Octagon March, 2016

at that time. He has a photo of this Twin Cam, but
has lost his record of same. Kay Hawley recently
gave John a colour photo of his car when he was
competing at a sprint meeting at Lowood.
Wilf Berg had an Old English White Roadster in
1972. His mother had the Golden Fleece Service
Station on Stanthorpe Road, Warwick. He pulled the
Twin Cam motor out and replaced it with an MGB
one (silly boy). He left the motor under the house
and the Twin Cam was sold to someone in Sydney.
I have checked under every house on both sides
of this road, last time in 2014, trying to locate this
motor. No success to date, but will keep trying next
time we go up to Warwick for a race meeting.
IT’S A SMALL WORLD (of three MGA coincidences)
by John Walker
One Sunday evening as I was delivering
the rubbish bins to the footpath, I was
approached by a man who enquired if I was
the chap who owned the old MG cars.
He asked if I would be interested in taking
his old father (he is only 3 years older than
I) for a run in my MGA as he used to own an
MGA Twin Cam in his youth.
His name was Bernard Hotston and
incredibly, he was the previously
unknown person who purchased the Bev
Fleming MGA Twin Cam (YD2 #2306) in
Rockhampton (see The History of the MGA
Twin Cam by Dan Casey in the Christmas
edition of the Octagon)!
I took Bernie for a ride one afternoon and
called past Ross Kelly’s home. Ross
happened to have his MGA Twin Cam
parked in the street (a rare occasion), so
we went in to meet Ross and have a closer
look at his immaculate MGA Twin Cam as
well as the rest of his exotic vintage stable of
cars. Ross Kelly’s Twin Cam was another
described in Dan Casey’s article.
Another car (YD2 #2135) was one that Ross
and Dan had made an offer for when it came
up for sale from a deceased estate.
This brings up another coincidence – At a
New Year’s Eve party I happened to meet
a woman named Monica who turned out to
be the wife who sold this car at a Shannon’s
Auction before Ross and Dan could return
with a better offer in the hope of acquiring
this Twin Cam.
Coincidence No. 3 – On Sunday, 31st
January I went to the Test ‘n’ Tune at Mt.
Cotton Hillclimb with my MGA (not a Twin
Cam). A man came up to me and said
that he remembered me and the red MGA
number 2 from Lakeside many years ago.
His name was Norm Phillips and he ran
a Lotus Elite in the same 1990 Historic
Meeting at Lakeside. IT’S A SMALL
WORLD!!!!!!
John on and off track at the January Test ‘n’ tune at Mt Cotton (Photos by Steve Johns) (Ed: There is a fourth
coincidence here which hasn’t been mentioned. If Pat Walker had not offered to type Dan’s article for me, she and
John may not have been aware of some of the history of the cars which lead to these revelations.)
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