VMR Summer Rally 2011

[Ian Grace]

This just in from Peter Hills over in India, who has his 1929 tourer stored at his house in Chester.

"We are coming to UK on 10th June to redecorate our London flat, then to Chester on 1st April to tart up the house there that is up for sale. I will be extremely busy there but there is an outside chance that we could be at Prescot. In my mind all I need to do is get a new battery, oil water and petrol, swing the baby around a while. Fit the plugs and fire her up. There is no reason it should not run like it did 7 years back after my major refit."

[Ian Grace]

I'm planning to bring over a 20' x 10' pavilion tent to Prescott to act as the VMR tent. So there will be plenty of space to lay out spares for sale. This worked very successfully in the past and we charged a 5% commission on sales made during the day. You just need to price and name your spares and drop them off at the tent when you arrive.

So far, we will have the following stands in the Paddock:

VMR
Air Training Corps publicity/recruiting stand
SU Carburetters
Martin Squires art
Flexolite
Ian Harris Morris spares
MMM Register and MG D Group

[Ian Grace]

More fantastic news - the Prescott Brewery is donating a couple of dozen bottles of beer to be awarded as prizes!

[Ian Grace]

Entries are now pouring in, and we just heard from Peter McFadyen who has been asked to attend and report on the event for The Automobile, so hopefully we shall get more excellent coverage and VMR PR after the event. The Wolseley Hornet Specials Club is also taking a block booking for Prescott and hopes to have around ten Hornets in attendance. We currently have 8 Minors booked in - all but two of which are OHC models. So where are all you SV guys?

[Ian Grace]

In addition to Peter McFadyen, we will have several other outstanding photographers on hand at Prescott - the VSCC's Phil Jones, the BOC's Graham Abbott, and also Allan Rhodes of Track Car Photography who came up with some superb shots last year. Plus our very own Ken and Kate Martin who always get the good shots! And of course we will also have the amazing GoPro HERO Motorsports HD video camera to be attached to the cars climbing the hill for on-car video.

I just finished the Programme today so that is going to the printers on Monday along with M 138 which is also ready to go, so please start sending in material for M 139 which kicks of next week.

[Toby]

Ian, nice advert in the Automobile, you can just about see some minors behind the MGs! You should get the Lanc to take some aerial shots of the cars

[Ian Grace]

Thanks Tony. If we had a few more Minors turn up, then they might feature more prominently in the pics! This year, we have more M Types entered than Minors so far.

[Ian Grace]

Here's a Minor for you!

[Ian Grace]

9 Minors and 5 M Types booked in so far, plus Peter Hills is going to try to get his tourer there - it has been in storage for 7 years, so he won't know until shortly before the day.

We have:

Rally No. Reg. No. Car Name

1 CV 3487 1930 Minor saloon Colin Lee
6 BPB 357 1934 Minor 2-seater Andrew Batey
7 PO 1357 1929 M Type Nigel Stroud
8 LJ 455 1929 M Type Paul Russell
13 GG 3949 1931 MG M Type Coupe Roger Burnett
24 VK 3672 1930 Morris Minor saloon Simon Hodgins
33 OG 2438 1930 M Type David Hinds
41 PG 1045 1929 M Type Frank Ashley
46 HN 8234 1932 Minor 2-seater Mike Wood
53 MT 3286 1929 Minor tourer Ronald & Heather Hogg (Sunday)
54 MM 9326 1930 Minor tourer Raymond Douglas
60 WD 1430 1930 Minor saloon Stuart Clark
70 UF 7090 1930 Minor saloon Tim Brown and Elina Helenius
71 UR 4313 1929 Minor fabric saloon Bill Piggott

[Ian Grace]

I should have added other VMR members who are known to be coming.

Steven Colclough is bringing his MG TA
John Pallister is probably coming in his modern, as his car won't be finished in time
Ken Martin is coming in his modern as his saloon is undergoing some work this year
Colin Lee is also bringing an MG J1
Melvyn Tubb is coming in his modern, as is new member Andy Gallacher
David Roscoe has had to scratch, as his wife Diana ha just had a double knee repalcement and he is looking after her - we wish her a swift recovery

Have I missed anyone?

[Ian Grace]

Add Steve Ashby with his M Type, Dave and Wendy Cooksey with their ex-Goldie Gardner C Type and Nick Reeve (modern).

[Ian Grace]

So here's the skinny on the GoPro camera. The HD camera comes with a battery which lasts about 2.5 hours on a charge, so we'll need more than one battery. But the charger is integral with the camera, so that won't work. However, you can get a 'backpack' which allows you to attach a second battery to the camera and it also acts as a charger, and it also comes with a second battery. So that's OK - except that the backpack takes its power from a USB connection, and it if is charged from a lap-top, then lap-tops only put out about 500 mA which means that the battery would take about 4 hours to charge. However, mains-powered chargers charge at around an Amp, so would charge the second battery in 2 hours, which is faster than the camera will be discharging. But of course, it is going to be used in the UK, so I cannot source a charger here. So can anyone over there call around and see if there is a mains charger with a USB output that will charge at one Amp or thereabouts? Thanks!

The other slight complication that I am looking in to is that the HD camera records in 1080P format which is the BluRay format, so won't burn directly to DVD, but the manufacturer's tech support tells me that they think there is burning software out there that can handle 1080P and burn to DVD. (They have discontinued their original 720P standard resolution camera.) If so, we'll be able to offer HD/1080P BluRay disks to those who have BluRay at home, or normal resolution on DVD to those who don't. And we'll also need 720P to upload to the website. Phew!

[Ian Grace]

I think this will do the job nicely:

http://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Universal- ... B004OQRD6A

Now I just need to research disk burning software than can down-convert 1080P to 720P.

[Ian Grace]

This just in from the RAF:

"The Lancaster is likely to be about 1445 hrs. The display at IAT is at 1510 and it will be on the way in to Fairford. However, if you are lucky, you may get a formation flypast with the Spitfire and the Hurricane depending where they are coming from to join. This will only be decided on the day though, so no warning I fear, just keep your fingers crossed!"

Fingers crossed indeed! I don't know whether this will be a single fly past or a display (I daren't ask!), but I know it takes a lot less than 25 minutes for a Lanc to reach Fairford from Prescott.

[Ronald]

Mmm, i sense a blast on the saturday coming on........... would be in a modern 'if' i can make it..... won;t know til the day though!