Vintage Cars; An Embarrassment of Four-Wheeled Riches ( 2 )

[gamba]

Hello salymap, how very interesting. Pity Australia is so far away !

I got to fly Ansons & Oxfords ( unofficially ! ) during my wartime posting to ' darkest Africa.' Plus memories of ' maintaining the airworthiness ' of my three Spitfires in 1941 at RAF Hawkinge, near Folkestone, (' Hellfire Corner ' as it was known ). a place you would no doubt know of. To see these planes again for me, would be a truly memorable event.

This prompts me to wonder if activity of this kind is taking place in this country & if so, where ? and if not, WHY NOT !!

However, I think this deserves another thread all of it's own. ( Let's give photography & vintage cars a well-earned rest ).

[mercia]

This prompts me to wonder if activity of this kind is taking place in this country & if so, where ?

a flying club in Oxfordshire is building a squadron of Spitfires

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-16286762

[gamba]

mercia, thank you.

Does this mean they're really going to fly ? With someone inside ??

I look forward to learning more on this matter.

[mercia]

Does this mean they're really going to fly ? With someone inside ??

it would appear so. here's a video of the man in-charge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ku-2dEdFk

I don't know where these sixteen live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2vEaS1yXQA&feature=related

an Anson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6QsS4rCvEA

[Chris Newman]

gamba,
(see Message 16) I am sure you will forgive me for re-mentioning my "boys' toy", my old MG Y Type. Registration YMG 23, I have just discovered that it is sitting in a a garage in London looking for an owner:

Y MG 'Y' type saloon reg. no. YMG 23. Partly restored. Original but tatty. Good engine ran in 1997. Many new parts included. Offers. View South London. Tel. 0181 XXXXXXX

I must resist temptation. I thought it correct to send this message in British Racing Green!! Amazing what the internet finds out though.

BWS
Chris

[gamba]

gamba,
(see Message 16) I am sure you will forgive me for re-mentioning my "boys' toy", my old MG Y Type. Registration YMG 23, I have just discovered that it is sitting in a a garage in London looking for an owner:

Y MG 'Y' type saloon reg. no. YMG 23. Partly restored. Original but tatty. Good engine ran in 1997. Many new parts included. Offers. View South London. Tel. 0181 XXXXXXX

I must resist temptation. I thought it correct to send this message in British Racing Green!! Amazing what the internet finds out though.

BWS
Chris

Why resist ? Am trying to place that actual model. Not much on MGs. Now an early Magnette sports would be something !

Anyway, good luck with finding a buyer.


gamba

[gamba]

Why resist ? Am trying to place that actual model. Not much on MGs. Now an early Magnette sports would be something !

Anyway, good luck with finding a buyer.


gamba

I should have said, I hope they find someone as discriminating & discerning as yourself ! These cars deserve care & affection

[gamba]

it would appear so. here's a video of the man in-charge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ku-2dEdFk

I don't know where these sixteen live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2vEaS1yXQA&feature=related

an Anson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6QsS4rCvEA

Thank you yet again, mercia. All very nostalgic. I find it hard to believe that in 1941 & at the age of 18 I had the responsibility of keeping 3 & sometimes 4 Spitfires in flying condition. This included checking, testing & covering-up for pilots who had been naughty, such as, breaking the throttle boost control & putting the rev counter needle into the red was one frequent
problem. This should be reported & the engine subject to an overhaul - no way ! They wouldn't part with their plane. So I would taxi it away over to the far side of the airfield & give it a good going over. Maximum revs, watching pressures, voltages etc., listening to the sound of the engine, feeling for any additional vibration, prop back & forth from fine to coarse pitch & anything else I could think of. If all appeared well I would repair the broken wire restricting the throttle control & return it to them. We had quite a few little secrets of this nature! It was only recently that I read that this RAF Squadron ( 91 ) was comprised partly of pilots unable to or refusing to accept RAF discipline. Many of them were foreign & were already well experienced in fighting the enemy over their own lands but too good not to have on our side.
That's enough for now. Thanks again for the links with some great pictures.

gamba

[salymap]

Thanks mercia. I managed to send the Avro Anson one to my cousin who enjoyed it too.

[anotherbob]

Asking if they had any more reasonably priced cars I was directed to a field at the back adjoining the premises.
Entering the field was, to me , eqiivalent to the first sighting of any of the worlds great treasures.

Your experience brings to mind a similar one I had, rather later, in around 1963. Unlike your splendid Allard, I had a secondhand Minivan for my first car and spent lot of my free time plotting to get something better. I lived near Rolls Royce Motors in Crewe and was friendly with the Service Manager, Les Vickers, (who had a delightful daughter Josephine).
Les used to tell me that I should get a pre-war Rolls-Bentley because "they're built like tanks and you'll never need any spares, but if you do I've got them."
With this in mind I set off for Leek in Derbyshire where "Bunty" Scott-Moncreiff regularly advertised his showrooms in the back of Motor Sport magazine, (a monthly essential). His showroom was predictably full of expensive post-war Rolls & Bentleys but he offered to show me some cheaper cars in a field at the back. Like you I was taken aback by what I saw. They were mostly Rolls & Bentleys but he had a few pre-war exotics, and one or two pre-war Yanks.
I was on the point of leaving a deposit on a Park Ward four and a quarter litre Bentley at £265 when he kindly enquired if I had considered the cost of insurance and fuel..... I hadn't.... so I did... and then drove disconsolately home in my Minivan

Incidentally Gamba......
If you haven't got it already I recommend Michael Sedgewick and Mark Gillies reference book A-Z OF CARS OF THE 1930s. It's out of print but there's a used copy on Amazon for only a fiver + p&p.

http://tinyurl.com/6rxnwce

You would enjoy it.

[gamba]

Your experience brings to mind a similar one I had, rather later, in around 1963. Unlike your splendid Allard, I had a secondhand Minivan for my first car and spent lot of my free time
plotting to get something better. I lived near Rolls Royce Motors in Crewe and was friendly with the Service Manager, Les Vickers, (who had a delightful daughter Josephine).
Les used to tell me that I should get a pre-war Rolls-Bentley because "they're built like tanks and you'll never need any spares, but if you do I've got them."
With this in mind I set off for Leek in Derbyshire where "Bunty" Scott-Moncreiff regularly advertised his showrooms in the back of Motor Sport magazine, (a monthly essential). His showroom was predictably full of expensive post-war Rolls & Bentleys but he offered to show me some cheaper cars in a field at the back. Like you I was taken aback by what I saw. They were mostly Rolls & Bentleys but he had a few pre-war exotics, and one or two pre-war Yanks.
I was on the point of leaving a deposit on a Park Ward four and a quarter litre Bentley at £265 when he kindly enquired if I had considered the cost of insurance and fuel..... I hadn't.... so I did... and then drove disconsolately home in my Minivan

Incidentally Gamba......
If you haven't got it already I recommend Michael Sedgewick and Mark Gillies reference book A-Z OF CARS OF THE 1930s. It's out of print but there's a used copy on Amazon for only a fiver + p&p.

http://tinyurl.com/6rxnwce

You would enjoy it.

anotherbob, I'll have a look for the book - but what a sad outcome to your chances of having something really special.