New Zealand Rolls-Royce & Bentley Club Inc - The Enthusiasts ...
New Zealand Rolls-Royce & Bentley Club Inc - The Enthusiasts ...
New Zealand Rolls-Royce & Bentley Club Inc - The Enthusiasts ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong><br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> &<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> <strong>Club</strong> <strong>Inc</strong><br />
Issue 12-1, 2012<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 1
NZRR&BC MAGAZINE<br />
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE<br />
CHAIRMAN Michael Midgley<br />
RD 1, Culverden, Nth Canterbury 7391<br />
Phone 03 315 6445 or Mobile 0274 148 145<br />
Email midgleym@xtra.co.nz<br />
IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN Richard Hadfield<br />
242 Sunnyside Road, R.D.3 Albany 0793<br />
Phone: 09 448 2248<br />
Email oldie@ihug.co.nz<br />
SECRETARY Geoff Walls<br />
4/3 Karitane Drive, Cashmere, Christchurch<br />
Phone 03 332 6387 or Mobile 021 786 652<br />
Email geoff@wallsnz.net<br />
TREASURER Philip Eilenberg<br />
3B 21 George Street, Parnell, Auckland<br />
Phone: 09 374 5901 or Mobile 021 928 041<br />
Email peilenbergnz@gmail.com<br />
MEMBERSHIP REGISTRAR Rob Carthew<br />
85A Wharewaka Road, Taupo<br />
Phone 07 377 4117<br />
Email watcher@pl.net<br />
TECHNICAL LIAISON OFFICER Post WW2 Roy Tilley<br />
204a Waiwhetu Road, Lower Hutt<br />
Phone 04 566 0850 Fax 04 586 2937 Email rmt@xtra.co.nz<br />
TECHNICAL LIAISON OFFICER Pre WW2 Eddie Riddle<br />
1 Wickliffe St, Mosgiel 9024<br />
Phone 03 489 5774 Email edjoyr@xtra.co.nz<br />
MAGAZINE EDITOR Tom King<br />
191 Sparks Road, Christchurch 8025<br />
Phone 03 339-8309 or Mobile 0275 880 767<br />
Email the.king@xtra.co.nz<br />
WEB MASTER Bob Barbour<br />
27 O’Leary Road, R.D.1 Pokeno 2471<br />
Phone 09 236 6556 or Mobile 027 280 7902<br />
Email gotalife@ps.gen.nz<br />
NATIONAL EVENTS CO-ORDINATOR Rob Carthew<br />
85A Wharewaka Road, Taupo<br />
Phone 07 377 4117<br />
Email watcher@pl.net<br />
NORTHERN REGION<br />
CHAIRMAN Glynn Williams<br />
24 Franklin Road, Freemans Bay, Auckland 1011<br />
Phone 09 378 7632<br />
Email glynngwilliams@yahoo.com<br />
SECRETARY Susie Williams<br />
37 Maxwelton Drive, Mairangi Bay.<br />
Phone 09 478 3995 or Mobile 021 367 683<br />
Email suehowiewilliams@gmail.com<br />
CENTRAL REGION<br />
CHAIRMAN Roy Tilley<br />
204a Waiwhetu Road, Lower Hutt<br />
Phone 04 566 0850<br />
Email rmt@xtra.co.nz<br />
SECRETARY Martin Taylor<br />
24 Rangiora Avenue, Kaiwharawhara, Wellington<br />
Phone 04 470-7666<br />
Email Porsche@globe.net.nz<br />
SOUTHERN REGION<br />
CHAIRMAN Keith Hunter<br />
1/12 Heywood Terrace, Richmond, Christchurch 7391<br />
Phone 03 315-6445 or Mobile 0274 148 145<br />
Email midgleym@xtra.co.nz<br />
SECRETARY Tom King<br />
191 Sparks Road, Christchurch 8025<br />
Phone 03 339-8309 or Mobile 0275 880 767<br />
Email the.king@xtra.co.nz<br />
NEW ZEALAND ROLLS-ROYCE & BENTLEY CLUB (INC)<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Bentley</strong> badge and <strong>Bentley</strong> name are registered trademarks of<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Motors Limited.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> badge and <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> name are registered<br />
trademarks of <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> plc.<br />
Membership<br />
MEMBERSHIP of the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> & <strong>Bentley</strong> <strong>Club</strong>, <strong>Inc</strong> is open to anyone with an interest in these two<br />
distinguished marques, whether or not they are the owner of a <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> or <strong>Bentley</strong>. Your Membership SUBSCRIPTION<br />
includes the <strong>Club</strong> Magazine (6 issues annually), the right to attend all <strong>Club</strong> events and activities, and to partake in <strong>Club</strong><br />
management.<br />
FEES: Registration Fee $ 10.00 (once only)<br />
Membership Fee<br />
$115.00 (annual, reduced to $100 for prompt payment)<br />
Family membership $ 5.00 (annual)<br />
CONTACT Membership Registrar NZ <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> & <strong>Bentley</strong> <strong>Club</strong>, <strong>Inc</strong><br />
Rob Carthew, 85A Wharewaka Road ,Taupo<br />
Phone: (07) 377 4117 Email: watcher@pl.net or www.nzrrbc.co.nz ,<br />
then APPLICATION FORM<br />
<strong>Club</strong> Shop<br />
BOOKS<br />
From the Shadow’s Corner by Cal West, Product Support Manager, <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Motors <strong>Inc</strong>, USA. A compilation of<br />
technical articles, specific to the Silver Shadow and its derivatives, reprinted from <strong>The</strong> Flying Lady. We include a set of<br />
reprints of Know Your Silver Shadow from the <strong>Club</strong> magazine in recent years. $80 per copy including P & P.<br />
Silver Cloud/S Series Reprints 1955-1966: A compilation of technical articles from <strong>The</strong> Flying Lady specific to these<br />
cars. $20 per copy including P & P.<br />
CHASSIS RECORDS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Company’s Construction Records, which accompanied every <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> chassis (since 1931)<br />
through its production at Derby or Crewe, are a valuable resource for subsequent owners. <strong>The</strong>y detail the original order,<br />
any special equipment, and the results of tests and inspections prior to dispatch. <strong>The</strong> records for all cars over 10 years<br />
old are held by the RREC in the UK, and copies are available to members of that <strong>Club</strong>. <strong>The</strong> number of pages for early<br />
cars may be up to 20 or more. Records for a Silver Shadow can amount to even more pages and cost around $NZ150.<br />
To obtain a copy of your car’s records, contact the <strong>Club</strong>’s Post WW2 Technical Liaison Officer, Roy Tilley, on 04 566<br />
0850 e-mail rmt@xtra.co.nz<br />
ADVERTISING – pages 22 to 27<br />
Classified advertisements pertaining to <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> are free to Financial Members who do not deal<br />
regularly in <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> or <strong>Bentley</strong> cars or services. All classified advertisements must be submitted to the<br />
Editor, Tom King, Phone 03 339 8309, e-mail the.king@xtra.co.nz 191 Sparks Road, Christchurch 8025.<br />
Commercial advertisements will be the subject of a charge to the advertiser. Colour advertisements are charged<br />
at $220 per half page and $300 for full page, payable to the NZRR&BC <strong>Inc</strong>.<br />
Sister <strong>Club</strong>s<br />
Many of us belong to several motoring clubs, ranging from the Automobile Association to perhaps the<br />
Zundapp Fanciers’ <strong>Club</strong>, and including along the way the Vintage Car <strong>Club</strong> of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>; the oldest<br />
established British clubs, <strong>The</strong> Veteran Car <strong>Club</strong>, <strong>The</strong> Vintage Sports Car <strong>Club</strong>, and <strong>The</strong> <strong>Bentley</strong> Drivers’<br />
<strong>Club</strong>; and our sister clubs, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> of Australia, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’<br />
<strong>Club</strong> in Britain, and <strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> in America.<br />
All these clubs produce excellent magazines, and your editor is lucky enough to receive our sister clubs’<br />
publications on behalf of our <strong>Club</strong> on a quid pro quo basis. <strong>The</strong>y are held in the bit of the library which<br />
is at 191 Sparks Road, Christchurch 8025, and SAE will have copies speeding to anyone interested.<br />
Otherwise, the current strength of our dollar might make membership of other clubs more practicable than<br />
usual, and membership of RREC is £87 annually, plus £30 one-off joining fee.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> in North America has made the following announcement, through Sabu<br />
Advani, the editor of the RROC’s <strong>The</strong> Flying Lady.<br />
“Digital Memberships - <strong>The</strong> Virtual Way to Go! Members outside of North America are NOW eligible<br />
to join the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> as an International Digital Member, at less than half of the cost of<br />
traditional club members—just $US30. This eliminates two key obstacles for overseas recipients of the<br />
magazine: shipping cost and transit time.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> exact details of this new programme are still being evaluated and may change once we have a better<br />
idea of what people desire. Meanwhile, contact RROC HQ www.rroc.org to sign up—and do tell your<br />
friends who might be interested in this new option but would have no way of learning about it unless you<br />
tell them.<br />
“In addition to <strong>The</strong> Flying Lady as a PDF file you will receive <strong>The</strong> Event Lady and the Luxury Travel Guide<br />
by email, and you will have full access to the RROC’s www.rroc.org website including the Discussion<br />
Forum which gives you instant, 24/7 access to advice and feedback from members worldwide on how<br />
to repair and restore your motorcar. Last but not least, this level of membership will also give you the<br />
opportunity to vote in RROC elections by email.”<br />
From the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> of Australia we have received “Overseas Subscription for Præclarvm:<br />
Præclarvm is pleased to announce that it is now able to accept subscriptions directly from Overseas <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> enthusiasts. <strong>The</strong> cost is $A99 per annum worldwide (postage inclusive).<br />
All enquiries should be directed to: RROCA Præclarvm Overseas Subscription, the Treasurer, John<br />
Hiscox, 74 Rose Avenue, Wheeler Heights, NSW, Australia, 2097 or email: treasurer@rroc.org.au<br />
CLOSING DATE FOR NEXT MAGAZINE: Deadline for receipt of all material for Issue 12-2 is 22 March 2012.<br />
Cover:John King’s photograph was taken at Makarora during the Vintage Car <strong>Club</strong> of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>’s 1972 International Rally.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Bentley</strong>s are Bob Beardsley’s 4½/3 litre, chassis SL3065, and Geoff Owen’s 3 litre, chassis 1215. <strong>The</strong> chap in Gents’ Natty<br />
Shirting is John’s co-driver, Peter Felton. Your editor was supposed to have filled that role, but got married instead.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 2
Mainland Comment<br />
Well, let’s just forget 2011, with its disasters natural, man-made<br />
and man-exacerbated; the losses of family and friends, livelihood<br />
and material; so here’s to 2012 and its opportunities. So far the<br />
summer in <strong>The</strong> Mainland has been dry and pleasant (unless you<br />
are a farmer) while in parts of <strong>The</strong> Appendage we hear that it has<br />
been quite wet. One advantage of being on holiday is the absence<br />
of news, whether papers, radio, or television, and no longer is<br />
