at o ur ach ieve­ments a t New Plymou th , whe n A uck lancl ca rsdrove home with a lar ge share of the ho nours- after deliverin g the tail- end rem ark tha t" You ca n ha ve them bac k aga in when we seeso me mor e of you up our way ." Facetio usperhap s, but I doubt that anybody will takeum brage.

As well, there has been a certai n amountof ex peri menta tio n with the " pla n yo ur ow n"type of ra lly. So far we have had one verywell-planned mystery run on the North Sho re,a nd Sel Bonney, our new clu b ca ptai n. has sa idthat he has four mo re und er conside rat ion.

An interesting thin g turned up in the latestco py of that Aus tra lian magazine "Walk ­about" . Feature d as a ce ntre sec tion sp read

SEPT EMBER, 1963

was non e other than Georg e Gil trap and hisTran spo rt Museum near Surfers' Pa rad ise inQueen sland . Seems the local s (a nd tourists aswell) are enjoying the busine ss of popping into see just wha t there is there-and there 's alot. J ust goes to show that quite a lot of peoplewill ac tually pay good mone y just to stand an dlook at old motor-car s. Co me to thin k of it,it' s not a ba d way of spe ndi ng the tim e of dayat that. .. .

RESTORATION INNORTHLAND

The Car: Austin 12 x 4 TourerOwner: Wally Nisbet

The old lad y was carried o n a tra iler be­hind a Ferguson tractor fro m 20 mil es away,at the usu al storage plac e of scrub, gorse andweeds, on 15 October, 1962. By the tim e theNor thland V.e.e. was fo rme d the ca r wasstripped of eve rything str ip pa ble ready for thefun to stop a nd work begin . Th e d iff., gea rbox,engine and running gear were d ismantled andthorou ghly overha uled . The whee ls needed andreceived a lot of at tentio n too. Those item sare a ll reassembled , installed and painted andthe mo tor ru ns oh so nicely. in fac t it makesmy ow n Ve teran (1962) sound like a train on abridge. T imin g chain-but the A us tin's got onetoo! Th e body is about read y for pa inting a ndthe uphol stery an d sea ting acc ommoda tion ar ed ue for some surgery too.

F ortunately, becau se of our isolat ion up here,tyres have no t been too grea t a problem . Ifhe ca n get a lea ve pass, Wa lly hop es. withothers from here. to co me down to the H aastPass R all y next year a nd that , friends , is quitea way .

B.O.P. NOTES Jack HovenT he biggest eve nt since our las t not es was

a ru n to Wh ak atane, on which 16 ca rs and onemotorbik e took part.

T he wea ther was exce llent a nd helped tomake the tr ip very pleasa nt. .

Ju st outside the to wn, we were met byWhakat an e members, who showe d us the wayto Awa keri hotsprings, a love ly spot. wherewe spent the res t of the day. man y of us ta k ingthe oppor tuni ty to go for a swim and all of usmaki ng new friends and talk a nd talk and talk .

T his run will now becom e a yearly eve ntand a tro ph y, don at ed by J. White, will bepresented to the winner each year.

Th is yea r, th e troph y was wo n by Da ve

SEPTEMBER, 1963

Shand, who stole the show with his beautifullyrestored Douglas motorcycle.

Now. let's get around the stables. It mustbe said that many a good car has been sittingin many a shed for many a year and that manya member has had many a talk about restora­tion.

But, fortunately, we can say that severalmembers have done more than talk, and overthe past year we have been happy to see abeautiful Stutz, perfectly restored by BruceCatchpole, and Allan Cameron has shown usjust what a Model A can run and look likewhen in perfect nick.

Both these cars were in poor conditionwhen bought and are an example of what canbe achieved by skill, and, mostly. determina­tion.

Nearing completion are a Vauxhall and aModel T doctor's coupe owned by Bill Janesand John Inder-these two cars are in thehands of perfectionists and we look forwardto seeing them on our runs in the near future.

Noticeable is a very high standard ofworkmanship and it looks as if, in the nearfuture, for a car to be old is not enough. andto keep up with the rest, condition will mattermore than make or age.

As a result, several members have wokenup and are reported to be busy tidying up, carsare being repainted and spokes varnished, andthe results of all this we hope to see on ourbirthday run to Katikati in August. and we willtell you all about this in the next B.O.P. notes.

WAIKATO NOTES L. H. F. Death

The last three months have been veryactive ones for the Waikato Club. During Maywe held an observation run to Waingaro andabout a dozen members turned out in ratheruninviting weather. The Sunday chosen fol­lowed several days of real Waikato downpoursso that the well-planned two hour run was fol­lowed in most cases by another two hours orso cleaning off the yellow clinging mud. TheHon. Sec, very wisely, had left his Douglas athome that day.

The June general meeting, held at the His­torical Society Rooms in Hamilton, was enliv­ened by John McCraw, who showed slides ofSouth Island club events. Most of the carsshown were new to us here, and John, whoserunning commentary was that of a first-classraconteur, kept us both amused and spellbound.

The Cobham bridge, the new link across

PAGE TWENTY-THREE

the Waikato River, was officially opened onSaturday, June 29th, and for this the Clubturned out in strength. After the official party,the Club's vehicles headed the procession, andmade an impressive showing on this bright coldmorning. In the afternoon the Club held agymkhana at Te Rapa, which attracted quite alarge number of spectators.

The Club's Winter Dance was held at theNawton Hall on July 27th and the theme thisyear was the "1920's". Some very amusingcostuming was seen, and the award for bestcouple went to Joan and Ernie Brown, bestsingle lady Miss Cynthia Clark. best singlegent Mr Stan Nolan.

On August 12th the Club was host to MrGeoffrey Roche, a noted Waikato historian,who taught us all a good deal about the his­tory of this area and its transport problems inthe early days.

On Saturday, 31st August, the Club is vis­iting Matamata for a Concours d'Elegance anddisplay in connection with the 1963 MatarnataExhibition.

Several cars and motorcycles, new to us,are appearing on the Waikato scene.

John McCraw has brought his 1903 Cadil­lac Model A up from the South Island.

Alan Orr, Tirau, who has a 1928 Packardsedan, has now acquired a Chandler of about1925 from Northland.

Wally Jelaca, Hamilton, is working veryhard on his Henderson 4 motorcycle and hasnow also a Francis-Barnett Super-Sports Vill­iers of about 1928.

Bruce Catchpole, Matamata, the owner ofthe fabulous Stutz 8 phaeton, is busy on therestoration of a Packard phaeton which hehopes to have out on the Tokoroa Rally inNovember.

