VMR Summer Rally 2011

[cammy]

Come on Halbe!
Say what you really mean!

[Toby]

Blimey, if membership is that dear I'm glad sv minors aren't eligible Any club should keep subs to a minimum if new blood from all walks of life are needed to keep our hobby fun and affordable....

[Ronald]

YOu're forgetting Toby, they're clearly happy with the 'old' blood....... not wanting new, well, it would seem that way if 'new' members are being asked to leave anyway,.....!!!

[ColinWLee]

We have to bear in mind this person does not represent the views of the VSCC in general.
He is upset because "his" club has allowed a thread on their own website that might attract one or two people to Prescott in favour of the event he appears to be organising. I recon the weather might have a greater effect on both events as is often the case in England.
Is the VMR such a threat?
Blown out of all proportion I feel.

[Ian Grace]

Blimey, if membership is that dear I'm glad sv minors aren't eligible Any club should keep subs to a minimum if new blood from all walks of life are needed to keep our hobby fun and affordable....

The VSCC is on an entirely different strata these days - it is now a substantial corporation with GBP 460,000 reserves and pays GBP 250,000 in annual salaries alone, and turns over roughly a million pounds a year. It puts on an amazing number of events each year - many of which are organized and manned by enthusiastic volunteers who do it for nothing! I'm not sure how much sponsorship they receive, but you can be certain that is substantial too. It is a winning commercial formula, so they will aggressively go after anything or anyone who puts their situation at the slightest risk - hence the threatening e-mail I got from their club secretary. One of their forumists went this far:

"From a business perspective it's hard to fathom why the club would advertise a meeting in competition to their own event particularly when we have our vintage Prescott a few weeks later in early August. I thought that Prescott was a money cow for the VSCC. Joe public may not be so sophisticated as to understand whose event is the proper one."

How's that for absolute arrogance?

If Loton makes a loss, then the VSCC would dip ever so slightly into their enormous cash reserves and the staff would continue to draw their salaries from the corporation. If Pre-War Prescott makes a loss - then, as organizer, it comes directly out of my pocket - and with the hire of the hill alone costing GBP 5,500, the risk is not insignificant - to say the least. If Pre-War Prescott 2011 breaks even, then it will be the first time in four VMR Prescott events that it will have done so...

Anyway, the VSCC is by no means all bad and the old car movement would be very much the poorer without it - particularly the LCES - which is what the VSCC should be like (and was in the past). So let's draw a veil over all of this nonsense at this point, and look forward to our event, which should be a super (and proper!) day out for everyone. If you are planning to come - please consider putting in your entry as I am sitting on the deposit invoice at the moment and waiting to be able to pay it.

As they say around these parts - so now you know how sausage is made!

[Ian Grace]

Just heard from the RAF Events Team at Bentley Priory - unfortunately, we cannot have the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight this year. It is booked elsewhere. But I will put in another request by September this year for next July. However, Peter Balding is talking to Tim Prince, the Director of RIAT who is a friend of his (Peter was the Safety Officer for IAT for many years), which is on the same day, to see if we can get a fly-by or display of some sort during the day as aircraft transit in and out of Fairford. It would be good to book SV Minor owner Peter Vacher and his Hurricane as mentioned here before, but at around GBP 2,500 for the display, that will have to wait until Pre-War Prescott has developed somewhat in future years.

So far we have five entries from VMR members - Colin Lee (OHC saloon), Andrew Batey (SV 2-seater), Stephen Colclough (MG TA), David Roscoe (Semi-sports) and John Pallister (SV saloon or modern). We also have the M Types of Nigel Stroud and Paul Russell/David Cutler - the latter being the ex-Jeremy Evans car.

[Ian Grace]

2328 (Bishops Cleeve) Air Training Corps is going to support us at Prescott with marshaling and car parking duties. They will also bring along their very smart publicity test which will double as our RAF Charitable Trust focal point for the day.

In return, I have told their CO that we will do everything we can to get the young cadets some spirited drives up the hill - you never know, we may plant some vintage motoring seeds in young, impressionable minds. So if you are coming, please offer up some passenger space for this extremely worthy cause.

Which gets me thinking aloud. Peter Vacher's wife Polly is a kingpin of an organization that raises funds for disabled people to learn to fly.

http://www.worldwings.org/charity.htm

Perhaps we can offer passenger seats to these deserving people as well...

[Ian Grace]

And the latest entry for Pre-War Prescott is ...