there the need to reach for the off or mute buttons once members<br />
of the Click family (or their relatives the Argh-Clicks) appear.<br />
We spent a week with family in Sydney, where <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> was<br />
not mentioned at all in the news, and the Australian Broadcasting<br />
Corporation’s classical station was featuring the compositions of<br />
some of the American songwriters from the era when they were<br />
worth listening to.<br />
During our last afternoon we visited the home of Margaret and<br />
Barrie Gillings. Time passed very quickly during the tour of the<br />
garden, where Barrie specialises in bonsai trees and about sixty<br />
varied citrus trees, and has devised ingenious irrigation systems<br />
draining from large rainwater tanks with micro-switches activated<br />
by the difference in weight between dry and wet “wettex” cloths.<br />
He is the world’s leading authority on <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> mascots, and<br />
showed us the process he where employs his dentistry skills to<br />
reproduce duplicate mascots on commission. <strong>The</strong>se are used to<br />
replace the originals, which can then be placed in secure storage,<br />
and the cars used happily.<br />
We went for a drive in Barrie’s very early <strong>Bentley</strong> T Type.<br />
Chassis SBH1288 puts it in the first three hundred Silver Shadows<br />
or <strong>Bentley</strong>s built. It was bought new by a visiting Australian in<br />
1966, and well cared for over a low mileage since, with Brewster<br />
Green paintwork having replaced the original grey. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
time to look at the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>s in the basement. <strong>The</strong>y comprise<br />
“Christopher,” the 1910 40/50 Chassis 1492 (get it?) which Barrie<br />
bought in 1958, ‘Mona” the 1930 Phantom II Hooper Limousine-<br />
Landaulette 147GN which they bought in Britain in 1961, and the<br />
1926 20 h.p. GZK12, re-bodied in 1934 by Martin and King as a<br />
saloon in place of its original Barker tourer body.<br />
Barrie and Margaret had invited other Sydney based members of<br />
the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Owners’ <strong>Club</strong> of Australia over that afternoon,<br />
and it was a pleasure to meet David and Diana Berthon; Brian<br />
Crump and Steve Berveling; and David and Linda Neely.<br />
Margaret Gillings edits the <strong>New</strong> South Wales <strong>New</strong>sletter London<br />
and Derby and was the first contact your editor had with the sister<br />
clubs beyond <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>. That was particularly important in<br />
our raising and maintaining the standard of our magazine. David<br />
Berthon has taken over from Margaret the editorship of the<br />
quarterly <strong>New</strong>sletter of the 20-Ghost <strong>Club</strong> Australian Chapter<br />
(<strong>Inc</strong>), our member David Neely was of course editor of the<br />
RROCA’s Præclarvm for seven years, and Brian Crump is the<br />
new President of the N.S.W. Branch of the RROCA. As a strange<br />
coincidence, there were two copies of the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Phantom II<br />
catalogue to hand, and in this photograph David Neely and Brian<br />
Crump are noting the differences in listed coachwork and prices,<br />
while Barrie Gillies is ready as always with his camera.<br />
Before we had to dash away on great-nephew retrieval duty, it was<br />
a pleasure to be part of the obvious fun this group of enthusiasts<br />
and friends have. <strong>The</strong> N.S.W. Branch is organising the Federal<br />
Rally during the autumn of 2014, and what fun it would be to be<br />
present, even as observers, at that event.<br />
As we go to press the Vero Rally is under way, with many <strong>Club</strong><br />
members participating and organising, and it should be a great<br />
event. <strong>The</strong> cover picture was taken by John King during the 1972<br />
Vintage Car club of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>’s International Rally.<br />
We are priviliged to have permission to reprint Tom Clarke’s<br />
article about Neville Minchin on Page 7 in this issue. Tom is one<br />
of the leading <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> historians of our generation, and it was<br />
a pleasure to meet him, as well as Bernard King, at the RREC<br />
Annual Rally at Castle Rockingham last year.<br />
Our new member Alan Race has advised that the image on Page<br />
3 of 11-6 is not of their Silver Spirit SACSZ003FCH13705, but<br />
depicts its replacement in Henry and Joy Green’s motor house.<br />
Sorry, Alan and Jill; here is Alan’s photograph of the correct car,<br />
taken on a recent visit to Oamaru.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following notice has arrived from an Auckland friend: “Latest<br />
petition to save Western Springs Speedway in Auckland. If you<br />
don’t like the way people move close to circuits and then complain<br />
about the noise, the Western Springs Speedway in Auckland is one<br />
the ‘THE’ venues you/we all must try to protect. Please follow<br />
the link below & sign the petition (and don’t forget to forward<br />
the petition to other people you think would like to support this<br />
historic venue) http://www.speedwayclub.co.nz/signpetition.php”<br />
Ray and Sandra White<br />
P.O. Box 109177<br />
<strong>New</strong>market<br />
Auckland 1001<br />
‘Phones (09) 420 4881 and 0274 886 186<br />
2008 <strong>Bentley</strong> Continental GT Speed<br />
<strong>New</strong> Members<br />
Geoffrey Going<br />
42 Carlton Road<br />
Pukekohe 2120<br />
‘Phones (09) 238 0685 and 0274 511 4341986<br />
1986 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Silver Spirit Chassis SCAZS0001FCH13038<br />
Registration 1 ROYCE<br />
In June 2013 the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’ <strong>Club</strong> is organising a Centenary Celebration of the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> success in the 1913 Alpine Trails.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir Past Chairman, Tony James, writes: “If you or any of your colleagues would like further information, please contact the prime organiser of the<br />
rally, who is Len Meades - e-mail lenmeades@btinternet.com or Tel: +44 (0)1346 730 373.”<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 3
Southern Region Report<br />
Geoff Walls, our National Secretary, had the idea<br />
for a summer picnic run, incorporating a drive<br />
home to take advantage of the long summer<br />
evenings, when the countryside blooms in<br />
the late light. Original plans were for a Banks<br />
Peninsula event, but we instead went north,<br />
through the limestone country of the Weka Pass,<br />
meeting at cafés at Leithfield and Amberley.<br />
With four <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>s, six <strong>Bentley</strong>s, and<br />
twenty-three people, we gathered for lunch at<br />
Waiau and on the Leader River to the north. We<br />
descended upon our National Chairman to see<br />
progress on his house, and had an early dinner at<br />
the Rotherham Hotel.<br />
<strong>The</strong> long daylight was particularly appreciated<br />
on the drive south to Christchurch, as Geoff’s<br />
Mark VI <strong>Bentley</strong> kept cutting out at the most<br />
inconvenient times, and the hazard flashing<br />
system on one of the more modern <strong>Bentley</strong>s on<br />
the run was useful for letting traffic know that<br />
we had a problem. <strong>The</strong> problem was solved by<br />
George Calder, who found that a second capacitor added to the<br />
ignition circuit beside the distributor seemed to be fighting with the<br />
probable original equipment still installed, and after elimination of<br />
(Above) Southern Region cars, six <strong>Bentley</strong>s<br />
and four <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>s, three from Derby and<br />
seven from Crewe, parked in the small North<br />
Canterbury town of Waiau.<br />
(Left) Ramon Farmer, in his copyrighted shorts,<br />
is pointing out the differences between the<br />
Lucas R100 headlamps on Gavin Bain’s 1935<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> 3½ litre Thrupp & Maberly saloon<br />
B29FC, and those on his 1937 4¼ litre Park<br />
Ward saloon B175KU, to Karen and George<br />
Calder. That is their Mark VI H.J. Mulliner<br />
saloon B67HP in the background.<br />
(Below) Our Past Chairman Dr Henry Green<br />
and Joy had an early start from Ashburton<br />
in their <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Silver Spirit, chassis<br />
CH57139, to join us at Amberley, so elected<br />
to stay the night in Culverden, after dinner at<br />
Rotherham.<br />
surplus bits, and thorough cleaning of contacts, Geoff has enjoyed<br />
flawless running from B274MD.<br />
Thanks, Geoff, and to all members and friends who attended.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 4
Dynamic Crankshaft Balancers<br />
by Eddie Riddle<br />
<strong>The</strong> crankshaft dynamic balancer on my 20/25 needed an overhaul. It is of the later low inertia type.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se notes are meant to assist fellow owners resolve the problems of replacing the fabric washers.<br />
In general the details given in RR/E5 are followed. Addition information was obtained from <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Small Horsepower Engines.<br />
This is an excellent book published by the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’ <strong>Club</strong>. (Editor’s Note: to his regret, he does not have this book, but<br />
Roy Tilley is happy to copy its wisdom from his, and a stamped addressed envelope to Roy will have it added to yours.)<br />
Once the balancer was dismantled and cleaned it became obvious that all the friction surfaces would need to be re-ground. This was<br />
straightforward except for the surface on the spring plate. I used the back flywheel as the mounting and bolted the spring plate to it with<br />
the friction surface facing outwards. It is necessary to fit packing material between the flywheel and the spring plate to stop it flexing<br />
when grinding is attempted. <strong>The</strong> correct packing is 0.375 inches. I used some spare tool steel pieces. This packing is just sufficient to<br />
stop the spring plate from flexing while the surface is re-ground.<br />
Grind all the surfaces so that they are flat and free from any pits.<br />
Now the problem of new friction washers; I decided to try using a different material. (I couldn’t locate any canvas washers anyway) A<br />
suggestion was made in the <strong>Rolls</strong> <strong>Royce</strong> Small Horsepower Engines book to try using a material called “Tufnol”.<br />
“Tufnol” is a material used extensively in the electrical industry for insulation. It comes in various shapes like tubes, solid rod and sheet<br />
form in a range of thicknesses. It is unaffected by oil and is easily machined.<br />
I started by machining up two washers cut from 1.6mm sheet. This is the thinnest they make.<br />
<strong>The</strong> outer diameter is 5.875” and the inner diameter is 4.1875”. Check the maximum diameter that you can fit into the rear flywheel,<br />