Barry Brant, Tokoroa, is well on with therebuilding of his large Harley-Davidson, andthis also will be out at Tokoroa in November.

Roy Hicks' little 1926 350 cc. Harley­Davidson has been bought by Barry Russell.Hamilton, who being a motorcycle mechanic bytrade. is making an expert job of the machinery.

Barry Cardiff, a refugee from New Ply­mouth, has added to his 1915 Triumph 4{- h.p.motorcycle a vehicle from the opposite end ofthe scale-a 1935 Lagonda "Rapier" sports car.This car is certainly no sluggard, as was dem­onstrated at the Te Rapa Gymkhana.

Other p.v.T.s to appear are John Stanley's1939 Triumph "Dolomite" from Meremere and

PAGE T WENT Y-FOUR

his brother's 1937 Riley "Lynx".

Future RalliesPlanning for the Waik ato Annual R ally,

which is at T okoroa this year on November 9thand 10th, is now well under way, and entryform s should be out shortly.

Also in pro spect is the Hamilton-Pukek oheRally, on the 10th Januar y 1964 (th e da ybefore the Grand Pri x) , a nd a new R ally toTaumaru nui which is expe cted to take placelate in F ebruar y 1964 for a whole weekend.

TARANAKI BRANCH NOTESThe Annual General Meeting was held on

the 19th July. Officers elected for the followin gyear a re: President , K. Kir cher; Secreta ry, C.Kirkby ; Treasu rer, T. Kearns ; Club Captain ,R. Kitney.

During the past two years the Club ha sgrow n stead ily, wit h present member ship atapp roximately 33.

Although it has been said that neighbour­ing branches scoo ped up the cre am of the car sin T ar anaki, there ha ve been some interest ingfinds

Colin Berry, wh ile mot orin g in his 1927Bui ck Tourer. is looking fo r a coupe bod y forhis 1928 La Sa lle Cad iliac.

B ill Shannon, while loca ting parts for hisco lon ial-bod ied 1913 Bui ck Tourer, is proceed­ing with restorat ion on his 1927 T albot 14/ 45.

A very rare ca r is Jack Castle' s 51 litre4 cylinder 1920 H .C.S. (there are onl y two re­corded in the U.S.A.) with Delco-Remy batteryignition, double-nutted big end s, a com pressoron the side of the gearbox, and float-needle forthe oil-gau ge.

Our sole P.Y.T. is Geoff Powers's 1937Al vis. This mod el ha s independent front sus­pension, three ca rbure ttors, twin fuel pump,self-adjusting shock-absorbers, and one-po intgreas ing system . The four forward gears areall in synchro mesh . The body has no centraldoor pillar s, and the wire wheels ha ve knock-o nhubs.

Ba ck in 1920 a special two-seat road sterbod y wa s built on a Humber 15.9 chassis byJohnson a nd Smi th of Christchurch at an esti­mated cost of £2000. Until rescued by BatchCollins last year this vehicle , believed to bethe sole model in N.Z ., was dest ined to bescrapped . It is now undergoin g a completerestorat ion .

SEPTEMBER, 1963

HAWKES BAY NOTESA. J. Scarrott

Well , all seems to have been rather qui et inour branch ove r the past 12 months, butdesp ite seeming a ppearances we have had quitea n act ive year. At one stage we even had inhand a backlog of T ime Trials prepared andwa itin g to be run . T hes e were held once amonth with lar ge entries, which must have beenvery hearten ing to the individu al orga nisers .

Durin g the yea r we held a Barn Dance andan Old Time Dance-both of these event sprov ing so pop ula r we all hope they will berepeated in the near future .

R estor ations are prog ressing well, theHaast Pass R all y being the goal for man y ofus. Norm Findlay has just reason to be proudof his 1913 Morris- a fine job, Norm.

Our branch will also welcom e an y outsideentries for the annua l L ab our Week end R all yan d Gymkh ana . for which entry forms will beposted to your br an ch secretary in due course.

The Br anch A .G.M . was held in the A .A .rooms in N ap ier. There was a large a tte nda nceof members , who welco med in the follo win gcommittee: Cha irman, B. Lawrie ; Club Ca p­tain , K. R eiper ; Secretary. L. Pri est; Commit­tee, G. Howard , D . Lang and W. Sinclair.

WANGANUI NOTES Cr ankha ndleQueen's Birthday Rally

Th e 7th annual runni ng of this rally tobe held by the Wan ganu i Bran ch attracted 29entries-a jolly pleasant turnout. For the seco ndyear in successio n the Gon ville Ser vice Sta­tion , under the manage men t of enthusias tic andhelpful Mr War wick Bain, sponsored freeShell fuel to all competitor s for the run to Mar­ton and return. plus a ta nkful of the necessaryto all out-of-tow n ent rants fo r their homewardjou rne y. We are all gra teful for his generosity .

Th e hea rty tha nks of all members , especi­a lly visitors, goes also to the firm of Wri ghtStephens on and Co. Ltd ., thr ough whosegenerosity there were no parking and sto rageproblem s ove r the long weeke nd . Ample spacein thei r huge woolsto re was ava ilable at alltimes and it was here that the jud ging of theConcour s was conducted on the Saturday aft er­noon .

No light task it was for the two judges, MrJ . Lee a nd Mr D . H . Lill icrap, who so ab lycarr ied out thei r scru tinee ring and a llo tting of

SEPTEMBER, 1963

points for the Concours. With an ever increas­ing number of restorations reaching a highstandard, these two judges spent considerabletime on the inspection of the finer details offinish and authenticity.

The coveted Prix d'Honeur for Veteranclass was won by N . Findlay of Hastings, whomust feel justly proud of his superbly restored1913 Morris Oxford . Well don e, Norm!

There were several veterans in very closecompetition for the first few placing s and allthe following are worthy of special mentionhaving gained 90 per cent or more of the totalnumber of po ints. Rex Porter's 1907 De DionBouton, Len Southward's (ex C. Ma xwell)1913 Austin, W. Watkinson's 1916 Perry andthe quite rare 1917 Grant "Six" belonging toA. W. Jones of Ma sterton.

In the Vintage section Mr E. A. Holm­wood's 1926 Ford T gained a well deservedfirst place and other notable restorations in thissection were the . 1923 Ford T of J. K. Harvey,Levin, and W. 1. Jones' very fine 1924 Cross­ley which cam e from Wairarapa.

In the final judging of the vehicles, sa fetyfeatures were also taken into consideration andseveral cars lost points when castle-nuts werenot secured by split pins , a small omissionbut nevertheless important.

