22 NNCVC Magazine Summer 2012

7/31/2019 22 NNCVC Magazine Summer 2012

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Issue 22 - Summer 2012

The magazine for vehicle enthusiastsClassic - Collectable - Unusual - Interesting


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Chairmans ReportOnce again our annual St GeorgesDay charity event has come andgone. Despite the weather we had aspectacular turn out with a record 222vehicles joining the run at Sheringhamand others meeting at Hunstanton.What a brilliant event - thank you toall who joined in and did the run andto those who did stewarding on theday. About 3,000 was raised for EastAnglian Air Ambulance. The exactgure will be known when Gift Aidhas been worked out.As usual a lot goes on in a short spaceof time, this year we had just aboutenough club members helping atthe start but sadly not enough at thenish where we were let down bysome members who did not turn upon the day as promised even thoughwe reminded them. We had no op-

portunity to get extra people in andthis could have left us vulnerable inthe event of a mishap. However moreof that later. Our summer season isin full swing with events all over the

place. This year we seem to have hada bit of a trend whereby membersleave bookings until close to the eventand then miss out as the event is fullwhich is not the fault of the organiserswho have a certain amount of space todisplay vehicles and they need to makesure there is plenty of space around

them so cramming more in is neverpossible.You will have noticed we have been-trialing a few club weekday eventshaving been asked to do this bymembers who can rarely get to eventsover the weekend. Unfortuneately theresponse has been poor so no furthermidweek events will happen this year.We will look at it again for the future

if members indicate a need which theywill support. With an important clubevent coming up - our inaugural Clas-

sic Vehicle Show and Summer Fairon Sunday August 26th now entirelyin aid of Help for Heroes and localCharities I must raise the question ofhelp from members for club events.

Your small committee work very hard,mind you we still nd time to make

committee meetings most enjoyable.There are however gaps in the system,What happened on the St GeorgesDay run was a clear example and itmust not happen again We do recog-nise our membership is quite spreadout and some of us maybe not as tas we used to be. Other commitmentscan restrict help being offered, butthat still leaves more than enough of

us to more than cover the few times ina year when we do need hands to the

pump.Similarly whilst not every memberattends our splendid indoor nights,we do get a good turn out, but thereis some setting up and rearrangingthings afterwards. I recently askedfor members to put names on a listso we could make a rota of membersto do their bit. We only got 6 names,out of around 75 people on thenight. Certainly myself MembershipSecretary Rex and Secretary Royshould be spending our time meetingand greeting both existing and newmembers and dealing with the myriadof questions from members.Plainly we all need to decide what

we want out of our committee. Dowe really expect them to do almosteverything or should we all chip inand help in some way. After all notevery person may like the prospectof committee work yetwe all likethe prospect of our club events. Wewill be doing more asking in the nearfuture so please get ready to raise yourhands. The club belongs to us all so let

us all do our bit.

Geoff

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Magazine

Editor - [email protected]

Sub Editor - Sam Heath

Design and layout - Marc Wilford

Printed by Cheverton Printers, Cromer

Secretarys ReportMany of you will have reador heard about the Clubslatest project Geoff, Rex andI were pleased to see so manyyoung people taking part in the

St Georges Day run which is partof the Federation of British His-toric Vehicle Clubs Drive It Dayinitiative. To encourage this and agreater participation for the futurethe committee have decided to triala Next Generation membershippackage. This will be at an afford-able annual fee of 10 for young

people up to the age of 25 years oldwho share the interest and enjoy-ment of classic,collectable, unusualand interesting motor vehicles ofw every description. Next Gen-eration members will enjoy thebenets of membership includingthe quarterly magazine, our regularnewsletters and wall calendar. We

will also arrange additional eventswhich may have more appeal to ouryounger members. I have discussedthis project with the Federation whoregard our club as a shining lightMany of us will recall that a vastnumber of the vehicles we nowregard as classics had not even

been designed, let alone manufac-tured when we were under 25!.

Geoff and I were recentlyi nvited byTeam Panhard to attend an eventat Gressenhall to dedicate a seat inmemory of the past Chairman and

guiding light Mike Vincent and thetting of new headlights to the 1899Panhard - Levassor originallyowned by C S Rolls.We were also treated to a ridearound the local lanes which was anexperience not to be missed.It was good to see some of ourmembers -Frances Graham,

Andrew Curtis and Peter Wilgossinvolved with the oldest vehicle inNorfolk We hope to see the Panhardat one of our events in the future.

We are already looking at possiblevenues for the St Georges Day run2013 so if you have any ideas let usknow.

Thank you to all who have respond-ed to my call for articles -at onetime it looked as if I would haveto ll up the pages with pictures.Instead we have 32 pages! and somearticles for the next issue

Roy

Committee ContactsChairman Geoff Jones 01263 860676

Vice Chairman Christine Sparrow 01603 781917

Secretary Roy Beckley 01263 837619

Treasurer/Membership Rex Chipp 01603 788726

Events Graham Gibbins 01263 826042

Disclaimer:Please note that although every care is taken, the North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club (The Club) accepts no responsibility for the retu rn of photographs

or other material submitted from contr ibutors. Care is also taken to ensure that the contents of all our publications are accurate but the club cannot accept

responsibility for any errors that may occur for the statements or views that occur editorially.

Whilst care is taken when accepting advertisements, if in doubt readers should make their own enquir ies. The Club cannot

accept any responsibility for any resulting unsatisfactory transactions. Nor shall the club be liable for loss

damage or injury to any person or proper ty acting on informat ion contained in the Club Magazine or

any other Club Publication or the Club Web site. The Club will however, investigate any

written complaints which they receive.