mine was as stated.<br />
It will be necessary to thin down these washers by grinding.<br />
My original cotton washers were 0.045” thick. <strong>The</strong>y were obviously worn so I started by reducing the thickness to 0.055”. Upon trying<br />
them for thickness in the damper I could just get slippage to occur at 25lb. I was aiming for slippage at 12-14lb. After much trial and<br />
error I achieved the desired slippage. <strong>The</strong> discs were now 0.05”.<br />
In order to assist anybody making new discs of the correct thickness the following are the actual dimensions of my friction surfaces.<br />
Rear flywheel 0.385”<br />
Centre plate 0.068”<br />
Spring 0.115”<br />
Tufnol washers 0.05”<br />
Some hints that may be of assistance.<br />
• You must remove the glazed surface of the Tufnol. Use fine wet and dry sandpaper, about 280 grit.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> ground friction surfaces must be true to the face of the flywheels. 0.001” is enough to cause trouble.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> discs must be parallel and radially true.<br />
• Ensure that there is no disc material particles trapped in the friction surfaces.<br />
• Oil all friction surfaces on assembly.<br />
I found any of these points are sufficient to give inconsistent results.<br />
Cadillac Plastics are the NZ agents for the Tufnol range of materials. <strong>The</strong>ir advice was to use “Tufnol Lynx” for the washers as this<br />
material is recommended for clutch plates and frictional couplings.<br />
Cadillac Plastics are a NZ and worldwide firm, and very willing to sell small quantities. My material cost $12 for two discs.<br />
When it came to making a mandrel to mount the balancer on for slippage tests, I machined up a piece of 1.5” exhaust tubing with the<br />
necessary fingers cut in the end so as to fit into the centre plate. I found no need to go to the trouble of making the mandrel out of solid<br />
with a matching taper. <strong>The</strong> tube worked fine.<br />
Having read the excellent series of articles written by Michael Forrest with regard to slipper drives I decide to try his method of<br />
obtaining cotton washers. (Editor’s Note: these <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’ <strong>Club</strong> Bulletins are held in your editor’s library. A stamped<br />
addressed envelope will have them in yours.)<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are a series of articles, which appeared in <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’ <strong>Club</strong> Bulletins, as follows:<br />
“Slippers” B212 pages 52-59 Sept/Oct 1995<br />
“Ladies Page” B213 pages 40-45 Nov/Dec 1995<br />
“Cotton Slippers” B214 pages 38-46 Jan/Feb 1996<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Slipper Drive” B223 page 51 July/Aug 1997<br />
“Slipper Saga Sequel” B226 pages 58-60 Jan/Feb 1998<br />
<strong>The</strong> article, “Ladies Page” was the basis for my attempt to make cotton washers. I followed the instructions to the letter with the<br />
following additions:<br />
• <strong>The</strong> required wick is 7/8 inch wide.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> correct length (using Michael’s formula) for my 20/25 drive is 17.178 inches measured linearly.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> cotton wick available in this country is made somewhat differently from that which is described in the article.<br />
• If you look very carefully at the structure of the wick you will find it has a thread running across the wick at each weave change. <strong>The</strong><br />
best place to see this is to fluff out the end of a piece of wick by dividing the two sides of the wick with a screwdriver or some such<br />
tool. <strong>The</strong> thread is now apparent.<br />
• Start by cutting this thread somewhere in the middle of the piece of wick to be thinned. It is now just a matter of picking the thread<br />
back to the boundaries you have marked. You must make sure that the thread is actually back to the boundary and not one thread<br />
less. Trouble is brewing if you don’t.(guess how I am so sure) At this point you will have the strands of the wick with nothing tying<br />
them together. This is what you are striving for. Now cut back the one side of the wick as described in the article. In my case it was<br />
12 or 13 strands depending on which side of the wick you choose. Each strand is made up of three separate pieces of cotton.<br />
• Pay particular attention to removing the correct side of the wick as detailed in the article, otherwise you get a lump at each end of the<br />
join.<br />
• I can’t emphasize enough, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ARTICLES TO THE LETTER.<br />
My washers turned out just fine. <strong>The</strong> proof or otherwise will be in how long they last.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 5
Fitting an Additional S.U. Fuel Pump by Eddie Riddle<br />
A low-pressure SU pump was added to my 20/25 during the<br />
restoration. <strong>The</strong> reasons were twofold, one in event of a problem<br />
with the Autovac on a run, and two as a means of starting the motor<br />
when the Autovac had no fuel in it without the risk of flattening<br />
the battery.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pump was fitted alongside the Autovac, and mounted on the<br />
firewall. In my case the positioning of the pump was very limited<br />
due to space. Other positions were considered, such as between<br />
the fuel filter and the carburettor, and in the fuel line between the<br />
Autovac and the fuel filter. <strong>The</strong> position chosen was the best in<br />
my case.<br />
Wherever the pump is positioned several points need to be noted:<br />
• If the pump is inserted in the fuel line to the Autovac<br />
input, it will be necessary to fit a stopcock in the line<br />
above the pump inlet point but below the input to the<br />
Autovac. This is because the Autovac outer tank is open<br />
to the atmosphere and the inner tank will be empty hence<br />
the pump will simply suck air rather the fuel from the<br />
supply tank.<br />
• If the pump is positioned in the other sites mentioned<br />
there would still be a problem. Once the carburettor bowl<br />
is full, the pump will continue to pump fuel, this time into<br />
the Autovac via the fuel valve with nothing to limit the<br />
flow. It will eventually fill the Autovac allowing fuel to<br />
flow out for the top of the Autovac and onto the exhaust<br />
pipe. This problem also exists in the site I choose.<br />
• A low-pressure SU pump will lift fuel at least 30” above<br />
its inlet point before it starts to fail. <strong>The</strong> problem is worse<br />
for the later high-pressure type.<br />
• Special precautions were taken to ensure that deliberate<br />
steps must be made to run the pump. <strong>The</strong> aim was to<br />
avoid accidentally running the pump and have the<br />
Autovac operate at the same time.<br />
Filling the carburettor when the Autovac is empty<br />
Fit the removable plug, shut the stopcock and allow the pump to<br />
fill the carburettor bowl, about 20 seconds is plenty. REMOVE<br />
the PLUG, and open the stopcock<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is provision on the SU pump mount to fit a special plug.<br />
(the plug is kept in the glove box)<br />
• Close the stopcock in the input pipe to the Autovac<br />
• Fit the special plug (it will only fit one way)<br />
• Turn on the ignition switch<br />
Let the pump run for about a minute. <strong>The</strong> time is not critical, as<br />
the aim is to fill the carburettor bowl and get some fuel into the<br />
Autovac.<br />
• Turn the ignition switch off.<br />
• Remove the special plug<br />
• Open the stopcock in the input pipe to the Autovac<br />
• Start the motor as normal<br />
Operating the pump if the Autovac fails<br />
If it becomes necessary to operate the SU pump during a run then,<br />
the suction pipe to the Autovac should be disconnected at the inlet<br />
manifold and a blanking plug fitted to the manifold. <strong>The</strong> stopcock<br />
should be closed. <strong>The</strong> pump is supplied with electricity via a<br />
removable plug, which is fed the ignition switch.<br />
“Tee” pieces were fitted to the pipe from the Autovac to the<br />
carburettor and the pipe from the fuel supply valve to the inner<br />
tank of the Autovac. See the drawing sheet for details of the<br />
mounting bracket for the pump, and the special “Tee” fitted to the<br />
fuel pipe feed to the Autovac.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘Tee” in the pipe from the Autovac to the carburettor was<br />
fitted close to the union on the Autovac, Shorten the length of the<br />
“T” as much as possible, cut the pipe (remove the equivalent length<br />
of the “T”) and solder in position at the correct angle. Standard ¼”<br />
copper pipe was used to connect to the pump.<br />
<strong>The</strong> “Tee” in the pipe from the fuel valve to the Autovac requires<br />
careful positioning, <strong>The</strong> “T” outlet should be about 2.5” above the<br />
fuel valve union and pointing towards the radiator. A short piece<br />
of flexible fuel line was used to connect to the pump. This “T” is<br />
5/16”<br />
George Urquhart’s<br />
grandson during the<br />
recent engine overhaul<br />
George has undertaken<br />
on GSY12 in preparation<br />
for the Vero Rally at<br />
Wanganui, clearly<br />
showing that George’s<br />
car has an additional<br />
Autovac fitted in place<br />
of the S.U. fuel pump<br />
mentioned in Eddie<br />
Riddle’s article.<br />
Space constraints in this<br />
magazine have meant<br />
that George’s account<br />
and photographs will<br />
appear in 12-2.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 6
A Silver Lady Under My Bonnet: Neville Minchin, an Appreciation<br />
© Tom Clarke, 2002<br />
Author’s note: this article first appeared as a booklet to accompany the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Foundation’s reprint in 2002 of Minchin’s crime<br />
novel ‘N.7’ (hard to find in the original) and the first-ever publication of his novel ‘Murder in the Monte Carlo Rally’. This publishing<br />
milestone was initiated and heroically researched by Mrs. Mermie Karger of Pennsylvania. <strong>The</strong> two books with the booklet are available<br />
from the RROC’s Store at 191 Hempt Rd., Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., PA 17050 for $40.00 or from the RREC <strong>Club</strong><br />
Shop. <strong>The</strong> novels make memorable reading with their many <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> cars prominent.<br />
1. An historic 1913 line-up of three 1908<br />
Darracqs that had raced in the Four <strong>Inc</strong>h<br />
Tourist Trophy race on the Isle of Man 24 th<br />
September 1908 (with engines of 100 x 160<br />
m.m. 5027c.c.). From the left, Malcolm<br />
Campbell (1885-1948) in LN-870; Kenelm<br />
Lee Guinness (1887-1937) in LN-9513 which<br />
he drove into 2 nd place; and Neville Minchin<br />
in his Darracq as acquired from Campbell,<br />
seen carrying his usual registration BJ-578<br />
and which came 3 rd in 1908 driven by Arthur<br />
George. <strong>The</strong> photograph first appeared in <strong>The</strong><br />