The Trial section started from the Gon villeService Station on the Sunday morning and adevious route to Marton was selected by theClub Captain, Dick L yth, who handled the jobof mapping the course and acting as starter.A series of driving tests was conducted at twoof the checkpoints en route . Some rather comi­cal confusion occurred at Bulls with cars driv­ing in all dir ections looking for the check (onlythose who, of course, did not interpret the irinstructions correctly!). After sorting them­selves out from there, the last leg of the journeyto Marton was uneventful , however, a sightingwas reported of a vast Edwardian Daimlertourer majestically wending its way through theupper reaches of the Turakina V alley, whichprobably explains why it approached the Mar­ton checkpoint from the wrong direction! Theearlier part of the morning was not too un­pleasant for winter motoring so perhaps theowner had ideas of heading back to Woolon­gong then thought better of it when that coldwind and rain threatened!

After a general chit-chat and bite to eat

PAGE TWENTY-FIVE

at the Marton Motor-camp the ca rs preparedto leave for the return run with one member ofthe party missin g. The "M" type M.G. be­longing to D. Conlon of Wellington developedcamshaft troubles at Turakina and unfortun ­ately had to withdraw.

For the 7th and what was to be the lasttime , Mr W. Meads, the Mayor of Marton .acted as starter for the return run. It is withsorrow that we record his sudden passing afew days ago. He was always mo st willing toassist the club in any way.

The weather gradually worsened through­out the afternoon and those who had the com­forts of enclosed cars sympathised with thosekeen enthusiasts who battled home exposedto all the elements.

The final count up of trial po ints resultedin the following placings:-

Wadey Cup (single and twin cyl. Veterans)-­R. Porter, 1907 De Dion Bouton.

Rountree Cup (all other Veterans )-L.Southward. 1913 Austin.

Vintage Section winner-R. Jones, 1923Type 505 Fiat.

Aggregate Challenge Cup (for highest aggre­gate points in rally )--W. C. Watkinson ,1916 Perry.

Rally After-thoughts: A welcome re-appear­ance in Club events was the ex-Wa dey 1914Buick now owned by Tom Glasgow who alsoentered his well-known 1916 Overland , dri venthis time by new member A. W. Hirst. Tom iscurrently engaged in the restoration (almostcompleted) of his 1914 Rover.

Vie Case1ey, stalwart member of thebranch , started with his 1926 6 cyl. BuickRoadster which is looking very nice indeed,a nd final touches only a re needed to completethe restoration. This car's appearance was alast minute change as his 1914 mod el of thesame make developed mechan ical troublesshortly before the rally.

The weekend's activities wound up withthe annual Dinner and Pr ize-giving held at thePalm Lounge and a record number attendedfor a plea sant social evening. Bert Tonks en­tertained us all with a most interesting show­ing of colour slides taken during a recent holi­day in Australia. Majority of pictures shownfeatured of course-yes you can guess-carstaking part in Vintage rallies on that side ofthe Tasman.

PAGE T WENT Y-SIX

WELLINGTON NOTES NELSON NOTESSEPTEMBER , 1963

D. King

Since the last issue of B.W. there havebeen two informal runs , one to Pauatah anui onSaturday 29th June to the home of Mr Lane,a nd one on Sunday 30th June to the Waira­rapa. Ei ght cars from the Wellington Cluba ttended the Wanganui-Marton R ally onQueen's Birthday Wee kend. Both wer e fairlywe ll attended a nd an enjoyable time was hadby all.

They were the : 1908 De Dion of Rex Por­ter, who drove both wa ys, Len Southwards1913 Austin which was trailered, Stan North­cote-Bade's 1916 Dodge road ster, the Jo nes's1917 Grant , David Agnew' s 28 Ford A Tourer ,Roger White's 1929 M G, Dale Co nlon's 1930MG Mid get, and a very nice Crossley 4-cylindertourer. Only casualty wa s Dale Conlon's MG,which suffered from Jack of oil in the overh eadca mshaft. Thanks to the Wanganui Bran ch fora well orga nised rall y, even though we werepresented with the usu al thunderstorm.

Cars which should be ready for the UpperHutt-Lower Hutt Rally in November are asfollows : T ed Daunt's 1922 Renault roadster.T his is a very commenda ble job, as when thecar was acquired there was no body, and it wasgenerally in poor condition ; also we will prob­ably see a very immaculate 1925 Humber road­ster, which is a lmost completed , and belon gs toMr V. Benge. Frank Unsworth ha s a very nice1925 Sunbeam roadster which is gradually tak­ing shape in an old house on the back of thesection . Eric Wood's 1922 Bean is undergoingrestoration , as is the Hardgraves' 1923 Ess ex . "This car should be a concours winn er if thebod y is done as well as th e chassis. Dale Con­Ion is attackin g a 1914 Fi at "Zero" and neigh­bour Roger White has a 1910 Renault. Thesetwo car s should be ready for the Haast Pa ssRally. Motorcycles und er restorat ion a t themoment are: T he 1915 B.S.A. of Dick Gadd,Tony Bruce's 1926 A.J.S. 350, Ivan Benge's1911 Rex and sidecar, and Ross Dyson 's Hen­derson four .

Len Southward has bou ght a 1948 Daim­ler stra ight 8 limousine which belonged to theGovernor-General. Another one for the ever­increasing Southward colle ction. How many arethere now , "Len ? A lan Dray will be in N ewZealand again in September, we hear , with a3 litre Bentley engine and other delectableitems. and so will be able to resume his jobof preparing these no tes..

The winter months have meant steady pro­gress with va rious restorat ion proj ects aroundthe district. Laurie Leyden 's Coupe de l'autoSunbeam replica is having its bod y framed up,the engin e and back-end having been put infirst class order so far. This will be a very use­ful veteran to do some real motoring in . TheDawson boys a t Ruby Bay a re making progresswith their Armstrong Sidd eley sa loon whileT heo Smith of Motueka has just finished a verycreditable job on his veteran Buick six. Ihear that Jack Warn has sta rted work on hisvas t Stud ebaker. Recent acquis itions a re a verynice coloni al bodi ed Essex 4 ro adster whichClive M ockett bought from Raetihi. This caris pretty sound and shouldn't need very muchwork to bring it up to standa rd. Bob Helm hastake n unto himself a very smart DropheadDodge 8. Of course the big news at the momentis the arrival of the fabulous Merced es whichEvan Mo orhouse has bought from DarcyNicholson, of T imaru. T his most impressivejuggernaut is a little on the tatty side a t themoment but is in very good hand s and is a boutto receive the full treatment. A pr os pectivemember has gathered up quite a heap of Arrol­Johnston parts (no pun intended), but notenough as yet to make a car so an y clueswould be welcomed. Another prospecti ve mem­ber is completely restoring a Model A roads ter.