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Turned out nicefor the Ipswich toFelixstowe Classicvehicle run on May

6thExcitement grew in the priorcouple of weeks at the prospectof a day trip to see and partake inthis fabulous run courtesy of NickWebster who drove us there in his1964 Harringtons coach.

Now we all know the weatherhas been grim so not being putoff we made sure we had winterweather gear to keep us toastywarm during the day. Some of usjoined the coach at Southreppsand the rest took advantage of theMill Inn at Newton Flotman whokindly offered their car park to

leave the cars during the day. Wehad planned a time to be readyfor Nick and guess what he gotthere before treasurer Rex Chippand Trish who were behind himand could not get by!!A really pleasant coach plenty ofroom nice and quiet though asyou might imagine we did make a

fair amount of noise of our own.On arrival at Christchurch Parkin Ipswich we had time to lookround the many vehicles whichhad turned out, crikey what acollection. The weather must havekept some people at home butthere were hundreds of vehiclesand also 40 or 50 motorbikes.

Once assembled the vehicles hada set route through Ipswich andTrimley and on to the promenade

at Felixstowe. On the route wereplenty of spectators waving as wedrove by which is certainly a funthing to happen.After parking up we have a goodfour hours to entertain ourselves

before the journey home. Somany vehicles were there it wasmesmerising. It is one of thosethings where you cannot describeit but rather that you need to goand be part of it. I am sure every-one found their favourite vehiclesomewhere in the line up.My wife Ann and Carol Pearce

decided to have a look round aDolls House collection in thesports centre on the promenade.Mike Pearce and myself decidedto meet up with them later so weenjoyed a walk along the prom-enade viewing the metalworkon show. We had agreed to meetthe girls later near Nicks coach.

A call on the mobile phone an-nounced they were waiting for us,but where? Carol informed usthey were near the red bus!!!!Funny that, plenty of red busesabout on the day. On asking formore details we were told it wasnear the sea, well it would be wewere on the prom. I probably will

get castigated for mentioning thatbut Mike and myself thought itworth us all enjoying.On leaving Felixstowe we settleddown to the drive home andfrankly we were all a bit tiredso not much humour on thecoach. As we passed Diss all thatchanged a distinct vibration was

felt though thecoach. Nick drovecarefully

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to a lay by on the Dickleburghby pass. Here indeed we foundthe rear nearside inner tyre hadgone. Nick phoned for the Tyreman to come and change it, butno time was given as to how

long it would take him to getthere. We had thought of beingmarooned on the lay by all nightand having to resort to drawingstraws as to who we would eatrst.

Nick was quite concerned that hewas spoiling our day out, but tothe contrary it had made our day.In true British spirit we foundour humour revitalised by theoccasion and had a simply greatlaughter session whilst waitingfor the recovery vehicle.Those of us who had left our

vehicles at the Mill Inn eventu-ally called a taxi to get us there,the landlord of the pub (who wehad phoned to tell him of ourdelay) was ne about it. We hada very pleasant meal the tableswere vibrant with us recallingthe exciting day we had taken.That was rounded off by seeing

Nick on his way drivingpast the Mill Innon route for

Southrepps with his passengerswaving like mad at us as theypassed by.A fabulous day out Nick thankyou so much.

The Dickleburgh By pass layby. This lay by has been visitedby the club previously after avisit to Helmingham Hall someyears back. It was a jolly hotday and Rex had fuel starvationproblems with his Wolseley 6/80.It was that very lay by that hepulled into to do a bit of head

scratching. If we get any morebreakdowns near this lay bywe might need to start and dodetours when driving that way.

Geoff

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Shadow Buying and Tracingthe History of aClassic Car

August 1965 Summer atthe height of the swingingsixties. Harold Wilson is PrimeMinister and in the United StatesPresident Lyndon B Johnson issteadily increasing troop numberin Vietnam. The Beatles aretouring America and back home

they are at No1 with Help!On the holiday island of Jerseya young and ambitious carsalesman eagerly awaits thedelivery of his, not a customers,new sports car. It has beenspecially ordered from Triumphwith many optional extrasincluding an overdrive gearbox,removable hard top, 60 spokebright chrome wheels and evena heater. Unusually, it will bepainted black but this will setoff the chrome wires and itsMatador Red seats.

In Stranraer southwest Scotlandthe wife of a local school

headmaster is also anticipating adelivery of a different sort, albeitnot for a few months. She is vemonths pregnant with her secondson !

On the face of it there can beno connection between thesepeople but fast forward 45

years to Norfolk in September2010. A classic sports car isdriving along the A140 towards

Aylsham. At the wheel is a manin his forties and sitting besidehim is an elderly lady with greyhair, and quietly satised smile.The car is black and its seats arered.

The elderly lady is my mother,who was pregnant with me inAugust 1965, and, of course, theconnection to the young man inJersey is the car. To be specicTriumph TR4A IRS commissionnumber CT58475, that I call

Shadow because its black.It was built at the StandardTriumph factory in Coventry on16th August 1965 and dispatchedto St.Helier Garages (Jersey)Limited two days later. Howevermy search for its originalJersey registration number andrst owner was quite a journey

which was only completedthanks to the perseverance of afellow classic car enthusiast thatI met via the internet.

Ive always been interested inthings which have some history.Be it a car, an aeroplane, abuilding or an antique, history

brings with it personalityand personality isinteresting.

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Three years ago I had only thevaguest of interests in classiccars. They were something Iwould occasionally notice asan added attraction at an airdisplay (aircraft have always

been my passion) but I paidthem minimal attention. Thenmy elder brother, who worksoverseas, decided he fanciedthe idea of having a classic carto run about in when he wasin the UK on holiday. He hadalways hankered after a TR6and I agreed to help him look

for one. This involved pouringover classic car magazine ads,web sites and visiting specialistTR dealers.