Autocar on 3 May 1913 but Minchin claimed<br />
it was taken on the indicated 19 th July 1913 on<br />
the image, the day of Campbell’s wedding and<br />
outside his house in Bromley, Kent. Minchin<br />
wrote to Veteran & Vintage Magazine (June<br />
1969 p.285 and November 1969 p.60) to<br />
submit the photograph and to explain that it<br />
was in the summer even though the trees were<br />
bare! However, English weather isn’t that<br />
bad and it is clear that the photograph was<br />
taken much earlier in the year, around April,<br />
and simply signed on the day of Campbell’s<br />
wedding. In 1914 Minchin acquired from Campbell his 50/60 h.p. Darracq, a ‘Blue Bird’, which Minchin modernised with a Mann Egerton body, 4-<br />
speed gearbox, and Rudge Whitworth wheels before ‘attaching’ BJ-578 once more. It was later sold in Ireland and lost in a fire.<br />
Throughout his long life Neville Minchin was a <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> man in every sense. As a member of the upper middle class, and<br />
with ample means, he mixed with many distinguished figures. As a businessman he knew <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> as a company and was friendly<br />
with <strong>Royce</strong> and Ernest Hives (later Lord Hives, Works Manager at the company). As a motorist he extolled the virtues of the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> through his ownership of many different models. And as an author he wrote two motoring classics and a more minor work which<br />
put <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> at the forefront. In fact, without Minchin much information about <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> history and its aura would have been<br />
lost.<br />
Early life<br />
George Robert Neville Minchin was born at Windsor, Berkshire, on 24 th September 1888, the son of Professor George Minchin.<br />
His parents were Irish and their Catholic faith sustained Minchin all his life. One branch of the family, the Bells, enabled Minchin to<br />
claim his great uncle as Alexander Graham Bell, the Edinburgh-born inventor of the telephone. As Minchin relates in ‘Under my bonnet’,<br />
his father was professor of applied mathematics at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill near Englefield Green in<br />
Surrey. All his life Minchin relished mentioning the great and famous whom he knew or met so it is no great surprise to learn that Queen<br />
Victoria herself once stopped her carriage in Windsor Great Park to examine Minchin in his pram! He attended Scaitcliffe Preparatory<br />
School at Englefield Green, and from 1902 Tonbridge, a fine<br />
public school in Kent, before going up to Christ’s College at<br />
Cambridge University in 1907 and taking his M.A. in 1910.<br />
<strong>The</strong> family had moved to Oxford around 1908 when Professor<br />
Minchin joined Queen’s College.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first motor-cars<br />
His days at Cambridge saw Minchin confirmed in his<br />
love of sporting cars. He learned to drive on an Argyll in 1907.<br />
In those halcyon days of Edwardian England and in the early<br />
post-War years he kept company, both on the track and socially,<br />
with the racing fraternity. Guy Knowles (later the originator of<br />
the Iris ‘I ride in silence’ car) became a great friend. A fellow<br />
undergraduate was E. H. Lees who in due course came to own<br />
the original 1911 London to Edinburgh Silver Ghost chassis<br />
1701. Minchin drove this car several times, sometimes reaching<br />
78 m.p.h. His own transport at Cambridge was more mundane,<br />
a 1905 3 h.p. Triumph motorcycle purchased in 1907, replaced<br />
soon after with a 1907 model and several others. In 1910 he<br />
Minchin’s first car in 1910, a Sizaire et Naudin, registered BJ-578.<br />
bought a single-cylinder Sizaire et Naudin car from Mann<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 7
Egerton which, like other sporting motorists, he used untaxed! Twenty-six further cars followed, mostly high performance types. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
were all registered illicitly as BJ-578 (the plate formerly on a steam traction engine) which Minchin had ‘picked up’ off the floor when<br />
buying the Sizaire and had not registered with the authorities!<br />
<strong>The</strong> 40 h.p.<br />
Metallurgique,<br />
which Minchin<br />
called a 20/60<br />
h.p., and his then<br />
girlfriend.<br />
Married and business life<br />
In 1914 Minchin first married Gwendolen Maud Slack (b.1891), the daughter of Sir John Bamford-Slack (d.1909) and step-daughter<br />
of architect Sir Banister Fletcher. It seems there was a divorce after 1938 and she predeceased him on 10 th September 1975. On 20 th<br />
November 1940 (though not recorded in official records) Minchin next married Miss Gladys (middle name Grace) whose family<br />
name also cannot be traced and whom he affectionately called Gipsy. <strong>The</strong>re were no children of either marriage. <strong>The</strong> life Minchin and<br />
Gwendolen, and then Minchin and Gladys, had together was a very sociable one of travel, race meetings, and tennis parties. Minchin<br />
competed in tennis tournaments although his motoring interest did not extend to participating in races. He preferred to stay on friendly<br />
terms with the famous racing drivers who attended Brooklands and Continental events. Not only did he have a gift for friendship but<br />
perhaps too an eye for what was good for his battery business.<br />
Pritchett & Gold later merged with the Electrical Power Storage Co., founded in 1882 and Minchin served here for the rest of his<br />
business life, becoming chairman in 1939. It was his link to Peto & Radford who supplied batteries for <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> cars that brought<br />
him into contact with Henry <strong>Royce</strong> (1863-1933). In the last years of the nineteenth century Pritchett Brothers were agents in the south of<br />
England for <strong>Royce</strong> Ltd. dynamos. <strong>The</strong>se were used with Pritchett batteries for domestic electricity in country houses. Later, as Pritchett<br />
& Gold, the company had new factories at Dagenham in Essex (opposite what would later be the gigantic Ford works) and it was for<br />
Pritchett & Gold that <strong>Royce</strong> made an electric motor in 1902 for use in a Pritchett motor-car. Pritchett & Gold, in association with E.P.S.<br />
Ltd., went on to absorb parts of the Tudor Group (when Tudor’s European opera tions were broken up), and Peto & Radford whose works<br />
were initially in Ashtead, Surrey and headquarters at 50 Grosvenor Gardens, London S.W.1. Batteries were sold under the “Dagenite”<br />
name derived from the Dagenham works. One of their advertisements proclaimed ‘Right for <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>, right for you’ which must<br />
surely have been Minchin’s work! Eventually a majority stake in Pritchett & Gold itself was taken by market leader Chloride Ltd. in<br />
1928, largely at Minchin’s instigation. <strong>The</strong> latter firm had been founded ca 1900 at Clifton Junction in Manchester. Chloride’s famous<br />
“Exide” brand (originating in the U.S. Exide Starter Battery Co.), was also supplied to <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>. <strong>The</strong>se batteries were made at its<br />
Clifton Junction works.<br />
(It would be as well to clarify a further so-called <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> connec tion to the battery world arising from a Claude Johnson as<br />
managing-director of the D.P. Battery Co. This company had been founded in 1888 at Charlton in London and later moved to Bakewell<br />
in Derbyshire around 1900. It too was absorbed by Chloride ca 1928. <strong>The</strong> D.P. stood for Dujardin et Planté, the French originators of the<br />
particular battery design. <strong>The</strong> Johnson in question was not, however, the Claude G. Johnson who was managing-director of <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong><br />
but rather W. Claude Johnson, the electrical pioneer.)<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> connection<br />
In the 1920s Minchin became friendly with Henry <strong>Royce</strong> and sometimes stayed with him at his house ‘Villa Mimosa’ at Le Canadel<br />
in the south of France when both were wintering there. Minchin also knew William R. Morris of Morris Cars and later arranged to<br />
introduce him to <strong>Royce</strong>. As Minchin relates, the meeting took place in St. Raphael on 27 th February 1925. Although Minchin rarely, if<br />
ever, used Morris products he did own twenty-three <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> cars. <strong>The</strong>se included two early Silver Ghosts - 1911 chassis 1527 fitted<br />
with a 1919 tourer body and owned by Minchin in 1920 only when he was living in central London at 34 Westminster Mansions, S.W.1;<br />
and 1912 chassis 2125 fitted with a ca 1921 tourer body and owned from 1921 when Minchin was living in London N.W.8.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 8
A <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Silver Ghost fabric-bodied tourer, a ca 1920 model. This was not his 86EE car but might be Minchin’s 1912 chassis 2125<br />
if he upgraded the brakes and hubs to post 1919 specification as seen here. He modernised 2125 in ca 1921 with a torpedo body.<br />
Minchin’s 1920 Silver Ghost 86EE<br />
lightweight tourer showing off its extra<br />
petrol supply! He shared with <strong>Royce</strong> a<br />
preference for short and light bodies.<br />
This chassis was recorded as a Mann<br />
Egerton tourer when new but this body<br />
is very rudimentary and is probably<br />
therefore Minchin’s even lighter<br />
replacement.<br />
By late 1921 Minchin owned 1920 Silver Ghost 86EE, a lightweight tourer registered R-4873 which was described in <strong>The</strong> Autocar for<br />
21 January 1922 p.99-100 and 29 December p.1369. Minchin’s attention to detail was evident from the petrol tin storage at the back of<br />
the body and from the records on the battery box lid showing its maintenance. It seems this was a chassis Minchin bought secondhand<br />
and had altered with new springs, probably for a replacement lighter body.<br />
He also owned <strong>Bentley</strong>s - he was friendly with engineers at <strong>Bentley</strong> Motors and was soon the owner of a 1924 <strong>Bentley</strong> 3-litre<br />
chassis 691 James Young allweather (with Beatonson head) shown in <strong>The</strong> Autocar 15 August 1924 p.280. More <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>s followed<br />
including a Phantom I in October 1925, short chassis 119MC H. J. Mulliner Weymann saloon; and 20 h.p. cars GRK22 Maddox saloon,<br />
GBM61 Park Ward saloon, and ending with GFN8 H. J. Mulliner Weymann saloon (Autocar 1 March 1929 p.446). In the 1930s the cars<br />
were 1933 20/25 h.p. GBA72 Carlton coupe bought in 1938 and 1935 GYH67 James Young coupe also secondhand; and further <strong>Bentley</strong>s<br />
followed, 1934 3½-litre B73AE H. J. Mulliner saloon some time after 1936, B76AH saloon de ville bought secondhand, B16DK<br />