Arrangements are al ready in tra in for theEaster rally at Motueka, which venue shouldbreak new ground for a good number ofentrants.

Congra tulations to Nigel and Irene Priceon the birth of a daughter and to John andMary Hurley on the birth of a son.

Members will be sorry to learn that thathappy stalwart, Ivan East , has been confinedto Wellington Hospital for so me months withserious injuries sustained in a motor accident.We all wish him a com plete recovery and lotsof recuperati ve treatment behind the wheel ofthe Marion .

CANTERBURY NOTESThis branch is away to its eighth year and

we now have a committee of six members . TheAnnual General Meeting dr ew onl y an averagecro wd and the Secretary-Treasurer was the onl yperson elected unopposed .

The incoming Committee consists of Cha ir­man , Eric Walker; Secretary-Treasurer, John

SEPTEMBER, 1963

Palmer; Club Captain , David Bowman ; Com­mittee, Warner M auger, Al an Storer, RobinBeard sley , T om Clernents, Norm. King, andH arry Wear.

Bob Scott , who reti red from the Comm itteeafter two years, was thanked for his services.

In May we held an all da y trial aroundBanks Peninsula, which appears to have beenen joyed by a ll, even though it is understoodthe weather was not ideal for open motoring.

The last Saturday in June we held o urusual end of regi stration dance. T his year weorganised it in the form of a cab aret whichturned out to be a great success, in fact thetickets were all sold a fortnight in adva nce . Onthe following da y some of the hardier mem­bers competed in the end of seaso n tr ial andpicnic to Annat. After lunch a paddock witha slippery surface was found and a shor t cir­cuit laid out , the ca rs com peting in pair s, theonly steering bein g done by the back wheels.An yon e who did not know how to control askid certainly did by the end of the afternoon.

On the wee kend , 3rd and 4th Au gust, wewere again host for the Nat ional A .G.M. andas usual we turned on beauti ful wea ther. Dele­gat es an d su pporters from all bar the newNor thland Br an ch were there and I thinkeveryone had a pleasant weekend catch ing upon the lat est news in the different bran che s andma king new friends.

Sump RumblingsBob Scott has at last got the motor mount­

ed a nd go ing in the Metallurgique and nowonl y has the bodywork to complete beforeHaast, so keep it up Bob, onl y eighteen monthsleft.

Da ve Morley has had the "T" motor run­nin g and I understand has go ne real Americanwith even a left-hand dri ve set up. (I don 'tknow if he thinks it will be easier to follow thegutter than the white line.) He hope s to haveit finished by January.

Norm King has sold his Dodge and hasbought himself a Swift of ab ou t 1922 vintage.I hear it ha s not been tou ched yet.

Ted Loversid ge has just finished the plansfor Da ve Bo wman 's Bentley bod y and ha s a tlast star ted to ma ke progress on his Delage.Keep it up , Ted.

Irishmans, 1963The annual Irishmans Creek run was held ,

as usual, a t Queens Birthday weekend, and theorga nisers were favoured with an excell ent

PAGE TW ENT Y-SEVEN

entry, consrst ing of 3 F iats, and I each ofDodge, Vauxhall , Bentley, A nsald o , Stutz,Studebaker, Hupmobile, Au stin , F ord, andChrysler. 7.10 in the morning saw the first caraway, 7.45 the last , a nd we mad e our waysouth into cold wind an d rain , wh ich, however,soon passed .

At Win chester , we left the main ro ad, andtra velled to T imar u via back roads, a nd onevery deep river, which nearly submerged BillLu xton 's big Stutz. He was extremely unf or­tun ate, as petrol ta nk, sump , everything wasfilled with wa ter, and he wisely wa ited for thefollow up L and Rover to pull him out andtow him to the near est ga rage, where eve ry­thing was dr ained and refilled. On ly then didBill a ttempt to start the motor , which he soonhad running right again.

Peter Keir (Model A Ford) gav e us a lau ghwhen we found he had arri ved in Ti maru 2hours before anyo ne else, ha ving read his routecard wrong. Mu st be boring, ju st sitting onthe side of the road , ju st wa iting.

After a short spell and som e lun ch, wepushed on south again , a nd soo n left the M ainR oad, on to undu lating, wind ing country, upthrough the Par eor a Gorge di strict. The weatherhad turned excell ent no w and some thoroughlyenj oyable mot oring was had by a ll, includ ingKeith Br adding, who was travellin g in a 1923Hup. in true vintage style. complete with 7mechanics inside and all their gear outside onthe mud guards.

Bri efly on to a main ro ad at Albury a ndthen back int o the wild s again. and over thefamous Ma ckenzie Pass, which had just asprinkling of snow on it. T hen many milesof downhill running in sunshine, through T eka­po town ship, a nd on to Mr C. W. F. Hamil­ton 's prop ert y, "Irishm an Creek " .

First arrivals got beds in the shearers'qu arters . while lat ecomers go t th e co lder wool­shed , an d soon everyone was tryin g their ha ndat cooki ng thei r tea.

After a scratchy meal , radiators wered rained . This is a necessar y procedure as verysevere frosts are ex per ienced at this time ofthe year. A quick che ck revealed everyonewas mob ile, altho ugh Robin Beardsley 's An­sa ldo had a broken bra ke rod , which had puthis footbrake out of action, wh ile the Hup'sfront tyres seemed bald er than eve r. How­ever , it was too cold outside and we headedoff back to the shea rers ' qu arters, walked in ,and promptly ba cked out again. Were the

PA G E TW ENT Y-EIGHT

wom en using the room as a dr essing shed?Surely not , the y had their own quarters. Yetthat wom an in there had hardly any clot hes on.Well I'm game to try agai n. Open the door afrac tion, and peep in to be gree ted by a roarof laughter from chief marshal Norm King, whohad found an old sho p window dummy, dr essedit in a tatty petticoat and pla nted it in a chai rjust insid e the door. A good joke, N orm.Ever ybody was tak en in by it and it put us ina good humour for a noggin and natter and afew motoring slides just finished off the even­ing. Our worthy club ca ptai n ke pt mutteringsomething about his kids not being able tosleep , becau se of the noise, but we th ink it'stoo much noggin , Dave, as you didn 't br ingyour kids with you.