Now I have nothing againstthe TR6, they are smartvehicles, but the more Ilooked at Triumph sports

cars the more I found myselfattracted to the lines of theearlier TR4 and, particularly,the TR4A with their attractivebodies designed by theItalian Giovanni Michelotti.Something was stirring deepin my subconscious. I wantedone I denitely wanted one.

So the search for a TR6 forbrother turned into a search fora TR4A for me. It took nearly ayear and there were many nearmisses and disappointmentsalong the way to the point I hadalmost given up on nding thecar I really wanted.

Unfortunately I wasbeing more than

a bit fussy. I wanted a car ingenerally good condition, it hadto have overdrive, the unusualremovable hard / Surrey top,wire wheels and a decent bit ofhistory would be nice too. As

usual in life just when you leastexpect it something happens.One Sunday night in June 2010I decided to have a quick lookat a few classic car web sitesbefore going to bed. One hadbeen updated the previousday and there it was a blackTR4A in good condition, with

overdrive, hard top, wire wheelsand even an extensive historyle. The price looked prettyfair but from recent experienceI knew that probably meant itwould sell very quickly.

I did not sleep well and on thestroke of 9 the next morning I

dialled the number of a garagein Cambridgeshire. The black4A I enquired, is it still forsale ? Yes was the reply.Three hours later I was standingnext the car and an hour afterthat I was paying a deposit. Afew minor jobs need to be doneso it would be a week or two

before I could pick the car up.As I drove home I was thinkingwhat have I done. I really knowvery little about classic cars,what if it turns out to be a totalbasket case ? Im sure Ivepaid too much, is it too late tochange my mind ?

But as I began to rationalise the

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situation I found the answer towhy I hadbought the car. It hadpersonality. When I rst sawthe car I noted it was on an F

registration so, trying to makeout I at least new something, Icame out with, I see its on anF so it must be a late productioncar from 67 (TR4A productionnished at the end of 1967).Nope was the reply, its a 65car. But surely it cant be ifits on an F plate I protested.

It was originally deliveredto Jersey. Came back in 68was the emphatic reply. Thiswas interesting on two fronts.Firstly I was born in 1965 sothe car was more or less thesame age as me and secondlythe company I worked for was(at that time) based in Jersey.

Already the car was talking tome.

For various reasons it tookabout a month before I was ableto collect the car and the day Iwent to get it the weather wasfoul with heavy rain. Hardlythe best conditions for driving

a classic car especially whenyour total experience of suchvehicles is a few hours worth

of test-drives. However nothingbroke, it didnt leak (that hardtop was a good idea) and thewindscreen wipers more or lesscoped. Basically the car got mehome rather than the other way

round.As time has gone by Shadow,as I christened the car, and Ihave got to know each otherbetter, but I wanted to ndout as much as I could aboutthe cars history and thatproved more complicated,

and interesting, than I initiallyexpected. With the car came abox le full of history. Thisturned out to be mainly a largecollection of bills and receiptsfor everything from nuts andbolts to new carpets. It wasclear the car had been withone particular owner for a long

time nearly 32 years andhe had done a fairly extensiverestoration including a resprayand replacement of the interiortrim in the early 90s. Howeverthe original colour black had been retained as hadthe Matador Red seats andtrim. This could be conrmed

from the paint and trim codesstamped on the data plate in theengine bay. Overall there wasevery indication the car wasstill in fairly original condition.

While the receipts and billsfor parts and work done wereinteresting they gave little

insight as to previousownership of thecar. However

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there were some old registrationdocuments, MOT certicatesand, a hand written receipt for thepurchase of the car in November1973 for the princely sum of 455.

By far the most useful documentin the le was a copy of a HeritageCerticate that had been obtainedby the previous owner to myselfin 2005. This document, producedby the British Motor IndustryHeritage Trust, gave full details ofthe original factory records for thecar. These included engine, chassis

and body serial numbers, dates ofbuild and dispatch, the originaldestination (dealer) the car wasshipped to and full details of allfactory tted equipment built intothe vehicle.

Armed with the details from theHeritage Certicate and afterchecking various data platesand stamped serial numbers onvarious parts of the car I was ableto conrm that it was indeed still

in largely original condition asI had been assured it was whenI bought it. The only signicantchange was the original chromewire wheels had been replaced withpainted wires. This was conrmedthrough the pile of receipts whichshowed the replacement wheelsbeing exchanged in March 1974

for 31.35 and these subsequentlybeing overhauled with new spokestted in March 1993 for a total costof 150.50 !

Combining the Heritage Certicatedetails with the registrationdocuments and old MOTs I cameup with the following known facts.

The car was built on 16th August1965 and dispatched to St.HelierGarage Jersey on 18th August 1965.It was rst registered in the UK,in Bournemouth, on 1st February1968 and was sold by an A.W.Orrof Wallington to Geoffrey FrancisRyder of Bishops Stortford on

12th

November 1973. Mr Rydereventually sold the car to MrsLynda Chidwick of Stotfold on 12thMarch 2005 and it was registered inmy name on 12th July 2010.

I was pleased that I had nowsorted out a fairly comprehensivehistory for the car since it returned

to the UK in 1968 but I had noinformation at all about who ownedthe car while it was in Jersey. I

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really wanted to know who hadrst owned the car and whatthe Jersey registration numberhad been, so it was time to startsearching but I was going to

need some help and advice.