bought new with H. J. Mulliner fabric body (Autocar 12 July 1935 p.95), 4¼-litre B30GA on which he fitted the fabric body from<br />
B16DK and, it seems, an unknown 1938 4¼-litre as well.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 9
(Left) Minchin’s 1928 20 h.p. <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> GFN8 H. J. Mulliner<br />
saloon. This had many special chassis features as well as a<br />
Kopalapso sunshine roof.<br />
(Below) Minchin’s Aston-Martin registered XT-4102 at<br />
Montelimar, France. This was chassis no.1939, Lionel<br />
Martin’s personal saloon before passing to Miss Pink for<br />
competition work by which time it was fitted with the open<br />
body seen here.<br />
In <strong>The</strong> Motor for 4 February 1930 Minchin recalled his sixty-one<br />
cars up to that point and many motorcycles. He referred to six Sizaires<br />
and several Metallurgiques. But it seems pointless to list all his cars<br />
because Minchin vouchsafed to us in ‘Under my bonnet’ what his tally<br />
actually was - by 1950 he had had 13 motorcycles (12 Triumphs and one<br />
Vindec) and 154 cars! <strong>The</strong> one fairly consistent theme in his choices was<br />
lightweight coachwork. He also brought interesting cars to the Derby<br />
factory when he thought they would influence <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> designers.<br />
Minchin’s friendship with <strong>Royce</strong> was maintained by a regular correspondence<br />
from the 1920s. Sir Max Pemberton’s biography of <strong>Royce</strong> (1934)<br />
contains many letters from the 1924-32 period supplied by Minchin.<br />
We have to be grateful to him for recording many of <strong>Royce</strong>’s earliest<br />
recollections. Without his interest in the origins of <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> much<br />
would have been lost. Minchin himself had built a villa near Cannes in<br />
1929-30, Villa Beau Geste in Avenue Fiesole, and was mainly resident<br />
in France until the 1950s although he also had a London address at 12<br />
Lincoln House in Basil Street, Knightsbridge. <strong>The</strong> villa in Cannes was<br />
first preceded by a necessary, three-car, motor house! Minchin launched it<br />
with a ‘garage warming’ in the company of many guests, <strong>Royce</strong> possibly<br />
amongst them. He was then able to motor down from London in his<br />
Citroen to supervise the building of the villa itself.<br />
(Left) <strong>The</strong> ‘garage<br />
warming’ on the site<br />
of Minchin’s new villa<br />
in Cannes. (Motor 11<br />
Feb. 1930 p.55)<br />
(Below) A photograph taken in January 1931 by Sir Henry<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> of Minchin’s villa ‘Beau Geste’ at Cannes.<br />
Minchin’s friendship with <strong>Royce</strong> received a further filip on<br />
17 th August 1931 when he joined Sir John Prestige, also in the<br />
electrical industry, in taking the Science Museum’s 1905 10 h.p.<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> 20162 to West Wittering in Sussex for Sir Henry to<br />
see. A short film of this encounter survives for which we have to<br />
thank Minchin’s friend Ivan Evernden at <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>, Crewe,<br />
who had copies made of the fragile original.<br />
(Above) Sir Henry <strong>Royce</strong> in the Science Museum’s 1905 10 h.p. <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> 20162 when it was brought down to his home ‘Elmstead’<br />
at West Wittering on 17 th August 1931 by Sir John Prestige and Neville Minchin seen on the left. Prestige took the photograph.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 10
Minchin also advised <strong>Royce</strong> on potential mergers for his <strong>Royce</strong><br />
Ltd. crane company in Manchester. <strong>The</strong> business was in decline<br />
and could not match the resources of large makers and electrical<br />
combines such as English Electric. After <strong>Royce</strong>’s death <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> Ltd. maintained contact with Minchin and he was invited<br />
to give his opinion of the new Phantom III in 1935 when he was<br />
loaned a car for test. On this occasion his judgment was not<br />
altogether favourable! Another interesting connection for Minchin<br />
was his chairmanship of the French <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> retailer Franco-<br />
Britannic Automobiles in the late 1930s although by now he was<br />
driving a Voisin as well as a <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>.<br />
Minchin the writer<br />
Perhaps the most intriguing result<br />
of the friendship with <strong>Royce</strong> was Minchin’s<br />
first book, ‘N.7: a novel’, published in 1930<br />
and dedicated to <strong>Royce</strong>. It was the result<br />
of a wager between the two men, <strong>Royce</strong><br />
not believing that Minchin could write a<br />
thriller! He had mentioned to Minchin that<br />
an Edgar Wallace style of thriller would be<br />
difficult to write but Minchin took up the<br />
challenge. <strong>The</strong> book mirrors the journeys<br />
through central France on Route Nationale<br />
Sept (N.7) taken by <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> engineers and drivers when they<br />
brought cars down to Le Canadel for <strong>Royce</strong> to try. <strong>The</strong> combination<br />
of high society, the French Riviera,<br />
powerful cars, and a criminal element, also<br />
owes much to the books of Dornford Yates<br />
who was a popular author at this time. Not<br />
long after publication Minchin actually met<br />
Edgar Wallace (1875-1932), also a <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> owner, on the Paris to London train!<br />
Throughout his life he met so many famous<br />
people by chance that this encounter with<br />
Wallace must not have seemed out of the<br />
ordinary to him.<br />
Minchin did not publish again until<br />
1950 when his motoring classic ‘Under<br />
<strong>The</strong> St. James Hotel near Cape Town ca 1950, a new business for Minchin.<br />
My Bonnet’ appeared. (First published by Foulis it was reprinted<br />
in 1964 by MBC, the Motor-racing Book <strong>Club</strong>.) It is the nearest<br />
thing to Minchin’s memoirs, arranged around his life with cars.<br />
It was an immediate success and captured for a new generation<br />
both the atmosphere of the golden age of motoring and the outlook<br />
of a gentleman of leisure. Minchin once told the South African<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> enthusiast Bob Johnston that a bit of exaggeration<br />
did no harm in telling a good story and the book certainly shows<br />
it, without compromising too many of the facts and the flavour of<br />
the times. <strong>The</strong> former editor of Motor Sport magazine, Bill Boddy,<br />
described it as ‘that best of motoring tales’.<br />
Changing times<br />
Minchin returned to England for the duration of the Second<br />
World War and was unfortunate to lose his house in a fire though<br />
saving much of the cont ents. In securing another home in 1945<br />
he met the Hon. Lady Shelley-<strong>Rolls</strong> (1872-1961) when he rented<br />
a house in central London owned by the <strong>Rolls</strong> family estate.<br />
She was the sister of the Hon. Charles S. <strong>Rolls</strong> (1877-1910) and<br />
widow of Sir John Shelley, Bt. As with <strong>Royce</strong>, Minchin delved<br />
into <strong>Rolls</strong>’s early years in conversation with his new landlady. In<br />
1946 he returned to live in the south of France where his villa and<br />
contents had been left undamaged by its German occupiers. It was<br />
in this time that he began to reminisce about his motoring life and<br />
was invited to contribute to Motor Sport for its January 1948 issue<br />
about the 149 cars he had owned until then.<br />
Minchin made a trip to South Africa in late 1948, when finding<br />
the south of France increasingly expensive or uncongenial. Here,<br />
on impulse, he bought the small but exclusive St. James Hotel on<br />
Main Road in St. James, an enclave in the False Bay area near Cape<br />
Town. He took over the entire staff and its well-known manager<br />
and caterer in a company called False Bay Hotels. He and Gladys<br />
moved to Cape Town permanently in about 1950.<br />
South Africa was by now more aligned with his political outlook<br />
and moreover his old motoring friend Harry Knox, a nephew of<br />
Lord Lonsdale, also lived there. Another motoring pioneer retired<br />
there was William F. Bradley, French correspondent of <strong>The</strong> Autocar.<br />
<strong>The</strong> newly-purchased St. James Hotel, a seaside establishment,<br />
catered for what would have been called a better class of person<br />
as well as accommodating some permanent residents.<br />
On one occasion Minchin proudly recorded five dukes<br />
in residence! <strong>The</strong> building is now a retirement home<br />
appropriately enough.<br />
Minchin did not of course run the hotel itself. He and<br />
Gladys lived seventy-five miles away in a house called<br />
‘Connemara’ at Montagu. Its charms included a small<br />
thatched chapel. In old age he met many significant<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> enthusiasts, and was especially friendly<br />
with Bob Johnston who now lived in Cape Town and<br />
owned 1921 Silver Ghost 45SG. Minchin had seen the<br />
car at the St. James Hotel during Johnston’s honeymoon.<br />
Johnston was able to assist Minchin a little on his<br />
current book project. This was made even easier when,<br />
in 1961, the Minchins moved into a 1920s mansion at 27<br />
Belvedere Avenue in Oranjezicht<br />
on the slopes of Table Mountain<br />
above Cape Town and close<br />
to the Johnstons. Much of this<br />
next book, ‘<strong>The</strong> Silver Lady’,<br />
was written by Minchin in the<br />
Edwardian atmosphere of the<br />
Mount Nelson Hotel, appropriate<br />
for someone who had spent a<br />
lifetime at the best European<br />
watering holes.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 11
Neville Minchin with his<br />
African driver and Patrick<br />
Hall, an English visitor<br />
who ran a business in<br />
the Cape, outside the<br />
St. James Hotel. <strong>The</strong><br />
cars are Minchin’s 1951<br />
Silver Dawn SFC56 and<br />
Hall’s 1954 <strong>Bentley</strong> R-<br />
type Continental BC26C<br />
registered V-28 (and<br />
sporting a kneeling<br />
Spirit of Ecstasy <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> mascot). Hall<br />
would have appealed<br />
to Minchin because he<br />
had participated in the<br />
1949 Monte Carlo Rally<br />
with a V-12 Lagonda and<br />
became a prolific <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> owner. <strong>The</strong> colour<br />
photograph was taken by<br />
Mrs. Elaine Hall in 1956.<br />
<strong>The</strong> French-style mansion below Table Mountain owned by the<br />
Minchins in the 1950s.<br />
<strong>The</strong> final years<br />
In his final years Minchin lived in the exclusive San Martini<br />
Gardens apartments in Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. An<br />
important visi tor here was the late Kenneth Neve, managingdirector<br />
