Christmas virtual pub meet

[Ian Grace]

Alister,

Guilty as charged - RAF retired.

And SV Minors are most welcome - there are some in the calendar - at least April and May! The pics were chosen at random from VMR archives, selected solely on their suitability to sepia-ize!

If you have any pics you would like uploading to the forum, simply e-mail them to me and I will do the honours.

Edited to add that the VMR was founded to cater specifically for the OHC Minor and although it welcomed anyone as a member, there were few SV cars in the Register until Gren Strickland (who had a website predominantly looking after the SV cars) moved on to VW campers about five years ago (?) and passed his archive over to the VMR (much of which can be found in the Gren Strickland Archive in the Members' Area). This explains why we still have many more OHC Minors in the Register than SV Minors, although many more SV Minors have survived than OHC Minors. A squint at the chassis register on the website will show that there is a comparable number of SV Minors that have been tracked down, but there is clearly much more work to be done in finding them and bringing their owners onboard. It can also be seen that there are many SV Minors on the register whose owners are unknown. Any help in filling in the blanks would be greatly appreciated - 200 pairs of eyes are better than one! Much of the behind-the-scenes work of the Register is related to completing the chassis register and tracking down surviving cars and their owners.

Here's a photo of our first ever pub meet - Autumn 2001 at the Shoulder of Mutton, Hazeley, Hampshire. The attendees at these meets were known as the Muttoneers. Eight vintage Minors plus Gren with his SV 2-seater at far left. The Semi-sports fourth from left and the saloon second from right are both ex-editorial conveyances!

[Toby]

there seems to be a lot of young people in the photo! At 42 i'm one of the younger minorists?
Just popped in to warm up after a very frosty, slidy day out with the wessex vehicle preservation club. Drove to Bloxworth, Dorset, at 9am then off at 11 to drive through some lovely scenery to Burley in the new forest for sausage, mash, cakes and raffle and all for a fiver a head For a change we ended up nearer to home than usual and the name of the run gave rise to a seasonal photo (the holly run) as usual we were the only prewar car



That's probably it for a while, the winter fettling of all cars is calling me....

[Toby]

ps, it's a shame we couldn't get this many cars to the windmill, also hants!? I know gren moved on but i guess the cars are now either under rebuild or the owners have moved/ left the club? Looking forward to trying to do even more minoring in 2010 as its such an auspicious year for our cars.

[Highlander]

Ian, My comments on sv minor was tongue in cheek! Question - if you could get all those minors on 2001 where are they now? I have never seen more than half a dozen at any meet I have been to in the last six years. I was the only one at Brooklands New Years Day and I bet only two or three will be at the VSCC meet on Sunday (Brooklands). I was a joy meeting Mike Stubbins on the lst. We talked about everything Minor from engine, gearbox, axles seats and bodywork, we knew what we were talking about(?) and understood what was being said(?) We all do this when meeting a simular model owner. I seldom talk to the car nezt door if it is an Austin, Humber, A;lvis, Sunbeam etc - you all know what I am talking about. I get quite depressed with the lack of Minors at our meets and wonder if it is worthwhile attending. There are over a dozen Minors in my part of Surrey and I have only seen one moving in six years and that was Simons. I'll be alright tomorrow. Highl;ander.

[Ian Grace]

Alister,

It is a standing joke in the VMR that we have never had more than a baker's dozen Minors at any of our rallies. We had 12 at the very first summer rally ten years ago, and we have had 11 on a couple of VSCC Light Car section events, but the number 13 seems to jinx us. I am hoping that we will well and truly smash that record at Prescott this year - but I'm not taking any bets just yet - 18 declarations of interest doesn't necessarily translate into 18 cars actually turning up - and in any case several of these are M Types, so getting past 13 Minors may still be a challenge.

It's obviously not the cars - there are plenty around and they are fine, usable vehicles - but everyone knows that each marque has its own demographic following, and I'm speaking in general here of course. If you read the mags from the first few years of the Register, they were filled with cheerleading language, imploring members to get their cars out and drive them, but to date, I cannot honestly say that the VMR has made a measurable difference to the sum annual mileage of the surviving Minor fleet. It is such a pity that those who have attended our rallies really enjoy them, and understand what everyone else is missing! This is also why I and others (including the club's eligibility sub-committee chairman) pushed so hard to get the SV Minors VSCC-eligible a couple of years ago as they are every bit the equal of the contemporary Sevens that are all now eligible, but the die-hards won the day and the SV Minors were derisively dubbed 'gray porridge'. I blame Issigonis for robbing the name 'Minor' for his post war car because its district nurse image has rubbed off onto its pre-war namesake. Imagine if the pre-war Austin Seven had been named the Allegro (or 'all agro' as they used to be called!).

Anyway, anything any of us can do to encourage others on to the road would be wonderful, and our tenth anniversary year has to be a great opportunity to do this.

As for the summer rallies, I realised long ago that the only way to be able to put on a really good weekend - like Prescott - is to invite other clubs to join us - it takes about 150 cars to break even at Prescott - sod all chance of getting that many Minors out. Our first visit to Prescott was in 2003 - for the Minor's 75th. We had 12 Minors there. When the Seven celebrated its 75th at Beaulieu, they had SIX HUNDRED Sevens turn up! Opening up the club to SV cars seems to have made absolutely no difference, because the predominant users (in general) of Minors are the OHC owners because of the VSCC's wide range of light car-friendly events.