I had joined the TR Register(the owners club for TriumphTR cars) and they had quitea good internet forum whichI occasionally looked at. Oneof the people that regularlyposted on the forum had the

screen name Jersey Royaland his location was given asRock in the English Channelso I guessed he was probablyin Jersey ! I decided to sendhim a personal message andexplain what I was trying todo. That proved to be a goodmove as he came back to me

the next day and suggested Icontact the Jersey equivalentof the DVLA and helpfullyprovided their e-mail address.At this point I hit the rst ofseveral brick walls. The carregistration records for Jerseyhad been computerised in1980 but anything before that

was still on index cards whichwere now stored in the Jerseyarchives. These were accessiblebut the records were stored byregistration number so it was acatch 22 situation. You neededto know the registration to getthe history but I needed thehistory to nd the registration.

I contacted my new Forumfriend and broke the bad news.

Not to worry said Guy (hisreal name is Guy Therin andhe owns a TR6 and a TR3)try contacting the Jersey CarClub. With Jersey being a

small island and the car beingfairly unusual (particularlybeing black) it seemed possiblesomeone might remember it.More than 40 years down thetrack it seemed a bit of a longshot but Guy gave me thecontact details so I sent anothere-mail and also put a post on

the TR Forum. I got plenty ofencouragement from the Forumcommunity but no useful infoand there was no reply from theJersey Car Club.

I contemplate going over toJersey and trying to searchthe archived index cards but it

would have been like lookingfor a needle in a haystack,especially as I found out thatthe registrations were oftenreissued so you couldnt evencorrelate the number sequenceto approximate originalregistration dates. Just becausemy car was brought to Jersey

in 1965 it didnt necessarilyfollow that the registration wasin a specic number range sosearching the index cards wouldjust have been a lottery.

After a few weeks I contactedGuy to thank him for trying tohelp and to say it was clearly

hopeless and thereseemed no realisticway of tracing

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the car. However I had underestimated my friend. Dontgive up he advised. Send me awanted poster with basic detailsand a picture of the car. Ill get itsent out with the next Car Club

newsletter. Someone is boundto remember the car . It stillseemed a massive long shot butagain I took the advice and Guykindly printed over 200 copiesof the wanted poster and gotthem sent out as promised.

To my amazement within 48

hours of the wanted postershitting the streets Guy wasgetting calls and one name keptcoming up Roger Porteous. Hehad been a bit of a characterin the Jersey motor trade in the1960s and had owned severalblack sports cars. It had beena bit of a personal trademark.

This was tantalising informationbut we needed a registrationnumber and it turned out Rogerhad left the island in the early1970s and his whereaboutswere now distinctly uncertain.Could anyone remember theregistration number of a carfrom 40 years back ?

One of the people that got thewanted poster from the JerseyCar Club was a reported onthe Jersey Evening Post andhe decided the search for thecars identity would make an

interesting story. Via Guy hegot the details of the car and apicture and within days the storywas in the paper.

Possible registrations nowstarted to be quoted. A formerfriend and colleague of Rogers,who had worked with him at St

Helier Garages, was condentthe registration was J19 as Rogerhad used that number on severalof his cars. This sounded verypromising and the next day Guyvisited the Jersey archives tocheck the index card for J19. Myhopes were high, then - disaster J19 had been on a Vauxhall

Victor from 1961 to 1967 thenwent to a Lotus (which wasRogers).

There remained a strongconsensus that Roger Porteoushad been my cars original ownerso the search went on both forthe registration number and for

Roger. Another number, J39, wasnow being suggested by severalsources but of even greaterinterest was the discovery thatRoger Porteous son was stillliving in working in Jersey asa professional photographer.Guy managed to get his ofcenumber and web site details but

when I called it I just got ananswer phone. I didnt to like toleave a message but managed to

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send an e-mail to the ofce viathe website. I wasnt too hopefulthe e-mail would be takenseriously so planned to callagain the following day.

Just after 9 oclock the followingmorning my phone rang and onanswering it the voice on theother end said Hello I believeyouve been looking for me this is Roger Porteous. I wasstunned. Rogerss son hadntreplied to my e-mail but had hadforwarded it to his father, living

in retirement in London, and hegot straight on the phone. I spentabout half an hour chatting toRoger and from our conversationI became convinced that hehad indeed been Shadowsrst owner but what aboutthe registration number ?Unfortunately Rogers memory

wasnt what it used to be.Although he did recall owningcars with the registration J39 hewas pretty sure he never had aTR with that number. Howeverhis recollection was that hedhad a TR with the registrationJ414.

It was coming up to the weekendso Guy would need to wait untilthe following week to visit thearchives again. However overthe weekend a chap called DavidArden called him with anotherpossible registration J48. Thischap claimed to remember test-driving a black second hand

TR4A, being sold by Roger,sometime in 1966. We now hadthree possible registrations.

J39 was the most commonsuggestion but Roger himselfthought the number was J414.J48 had only been suggestedby one person and seemedsufciently unlikely that it

probably wasnt worth checking.Monday arrived, and I waitednervously what if none of thenumbers were right ? The phonerang - it was Guy. Shadowwasnt J39 that had been onseveral cars including a Rollerbut never a TR. J414 had indeed

been on a black painted TRowned by Roger, but it was aTR4, not a 4A, he had ownedbefore Shadow. That just leftJ48, remembered by just oneman who thought he had testdriven a second hand car withthat registration 44 years ago.The index card for J48 contained

the following information :MAKE Triumph (TR4A),CHASSIS NO. CTC58475,COLOUR Black, ANNUALTAX 7, DATE OF FIRSTREGISTRATION 27AUG 1965,FIRST OWNER Roger St.ClarePorteous T/A Castle Cars Ltd, 21

St Saviours Rd.