of Turner & <strong>New</strong>all in England, who was restoring the<br />
original 1911 London to Edinburgh Silver Ghost chassis 1701.<br />
Minchin confided to Neve that <strong>Royce</strong> had teased him about the<br />
hero of ‘N.7’ driving a 3-litre <strong>Bentley</strong> whilst the villain drove a<br />
Silver Ghost! Actually it was a Phantom I, or simply a 40/50 in<br />
<strong>Royce</strong>’s mind.<br />
Minchin’s last <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> car was a 1951 Silver Dawn chassis<br />
SFC56 registered CBR-37 in the Robertson district not far from<br />
Cape Town. In 1955 the car was used for a tour of southern Europe<br />
during which Minchin renewed his acquaintance with Marquis<br />
Don Carlos de Salamanca, the Spanish aristocrat who was the<br />
legendary <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> agent in Madrid from 1913 and was still.<br />
Minchin sold this car in the 1960s. In 1961 ‘<strong>The</strong> Silver Lady’ was<br />
finally published, his last book. It was a semi-fictional account<br />
of the 1912 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> chassis 2208, told by the car itself. It<br />
incorporated all the famous exploits of the early <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> cars<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 12
in peace and war. Ironically, this car was first owned by a baronet<br />
who lived at Englefield Green where Minchin had resided with<br />
his family in his early years. <strong>The</strong> book became a vehicle for many<br />
of Minchin’s motoring exploits, and his many friends also made<br />
appearances.<br />
Other books were in preparation. <strong>The</strong><br />
two works of fiction were ‘Murder in the<br />
Monte Carlo Rally’ which involved <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> cars, and in 1954 ‘<strong>The</strong> tragic gem’<br />
(translated by a friend into French as ‘Le<br />
talisman tragique’). Try as he might he<br />
could not find a publisher. He then began<br />
work on his ‘memoirs’ entitled ‘Kings,<br />
commoners, and dogs’ (later provisionally<br />
retitled ‘Posh people’ and ready by 1967).<br />
This book recycled many of the stories to<br />
be found in ‘Under my bonnet’ and hardly<br />
justified the term ‘memoirs’ because Minchin did not write about<br />
his personal or business life. In 1972 a book of travel followed,<br />
‘Adventures by road, rail and sea’, again with more of Minchin’s<br />
anecdotes but it too failed to find a publisher. It was his farewell<br />
to a vanished age.<br />
This most ‘clubable’ of men had seen the less frantic times he<br />
loved give way to the jet age and baser manners. <strong>The</strong>re was no<br />
time anymore for the gracious way of life he knew. He died on 17 th<br />
August 1977. His effects were sold by Ashby Galleries in Cape<br />
Town. After his death it was learned that he had paid all the board<br />
and upkeep for his motoring friend Harry Knox whose last years<br />
in Cape Town were marked by straitened circumstances in the<br />
rundown Railway Hotel at Wellington in the Cape. Gladys outlived<br />
Minchin although unable to look after herself in her last years. In<br />
his will Minchin directed that his estate be shared between his old<br />
Cambridge college and Trinity College, Dublin both of which still<br />
benefit. Whilst outwardly snobbish Minchin had a sentimental side<br />
and an easy manner when in the company<br />
of people whose interests he shared.<br />
One of the lasting memorials to Minchin<br />
is his famous collection of bound volumes<br />
of both <strong>The</strong> Autocar and Flight. How <strong>The</strong><br />
Autocar collection was creat ed forms a<br />
colourful chapter in ‘Under my bonnet’.<br />
In due course the collec tion was given to<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Ltd. at Crewe and many years<br />
later, in the 1970s, they depos ited it with<br />
the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.<br />
<strong>The</strong> volumes of Flight were given to the<br />
Royal Air Force at Farnborough. Although<br />
Minchin represents a bygone age one is<br />
easily drawn to the obvious delight he<br />
took from his varied experiences and the<br />
famous people he knew. His books will<br />
remain motoring classics. He wished his<br />
epitaph to be Alexander Pope’s line on<br />
Addison ‘Who gained no title, and who<br />
lost no friend’.<br />
Acknowledgements<br />
My thanks to the late Bob Johnston,<br />
Cape Town, for access to the Minchin<br />
papers (now deposited with the Sir<br />
Henry <strong>Royce</strong> Memorial Foundation in<br />
England) and for help with details of<br />
Minchin’s life; to Mrs. Elizabeth Spoor in Western Australia for<br />
help with Cape Town connections; to Norman Lindsay, the late<br />
Stewart Thorpe, and the late Bill Snook, in England for help<br />
with battery industry information; to E. John Warburton for <strong>The</strong><br />
Neville and Gladys Minchin in their Cape Town mansion.<br />
(Below) When visiting England in 1963 Minchin posed on Stanley<br />
Sears’s newly-restored 1905 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> 30 h.p. 26355. Sears<br />
was a leading figure in the appreciation of old <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and<br />
veteran cars.<br />
Autocar 8 Jan. 1916 p.45-6 on Minchin’s 1906 Darracq Blue<br />
Bird; to Mrs. Elaine Hall for information and photographs; Robin<br />
Barraclough for information about motoring thrillers; and to<br />
Mrs. Mermie Karger in Pennsylvania for getting me hooked on<br />
Minchin’s novel in the first place!<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 13
Holiday Snaps from the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’ <strong>Club</strong><br />
Concours and Rally, Rockingham Castle 17 to 19 June 2011<br />
(Left) Our member Dr Greg Beacham demonstrating<br />
3BU186 to Mrs Mermie Karger. This car featured in the<br />
article Jim Sawers wrote for our magazine 10-5.<br />
(Above) An example of a Derby <strong>Bentley</strong> undergoing<br />
restoration by William Fiennes and Company.<br />
(Below) Examples of what is available through that firm….<br />
(Above) Dedicated to all of us who have despaired at ever finding<br />
anything more appropriate to our cars than a Triumph Herald fuel<br />
gauge at one of our local Swap Meetings.<br />
(Right) One of the four surviving 10 h.p. two-cylinder <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>s,<br />
chassis 20165; it was delivered to Dr S.J. Gammell, a Scottish doctor,<br />
early in 1907, and donated to the Company in 1920, after 100,000<br />
miles, when he bought a new 40/50 horsepower <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>.<br />
(Below) <strong>The</strong> sort of chassis which Dr Gammell would choose to clothe<br />
in his preferred coachbuilder’s body.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 14
(Left and Above) 1910 Silver Ghost, chassis 1278,<br />
owned by Mr and Mrs A. White. <strong>The</strong> phaeton body is by<br />
an unknown builder.<br />
(Below) 1907 Manchester built Silver Ghost, chassis<br />
60577, a Maudslay bodied Wagonette. This car belongs<br />
to Mr and Mrs Graham Mead, frequent visitors to N.Z.<br />
(Above Left and Bottom Right) P. & A. Wood’s restoration of a Silver Ghost,<br />
chassis number not known to your photographer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> other 40/50 h.p. cars available at Castle Rockingham included (Left) the<br />
1925 rolling chassis 42EU available from <strong>The</strong> Real Car Company for £75,000,<br />
(Middle) one which our National Chairman seems to have claimed, and (Bottom)<br />
another early car, showing a purity of line these two-wheel braked chassis had.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 15
(Above and Left) B40MD, a Mark VI<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Harold Radford Countryman,<br />
one of nine built with this body.<br />
(Right and below) GFT2, a 1931 20/25<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Barker Sports Saloon,<br />
showing the patent Barker mechanical<br />
headlamp dipping mechanism. (Below<br />
Left) GEN45, a 1929 20 h.p. with<br />
Weymann coachwork by H.J. Mulliner, in the Conservation Class,<br />
having been carefully cared for during its life of 228,000 miles.<br />
(Left and Above) GKM30, a<br />
1928 20 h.p. <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> with<br />
coachwork by Binder of Paris, and<br />
showing the original snake-skin<br />
door trim fillets.<br />
(Right) Lt Col Eric Barrass, Founder of the <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> <strong>Enthusiasts</strong>’<br />
<strong>Club</strong>, was present at the prize-giving.<br />
(Bottom Right) Graham Mead driving his Light 20 h.p. <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>.<br />
(Bottom Left) Detail of the impeccably coach-painted 10 h.p. <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong>, chassis 20165.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 16
<strong>Bentley</strong> Eight Litre<br />
by Clare Hay<br />
Number One Press, 2011<br />
265 pages, b/w & colour illustrations,<br />
hardcover<br />
List Price: £295 (standard), £425<br />
(leather)<br />
ISBN 13: 978 095358272 3<br />
Order from: clarehay@btinternet.com<br />
<strong>The</strong> 8L was <strong>Bentley</strong>’s attempt to move<br />
away from the sports car market and break into the luxury car<br />
business, competing directly with <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>. <strong>The</strong> car was good,<br />
the business case not.<br />
At its launch in October 1930, the 8L <strong>Bentley</strong> was Britain’s<br />
largest and most expensive production car. Ten months later the<br />
company folded. <strong>The</strong>se events are not directly related; many of<br />
the factors that caused the insolvency of <strong>Bentley</strong> Motors were<br />
already in play<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was much gnashing of teeth among people who attempted<br />
to snag Hay’s previous book, <strong>Bentley</strong> Speed Six, and weren’t able<br />
to—unless they owned that particular model and thus had first dibs<br />
on the book. Only 182 production cars were made, and only 182<br />
copies of the book were printed. If the same parameter had been<br />
applied to this new book, we’d be looking at only 100 copies!<br />
Even though that number was doubled (175 in cloth, 25 in leather;<br />
all hand-bound and individually numbered) there is only a handful<br />
of the cloth edition still available for purchase.<br />
Ever since having suffered egregious copyright infringement<br />
at the hands of an American auto and book enthusiast, Vintage<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> specialist Hay has eschewed commercial publishing and<br />
produces books on what is basically a subscription basis in which<br />
books are first of all offered to owners of surviving cars. This, of<br />
course, means that her books are generally sold out before they’re<br />
even printed. If it weren’t for the odd extra or unsubscribed copy,<br />
ordinary mortals would never have a chance to get their hands on<br />
one. Still, this is better than if she hung up her pencil altogether<br />
