A year in old cars. Diary, September (Citroens, houses)

[Vin]

Godfather theme. Airhorns. Twice a day outside our office in East Leeds. It's the 'Cafe2U' van...(the Wilson's pie van is the Benny Hill theme)

 

That tyre re-manufacturing process looks fascinating. The works look amazing. Glad to see places like that surviving and able to carry on.

[barrett]

Right, were was I?

 

The first weekend of August - There were two events we wanted to go to, the South Gloucestershire Steam Extravaganza and the VSCC Prescott hill climb. The thinking behind the steam thing is that for some reason the Panhard club have their annual big meeting and AGM there, and steam shows are always fun if you can handle being surrounded by Do-as-they-likies. They plan was to take the 24C and the Z1 in convoy, do Steam for an afternoon, leave one car on the stand and then head to Prescott, coming back the following day. In the end the 24C decided it wouldn't play ball (actually, this last major breakdown is the one that's kept it off the road until now) so we took the Z1, which has a horrid knock (piston or crank) after it momentarily seized up in the fast lane at 85mph (I wasn't driving it at the time, luckily).

 

Anyway, we got to Southy Cerney airfield, which is bloody huge and absolutely filled with all kinds of tat. There is a great '30s control tower still being used - always the highlight of a provincial airfield

 

The Panhard boys were hoping to get a record number of cars there, but in the end they fell quite short. Nice to see a group of them in any case, it's not something that happens often. We weren't even in the scruffiest car. As a rule I don't 'do' one-make clubs, but they have been very good to us and you do need guys like this on side when you have multiple examples of an obscure marque nobody has really heard of in this country

 

This 24BT was a lesson in how our one should look, it was gorgeous (and quiet). Naturally, it broke down on the way home. Big bloke was typical of the gawkers asking stupid questions but the club folk are very patient and seem happy to explain that the cars are NOT two-stroke or NOT rear-engined or NOT Saabs or NOT Citroens or whatever a million times

 

My tolerance for talking to members of the public is precisely zero, so I slinked off for a mooch around the site. Here are some highlights

 

This thing was great. He also bought along his first effort, which looks a bit like Supervan but is based on an Ambassador

 

Lots of bikes, including another nice Bathtub and a Spakky

 

There were also hundreds of tractors and shit too. I watched a bunch of old duffers driving around a roped off arena in formation very slowly on loads of tractors whilst a guy did some solid-gold commentary for about 15 minutes. Easily one of the best bits of my whole year

 

This Traction was running a BX TD motor but looked pretty much standard outside. Reckon it's probably an ideal daily. It was built by a recently deceased Citroen specialist and was being displayed as some sort of half-arsed tribute to him, the sign on the window was really grim and fawning, but it was a nice enough car

 

After we got bored of all that we jumped in the car and headed to Prescott. the VSCC hill climb is a brilliant wekend if you like older stuff, and a good excuse to get pissed and eat rubbish burgers and watch people driving Very Old Things very fast. I was too busy doing the above to take many pics. This Turner was having a funny moment in the car park, there were loads of marshalls standing around with fire extinguishers but I couldn't work out what had happened.

 

Some Big Bugs

 

And a couple of very expensive but very lovely French bikes for sale

 

The next day it was back to South Cerney for more of the same, and then home in an increasingly unhealthy Panhard. Hopefully the engine will come out before Xmas and it'll be back together in time for Retromobile.

 

On the 9th we took the Ami up to the Cotswold Wildlife Park in Burford for Historic Specials day. This is the only 'big' meeting for horrid old plastic things and I've wanted to go since forever but not managed it until now. Predictably everyone who owns an old Special is a crashing bore, so we did a quick walk round and then came home.

 

Lots of variety even without a great number of cars on display. This Rochdale is brilliant

 

This one slightly less so, but still tidy

 

There were three Ashleys, this was the nicest. Based on prewar Singer running gear and looking like an authentic '50s car rather than a modern resto like so many of these things do

 

This was an excellent equipe. The Jag is towing an Autobee Pacemaker, one of the most unloved Specials. This is one of a handful of survivors of around 30 shells built, by a firm called Autobodies which had previously built a sort of squiffy XK140 fhc-alike. They're one of the few firms who never made a single car I'd actually want to own

 

This Buckler-chassied car was built up by Autosport magazine in the early '60s and is probably the best example of no-expsense-spared Special construction. All the bits are pukka and it ran a twin-cam MGA unit originally, not sure if it's still in place. The shell is an AKS, a sort of Alfa Guilia if you squint rep that I've always liked. Much later somebody dug the molds out and relaunched it, in much modified form, as the Moss Mamba, which proved a short-lived if useful receptacle for the oily bits from rotten Alfas in the 80s

 

This is another Buckler, a proper track car with a Microplas Mistral shell. It looked properly hairy but I've no idea what running gear it had. This is the sort of fit and finish most Mistral shells had in period, just loosely draped over a chassis as the most basic way of making a competitive sports-racer

 

The Bristol Barb is another pukka period racer - a single-seat Cooper with a Rochdale F-Type shell. The fact that it was very quick and clearly of some historical importance has saved it and it's now been nicely restored as one of the only surviving examples of an F-type shell

 

The only Falcon was this familiar scruffy Bermuda. Not Falcon's best effort, it was an attempt to make a family-friendly model out of the Caribbean shell, so it's a proper 2+2 with a fixed roof. This one is in really nice mellow condition, I don't think it's ever been restored but is a proper Oily Rag car so, looks aside, I like it very much

 

I'd never seen a Watford Cheetah before. I'm not sure how many others are left, but this one seemed to be coming along nicely. It was parked next to a Martin, another make I'd never seen in person before, but there was a fat man glued to the side of that so I didn't get a photo

 

I think this actually happened before the two events above, but August also saw the arrival of a very special new addition to the fleet. The 1952 Hotchkiss-Gregoire is a car we've been looking out for for ages, but with only 247 built they rarely come onto the market. The story behind this is quite long and boring, but it was delivered to the office and made into a runner in a couple of weekends (thanks, Panhard Gary). It still needs quite a lot of work to get it usable, and even then it's not really going to be usable at all. It's a grand folly and a fascinating insight into the confused priorities of the post-war French car market, but as a motor car it doesn't have a lot going for it beyond technical and curiosity value.