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Finally it all came together. Theoriginal number had been J48and, interestingly, the car hadbeen registered to the businessRoger was in the process ofsetting up as he was leaving St

Helier Garages to go it alone inthe car trade. The log card wenton to record that Roger sold thecar six months later and therewere three further owners inJersey over the next two yearsbefore the car returned to theUK in February 1968. Thisall tied in with the known UK

history and so I nally had thefull life story of the little blacksports car I call Shadow.

I owe an immense debt ofgratitude to Guy Therin, theclassic car enthusiast communityin Jersey, and to Roger Porteous.Without their combined efforts

I could never have tracedShadows full history. It is alsofair to say that the internetplayed a major part in the searchas it brought me into contactwith Guy Therin in the rstplace.

As the progress of the search

was reported on the TRForum Guy gainedthe nickname

Holmes and I became knownas Watson so perhaps it istting to end this story with aquote from Conan-Doyles greatctional detective ; When youhave eliminated the impossiblewhat ever remains, however

improbable, must be the truth.Just one man, who nevereven owned the car, correctlyremembered the registrationafter 44 years !

John Allan

Jubilee Clip

Front Cover - part of the 200vehicle line up at Hunstanton

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Club Visit to WareHall HouseOver the two days of April13th and 15th club memberswere privileged to visit Ware HallHouse in Wells, which had beenthe subject of the superb talk byChristine Adams at the Golf Clubon 19th March.

Over the two days Christinehosted two tours on each, withapproximately twenty people persession. Tea and cakes were laidon at the start while Christine gaveher introductory chat.

The purpose of the visit of coursewas to view the completed WareHall House, the medieval housedismantled by the amazing MaySavidge in Ware in Hertfordshire,and rebuilt by her in Wells over atwenty year plus period, after thecouncil had put a demolition orderon the property to make way for aroundabout.

The house itself was absolutelyfascinating, but probably the ove-riding feeling for most people, wasof the extraordinary feat by May

herself, who was about 60 yearsold when she took on this hugetask, and which she unfortunatelydid not live to see completed,dying at the age of 83, and alsoalmost equally in some respectsof Christine Adams who took on

the daunting task of nishing thehouse for her Auntie May.

It seems so sad that May, after allthose years of toil, did not see herhouse completed. But so good tosee the end result lovingly nishedby Christine.

Most people who visited the houseover the weekend would havebeen both moved and fascinatedby what they had seen and heardbut, for those who missed out, thebook Miss May Savidge MovesHouse is available and a brilliantread.

An amazing day out and one thatwill remain in the memory for avery long time.

Geoff Sparrow

Scan this QR code with yoursmartphone to visit the NNCVC

website.

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WeybourneCountry FairOn the 3rd of June, 12dedicated souls from the clubbraved a very wet and chilly day

on 3rd June. The weather reallywas too bad to lure the publicout from two big marquees, soviewers to our cars were veryfew and far between. It wasgreat to see our two new NEXTGENERATION club membersJake and George Neale withtheir 1987 Vauxhall Nova and

1990 Diahatsu Charade respec-

tively adding to our numbers.If their enthusiasm is anything togo by, then we should be seeing-plenty of them in the future,and hopefully they have youngfriends of the same persuasion.Unfortunately the weather putpaid to many of the outdoor eventsbut there was plenty to see (andbuy!) in the marquees.Lets hope the sun comes out forthis event next year as the locationis excellent and it is a really goodday out.

Geoff Sparrow

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Euston Park FarmThe weather forecast for thishuge Rural Pastimes eventlooked appalling 24hrs beforehand.

However on the 10th of June wewere blessed with warm sunshine,so enabling everybody to reallyenjoy this super show.

There really is something foreverybody here including chil-dren. For those who have never at-tended, it should be pointed out

that this is not just a classic carshow, although there are around200 cars there, but the event hasa huge number of attractionsincluding vintage tractors, tractionengines, heavy horses, Whippet &Lurcher racing and all manner ofstalls many of which are of inter-est to the ladies.

There is also a superb FlowerShow in the Church plus the sale ofplants.

This is one of the major eventsof the year on the club calendar,

and it was very disappointing tosee that only 13 cars turned out.Unfortunately this seems to bea recurring situation where, to a

large extent, the same memberscan be seen at most events yingthe ag for N.N.C.V.C. Basicallyfew of the clubs bookings are morethan about an hour or so awayfrom Sheringham, so presumablymost members cars are capable ofsuch a short journey without anyproblems. We really would liketo see more members at eventswith their cars. Its great to seethe familiar faces but some newones would really make the day, socome on people, get the polish outand give the old girl (the car that

is!) a buff up and join us for a fun

day out.

From the club Vernon Eneversbeautiful Alvis convertible wasselected to join the parade in the

ring and at the end of the day allentrants were able to collect theexcellent horse-brass (somethingelse to polish) as a memento of theday. So as usual a super day outhad by all with the added bonus oflovely weather.

Geoff Sparrow

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What a difference aday makesAnumber of us attended SwantonMorley Vintage day on Saturday16th June, sadly a pretty cold windy

day which gave us no chance toreally meet and enjoy the companyof old and new members.

Move forward 24 hours the weatherlooked much better and 15 cars wereon the road heading to BlacksmithCottage Nursery near Dickleburgh.Only Christine and Geoff Sparrow

had been there before, it was on theirrecommendation that we visit. On

arrival in the car park provided wefound most of the cars already thereand the members already parked up

and looking at the herd of Alpaca.

