Hello All, I bet you thought you'd never hear from me again! Hahahaha! Bad penny and all that.chris lambert wrote:I also think that there are cultural differences as well as the fact that the VMR was originally strictly for overhead valve cars, side valve cars only being embraced following Gren Strickland's decision to bow out from running the S/V Minor Register a couple of years ago.
I think this comment hits the nail on the head quite firmly. There was without question a cultural difference between the OHV and SV communities, although being out of the circle for the past couple of years I don't know if this difference still exists. I suspect it does.
I remember having a email exchange with a prominant VMR member about the differences between the OHC and the SV minors. Quite obviously I sided with the SV cars as that is what I owned at the time. Although some of the words exchanged were very much tongue in cheek from my perspective, it was fairly obvious at the time that this member firmly believed the Cammies were far superior. It didn't change my mind or attitude about OHC Minors nor SV Minors nor that member, but it did confirm to me at the time that there was a certain amount of "elitism" going on. However I was not bothered. It was a bit like the children of the parents, one girl, one boy and yet they were not thought of as a "family".
As Chris rightly states, the VMR was originally conceived for the OHV Minor community. Despite this I signed up as the first SV member (I delibrately allocated web membership No. 54 to myself - as that was my birth year!) and I constructed the very first VMR website and continued to run the site for a long long time until I had passed sufficient web authoring knowledge across to Ian (via emails and telephone calls) so he could run it himself. Note for Ian, I noticed you've knicked some of the SV site content and included it into the VMR site. Very cheeky!!!
Janet and I also attended VMR rallies and events and I even encouraged the SV Site members to join in.
Throughout my membership I tried to encourage (and argued) the VMR to accept SV Minors and to feature them in the Magazine, but it was many many issues before this happened. In fact the was just before I sold our Minor. I am sure Ian will remember those exchanges!!
In addition to the safety aspect of owning a Minor in our area, I think the other turning point for us was the VSCC episode and the debate of acceptance of the Sidevalve Minors. The outcome was something I could never understand. The early side-valve cars are now over 77 years old and yet they still will not accept the SV Minors into their fold. Total rubbish. The rules say cars up to 1931, but there are cars post 1931 in their membership. Then they say, no mass produced cars, but that didn't make sense either. So I gave up on this debate as it was obviously a political and elitism issue and quite frankly a total joke. I don't approve of political jokes...I've seen too many of them get elected.
It wasn't that we wanted to participate in any VSCC event (I had more repect for our SV Minor), but the pure bloody mindedness of the organisation. I get the impression it's populated by a very "cliche" membership - a bit like the Fox Hunting crowd. The SV Minors were too far of a common car to be amongst their ranks.
So where are we today. Are the Sidevalves accepted into the Vintage Minor Register? Well yes they are - "I think". I note there are more photo's appearing in the mag and on the website and some references to sidevalves in the articles. But, when I came back to the VMR site after a couple of years absence, I still get the feeling it's very much OHC bias.
So the parting questions are:
Is the acceptance of the SV Minors purely to bolster membership of the VMR?
If the VMR is intended for OHC and SV Minor equally and the SV Minor out-numbers the OHC Minor existance by x to 1, then why do the SV Minors not have equal presence on the site or in the Mag?
I think until it is very clear ("crystal clear" as they said in the film "All Good Men") that the VMR is a Morris Minor register and not solely for the OHC community alone, then Sidevalve owners will continue to stay away.
As Ian and others will know, I am a very contraversial chappy, but my intensions were and still are very genuine. I still have a soft spot for Minors and would love to see a large register where everyone would benefit from it to help them with keeping their Minors running for the owners and everyone's enjoyment.
The key to success is welcoming and catering for all Minors. I've argued that for many a year.
Peace and joy Minor Owners - we all own (or did) Morris Minors, long may they live.
--
Gren.
(try out rocket man Wilkinsons sv powered racer) 