Morning saw us up ea rly in a 17 deg fro st.Th is made thin gs awkward for a cold star ttest, which the unscru pu lous marshals hadforced upon us. Credit mu st go to Bob Turn­bull 's amazing litt le Au stin 7 which sta rted in9 secs . This littl e ca r runs faultlessly at alltimes and bas surp rised mor e powerful carown ers with its turn of speed.

This yea r a trial had been a rra nged forSunday, and we set off in bright sunshine ac rossthe Mackenzie Plains, along the floor of awinding valley and finally up the side of amountain which ca lled for low gear nearl y allthe way. T his reall y showed the performanceof the Fiat of Bob Scott and Ron Du ckworth,which seemed to climb ex tremely steady all theway. The view from the top of the Pass wasthe most fr ightening we ha ve ever seen, grea tshingle fan s fall ing away belo w for thousandsof feet, while we ourselves were 4 148 feet abovesea level , sur ely the bighe st vintage car s havebeen in Ne w Zealand .

Coming down the other side also calledfor low gea rs while brak es were onl y just grip­ping, ha ving got wet in the numerous wa tercourses that crossed the road in man y places.However, Benmore Hydro soon hove intosight, and we had a marvellous view fromabove the d am as we motored ca refully down­wards.

Lunch at Oternatata , a nd back through toIrishrnans, via Om arama and Pukak i, roundedoff the best day's vintage motoring we had hadfor a long while. In the evening Mr H amiltonenterta ined a few of us with tales of Oreti andMuriwai beach races, a nd showed us h is tro­phies from Brooklands. And so to bed formost of us , while others sat around and yarned

SEPTEM BER, 1963

until the small hours. All up early agai n nextmorning preparing for the long dri ve back toChris tchu rch, which was done mos t of tbe wayin rain. A gro up photograph and we were onour way and ano ther Irishm an 's was over. Ajolly good weekend- good co mpa nions, goodmotoring-and everyo ne go t hom e after 530miles under his own power.

SOUTH CANTERBURYBRANCH NOTES

By Bri an A. Goodman

Since our last jottings we have had a trul ywonderful winter run to Ale xandra an d return .Eight vehicles took pa rt in th is 450-mi le ru n,which took us through the snow covered D an­seys Pass on the way down and home via Lin­dis Pa ss, Benmore, etc. The olde st ca r be ingT erry Wilson's 1913 Fia t a nd the mos t mode rnMalcolm Field 's 1930 Swift. In between wehad Russell Cross 's 1914 F ord, the writer's1921 Ansaldo , Co lin Ly on 's 1925 Cad iliac,Alan Averis's Singer, and Jim Sullivan's 1925Hudson closed delivery va n. (In fact it is theex local hearse.) At A lexandra we were joinedby that intrepid vintage mo torist fro m lnver­ca rgill, Russell McIvor , with his Internation alAston-Martin. Sunday saw most cars over toOueenstown for the day , and at night we helda film evening in the hotel dining room . Wi thno breakdowns and grea t weather it was theperfect long distance run.

On the 29th June we held a most enjoy­able night trial, which was won by RodneyDon with his 1928 Singer Saloon , closely fol­lowed by Alan A veri s in his 1925 Singer road­ster. Wh at have these Singers got ! ! !

Coming up is the Mid Island Veteran runon September 28th, and anyone who is think­ing of partaking in this rally is assured of areal members' week-end. T hen we have ourMt. Cook run at Labour Weekend , and whatgood motoring a nd fello wship this run alwaysprovides.

Barry Goodman has been seen doing a lotof motoring in Don Oddie's 4{- Bentley latel y.

I und erstand T erry Wilson is still doingthe old piece of restoration on his 1923 ltala.

I also hear that Gre g T ulley is workingquietly on th e 1914 Overseas M IC.

Don Oddie is still looking for wheels forhis single cylinde r Darracq , which will be quitea n interest ing car when it is finished.

The Go odman famil y have ushered in the irlatest addition to club ranks . H is name is

SEPTEMBER, 1963

Donald, and he has a 1928 Morris CowleySaloon.

That's all for this issue. See you in Decem­ber.

NORTH OTAGO NOTESJ. T. O'Brien

Over the winter months, Oamaru membershave enjoyed several Club meetings in the wayof night trials and sports evenings. On May12th a Sunday afternoon trial was arrangedby John Adamson and Keith Perry to Kaka­nui. A family film night about the Easter Rallywas held in June, and with the extra first-classfilms brought down by Eric Gait of Christ­church, plus the ones owned by the club andmembers, it was a very enjoyable evening.June 26th saw the last night trial for the regis­tration year organised by Rex Murray, but theweather made most members stick to themodems.

Best news of the season is two veteran DeDions in the Club , just bought by Doug Ped­low from Central and Ke ith Perry from Wai­mate, both of whom are still looking for partsif anyone can help .

At the Annual Meeting it was decided to callthe annual Enfield to Oamaru December Runthe "Windsor Rally". Two of Oamaru's keenmembers-Bill Mitchell and Archie Johnson­are makin g a fine effort in restoring the ir '21Hupmobile and '22 Austin. which will be ofcredit to them when they are finished.

SOUTHLAND NOTES B. J. Barnes

The Southland Branch recently held itsA.G.M. which resulted in the election of thefollowing officers : Chairman, Ray Eunson;Secretary . Jack Barnes; Club Captain, BarryBarnes.

Plans are now being made for the RivertonRally next February and we can guarantee thatthis will be well up to the standard of previousruns. Riverton is one of the oldest-establishedannual rallies in the country, and , in our ad­mittedly biased view, one of the best. Whydon't you come next year and see for yourself?

The ex Shack Sharp 1930 Chrysler Imper­ia l 80 Le Baron roadster is now undergoing amost thoro ugh restoration at the hands ofChas. Emerson and his son Trevor. No effortis being spared in bringing this classic machineup to first-class original condit ion. The car ison 8 stud 18in . split ring wire wheels and onemore is required. Any offers?

PAGE TWENTY-NINE

John Gordon of Nightcaps has two un­usually bodied Model Ts. One has a Colonialbody and the other is a two-seater cabriolet.John is also hunting for 2-cylinder Renaultparts as he now owns a considerable collectionof parts and should soon have enough to buildup a car. To those indoctrinated in Renaultlore this will be the "big" model which appar­ently possesses a chassis a few inches longerthan the "small" model.