Shorelands which is on the siteof the nursery is an ornamentalperennial plant garden that is hometo a selection of rare, unusual andgenerally smaller species of birdsand mammals. The emphasis ison endangered species, with many

of the inhabitantsbeing part of

International

Breeding Programmes.Shorelands is also home to a largecollection of water birds, with asignicant collection of ducks,geese,cranes, herons, egrets, bitterns, wad-ers, storks, cormorants, many livingfree in the gardens. These gardens

are visible from their excellent cafe,shop building which in its own rightis a super place to be in and view thebirds.

Once we had all arrived andintroductions been made to the newmembers who turned up we weregathered into their meeting room.

Here we met Ben Potterton who

looks after the breeding programme.Ben gave a splendid 40 minutepresentation on the work that they doin breeding rare bird species from allover the world. Working with zoos

and many other groups worldwidethey are doing a wonderful job tohelp these rare and valuable speciessurvive.18


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During the presentation wewere shown a few of the speciesthey had on site. Particularly ofinterest was a Striated Heron aquirky little bird which loads ofcharacter. He was able to show

us the ability of the species tokeep their head perfectly stillwhilst its body was moving, thisskill being essential in the huntfor food, jolly nice to see andfunny too but with an obviouspurpose. We were shown a largeBlue Crane which standingabout chest height was quite

an imposing bird. A tame birdhaving been bred in captivityand thus very comfortable withpeople. Whilst Ben was tellingus about the bird it stood on onefoot, as they do, it did a spotof preening, as they do, andgenerally was just so wonderfulto see.

Ann and myself, as many of youprobably know, are keen birdersand have suffered all sorts oftrials and tribulations to seerare birds in their habitat, theycan be enchanting to watch andinteresting to see them feeding,the antics they get up to, they

must have a sense of humour.Lunch followed the presentation,excellent sandwiches and drinksin the cafe went down very well,some new members eating thereand some in the car park againgetting their feet under the tablein more ways than one. A greatopportunity for us to make new

friends. Our thanks go to all atthe nursery who made our visitso special.

Reluctantly we had to move onhaving also booked ourselvesin to the 100th Bomb Groupmuseum at Thorpe Abbotts.On arrival we were treatedroyally with the cars parked up

to display for the visitors. Aftera short introduction we were letloose to enjoy the museum. Notevery ladies cup of tea, but nonethe less they all had a wanderround and enjoyed it immensely.By this time the skies hadcleared and we were able tohave plenty of time to relax with

fellow members.

To stand back and see our newmembers enjoying the companyof established members gaveme a real thrill. Obviouslywhen people do come along forthe rst time they are perhapswondering what sort of a day

they will have. I am sure thosewho joined us will have gonehome having made new friendsand had a great day out.On any club event it is impera-tive that we make new memberswelcome though also they doneed to reciprocate. It is not soeasy to get to know members of

the club at our indoor meetings.All the more reason to get outand enjoy a day out such as this.

We have already made ourminds up to visit Shorelands inthe future and combine it withanother destination to ll theday up.

The new Clubevents

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shelter rst trial at ShorelandsWe have a club gazebo which wecan put up for shelter at events,though they do not stand muchwind and are really too long to tinto most classic motors.

Having given a bit of thought tothis we have purchased a largeevents shelter. It is best describedas looking a bit like a parachutewith four corners side tted toa curved frame. Being a littlebreezy yet sunny we decidedto try it out. The frame wenttogether easily enough, no point

looking at the instructions!!!Once the cover was thrown overand fastened on and the shelterpegged down it was rm as arock with much more space thana gazebo. We did have a piece ofstrapping left over but as we hadgot it erected without reading theinstructions it was decided we

should carry on and save lookingat the instructions till later.

When it came to taking it down

with a few helping hands it waspacked away in minutes and

tted neatly in the corner of a

boot. This bit of kit is going to bevery useful for us and I hope weall get chance to enjoy its ben-ets. Since it is smallish we hopemembers will, when the chanceoccurs, offer to take it to eventsand have it in use for shelter fromthe sun the rain or the snow. Wellit has been that sort of summer

so far.All in all a day to remember.

Geoff Jones

Yaxham Vintage Day

Not another bright start to theday on Sunday 24th June yeta few brave souls met in Dere-ham to make the short drive inconvoy to Yaxham so we couldpark together. The eld was alittle wet but OK to drive across.However it was not long before

huge dark cloudsrolled in bringing

a thunder-

storm with them, however wewere lucky as we just got theedge of the rain clouds with theconsequence having to shelter,but no worries, sheltering withother club members gives youplenty of time to chat.I suppose around 60 cars arrived,

not bad for the weather condi-tions, we did miss a few who feltthe day would not be good. Still


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considering the Old BuckenhamFlying day was on and we had anumber of vehicles attending thatevent we had a reasonable numberof club cars out and about duringthe day.For those in the know Rex Chipp

our Treasurer & MembershipSecretary has a delightful 1954Wolseley 6/80. After a megarestoration over many years it isa very ne example of the make.During the day judging took placeand three cars were chosen as thebest on the day. Third was a 1950sVauxhall Victor, a well known

car in Norfolk in silver and black.Second was a 1967 Triumph TR4in black. First was Rex and hisWolseley also in black. Each werepresented with a silver salver, andas you know rst is always biggest.Well done Rex we are proud ofyou. Cant help thinking the judgeshad a thing about black.

Rex and Trish showing off theirwinners salver.