Interestingly, when we organized our first rally in Australia, we also got 12 Minors there - most of which had traveled hundreds of miles!

When VSCC assistant Rosemary Burke drove her OHC saloon up north for the Northern Weekend back in the sixties, she ran a big end somewhere in the Midlands late on a Friday evening. She got out, removed the sump and the offending rod, re-metaled it using her camping Primus stove, scraped it in and was on her way after a couple of hours - I still have her letter to me describing the occasion. She drove through the night to arrive just in time for signing on Saturday morning and went on to equal the top score for the Northern Jug, just missing the weekend's top award on a technicality.

Maybe everyone is spending far too much time on these infernal PCs these days instead of getting the old jalopy out!

Here are ten Minors (plus Geoff Thornton's Bullnose) at our inaugural rally in 2000:

[Toby]

Alister, you are not alone! I often wonder how many minors must be laid up when you look at the number of minor owners within a drivable radius of vmr events, let alone all the other clubs events! If you look at the radius of the windmill meets we had last year taking it out to epsom and Lymington it is a large catchment area taking in Reading, Newbury, Fleet, Camberley, Aldershot, Portsmouth, Brighton? possibly Oxford. All quite densely populated areas and if you go beyond the coastline limitations, the Isle of Wight! Speaking of which, whilst on the island last year the Austin do at the same time resulted in even more of the usual "what a lovely Austin" comments! William Morris must be spinning faster than a Mcevoy camshaft!
Ian, not seen an invite via the morris register yet, that would generate a few more entries?
Despite all this I always look forward to any minor participation at any event and enjoy talking minor to other minorists, at least the regular use of mine is teaching me all about fixing 'em and has boosted by 2 the number seen out and about. Lets hope we can one day be as well known as the postwar minor or 7

[Ian Grace]

Well, it's getting around to our annual virtual pub meet time again - this will be our fourth such annual event. Feel free to drop in any time between now and the New Year for a virtual pint with friends! No need to restrict topics to our cars, just drop in for a chat - at the bar that never closes!

So here's something to get things rolling. This has absolutely nothing remotely to do with cars, and you may well have seen it already, but it is very seasonal and inspirational:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Cheers everybody - here's to some dear friends who passed on this year, to good health for you and your family this Christmas, and to a wonderful vintage motoring New Year in store!

[Toby]

Garage freezing, virtual pub up and running, must be time to fettle everything for the xmas holidays use....
Holly run and new years day at the white buck in burley plus whatever else....
Wife away so creating as much mess as possible, new minor low value parts shed door stained and drying in warm kitchen, shed alarm fitted, painted car items hanging over wood burner (battery box and headlamp bracket, backplates), takeaway curry every night, unlimited time in garage, bliss

[Ian Grace]

Boy, you guys in England look like you're getting slammed with snow. Hope it abates before New Year's Day for those planning a (non virtual) pub run. And who is planning a New Year's Day run? If anyone needs to know which pubs will host vintage New Year gatherings in their area, let me know. In addition to the traditional Brooklands meet of course. Alister, presumably you plan to exercise the Humber that day?

[Highlander]

Ian, No I will not be at Brooklands on New Years Day - for the first time in years we are not dancing New Years Eve which gave me New Years Day off for Brooklands. We are at a large gathering of Scottish Dancers for three days and nights in Maidstone (Police Collage). I will be at the VSCC meeting a week later. The snow is very bad here in Surrey and a lot more tonight (Mon/Tues) I will be going nowhere. Any news from Paul? Highlander.

[Toby]

2 deg C in the garage nonday night, brrrr! Glad of the space heater I bought last january! Hope to see another minor at the white buck in burley, new years day. The 7s have their own display as there's so many of em! They're like an infestation I'm very jealous and it's enough to make you build a 7 special with minor engine and box?

[Ronald]

Toby, just read your footer on your posts..... are you sure it should say 'chips'.... shouldn;t it rhyme with that word...!!!!!!!!

[Ian Grace]

By the way, it looks like the Chris Bazeley image didn't get transmitted at the top of the Newsletter for some reason. It's on the .pdf copy in the Members' Area, but to save you the bother, here it is - titled 'Christmas Lights'. Find more of his fine work at http://www.chrisbazeley.com, including instructions to make the perfect Martini and G&T which might come in useful tonight.



Cheers everyone!

Ian

[Highlander]

Ian, You have been across the water for too long!! Forget Martini and Gin and Tonic - try a rusty nail - a good slug of Drambuie and equal measure of Scotch - no ice and a Happy Christmas to you all. May day May day - are you receiving Paul!!! Highlander.

[Ian Grace]

English ale and single malts (please, Santa...) for me - although I did get addicted to chocolate martinis, of all things, a while back.

We can get quite a good range of English ales and IPA'a over here, and the Three Lions English pub in nearby Redmond always has some good kegs on tap. And of course, malts are available everywhere these days.

OD'd on vodka tonics at a friend's house last night - to wash down a proper Christmas cake Jayne baked. Jayne now feeling somewhat fragile this morning after quaffing an undisclosed quantity of B&B...

Happy Humbering, Alister,

Ian