A large 1935 supercharged Mercedes540 K cabriolet in beautiful order has re­cently taken up residence with the rest of DickCollis's growing collection. Russell McIvor'so.h.v. model T roadster is another recent addi­tion to Dick's stable. Neil McMillan is makingsteady progress on his 1927 Packard 6 sedan.A close examination of this solid Americanmachine shows the meticulous attention the de­signers have paid to every detail. The wellmade draught stops on the foot pedals are agood example of efficient design. When it iscompleted, Neil will have a family car of dis­tinction in the true vintage tradition. If theimmaculate condition of Neil's motorbikes isanything to judge by, and by the look of whathas been done so far they will be a pretty goodindication, the Packard will be in top notchcondition when it again takes to the road.

F.N. is a well-known trademark aroundthe Jim Lawry household. As motorcycle fanswill know, Jim owns the rare and dainty 1910shaft drive single cyl. mo torbi ke. At presenthe is engrossed in the painstaking restorationof one of the hallowed F.N. 4 cyl. models circa1907. There is a power of work to be done,and a power of it has been done already by theway, but one of these days in the not too dis­tant future we should see a 4 cyl. F .N. motor­cycle tootling along as sweetly as its youngersingle cylinder sister.

Ken Macmillan has purchased the 1910Rolls Royce and has commenced restorationwork . The inappropriate Hudson sedan bodyis being discarded , and all avenues are beingexplored in the hope of obtaining a suitablebody for this veteran exam ple of the best carin the world.

GENERAL NOTESA strong move is now afoot to start a

Vintage Austin 7 Register within the Club.which move has our wholehearted blessing.One-make registers can do much to further theaims and objects of our Club and can be simply

PAGE T HI RTY

run within the co nfines of the Club's presentorga nisa tion. A ll inte rested a re asked to con­tac t Ian Maxted , 10 E ller ton Road, M t Eden,A uck land.

We hear tbat Mr Len Cla rke of 24 F ras erStreet, East Fremant le, Western A ustral ia, iskee n to correspond with fellow owners ofBrushmo bi les and De Dions, a nd he has ap pa r­ently a fair stock of Veter an spa res.

The Club Treasu rer reports to us thatthere are occas ions when she receives mo neyin the mail with no note as to the sende r. Ifyou don 't get a receipt for money- other thanB.W . classi fied ads-within a week, please en­qui re ; you may be just the man she is look ingfor!

We have recei ved from Mr D. A. Pedlowof Oamaru a n amusing cutting from Wri ghtStephenson's hou se journal giving in detail theinstructions issued to the ir traveller 50 yearsago when they were issued with Model B.G.8 h.p. De Dion Boutons. T he wordi ng is, infac t. a lot clea rer than in many manufacturers'hand books tod ay. Though space will not per­mit its repr int ing here. it does ra ise the thoughttha t it is time that some enterprising memberapproached a ll our old-estab lished stock andsta tion firms with a view to making a list andhistor y of their ea rly ca rs and thei r difficu lties- it will soon be too la te.

We always rece ive a number of pre ss cut­tings from a variety of so urces, all of whichshows the increasing interest in our hobby .This period the Ne lson E vening M ail ran along arti cle on Theo Smith and Phil Gri ffiths­members from Motueka-whilst a T aranakipaper has done a long a rticle on the motorcyclecollection of Mr C. Br ansgrove, one of ourread ers. This interest should augur well forconside ra ble . newspaper sup port and coveragefor the H aast R ally.

A very good idea was initia ted so me timeago by Mr George Brooks of 493 Magill Road ,T ran mc rc. South Austra lia. involving a n inte r­na tio nal exchange of coloured slides- of events,etc . H is slides have been show n in Southlandbut no return slides have gone to him fromN.Z. except one offer cove red by som e mostunrealistic condi tions-slides will be welltrea ted and returned in good order Sincethere are man y H aast R;lly prospe~t i ve en­trants in Au str al ia . we had bett er show themall wha t they are comi ng to; so what aboutsending George some of yo ur collection NO W.

SEPTEM BE R. 1963

From member John Wh ite of Wellin gtonwe hea r of the pendi ng arrva l in N.Z. of M r J .Stua rt Whi te, a form er New Zealander andac tive mem ber of the U 'K. Motor Cycle Club.At the ri pe old age of 86 M r White is retu rn­ing to his homela nd for a visit and intendstourin g the co untry on a 650 B.S.A. whic h he isbri nging with him (wha t would Fothe ringaythink of that , Geoff?)

Mr Wh ite began rid ing in 1903 on a Hh.p. Clement Garrad-the origi na l " clip on" .In 1907 he left N .Z. for the U.K. but main­ta ined his interest in the two-wheel ers, compe t­ing in the London-Edinburgh Trial 1909, andmany others too numerous to menti on here.Hi s arr ival in N .Z. will be eagerly awaited bythe followers of the sport and we tru st his staywill afford him man y pleasu res.

Should an yone wish to mak e cont act , wewould sugges t you write to John White (norelation), p.a. Box 1230 Wellin gton, who wi llbe ab le to keep you up to dat e with Mr W hite 'spla ns.

LETTER TO THE EDITORDear Madam.

It is with a certa in surp rise that I read MrB. W. Bickert on's no tes on the 2nd N.Z. Bent­ley Al pine Rally. in which he sta tes "As aresult of some embarrass ing publicity last yea rthe press were not invited on the rall y. 'N onews is good news. No jo urnalis ts is evenbetter! ' "

Perhaps Mr Bickerton will pardon my tak­ing umbrage at his impli cat ion that we are alltarred with a somewhat simila r brush . Fromperson al knowledge of the press co py turnedout by the person to whom your correspondentreferred directly , 1 can only agree that it wastr ipe. But, when the same story was submittedto my own journa l, I took very great carebefore its publ ication to see that it didn't re­fl ect as badl y on the club as do Mr Bickerton 'scomments on journal ists in genera l.

I feel that a n apology is ca lled for , a nd, inaski ng for one, I would stress that the journal­istic profession is a very old one that is base don certain et hics a nd a lar ge amou nt of integ­rity . General isat ions are poo r at the best ~ftimes, and it would be crass stupid ity to judge.in this instance. the man y by the few.- Yoursfa ithfully,

Auckla nd W. CAPPER-STARR.

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1923 DE LUXEMODEL T FORD

Fully res to red and in except iona l order . 4brand new tyres, spa re rea sonable in appea r­anc e only. Painted Ford da rk green . Hood

and upho lste ry exce llent . Ne w ba tte ry.Registered for 196 3 - 64 year

1938 ROLLS ROYCE PIl I. 12 c yl. 90,000 miles.H ooper bod ywor k. Sp ort s Sa loon . 7 spare tyre s (4new). V er y fas t, safe, silen t, an d co mfortable. I m ­por ted, an d owned by R.R . en thus iast, a nd main ­tained in absolu te ly perfect con d itio n, as new. Goodhom e essential. Ph otograph s a va ila b le. Price withspa res, £ 1750. Write A. V . Jarn es, M a tu a Road, Otu ­moetai, T a uranga, or P ho ne 17850.