Geoff Jones

Personal Profile.Bob Smith- Committee Member

Iwas born in Reading, Berkshireand moved to Norfolk perma-nently in 2009. I read AppliedPhysics at City University inLondon whilst working as aScientist at the Royal AircraftEstablishment in Farnborough. Icarried out research on a range ofmissiles and weapons until 1995

when I moved to Brussels to openan ofce to access EU funding forcivil research to be carried out byUK military scientists. I took earlyretirement in 2001 following twoyears of major back surgery.Having driven motorcycles fromthe age of 16 my rst car was aBerkley T60 three wheeler which I

rebuilt and used in London whilstat University. The usual rangeof Fords, Citroens, Peugeots andSkodas then followed. CurrentlyI drive a Skoda Fabia estate anda Smart Four Two. However myproper car is the Triking tricyclewhich I built in 2005. Hobbiesinclude DIY, ballroom dancing

and pedestrian doublestennis!

Bob


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The Crew with owner Mark Harris and his hand built Race Car

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Cutting MOT redtape for someclassic vehicleowners

Classic vehicles will beexempted from the MoT test,

Roads Minister Mike Penningannounced recently.

Pre-1960 licensed vehiclesmake up about 0.6% of the totalnumber of licensed vehicles inGreat Britain, but are involved in

just 0.03% of road casualties and

accidents.

Evidence shows that the initialMoT test failure rate declinesby the age of vehicle after thevehicle is 13 years old.

The current requirement toundergo an MoT test goes overand above the obligations set out

in European legislation. Follow-ing a public consultation whichshowed high levels of supportfor the proposals, vehiclesmanufactured before 1960 will beexempted from the MoT test from18th November 2012 reducingcosts for owners.

Owners of pre 1960vehicles will stillbe able to take

exempt vehicles for an MoT teston a voluntary basis.

Owners of classic vehicles willstill be legally required to ensurethat they are safe and in a propercondition to be on the road but

scrapping the MoT test for thesevehicles will save motoristsmoney.

Editors Note.

Do you think this is a good idea?Many I have spoken with seemdeternmined to have an an annual

MoT test on a voluntary basis.

Of course all of us cosset andfuss over our old ladies. Wetinker with the engines and polishthe paintwork. But how oftendo we get to have a good lookunderneath which, I would guess,is the area where the cause of

most MoT failures in older carshappen!At least once a year a trained eyeis cast over all the important bits.

Reminds me when I used to doannual re insurance surveys ofa well known group of holidaycamps. We accidentally let

them know about four weeks inadvance of when we were coming- when we turned up it was hardto nd anything out of order- jobdone. At least we knew that oncea year all the rubbish had beencleared away, the re extinguish-ers were all serviced and in theirproper places, etc. Also saved us

a lot of paerwork!

Roy24


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Blue Cloud overLittle SnoringIn the autumn of last year I hadthe bright idea of tting anautomatic gearbox to our 1957 MGZB Magnette in preparation formy arthritic old age!Some of you will know the MGhas an MGB engine and overdrivegearbox in it. I did a lot of researchinto the project and the answerwas,it would t with minorshaping of the gearbox tunnel.So, armed with that knowledge, Ifound a good MGB auto box withall ancillaries including the torqueconverter.

With the help of a friend we gotthe engine and gearbox out andonto the bench. A different spigotbush at the rear of the crankshaft

was needed and was tted. Thegearbox was then mated to theengine and it was discoveredthat a different backplate wasneeded,because the starter ringon the auto box is of a greatercircumference so the bell housingis larger. This should have rungthe alarm bells, but it didnt until

later. Having a larger bell hous-ing meant the starter motor sitsfurther out and fouls the steeringcolumn!!!!

With a very large blue cloud overLittle Snoring, I decided to keepthe manual box with overdrive.The auto box could have been

made to t,but it would havemeant major surgery and I didntwant to stray too far from theoriginal. There would be no

problem on a left hand driveMagnette!

The exercise wasnt wasted,however, as I took the opportunityto t a new clutch and new rollerrelease bearing to give, hopefully,trouble free motoring. It also gotrid of a mysterious squeak at lowrevs, the cause of which I couldnever nd. It did introduce an-other mysterious rattle at low revs,which I eventually traced to thebonnet catching on the bulkhead.All is now quiet and running welland the blue cloud has blownaway.

Mike Seppings.

Jubilee Clip

Membership of the Club hassurpassed last years total andstands at 203

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Trikings in the NewForest, 24 May 2012The annual get together ofTriking Sportscars took placebetween the 18th and 20th ofMay this year in the New Forest.The event was organised by aTriking owner living in RingwoodHampshire and based aroundthe very pleasant Tyrrells FordCountry House Hotel in Avon nearRingwood.

The cars assembled at the hotelduring Friday afternoon follow-ing differing length journeys.The event attracted 3 cars fromGermany, 2 from Norfolk, 1 fromLeicestershire, 1 from SouthStaffordshire, 1 from Surrey, 1from Bedfordshire and 1 fromHampshire.

As I had been in hospital theprevious week having a kneeoperation, my car (FL 16) waskindly transported to the venue byAlan Layzell who builds the cars

in Hingham, Norfolk. Ihad decided thatalthough I

would be able to cope with therun around the New Forest on oneleg, there was no way that I couldmanage the journey to and fromHampshire!Cars assembled ready to go.The weekend proper started witha trip to the organisers cabin deepin the forest for what was to bean al-fresco meal whilst watchingthe sun go down in the West.However due to the un-seasonallycold weather this turned out to bea very pleasant meal sitting around

the wood burner inside the cabin!Following an excellent evening weall retired back to the Hotel for anearly-ish night in readiness for therun organised for the followingday.