 

 

And that was pretty much it for August I reckon

[Vin]

This is fantastic Scott... 8) That 'Benson's' ERF KV is a regular on the show circuit...the 'Something good from Bury' above the windscreen always makes me chuckle...you just don't get anything like that anymore with modern signwriting...

 

Hotchkiss is certainly something...all I know is from the recent cutaway explanation from Practical Classics. Mr Glover has one does he not?

 

The first part of one of my favourite Autobiographies, 'Landscape with Machines' by LTC Rolt includes a fascinating section all about how Tom Rolt established the VSCC at Prescott before the second war with the help of the Bugatti club...Recommend.

[Alexg]

Some wonderfully obscure bits there Barratt, and that Hotchkiss is wow.

[garethj]

This Buckler-chassied car was built up by Autosport magazine in the early '60s and is probably the best example of no-expsense-spared Special construction.

 

ORLY?

 

Tatra JK2500?

 

Excellent reporting, as ever.  You're living the dream, or trying to keep old, obscure French cars going perhaps it's living the nightmare.  But brilliant stuff anyway.

[vulgalour]

This is an excellent thread and I have enjoyed it very much.  I look forward to more instalments.

[RobT]

A++ thread, wud reed again. I must make the effort and go to a VSCC meet next year, haven't been to Prescott at all this year. Love the pic of the Jag towing the plastic Special thing.

[Eddie Honda]

On the 9th we took the Ami up to the Cotswold Wildlife Park in Burford for Historic Specials day. This is the only 'big' meeting for horrid old plastic things and I've wanted to go since forever but not managed it until now. Predictably everyone who owns an old Special is a crashing bore, so we did a quick walk round and then came home.

 

I went once, over ten years ago now. I was asked to drive from Hertfordshire over to there and back in this fine automobile

 

JLK4D by E Honda, on Flickr

 

Sorry about the crap picture, but that was camera phones back in the day. Car seems to have gone off the DVLA radar, so I can only assume it got exported. Shame as it was only one of three RHD models. Probably the most expensive car I've been behind the wheel of too - at the time it was probably £40k, I suspect they go for well into six figures now.

[cort16]

Great thread, so much stuff I've never seen before. I can't imagine the work that went into that minor custom a page back.

[barrett]

Righto, September then. So much time has elapsed that this is a real struggle to remember.

 

The big event this month is the Beaulieu Autojumble. We all know what that's like. We have a stand there, and drove down in the Hotchkiss which was then displayed. Only other UK Gregoire owner Sam Glover was there too, as was Tamworth-fixated Shiter coalnotdole selling some highly covetible vintage advertising posters.

 

There is a Bonhams auction over the weekend that usually has some interesting stuff. When we went for a mooch around there was a car that wasn't in the catalgoue - a last minute late entry nobody was expecting to be there - a 1950 Studebaker Commander Starlight coupe. This has been on 'the list' for ages but they never come up for sale (there are possibly a couple of others in the UK, but even in the States the bullet-nose/starlight window is a rare combination). Fortunately, nobody knew it would be there so there wasn't much in the way of bidding. We got it for well under its bottom estimate. Playing with other people's money is great. Here it is on the way back. Silly radials got binned almost immediately.

 

I also became briefly obsessed with driving Citroens to as many Modernist buildings as I could at this time. Here is my favourite house in Horsham

 

And here is the little collection of Marcel Breuer houses in Henfield. After this photograph was taken the sticky starter came into effect and I spent about 30 minutes rocking it in gear trying to free it off, as the suspension slowly sunk. Great fun

 

The BX is great and everything, but not exactly photogenic, so me and my gaffer organised a day trip to that there London to check out some of the best buildings in a more appropriate vehicle. Main point of the day was a trip to the Isokon building. Absolutely amazing place, and the super-rational design was a great backdrop to the Ami's OTT style

 

Not far away is Goldfinger's house, which is now a NT property, though the two apartments each side are still privately-owned. Lovely.

 

Then on to Breuer's High Point II. Not great for photos and surrounded by modern tat sadly

 

And a bit further afield to these great understated David Wild houses. Owner is a 2cv enthusiast and was roused by the sound of a flat twin outside..

 

A bit later in the month is a stupid event I help organise for unrestored cars. This year it was in Rutland and we took the newly purchased Studebaker (now on proper crossplies), which did very well.

 

This is mega stressful for me, but nobody died and most people seemed to have fun. A nice variety of pre- and post-war stuff, all delightfully shonky, and great scenery. This was our lunch stop.

 

This DB HBR5 was 'car we'd most like to take home' for obvious reasons. There is a good story behind this. The guy who owns it now inherited it from his father, who bought it in the 1970s. Before this, he owned our Panhard 24C which was sold to raise funds for the DB. Back in the 50s he was a speedway rider of some success and fell in love with the Panhard flat twin engine, and was one of the earliest members of the UK club. This guy had no idea his dad's old car was still around before we got in touch - all that was learned from sending off one of those V111 forms to the DVLA

 

After that, we dropped the Stude off with a friend for some work, and drove home in the Woodie (which he had just finished fettling). And that, I think, was september in a nutshell