H ELP OFF ERED : Being prob ab ly th e closest resid ­ing member to H or opito, wh er e the re is a large a ndo ld-es ta blishe d W recker, I a m prep ared to scan theya rd o r co n tac t the propriet or (Rae tih i Exc hange)fo r any desp ai r in g Vintag er in ques t of a n e lus ivepart. Jo na than Preston, P .O. Box 52, Raet ih i.

FO R SAL E : 1904 Argyll in good ru nning o rder.R. M . Ma ha n, 127 Waitak i D rive, Ot ema tata . Nor thO tago.

WANTE D : Sid deley Car Par ts, o r C hassis. Haveswa p pa rts avai lab le, or will buy. In n Will iams, 43Derb y St ree t. C hris tc hurch, Ph on e 54-384.

FO R SALE : 1924 Morris Cow ley En gin e. co mp lete.new big en ds. Offer s. R . T oo he y, 18 Hu xley Street.Syde nha m .

1924 3 LITR E BE NTLEY No. 728 . 9ft 9tin chassisspeed mode l. Moto r recently checked incl udi ng fittingnew skew gears (n icke l-bro nze magneto cross shaft),new ver tica l shaft bu sh es. new pist o n ri ngs and ove r ­ha u ling bot h magn etos. C typ e gea rbox wit h Ha rd y­Spiccr pr op shaft. 4 s ta r steel cage diffe re ntia l : ratio3. 785. Coachwork: Van de n P las repl ica , wi th fu llwea ther eq ui pme nt. T yre size : 5.25 x 21. The Bent­ley is in near co ncours cond ition a nd with out dou bto ne of th e m ost desirable av a ila b le a t th e pr esenttime . La ck of tim e an d o the r vehic les forces sa le .Se nsi b le ofTers to D . Warren Jo rdan , 41 Venus Street,In verca rgill.

WA N TED : On e o r more Po weIl a nd Hamner orC A. V. model F Electric Lamps o r wou ld considera ny mak e of sim ilar type , sui ta b le fo r 191 4 T albot.A lso wa nt Dua l Igni tion 4-c ylinder Magneto a nd Coi la nd Swi tch un it for sa me. W ould bu y or swa p halfrest or ed 1921 Ja rnes MC. or othe r V . & V . pa r ts .W r ite R . M adigan, 7 Michael Ave nue, HiIlsdale ,Ham ilt o n.

FOR S AL E : 1928 a ppro x. Pack ard 5-sea te r Ca r.Ori ginal en gine a nd bod y ; latter requi re s rep ai r. Notregi stered thi s yea r. C o m plete tyr es a nd tool s . Reas­o na ble . Robt. D rummond, 13 Beach St reet , Hokit ika .

W A NT E D : Corresponde nce wi th ow ners of M ty peM .G. Midgets . A lso o va l instru ment pa nel and in­str uments (M .G . o r M o rr is Minor O .H .C .), In st ru ct ­io n Boo k, Kl axon e tt e. a nd Mu dgua rds for 1931model. Da le Con lo n, 67 Cambr idge T errace , L owerHu tt.\VA NTEO fo r 1925 Cha ndler Tourer : Bo tt om Sec­tio n Wi ndscreen F ra me. H u b Caps, Culver-SternsIgni tio n a nd Lights Switch, al so C. & S. T h rott lean d Spa rk Gea ring. Any sn a re par ts, han d books orin fo rmat ion . A. D . 0 1'1', R .D . 2, T irau.

W ANTE D : I nformation, Pho tos an d Parts for Vint ­age He nder son MC . P lea se con tac t D . R . Goodman.12 K in vig Street. An derso ns Ba y. Du nedi n. or Pho ne43-802 collect.

C LAS SIF I E D ADVERTISEMENTS RATES

M EMB ERS OF VI N TAGE CA R C LU B OF N .Z .I NC . : Free fo r firs t th ree lines (approx . 25words); th erea fter 1/ - per l ine (8 wo rds).

N O N -MEMBERS : 5 / - f or first th ree lines or less;th erea ft er l / - per l ine.

To be acce pted all advert isements m ust be typeda nd be accompanied by t he necessa ry remittance andmust be in the ha nds of the Edi to r not later thanthe 15th da y of the mon th before publicatio n da te .

Spec ia I . d ispla y adve rtisements of ca rs fo r sa leco m plete with photos may be inse r ted a t spec ia l a ndve rv reason a b le rates, for de tail s of wh ich ser vicewri te to the Edi to r.

PAGE THIRTY-TWO SEPTEMBER , 1963

FOR S A L E- O N E OR TH E OTHER : 1915 M od elT F or d . Perfec tly an d fanat ica lly re st o red . C on sist­en t concours winner. Ga s li t. All new tyres. Withra re E ve read y Spring Starte r. £600 . Or R oll s Royce1930 Phaet on II. Ow ner-driver Sal oon. Com pletea nd origi na l. H andbo ok , spec ia l To ols and vario usSpa res . A lso Conc o urs winner. A m ost de sir a ble ca r.£ 1100. M . H . C lose, Rangiriri , W ai kat o, Ph one 35M ,Tc K auwhat a ex ch an ge.

WA NTED fo r 3 Lit re Bentl ey : Pai r of f ro nt Sh ockAbsorber s, co mp lete with cha ssis an d ax le mo u ntingBr acket s. B . C . G oodrnan, W ashdyke, Pho ne 7877,Tim a ru.F OR SALE : Exha ust Valves. new, su ita b le C hev­rel et 1927-28 , Essex 1926-31, D odge 4 1914-28. 7 /6each. Appl y Bruce Anderson, 305 R ernuera R oad,Au ckl and. Ph one 50- 324 busin ess hours.

FOR SA LE : 1934 T al bot 95 Fou r D oor D e L u xeSa loo n. 3 Litre 100 b.h .p, Pr eselector gearbox . A u to­mat ic Lubr icati on. C oac h bu il t body b y Da rracq ofLon d o n. Le at her uph o lst ery an d polished wood fac­ier s, bui lt-in Cock tai l a nd V anity C a binet s. This carhas a re bu ilt moto r, gearbox a nd back ax le assem bly .th e body work wo uld re sto re very nice ly. A verypotent perfo rmer. P r ice: E nqu iries to T. J .Ch ick , c/ o Box 444 , C hris tchu rch .WANTED : A ny informatio n o n S.C.A.T. Cars a ndpossib le exist en ce of a n y parts, particularl y Ca r bur­ett o r. Starter M otor fo r 15 h.p . 1922 W olseley, p rob­ably B .L. I. C ., a lso R adi at or. Write st at ing price, J 'G . Wat son , 5 1 C hatsworth R o ad , Sil ve rst ream .