We all awoke on Saturday to theunusual sight of blue sky and

sunshine; something that had notbeen seen for weeks in the UK.After a leisurely breakfast we madeourselves ready for the days run.The route was to take us throughsome of the smaller roads throughthe New Forest with the rst stopat the Sammy Miller MotorcycleMuseum. Sammy was a leading

motorcycle trials rider back inthe 50s and 60s. Sammy himselfwelcomed the Trikings and spentsome considerable time admiringthe cars assembled.

The museum was crammed fullwith all types of motorcycles fromthe earliest to the most recent:- well

worth a visit.

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Morgan (with the correct numberof wheels)!

Small collection of the motorcycles

Our route on leaving the museumtook us through more of the Forestuntil we arrived at Bucklers Hard.This is a small village where manyships were built for the BritishNavy, including some of Nelsons

ships. We were lucky enough tovisit at low tide and as a result itwas possible to still see some ofthe wooden slipways where theboats were built.

On leaving Bucklers Hard wedrove back into the Forest for a

further 15 miles or so until wereached Bolderwood car park. Thislocation is well known as a place

where herds of Red Deer can beseen. After a few hundred metreswalk into the Forest we emergedinto a clearing where, as if on cue,we came across a herd of some 50or so Red Deer. The return run to

the hotel took us through both for-est and open heath land. The daywas rounded off with an excellentmeal in the hotel restaurant.

Sunday morning arrived with over-cast skies and a considerable dropin temperature. The participantsfrom Germany decided to start the

journey back to the channel portwhilst the weather remained fair.However some of the other carsand drivers assembled once morefor a run into Christchurch. Re-turning to the hotel at around noonthe remaining participants then leftfor their various home locations.Everyone agreed that the weekend

had been a resounding success andcongratulated the organisers fordelivering an excellent weekendand in particular laying on the bestweather for weeks!

I took away three major memoriesfrom the event: rstly the waythat other road users gave way to

our convoy of Trikings at roadjunctions even though they hadthe right of way, secondly the waypedestrians in the villages smiledand waved as we roared through,and nally the sound of 10 Trik-ings ring up when we left thevarious locations. All in all a veryenjoyable event.

Bob Smith

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Carroll Shelby1923-2012In May the passing was an-nounced of Carroll Shelby,aged 89,the amboyant Texancreator of the iconic ShelbyCobra,a car said by some tobe largely responsible for theintroduction of the 70mph speedlimit in 1965. In 1962 Shelbyteamed up with the Bristol basedAC Cars to create the AC Cobra.The popularity of the roadster,

powered by a Ford v-8 engineenabled the faltering historic carmaker to continue producingthe chassis for two seater sportscars. However, safety concernsgrew as drivers of the vehiclereached speeds of 150mph onBritains growing motorwaynetwork,leading to the Ministry

of Transport to act.In 1952 ,after a failed attempt ata chicken farming he turned tomotor racing and like so manyof his contemporaries he cut histeeth on the drag racing circuitafter which he quickly movedon to racing in MG sports carsin Sports Club of America road

races.

In one early race he wore for therst time a set of striped dunga-rees which were to become histrademark ( he had been helpingout on a friends farm earlier inthe day and kept them on for therace because he thought they

would cooler than aproper track suit

) He won

the race and he believed thedungarees brought him luck.

Offers to drive came from manywealthy sports car owners. Heraced Allards, Jaguars, Aston

Martins, Ferraris, Maseratis andPorsches. after one accident, hecontinued to race with his arm ina bre glass sling and his handtaped to the steering wheel!

Not only did he have successin the US he also made a bigimpact on the European racing

scene,winning the 24 Hr LeMans in 1959 with BritainsRoy Salvadori ( who alsopassed away shortly afterShelby),driving in eight FormulaOne Grand Prix between 1958and 1959.He set 16 USA and interna-tional speed records in an Austin

-Healy 100S.He retired from racing in 1960because of a heart condition. Heunderwent a heart transplant in1990 and a kidney transplant in1996 and became an enthusi-astic fundraiser for the WorldChildrens Transplant Fund.

After this he founded ShelbyAmerica and aimed to stormthe US road racing scene with aEuropean style sports car - theShelby Cobra-( He came up withthe name after seeing a cobra infront of the car in a dream) It wasto become the best performinglong distance Grand Touring cars

of the mid 1960s.winning manyChampionships inc the GT classat Le Mans in 1964 and the FIA

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World GT Car Championshipin 1965 beating Ferrari whichhad been the outstanding car forseveral years. Later he becameinvolved with Ford in their bigpush at Le Mans inc the GT40

Mk IV driven to victory in1967 by Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt at a then record speedcovering 5233 Kms in 388 laps.which ( 45 years later in 2012the winning car covered 5152kms in 378 laps with 3 drivers!)This also remains, to this day,the sole all-American victory

at Le Mans: an American-builtcar, prepared by an Americanteam and driven by Americandrivers.

When the winners mountedthe victory stand, Gurney washanded the traditional magnumof champagne. Looking down,

he saw Ford CEO Henry Ford

team owner Carroll Shelby andtheir wives, as well as severaljournalists who had predicteddisaster for the high-proleduo of rivals Gurney and Foyt.Instead, both drivers took

special care to drive the carwith discipline and won easily.On the victory stand, Gurneyshook the bottle and sprayedeveryone nearby, establishinga tradition reenacted in motorracing victory celebrations theworld over ever since.His racing team was closed in

1969. He returned to farmingand chilli sauce manufacture- he was co- founder of theInternational Chilli Society in1976. In later years he returnedto car production with a newgeneration of Cobra roadstersappearing in 1995.

Roy

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Some pictures from theSt. Georges Day Run between

Sheringham and Hunstantonfrom John Allan

22 NNCVC Magazine Summer 2012

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Transcript of 22 NNCVC Magazine Summer 2012