because these books are supremely important as regards the quality<br />
of the research and the thoroughness of the treatment. In <strong>Bentley</strong><br />
circles—without exaggeration—a Hay book is the definitive<br />
settler of arguments! (In a recent court case in the UK the judge<br />
referred to the forensic nature of Hay’s work as “a peculiar form<br />
of mechanical archaeology.”)<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were only one hundred 8L <strong>Bentley</strong>s. <strong>The</strong>y were and are<br />
important cars. No surprise then that they have been written about<br />
before. Books that cover well-trodden ground can’t very well<br />
distinguish themselves on the basis of finding much to say that is<br />
new. What they can do is weed out inconsistencies in the existing<br />
record, restate matters in a better way, and they can add nuance.<br />
Hay does all of that with customary aplomb.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Introduction alone should be mandatory reading for owners<br />
of Cricklewood cars (so named after their original place of<br />
manufacture)! <strong>The</strong>re is nothing more detrimental to the integrity<br />
of history than having well-meaning enthusiasts spout off<br />
generally accurate factoids that are lacking vital detail, nuance,<br />
or context. In all of two pages Hay presents here an exemplary<br />
potted history of <strong>Bentley</strong> Motors prior to their being taken over<br />
by <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> in 1931, with particular focus on the spectacular<br />
racing successes, the ruinous cost of racing, and the growing<br />
tensions on the board that resulted in company founder WO<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> being removed from his directorship. Short and concise<br />
as this treatment is, the last paragraph manages to draw attention<br />
an often unrecognised wrinkle that will have even old <strong>Bentley</strong><br />
hands perk up: the circumstances and impact of the appointment<br />
of former <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> man T B Barrington to the position of chief<br />
designer at <strong>Bentley</strong>. <strong>The</strong> importance of such minutia to our<br />
understanding of a complex situation cannot be overstated!<br />
A 20-page exposition puts the 8L into the context of its<br />
time and the changing fortunes at <strong>Bentley</strong> Motors, and surveys the<br />
Book Review<br />
model’s major assemblies and components which are also shown<br />
in splendidly large, detailed close-up photos. Here and throughout<br />
the book, period advertisements, press clippings, and technical<br />
drawings round out the picture. Even an entire sales brochure is<br />
reproduced, full-size and in colour. Before the discussion shifts<br />
to the individual cars, prototype EX2 is covered in detail. With<br />
the exception of WO’s own 8L, this is the only car that is shown<br />
in its current-day restored state. All other photos are period<br />
ones from factory, coachbuilder or private sources, occasionally<br />
supplemented by “newer” (i.e. pre-1970s) photos. Many of them<br />
are new to the record.<br />
Each of the 100 cars is described individually on one to<br />
several pages. For each car are listed engine and gearbox<br />
number, wheelbase, axle ratio, registration number, body style,<br />
coachbuilder, first owner, delivery date, and current status. <strong>The</strong><br />
narrative text covers build and ownership history, and the photo<br />
captions are very detailed. While the early history is—mostly—<br />
unambiguous enough, the later history is complicated by such<br />
matters as the legal and practical distinction between “rebuilt” and<br />
“reconstructed” or whether a car today survives as actual rolling<br />
stock or in boxes. <strong>The</strong> account is as up to date as is possible at a<br />
finite moment in time.<br />
Unlike Hay’s other books, there is minimal prose in this one;<br />
if there were it would show a deep and abiding interest in the<br />
marque. After joining the <strong>Bentley</strong> Drivers <strong>Club</strong> as a non-owner—<br />
being all of 13 at the time—Hay bought a 3L project car five years<br />
later and, since writing her first book in 1986—at the ripe old<br />
age of 24—has given much of her life (including cutting short<br />
an engineering apprenticeship at British Aerospace) to exploring<br />
anything and everything about vintage <strong>Bentley</strong>s. Her 10 books<br />
have added immeasurably to the body of literature; you’ll want,<br />
need them all!<br />
<strong>The</strong> book is, understandably, mum on this subject but someone,<br />
somewhere, needs to say it: a tip of the hat to the private<br />
individual—and 8L owner—who bankrolled this project, thank<br />
you!<br />
Copyright 2011, Sabu Advani (speedreaders.info).<br />
To SpeedReaders Team/Reviewers and other interested parties<br />
from Sabu Advani: A completely redesigned website with much<br />
expanded functionality will go live this week or next. A test is set<br />
up at http://208.100.49.73/~p25lh199/speedreaders<br />
[<strong>The</strong> new site will of course be put at the same URL as the old;<br />
people will simply wake up one day and see the new site]<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is much more backend custom indexing/excerpting<br />
[mainly for SEO] to do but this will take place after going live.<br />
Anyone who wants to help, let me know.<br />
At this time the thinking is to keep the site gratis to all, i.e. not go<br />
to a fee-based subscription model, and also run only a minimum<br />
of commercial advertising. I have added a DONATE button and<br />
hope that people will do the right thing. <strong>The</strong> new site has cost<br />
me a staggering amount of money. With that in mind, ponder the<br />
next item:<br />
Amazon USA users: If you click through to Amazon from OUR<br />
site [almost every review has a link at the bottom], ANYTHING<br />
at all you buy at Amazon will net a little money for us. If you<br />
have a choice, do it, please -- it’s the only revenue stream we<br />
have other than donations.<br />
Misc: -we reached a high of 54,000 global monthly page views<br />
in July<br />
-on a slow day we have ca. 800 page views<br />
-the vast majority of readers are repeat users<br />
-several dozen high-schoolers are following us (I’m glad they do<br />
but don’t know why!!)<br />
-the simplest way for you to stay aware of what is posted is to<br />
grab the RSS feed or follow us on Facebook/Twitter<br />
-we can always use more reviewers! (and more readers)<br />
-the long-term health of the project still requires a Big Picture<br />
plan! It is consuming my life and cannot go on that way forever!<br />
-spread the word about SpeedReaders, especially to magazines<br />
and writers; those who frequent the site find it singularly useful.<br />
Cheers,-Sabu-<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 17
FOR SALE: 1960 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Silver Cloud II Chassis SVB331. Good condition, imported new,<br />
always garaged. Present owner for 35 years. Comes with spare new windscreen, full set of tools<br />
(including some special), original handbook and set of workshop manuals. $38,500 o.n.o.<br />
For more details phone Merv Warner (06) 751 2414<br />
FOR SALE: With a garage rationalisation under way, in order to have time to enjoy the remaining machines (XK150S drop-head, the<br />
Mk 6 Standard Steel saloon, have purchased a lovely 20.9 Sunbeam tourer, and there’s a replica 1950s Grand Prix project requiring<br />
time and funds) so more than enough from the following to keep someone busy:<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> 20/25 Chassis GRW51. Complete renovated chassis purchased from Adams and Oliver, London. Running smoothly<br />
and quietly when stored, now engine seized. $19,500<br />
1989 Peugeot 205 CJ cabriolet. NZ new in excellent original condition. $3850<br />
1927/58 Riley/Blatch special. Good 1950’s history and provenance. Riley 9 chassis, BMC mechanicals. HRV status with VCC.<br />
Recent hill climb use. $15,500<br />
1920s Maddox (coach-builders of Huntingdon from 1905) alloy panelled barrel sided tourer body originally on Minerva chassis, but<br />
fits 20/25 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong>. $9500<br />
Call for more information. Alan (03) 215 6383. 027 656 4632. alanfbryce@hotmail.com<br />
THE REAL CAR COMPANY<br />
North Wales<br />
Specialists in <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> Motorcars, 1920 to 1970s.<br />
Around 30 to 40 cars in stock, ranging from restoration projects to<br />
concours.<br />
We are always looking to buy similar vehicles, especially pre 1950.<br />
Highly experienced in the Ocean Shipping of these important cars.<br />
Web: www.realcar.co.uk<br />
Phone: 0044 1248 602649 Please contact Bernie Snalam for further information.<br />
e-mail: bernie_snalam@hotmail.com<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 18
&<br />
creating the perfect impression<br />
<strong>The</strong> most advanced full colour printing<br />
and digital equipment in the region.<br />
• Logo Design • Business Cards • Letterhead • Brochures<br />
• Calendars • <strong>New</strong>sletters • Corporate Reports<br />
• Magazines • Labels • Booklets • Invoice Books<br />
• Special Occasion Stationery • Laminating<br />
• Flyers • Mail Merges • Wire & Plastic Binding<br />
• Desk Pads • Digital Printing • Text Scanning<br />
• Periodicals • Wide Format Posters<br />
and much more . . .<br />
See us for all your printing requirements<br />
76 Wilson Street • PO Box 305 • Wanganui<br />
Ph: 06 345 3145 • Fax: 06 345 3144<br />
email: h.a@haprint.com • www.haprint.com<br />
MAJESTIC MOTORS LTD R.M.V.T<br />
www.majesticmotors.co.nz email: buyacar@majesticmotors.co.nz<br />
Cnrs Dixon & Harlequin Streets<br />
341 Queen Street, Masterton<br />
Masterton<br />
Ph 06 370 4614 A/Hrs 0274 752 713 Fax 06 370 8300<br />
Ian Hoggard :06 377 0039, 0800 104 103 , after hours 0274 75 27 13<br />
Trade in and competitive finance available. We also have over 100 more top quality vehicles, from luxury downwards<br />
1990<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Turbo R<br />
Performance & Prestige at a<br />
affordable price<br />
1998<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Azure Convertible,<br />
<strong>The</strong> best open top motor-<br />
1921 Fiat 510 Torpedo<br />
Sports Tourer<br />
3500cc<br />
Very Red driveable label with & Very Good<br />
DVD, CD Condition & am/fm etc<br />
Present owner since 1990<br />
Expressions of interest invited<br />
1980<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong> <strong>Royce</strong> Corniche<br />
Convertible<br />
2001 <strong>Bentley</strong> Arnage<br />
Le Mans<br />
Limited edition model with all the very nice special<br />
features including NZ Sat Navigation<br />
1968<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong> <strong>Royce</strong> Silver<br />
Shadow<br />
Very Tidy Car<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 19
classic car<br />
spare parts<br />
and motoring memorabilia<br />
Simply Classics<br />