F O R SALE: 1924 B.S.A . M ot orcycle. Com ple te,good co ndi tion . New pa int . nickel , ty res. tubes. e tc.With ve ry little work wo u ld be a ve ry n ice h ike a ndis a pot ential ra lly wi n ner. Must sell , du e to la ck o ftim e . s pace, a nd m on ey. First reas. o ffer accep ted .G. M . Bain . 12 Be ve rl ey S tree t. C h ristch urch I.WANTED : Front A xl e for 1908 Humber. Any oth erbit s an d informa t ion o n whereabou ts of Hu mberDarts. A lso a ny 26-inch Sa nkev Wheel s. G. M .Bain . 12 Bevcrley Stree t, C h riste hu rc h I.CORRECTI ON A N D APOLOG Y: W c regret th einc orrect address given in M r H ar rv Polf'er's a dver­tisem en t in th e June issue . This shou ld ha ve read:2700 M a ry Stree t. La C rescen ta , Ca li fo rn ia . U.s.A .FOR SWAP : Fi at 50 1 C row n Wheel a nd Pini oncornoletc with Ca rr ier. Bear ings a nd tw o Ax le Shafts .Sw ap for a ny Vet era n accessories-Lam os, H orns. In ­st rume nts e tc . C has. Black , 8 H iggins S treet, Na pier.FOR SA L E : 1929/ 30 Vau xh all 20/ 60 E ng ine a ndm cs: o the r pa r ts : 1927 V auxh all Radiator : 1 20in .R ud ve-Whitworth Wheel. O r wi ll swa p fo r Vauxha ll14/40 Pa rt s . W . R . Jnn cs, 20 C h u rch S t. , T auran ga .

WANT ED : C rown Wheel an d Pinion . or co m pleteDiffcrent ial un it. fo r Alvis 12 /40 o r ea rly 12 /50. A .J. A irs. 65 T e A wa K ur a T errace . C h ristc hu rc h . 8 . <

W ANTED : G ea rbox, com ple te. o r Parts. for a 19114-cvl ind er De D io n . A lso a nv P arts. Ph otos. orT... fo rm at ion ava ila b le. Re plies to K. P erry . 30 R D.Oam aru .W ANTED : Di ct z Oil Side Larn o to cornnlcte se t fo r190 R Reo . Al so Ph ot os. M anu al s fo r 1910 Su nbea m.sncc i-il r~ference to dash board an d wi nd screen posi­tion . W ill bu v above or swa n carlv Ren aul t Gearboxa nd Av le P arts a nd 1910-12 4-evl. W ol sel ev E ng ine~ n d Wheels. All an W all ace, 131 Ca rru th R oad . P apa­t cet oc,G EN TJINE Ameri can KW Model T Co ils. Li m ite d<uonlics a re azain ava ilable . M ail o rde r e nq u irie s~ rc welcom e a nd rece ive nr omot a tte ntion . Con tactP orts 1I,I ~ n ~o:e r . Arrn stro n u M ot o rs Limi ted . Auth or­:serl F ord Deal er s. Box 306 . Ham ilt on .

FO~ SA LF: 1914-1 '\ R olls Rovce T ourer. Th is ca rwas co rnnlet e lv a nd fullv res to re d in 1959 / 60 a nd has" (' n~ 500 0 mi les since. C ol our is wh ite wi th re d un­jl ro1s!erv. Re ar co mnar trncn t is fitte d w ith co ck tai lr~ h i net a nd rear win dsc ree n. Fullv Rolls R ovcc ins i l c n~e and ou nlitv, Price is h ich . as was th e en s! ofr~st,)['\ti"n . Ph otos a nd d ('t~ i led dcv- ri nno n will bes~ n t to uenu inc lv in ter est ed bu ver s. M . R . M ark o ff.'\'\ 1 G rc-it So u th Ro ad . Moora bb in , V ictor ia . A us ­t ral ia .

.lIj'lJf ~ '

\

F O R SALE : 192 9 A u bu rn Se da n . Bod y fai r co n­diti on . me cha nica lly sou nd, no ty res. Price £30.App ly Oamaru W reck in g Co., Phone 48-572.WANTED : Ford M od el T Co ils fo r wooden co ilbox. H icn z, s ize 2 15-16 x 3 1-16 x Sins. R . D .C ross . 25 Kin g Street, T irnaru,

F OR SALE : Di ff. a nd G ea rbox fo r Fi at 50 I. C hea p.R . F . Paul, Tota ra V all e y. Pl easant P oint, So u thC a ntcrbury,WANTE D : Au stin Seven Two-louvre Win d screenand N ickel -pl ated Radiat or She ll to su it 1929 T ourer.la n M a xtcd , 10 Ellcrton R oad, Mt E de n, Auckl and .

WA NTE D BUY : A C ox A trnos C a rburettor, FloatC ham ber. Type 24. P at ient 55 109. A. N. Beissel , 6Sorne rfie ld St reet, Spreydon, C hris tchurch .

W A NT E D : S pli tdorf G en e rat or a nd /or 2-cyli nderM a gn et o fo r Scott M otorcycl e. G . M. Bai n, 12 Bev­c rley S treet. C h rist ch urch .WANTE D : Complete En gi ne or Cra nkcase andCy linder fo r 1906 500 cc . M ine rva M ot orcycle. Al sowan ted : Two 28 x 3 bead ed edge T yres and Tubes.G len Bu ll. 40 Co rn wa ll Street. M aste rt on.WA NTED: 1915 -J 9 T riumph Motorcy cl e, ch ain, beltmodel. R estored o r restora b le. Must be comple te.I. L. Dal gleish . 33 T aupo R oad. T aurna runui .

W A NTED. for T al bo t 75: 10 /49 or 10 /46 C ro w n­whee l and Pinion . with H ou sin g. Rep lies to T. J.Chick, P. O . Box 444 , C hr istchurch .

'.

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Ad ver-t is irur en quiries to b e addressed to the Advertisin g Manager, 20 H a ckthorne Road, Christchurch. 8 .2 . Puhlished b yVtn t a ue Ca r Clu b o f N .Z . I n corporated and printed by A . E . Pur- se Li mited . 2 3 3 Man chester Stree t, Ch ri s tc hu rc h. N ew

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