LETTERS
42 Classic& SportsCarDecember 2015
the month
Pedantof the monthwinsan
exclusiveC&SCbaseballcap.
Sendyour observationsto
[email protected]Pedant of
et.comNo doubtmanyenthusiastswill
havespottedthat the ‘unmolested
pre-wargem’ on page31 of the
Novemberissueis not aMorris
EightSeriesE, but an earlyEight.
Thesecars were ablatantcopy
of the contemporary Ford Eight,
and can be recognisedby their
chromedradiatorsurroundand
wire wheels.Withan eye to keeping
productioncostsdown, the later
SeriesII had apaintedradiator
cowl and Evercleanpressed-steel
wheels.The SeriesE, meanwhile,
featuredaroundedintegral
bodyshellwith headlightsfaired
into the frontwings.Introduced
just beforeWW2,the ‘E’was
produceduntil the launchof the
Issigonis-designedMinorin ’48.
Attached(below) is photoof
my old Eight,VY 8692,whichwas
displayed at the York MotorShow
in late ’35. Sadly,she is long since
gone–unlesssomeoneout there
has foundher tucked in abarn!
MickBathCommentsand
clarifications
Ihavebeenan enthusiastic
subscribertoC&SCfor manyyears
and havehad muchpleasurefromit
each issue.Ineverimaginedthat I
mightthinkof myselfas apotential
Pedantofthemonth,but here goes.
InLost&found(November),a
’37MorrisEightis referredto as a
SeriesE. As if that’s not enough,in
Casehistoriesareferenceis made
to a1924MorrisOxford14/28
Tourer’spushrod‘four’. The engine
is asidevalve, with valves operated
directlyby the camshaft!
Don RyanThe charmingfire enginein the
Septemberissue(p61)is aGobron
(not Gordon)-Brillié,namedafter
GustaveGobronand EugèneBrillié.
Jean GorceHot and bothered
I muchenjoyedyourarticleon the
CitroënDS 60th-anniversarycele-
bration(C&SC,October).Having
owneda 1974DS23EFI,I am
familiarwiththeircharmand idio-
syncrasies,and sometimeslament
havinggot rid of it.
Your story, however, like every
otherreviewI’ve everreadon this
vehicle,omitteda majordeficiency
that rendersthe car extremelydiffi-
cultto livewith.Thecabingets
seriouslyhot, unbearablyso.
No doubtthis is exacerbatedby
the fact thatthe enginesits so far
backthat it partiallysharesthe cabin
withthe occupants,andthe dash
aboveit formsa wonderfulradiator.
I usedthe DS as my everydaycar
for a coupleof years,but in the end
soldit becausethe drivingexperi-
enceon anythingapproachinga hot
day was so unpleasant.It did leave
manywarmmemories,though!
DavidBecker
Sydney,Australia
Champion’sAston
TheletterfromRobinMoorshead
regarding the Aston DB2/4 that he
consideredbuyingin 1970or ’71
(C&SC,September)broughtback
memories.I rodein it as a young
teenagerwhenit was ownedby the
cyclistTo m Simpson,whowas
visitingmy sportsjournalistfather.
Simpsonboughtthe French-
registered,left-hand-drivecar
whilehe wasracingin Francein
1959.Afterhavingsomerepairs
carriedout,he droveto Germany,
wherehis futurewifeHelenwas
working,thenon to his homenear
Doncasterfor theirwedding.
In his autobiography,Cyclingis
MyLife,Simpsontoldof being
stoppedby policewhenhe drove
pasta queueof trafficwaitingat a
levelcrossingon the A1 in Newark.
‘“Don’t you realiseyou are on the
wrongsideof the road?”askedthe
policeman.“Usingmyhands
expressively, I turnedto himand
replied‘Non!’ He tooka quicklook
at my left-hand-drivecar and said
‘anotherbloodyfroggie!’ and
wavedme on as the gatesopened.”’
It is something of a mystery that
the firstownerin the logbookwas
David Brown. John Purser, whois
chairman of the AMOC and coin-
cidentallyalso a cyclingenthusiast,
toldme:“I havea hunchthatit
couldhavebeenDavidBrownJnr’s
car, but I haveaskedhis son Adam,
and 1953 means nothing to him.”
Recollectionsof theAston
prompteda flurryof replieswhen
I posteda commenton the To m
SimpsonAppreciationGroup
Facebookpage,his widowfondly
recallingthe visitto Germany.
As for wherethe car is now,
researchhas drawna blank.“In the
early1970s, a lot of carswere
abused,as this one seemsto have
been,and manywerebrokenup or
scrapped,”says JohnPurser.
GrahamSnowdon
SheffieldContinentalcapers
Iverymuchlikedthe articleby Mick
Walsh on the BentleyContinental,
BlueLena(C&SC,October).
He obviouslyhadonlylimited
spaceto tellof theadventures
of JLP400Dand her loucheoccu-
pantsof the day. Onestory, which
I shallnotrepeatherein any
detail,recordsthe blossomingrela-
tionshipbetweenKeithRichards
and AnitaPallenbergin the backof
the Bentley– witnessedby a slightly
shockeddriver, To m Keylock,as
the partydrovedownto Morroco.
BlueLenaalsofeaturedin the
releasefromprisonof Robert
Fraser, the ex-Etonianart gallery
owner, formerArmyofficerand,by
the mid-’60s,dealer(in drugsas
wellas Magrittes)followinghis
incarcerationfor possessingheroin.
Thestoryis thatFraser, nearing
the end of his sentence,decidedthat
it was imperativeto leavein a stylebefittinghimand so orderedup a
Daimlerto impresshis fellowcons
as wellas the prisonofficers.
Thereis filmfootage of Fraser
eventuallyleavingWormwood
Scrubs,but the car in whichhe can
be seendrivingout of the jail is not
a Daimler. Instead,it is noneother
than the Bentley Continental, Blue
Lena,loanedfor the occasionby
KeithRichardswhowasa close
chumof Fraserat the time.
KerryGill
StirlingshireSex, drugs,rock ’n’ roll...it’s donethe lotIt may look cool, but the DS is not a car for warmweather, reckons formerowner Becker
Enigmamachine
Themysteryroadsteron page30 of
yourAugusteditionwas oncethe
centrepieceof an ad campaign
featuringan Irishmanlookingfor
partsfor his Goggo.An idiotic
advert,but it did its job and stuck.
Thebasisof the car is in fact
picturedon the facingpage.Believe
it or not,in spiteof lookinglike a
cartoonD-type,it’s a Goggomobil.
Thecars weresoldin Oz by Bill
BuckleMotors,andthe Goggo-
mobilDart,to givethe roadsterits
full name,wasimportedin quite
healthynumbers.It wasa very
prettylittlethingand had adequate
performancefor the time.
My late wifeand I had a Goggo
whenwe builtour first house.We’d
beenpayingoff an IsuzuBellettbut
the buildingsocietydecidedthat
we couldn’t affordthe car anda
houseloan,so the Isuzuwent.In its
placecamethe Goggomobil,which
is the onlycar I’ve knownto have
overheatedcomingdownthe steep
LapstoneHillon the GreatWest-
ern Highway– in winter, no less.
Theonlyexampleeverto
performwithanythingapproach-
ing gustowas a GTbuiltby Neil
McKay. With a blownGoliath
1100ccenginedrivingthrougha
VWgearbox,it was fearsomeand
monsteredmanya hillclimb.
BrianByrne
Viae-mailMysteryroadsteris a Goggo,says Byrne