Classic & Sports Car - December 2015 UK

DAVIDEVANS’NEWSFROMTHE CLUBS YOUREVENTS

December 2015 Classic&SportsCar 21

BRIT IRON SHINES IN ARKANSAS

About600 classicsconvergedon Canvey IslandTransportMuseumfor its

AnnualShow on 11 October. One of the oldestcars attendingwas Foster

and Jan Jones’ 1927 Humber14/40,in whichthey’vetourednorthWales,

Devon, the LakeDistrictand France in recenttimes,whileBoysieTurner

broughtthe 1958BuickSuperRivierathat he’s owned for morethan 40

years. Nearbywas the 1970VauxhallViva 1.6 SL, boughtnew by Mr EN

Townsendfrom NormandGarages,Basildon.FollowingTownsend’s death

in ’87, his daughterand her partnerhavelooked after theVauxhall,which

remainsin outstandingconditionwith just 69,000mileson the clock.

An excellentgroupof coachesincludedaHarringtonGrenadier-bodied

AEC RelianceinWesternWelsh OmnibusCo livery, destinationBarry.

Agri Parkin Fayetteville,Arkansas

hosted170 entrantsfromall over

the Statesfor the 14thBritsin the

OzarksAll BritishCar & Cycle

Showon 11-12September.

Specialguestat the BritishIron

To uringClubof NorthwestArkan-

sas fixturewas MGAguruBarney

Gaylord.He had beentravelling

acrossthe US with son Elliott,in an

MGAof course,withthe aim of

meetingas manyBritishcar clubsas

possible.Gaylordsaid that they had

covered50,000-plusmilesin nine

monthsand regaledthe crowdwith

yarnsfromtheiradventures.

A largeMGApresencefeatured

the lovelyone-owner 1959 Tw in-

Camthat FrankMcElroypickedup

whilestationedwith the militaryin

Germany. Recountingthe tale of

buyingthe roadster, McElroyalso

reportedthat he acquiredhis wife at

thesame time andhasretained both

eversince.Thecombinationof a

rare,originalcar accompaniedby a

greatstoryresultedin him receiv-

ing the Chairman’s Choiceaward.

Morganswereout in force,too,

rangingfromGrahamPodd’s 1935

Matchless-poweredthree-wheeler

to openand closedversionsof the

Aero.The recentrise in interestfor

theJaguarXJ-Swas apparentwith

10 on display,whilethe variedselec-

tion also includedJim Peckham’s

fabulous 1935 Rolls-Royce,Woody

Woodliff’s earlySunbeamAlpine

and a trio of JensenInterceptors.

TheHardLuckawardwentto

MichaelPiggotafterthe starteron

his TR4diedenroutefromShaw-

nee, Oklahoma (c200 miles away)

so it neededa pushaftereverystop.

Britsin the Ozarksraisesmoney

for ALS,or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Therewerealso sufficientfunds(in

the $17,000)for the localtechnical

schoolto offertwo scholarshipsfor

studentsin the auto mechanicsand

bodyworkclasseswhohavean

interestin workingon old cars.

Clockwise:massedMGs;

Peckham’s lo vely two-tone

’35Royce; Podd’s Morgan;

Chairman’s ChoiceMGA

thatMcElroy boughtnew

BILL WATKINS

Allsteamed

upatmuseum

Threegenerationsof performance

Fordfeaturedas part of a record

turnoutat KemptonSteamMuse-

um’s ClassicCar and Bike Showon

27 September. Alongsidethe 1965

CortinaGT that BarryFreedman

has ownedfor 39 yearswereRob

Island hopping in Essex

Archer’s 19681600Eand the Capri

2.8iJanspeedturbothatAlan

Moore’s brotherboughtnew in ’83.

“It’s a GT, but to exportspec,”

Freedmanexplained,“fromabatch

of 30 ordered by the Kenyan police

that was neverpaidfor .” And,as

Archerpointedout: “I didn’twanta

red one, but it foundme. It’san early

Series1 that I boughtin the ’80s.”

Mooretookover his mintCapri

10-12yearsago. “It was converted

by Janspeedin ’85,” he

recalled,“butno one

knowshow manywere

done because all of the

recordswerelost after

a managementbuyout

a few years ago.”

Kemptonregular

CharlesOsbornwas in

the Rover 3500 that he

purchasednew in ’71.

“It’snot ashowcar,” he

said, “andI use it most

Moore’s Capri,Archer’s 1600EandFreedman’s CortinaGT days of the week.”

One-family-owned 1970 VauxhallViva Turner’s prized’58 BuickSuperRiviera