This is an Austin 12 van owned by conservation architect Tony Mealing. He and his wife do Punch and Judy shows, and the van is their transport. It has traveled all over, including Holland, Belgium and even the Isle of Wight. Could be a first for Prescott?

[Ian Grace]

Delighted to hear today from Matt Bell that the Austin 7 world is throwing down the challenge to the Minors once again - to compete for the Lewis & Nicholson Trophy in the Sunday Nav Rally. They are 3 for 3 at the moment, so we'll see if we can do something about that this year.

So I need a team of three Minors to step forward - over to you!

http://www.vintageminor.co.uk/summerral ... rophy.html

[Ian Grace]

Happy to announce that Ian Harris will be bringing his goodies to Prescott. He's still deep into sorting out all Harrys' spares, but once that is done, we will have a really great source of Minor spares, as Ian is going to commission batches of parts as they run out and to fill gaps in his and Harry's stock.

If anyone else would like to bring spares for sale, just let me know - we have plenty of space for everyone in the paddock.

[Ian Grace]

Here's the quarter page that is going in the June issue of The Automobile - out some time later this month. There will also be an editorial piece in the July issue, out in June, so with a readership of around 90,000, these entries will give us huge exposure and more than compensate for the VSCC's decision not to publish our invitation to them in their newsletter (readership around 7,000) because of the Loton clash.

VMR Summer Rally entries received from Ian Harris and Roger Burnett this week, but so far the only Minors entered are those of Colin Lee, Andrew Batey and David Roscoe.

The picture below - sent in by Syd Snell (3rd from right) has to be one of the most evocative Minor photos I have seen, and perfectly sums up the spirit of Pre-War Prescott, where we will be celebrating all those cars that supported the war effort. The car was shared by these for crew members and they used it to recover the crews from dispersal and convey them to the local pub after ops.

[Ian Grace]

Just had word from David Baldock who is restoring the White Minor. He sent over 28 eye-popping photos of the engine he is building for it, but asked that I not publish them just yet. He reports: "Engine progress pictures. Slightly modified block to accept MG J2 crank. Alteration to main bearings MG pistons and rods. Zoller blower of the identical type to original. Blower casing being machined from a solid ali alloy block by CNC machine fed with info from accurate external dimensions taken from photos. There are still some internal mysteries to be resolved regarding rev counter drive and other complications with bevel drive for blower."

The original engine languishes under a bench in mid Wales, and the owner who is the nephew of the chap who prepared the original engine for Barbara Skinner has firmly refused to let it go.

So the car won't be ready for this July, but hopefully for 2012, and what a sight and sound it will be.

[Ian Grace]

Take a look at the Hereford Vintage Auctions website - scroll down.

They report: "We are fully behind this event and will help in any way we can."

http://www.hvauctions.com/

[Ian Grace]

Yesterday I checked out an amazing micro video camera - designed for motorsport. It records up to 8 hours of HDTV quality video! I'll be bringing one to Prescott to attach to cars climbing the hill. For a nominal charge, we'll be able to take the videos and burn them on to DVD's for competitors to relive their climbs. The picture quality is stunning.

Here's the camera:

http://gopro.com/

And here's a YouTube video captured with the GoPro HD Motorsports HERO camera we'll be using:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDLoEiBs ... dded#at=24

So if you record your climb on video, you'll also be able to indirectly time your untimed climb, as well as analyze your racing line!

[Ian Grace]

This just in from the RAF Charitable Trust:

"Dear Mr Grace

I thought I would drop you an email and introduce myself. I am the Grants and Revenue Manager for the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust at Fairford, which I know is your nominated charity for the Pre-war Prescott Car Rally in July this year, for which we are very grateful.

I understand you have sent a request to the BBMF to ask if they could conclude your day with a flypast/display, I was wondering if you have had a formal response to this request yet? I have been talking to our Deputy Director Air Ops and once he knows what the response is, he will see if there is anything he can do at all; as you are well aware that date is the Saturday of our RIAT weekend.

I would really like to keep my Trustees informed about the good news of you choosing us as your nominated charity and, whilst I know you are a retired RAF Flt Lt, I was wondering if you could let me know a little bit about how you came to choose us, and whether I can give you any more information about our charity.

Kind regards

Ailsa Fleming
Grants and Revenue Manager
RAF Charitable Trust
Douglas Bader House
Horcott Hill
Fairford
Gloucestershire
GL7 4RB"

Sounds promising. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) could not fit us into their busy schedule this year, but we will be applying again next year.

The RAF CT is a hugely worthy cause. Let's see how strongly we can support them.