Buy and sell classic car spare parts and motoring memorabilia<br />
to other classic car enthusiasts around the world.<br />
Visit www.simplyclassics.co.nz<br />
and click<br />
spare parts<br />
the essential website for classic car enthusiasts<br />
SIMPLY CLASSICS<br />
INSURANCE<br />
INSURANCE FOR YOUR<br />
CLASSIC CAR<br />
protection designed by car enthusiasts for car enthusiasts<br />
Simply Classics Insurance provides specific protection for the vehicles you are<br />
passionate about plus it includes a complete breakdown support service.<br />
Simply Classics Insurance, in association with Barley Insurances Ltd, have developed<br />
an exclusive policy provided by Prestigio. Prestigio is owned by Star Underwriting<br />
Agencies Ltd, underwritten by Lumley General Insurance who have a S&P Rating of A-<br />
Phone 0800 535 635<br />
insure@simplyclassics.co.nz<br />
www.simplyclassics.co.nz<br />
click on the Simply Classics Insurance logo for more information.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 20
COLGRAY MOTORS<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong> <strong>Royce</strong> & <strong>Bentley</strong> Specialists<br />
9B Beatrice Tinsley Crescent, Albany, Auckland<br />
phone/fax: 09 414 1971 mob: 021 643 030 a/h: 09 444 3030<br />
We specialise in the maintenance and care of <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> Motor Cars: servicing, repairs, overhauls and full restoration of <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> motor vehicles. Our Albany, North Shore workshop is fully equipped to carry out all mechanical, hydraulic, fault finding<br />
and electrical work. Restoration work can be carried out on all exterior and interior surfaces and leather work. Our experienced staff will work<br />
on your vehicle with meticulous care and attention to detail.<br />
<strong>New</strong> & Secondhand <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> and <strong>Bentley</strong> Parts • Motor Car Sales • Stockists of AutoGlym Car Care Products<br />
Customers & Visitors are always welcome. Friendly Advice Available.<br />
colin@colgray.com<br />
www.colgray.com<br />
SHADOW PARTS NZ<br />
SHADOW PARTS NZ<br />
SUPPLIERS OF GENUINE ROLLS-ROYCE AND<br />
BENTLEY PARTS,<br />
Suppliers of genuine <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> BOOKS, MAGAZINES and <strong>Bentley</strong> AND BROCHURES<br />
PARTS, books, magazines and brochures<br />
Call me any time from 7.00 am to 11.00 pm<br />
Roy Tilley (NZRR&BC Technical Liaison Officer)<br />
204A Waiwhetu Road, Lower Hutt<br />
Phone 04.566.0850 e-mail rmt@xtra.co.nz www.royscars.co.nz<br />
Call me any time from 7.00 am to 11.00 pm<br />
Roy Tilley (NZRR&BC Technical Liaison Officer)<br />
204A Waiwhetu Rd, Lower Hutt. Ph 04.566.0850. E-mail rmt@xtra.co.nz www.royscars.co.nz<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 21
BENTLEY AUCKLAND<br />
SERVICE PARTS ACCESSORIES<br />
Factory trained technicians • Right first time guarantee • Loan cars available on booking<br />
All genuine parts with 3 year manufacturers warranty when fitted at <strong>Bentley</strong> Auckland<br />
<strong>New</strong> Continental GT - Available now<br />
2012 <strong>Bentley</strong> Continental GT Coupe, Onyx Black Metallic, with Beluga hide,<br />
Mulliner driving specification, navigation, 21” alloy wheels $ P.O.A.<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Mulsanne<br />
<strong>The</strong> Mulsanne is one of the world’s most exclusive production vehicles.<br />
It’s level of luxury is unsurpassed thanks to the master craftsman’s attention<br />
to detail. Orders now being accepted for second quarter 2012<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Flying Spur 2009 Dark Sapphire<br />
Portland hide, sunroof, climate air, navigation, reverse camera, wood/leather<br />
steering wheel, FSH. $189,990<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Continental GT Speed 2009<br />
Onyx Black, Beluga hide. Very high specification includes; Naim audio,<br />
reverse camera, active cruise control 7,500 kms. $270,000<br />
2004 <strong>Bentley</strong> Continental GT Coupe<br />
Moonbeam Silver, Beluga hide, 19” alloy wheels, climate air. $155,000<br />
2010 <strong>Bentley</strong> Continental GT Supersport<br />
Ice white , Beluga trim, full spec, includes Naim Audio, 20” alloy wheels,<br />
reverse camera. $370,000<br />
1997 <strong>Bentley</strong> Continental R<br />
Peacock Blue with parchment hide, very rare sought after example,<br />
47,000 kms. A truly handmade vehicle. $89,990<br />
2009 <strong>Bentley</strong> GTC Speed<br />
Moonbeam Silver, Hotspur Hide, Navigation, Naim Audio, 20” alloy wheels $325,000<br />
BENTLEY AUCKLAND 100 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland.<br />
Ph: 09 360 3200 Fax: (09) 361 6403 Email: sales@bentleyauckland.co.nz www.bentleyauckland.com<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 22
BRUCE MCILROY LTD<br />
Authorised <strong>Bentley</strong> & <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Heritage Dealer<br />
EXPERIENCE | KNOWLEDGE | CARE<br />
PARTS<br />
Bruce McIlroy Limited are suppliers of parts for<br />
<strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> vehicles from 1907 to 2003 and <strong>Bentley</strong><br />
vehicles from 1920 to current models. We also supply<br />
reconditioned exchange units for various models.<br />
T t Bruce McIlroy Ltd we<br />
exclusively restore and service<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> and <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> Motor<br />
Vehicles ranging from 1907 <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> to the present day <strong>Bentley</strong>’s.<br />
Our workshops are equipped with<br />
the latest technology to carry out<br />
hydraulic, mechanical, electrical<br />
work and panel fabrication on<br />
heritage and modern vehicles. Our<br />
technicians are Crewe factory<br />
trained.<br />
SERVICE<br />
At Bruce McIlroy Limited we specialise in catering for<br />
the servicing and repair needs of the <strong>Bentley</strong> and <strong>Rolls</strong>-<br />
<strong>Royce</strong> customer. Our technical area is equipped with<br />
the latest technology and a wealth of experience.<br />
RESTORATION<br />
In order to support our unique service we also<br />
manufacture <strong>Bentley</strong> and <strong>Rolls</strong>-<strong>Royce</strong> vintage parts.<br />
SERVICING · REPAIRS · RESTORATIONS · PARTS · SALES<br />
CORNER OF RACECOURSE AND ALFORD FOREST ROADS, ASHBURTON 7776, NEW ZEALAND<br />
Telephone/Fax 03 308 7282, A/H 03 308 7372, Mobile 027 223 1600, e-mail: bruce.mcilroy@xtra.co.nz<br />
www.bentleyservice.co.nz<br />
VEHICLES FOR SALE<br />
1953 BENTLEY R TYPE<br />
Tudor grey with light grey hide<br />
upholstery piped in dark blue, with<br />
dark blue carpets piped in light<br />
grey. Manual transmission. Handbook<br />
and tools. Original condition.<br />
1994 ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT III<br />
Sherwood green with beige upholstery<br />
and conifer carpets. Burr Elm veneer.<br />
Has been serviced by Bruce McIlroy<br />
Ltd for 10 years. Excellent original<br />
example.<br />
2005 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT<br />
Dark sapphire blue with porpoise<br />
hide upholstery and matching<br />
carpets. Christchurch new vehicle.<br />
<strong>Bentley</strong> Service history. 46000 kms.<br />
Excellent condition.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 23
<strong>Club</strong> Calendar<br />
Full details are also contained on our Web Site www.nzrrbc.co.nz<br />
2012 National Rally and A.G.M<br />
PROGRAMME:<br />
This year’s National Rally is being organised by the Central Region Committee and will take place at the Raceway Court Motel, Awahuri Road,<br />
Feilding over the Easter weekend.<br />
<strong>The</strong> main events for the weekend will be as follows:<br />
Friday 6 April<br />
Registration for early birds 4.00pm onwards, followed by meeting and greeting in the bar.<br />
Dinner under own arrangements. If you plan to eat in the Raceway Court restaurant, you will need to let them know.<br />
Saturday 7 April<br />
Registration, Gymkhana, more details later.<br />
Informal dinner after which Richard Hadfield will give us a brief dissertation on his recent travels, including the BDC and RREC rallies in the UK<br />
Sunday 8 April<br />
Annual General Meeting: 10.00 am. Concours preparation and judging. Drive and visits for those not entering the concours. Details later.<br />
Pre-dinner drinks: 6.30 pm.<br />
Dinner 7.30 pm, followed by Concours prize-giving and other awards.<br />
Monday 9 April. Checkout.<br />
A REGISTRATION FORM IS INCLUDED WITH THIS ISSUE<br />
Northern Region<br />
Refer to the <strong>Club</strong> website<br />
Central Region<br />
Sunday 12 February: British Car Day at Trentham Memorial Park, Upper Hutt 10.00am - 2.00pm (Funds to Wellington Free Ambulance).<br />
Sunday 4 March: Open Day at Southward Car Museum 10.00am – 3.00 pm.<br />
Friday 6 to Monday 9 April: National Rally and 2012 Annual General Meeting<br />
Easter Weekend – At Raceway Court Motel in Feilding. Registration Form and Programme enclosed with this issue.<br />
Mark your calendars for a Fun Filled R-R & B Car Weekend in “Friendly Feilding”, fourteen times winner of “<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong>’s Most Beautiful Town<br />
Award” and the hub of the Manawatu District. (Only20kms N of Palmerston North City)<br />
Closing date for Registration and Receipt of Entries – Monday – 19 th March<br />
Bookings for Hotel: phone & fax (06) 323-7891 – Your hosts - Sharon and Paul- Raceway Court Motel<br />
Saturday 28 April: Flying Display – organised by the Vintage Aviation League – Masterton.<br />
Southern Region<br />
Sunday 25 March Classic Wheels at Greendale: We have been invited to attend this event at Greendale Domain from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., a fundraising<br />
event for the school, organised by John Ridgen, with entries $10 a car, and admission $5 a person. John can be contacted on 0272 801 329<br />
or through principal@greendale.schoolzone.net.nz and needs to know numbers attending as soon as possible. This sounds like an excellent way to<br />
celebrate the Ridgen family’s long association with our club.<br />
Saturday 31 March: Day run to the Vintage Car <strong>Club</strong>’s Swap Meeting at Winchester<br />
Saturday 5 May: Day run to the Vintage Car <strong>Club</strong>’s Swap Meeting at Tinwald<br />
Friday 15 to Sunday 17 June: Ohau Lodge Weekend with a day run up to Mt Cook on Saturday 16 June. This is before the skiing season starts,<br />
and just before <strong>The</strong> Lodge becomes very busy, so we are welcomed as before.<br />
Otago Weekend at a date to be arranged<br />
Friday 16 to Sunday 18 November: Canterbury Anniversary Weekend and our traditional Long Touring Weekend, to a destination not yet<br />
decided.<br />
Please note these dates on your calendars. Suggestions for these and additional events are always welcome.<br />
Philip Eilenberg has just imported this Hooper bodied 1929 20 h.p. chassis GEN39, seen with its new 1930 20/25 friends GNS30 (Ed<br />
and Colleen Pollard) and GOS5 (Richard and Lois Green). We look forward to Philip’s forthcoming article about his new acquisition.<br />
NZRR&BC Issue 12-1 24