Classic & Sports Car UK – September 2019

64 Classic & Sports Car September 2019

LETTERS

Pedant of

the month

Pedant of the month wins

a C&SC baseball cap. Send

your observations to alastair

[email protected]

In his piece on the 1969 LeMans

(C&SC, June), Jack Phillips

commits several oft-repeated

errors. The invented ‘John Wyer

Automotive’ does a huge

disservice to John Willment,

who provided the finance and

business acumen for the GT40

race programme; the registered

company name was JW

Automotive Engineering Limited.

There is also a muddle

regarding Ford’s GT Marks. The

Ford GT40 (retrospectively MkI)

was a Group 4 sports-racing car,

whereas the Fords MkII (1966

winner) and MkIV (1967) were

Group 6 prototypes; 1968 was

the MkI’s first victory at Le Mans

• the MkII was by then ineligible.
  Jamie Buchanan

C&SC would like to apologise to

Kevin Rawson and Southwood

Car Company for an error in our

August issue. The Alfa Romeo

1300GT Junior featured in our

Italian coupé trio is owned by

Southwood Car Company, and

not by David Millar as stated.

For more details on this lovely

car, call 01883 344226 or visit

http://www.southwood.co.uk

I’ve just read the enjoyable

Skyline GT-R twin test (C&SC,

July), but noticed an engine

code error on the KPGC10. It’s

captioned as an SR20, but that’s

the 2-litre four-pot that went

into everything from Nissan

Sunnys to Silvias. It was an S20

that went into the GT-R. I shall

now hang up my anorak...

Alan Taylor-Jones

While I know the Rolls-Royce

Silver Cloud III in June’s Your

classic is big, the 29ft stated

would make it as long as a bus!

Steve Hough

Comments &

clarif ications

KRX 792H was kindly loaned by SCC

In at the deep end

Great to read your article on

Dougal MacDonald’s journey with

an Islero (Our classics, April),

inspired by a Richard Heseltine

article that he read on my car back

in 2001. Interestingly, my Islero

journey also started with a well-

thumbed copy of Classic & Sports

Car’s 1994 ‘Lamborghini special’.

There was an article on a gentle-

man called Paul Cox, who owned

a pristine brown Urraco. He was a

tyre salesman and I thought, ‘Hang

on, if he can afford a Lamborghini,

then one day so can I.’ Paul’s final

comment was: “If I sold the Urraco,

it would only be to buy an Islero.”

His dream was fulfilled when he

bought 6036, the 12th built. Then,

one rainy day in 2000, I chanced

upon him and the car at Brooklands

and bought it after getting some

sage advice: “You only regret the

things you don’t do, not the things

that you do.” I had no mechanical

knowledge, I couldn’t get the car in

my garage and everybody told me

I was mad – including the head of

the Lamborghini Club at the time.

Frankly, sitting in my parents’

more ample garage, it terrified me.

A year after buying it, and the day

after my wife gave birth (a fact I am

still reminded of), I took part in the

C&SC article that inspired Dougal

to jump in at the deep end.

I’ve since had the colour changed

• I’m not a purist, so it was just
  a colour I happened to like. Thank-
  fully it suits the shape. I am having
  it painted again next year, so may
  pick the original colour, which I’m
  told was very dark blue, almost
  black. I take this Islero ‘fact’ with a
  pinch of salt, along with the other
  folklore that follows these mysteri-
  ous cars: mine was apparently the
  Geneva show car in 1968 (it wasn’t,
  unless somebody changed the inte-
  rior from brown to black, replaced
  the ’screen and had a time machine
  to display the car a month before it
  was manufactured); it was loaned

Squadronleader

The letter from Andrew Stevens in

the July issue brought back memo-

ries of the Fiat 131 Mirafiori Estate

that I bought – tax free – in 1980

while serving with the RAF in

Germany. Not a sporty car, but it

Fromlasttofirst

I readtheYourclassicarticleinthe

JulyeditionaboutTomMorris

buyingGBSterne’slastMorgan

afterlosinghisown.Thatmudslide

wasa tragicdayinBritishColum-

biabecauseit tookat leastonelife.

Atleastcarsarereplaceable.

Some 12 yearsagoI boughtthe

firstcarthatGBSternebroughtin

andsoldasa newMorgandealer,

chassis3504.Thecarwasoriginally

green(notBritishRacingGreen,

buta lightercolourbytheremnants

ofoldpaint),thenwhite,buthas

beenredfor 50 years.It needsa lot

of TLC,butstillperformswell.

It wasfirstboughtbyAlexJames,

who raced it. Most of its life was

spent in the care of Rocky Rochfort

of Victoria. Until I bought the car

and had it shipped to Ontario, it

spent its life on Vancouver Island.

Fred Winterburn

Ontario, Canada

Mcfarlane’sIsleroand

babydaughter, 18 yearson

by Ferruccio to Bridget Bardot

(still working on proving this one);

and was owned by an opera singer

called Luigi Sutera. Surprisingly,

it was actually owned by a Luigi

Sutera, in Monaco, but he appears

to have been a rather less glamor-

ous industrialist. I shouldn’t really

poke fun because I am an even less

exciting Chartered Accountant.

I still do the annual pilgrimage to

Brooklands, but this year I had an

incident on the M25 and shut the

carriageway. Thankfully it was only

the handbrake locking, which

embarrassingly had unlocked when

the rolling road of four Traffic

Range Rovers pulled up next to me.

If Dougal and I meet, I’ll be able

to regale him with 19 years’ worth

of the 99% highs and 1% lows of

owning this lovely and rare car. I’m

sure a lot will ring true: the puzzled

looks – “Wotisit, a Jensen Intercep-

tor?” – the pain of mag wheels, and

the mystery of opening the bonnet

when the release fails. But mainly

there remains the joy of dropping it

into third on a motorway sliproad

and listening to that V12 take off

like a proverbial jumbo jet. Prefer-

ably with the handbrake off...

Iain Mcfarlane

Via email

delivered its 75bhp in fine fashion,

and I enjoyed its handling (when

my wife and children weren’t in it).

My colleagues on 60 Squadron

tried to dissuade me from buying it,

on the grounds that it would have

rusted away before I was posted

back to the UK three years hence.

I didn’t want to be in the Ford

Cortina or Renault 18 gang, so

I stuck to my guns and sent off

for 10 litres of Waxoyl that, upon

arrival, unfortunately leaked and

rustproofed the Squadron’s mail.

It took several days to coat every

part of the car that I could get at,

drilling holes to get into all the box-

sections. For several weeks, I left

waxy deposits everywhere I parked.

We kept that car for more than

11 years, and the only areas that

rusted were where it was impossible

to apply the Waxoyl. This didn’t

happen for eight or nine years, and

in that period many other – suppos-

edly more rust-resistant – marques

were having sills and arches.

I have fond memories of my 131,

which I sold with many miles still

left under its belt, and we saw it

locally for several years. Try finding

one now – and, if you did, could you

obtain the parts to maintain it?

Lee Smith

Lincoln

131: not a rotbox (with a little bit of help)

Winterburn with Sterne’s first Morgan