March / April 2017
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March-April 2017 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE THOROUGHBRED SPORTS CAR CLUB 1 TOP GEAR MARCH-APRIL 2017 Contents (Fairly) Regular Columns Event Reports ...and About our Club Page 3 Opera by the Lake Page 16 RMS Discussion on Conditional Registration Page 15 Central Coast Cruise Page 18 Office of the President Page 4 Alfa Romeo Resurgence Page 28 Run to Millthorpe Page 23 Tribute to John Surtees Page 30 Two-finger Typing Page 6 Run to Settlers Arms Inn Page 26 Colonoscopy Journal Page 38 2 Coming Events Page 9 Static Car Shows Page 33 And the Lord said You can’t be serious Page 40 The deadline for copy for the May- unto John, “Come th forth and you will Old and News Page 41 June issue of Top Gear will be 26 Star in an Unreasonably June. receive eternal life.” Priced Car Page 37 But John came fifth, and won a toaster. The End Page 46 TOP GEAR MARCH-APRIL 2017 About our Club Calender The Official Calender is published on our web site. Print a Other Information: Current and previous editions may be downloaded here. copy to keep in your historic log booked vehicle. Administration All contributions to: Annual Awards Stephen Knox Club Meetings CAMS M: 0427 705500 Email: Club meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of every Club History [email protected] month except December and January at Carlingford Club Plates Bowling Club. Membership Forms Guest Editors Pointscore Alfa Editor: Barry Farr Club Objectives Sporting Aston Martin Editor: Les Johnson • To foster a better acquaintance and social spirit Jaguar Editor: Terry Daly between the various owners of Thoroughbred Sports Disclaimer: Lotus Editor: Roger Morgan Cars in Australia Any opinions published in the Newsletter should not be • To help and advance Thoroughbred Sports Cars in regarded as being the opinion of the Club, of the Other Information: Australia Committee, or of the Editor. No responsibility is accepted Administration • To establish and maintain, by example, a high for the accuracy of any information in the Newsletter, Annual Awards 3 Standard of Conduct and a Respect of the Laws of the which has been published in good faith as supplied to the CAMS Road Editor. Club History Club Plates Club Shoppe Articles are invited and should be mailed to the Editor for Membership Forms Visit the Club Shoppe and make sure you are dressed publication showing the name and address of the author Pointscore appropriately for the next event. Sporting Membership Forms Correspondence Membership Forms can be downloaded from our web site. All correspondence to The Secretary, TSCC All new members must be proposed and seconded by P.O. Box 3006, Dural, NSW 2158. financial members Top Gear has been continuously published since Email: [email protected] September 1981. Website Incorporation www.thoroughbredsportscarclub.asn.au TSCC is incorporated as an association; Registered No. Contributions to the Webmaster: Y15083-35 [email protected] Affiliation Top Gear TSCC is affiliated with CAMS Limited Top Gear Magazine was first published on 1st September 1981 by the Club. There is no connection or affiliation with Committee the British based Top Gear magazine first published by The contact details of the Committee are published on the Immediate Media Company on or around October 1993. Website. TOP GEAR MARCH-APRIL 2017 Office of the President Barry Farr For a select group of members, March started with an afternoon of musical recruited from V8 Supercars to head up the commercial and marketing culture beside Wallis Lake at Tuncurry. Eighteen of us were pleased to side of the business. leave wet Sydney behind and find the sun shining over the Opera in the Park. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the arias and songs from some of the You may or may not be aware that V8 Supercars is majority owned by best known operas and musicals, so much so all expressed the desire for venture capitalist Archer Capital, who purchased its 65% interest in 2011 something similar next year. and is run by ex Network 10 boss James Warburton. Now, 10 Network, Fox Sports and unnamed global parties are rumoured to be in the running to Numbers were down for the March club meeting with 33 attending, no purchase Archer Capital’s shareholding. doubt influenced by continual rain however, the March Wednesday run 4 and cruise to Davistown organised by Colin Allerdice was very well A score of members attended the Tesla event mid-February along with attended by 37 members and partners despite the continuing threat of Aston Martin members, two of whom are believed to have ordered Teslas inclement weather. on the day. Elon Musk still has a challenge of timely delivery of the Model 3 as he continues to spread himself far and wide. In addition to The weather held good for Tom Aczel’s Sunday run to Millthorpe on the manufacturing mass market electric vehicles through Tesla his other first weekend in April which 42 attended including four of Tom’s guests. companies are SolarCity providing solar power and large batteries to store It’s always a great drive beyond Lithgow along Magpie Hollow Road past that power, Lake Lyell and along Sodwalls Road through Tarana where everyone just SpaceX building had to stop for coffee and cake and huge muffins. a rocket to colonise Mars, There has been a number of proposals to build new motor racing circuits in Hyperloop NSW over the last couple of years and now Circuit Italia, a 2.9km track at developing a Port Stephens, has received Council approval allowing construction to super high commence in April. Built to FIA Grade 2 specificiations, the 14 corner speed train and circuit features 40 metres of elevation change and will be eligible to host now Neuralink all motor racing categories except Formula 1. Damien White has been creating cranial computers that TOP GEAR MARCH-APRIL 2017 upload and download human thoughts. There appears no limits to this 45 year old futuristic businessman. Back to day to day earthly challenges - our car industry and the wider motor sector are under further threat from Australia’s 5M millennials (18- 34 year olds) who in the main are not interested in car ownership but will adopt car sharing and driverless cars. Already 1M millennials use Uber and more than 100000 now use car sharing services in Australia. For those who may have tuned into 2GB in the 1970s when talk-back radio was in its infancy, you may remember Jeremy Cordeaux. Well, he’s one of Lastly, I must express a sense of disappointment in the apparent lack of us - he loves classic cars and has around 20 of them. Jeremy started as a enthusiasm among the majority of members to volunteer to do anything at 5 copy boy at 2GB and rose to be the talk-back breakfast radio king before all for the club. This is even more grating since the membership now moving to Adelaide in the late 1970s where he purchased a large property stands at 100+ with many new members having joined the last few years. in the Adelaide foothills. His luxury garage, which also houses a studio and This year, for the first time, enough volunteers could not be found to library, includes Rolls Royce, Volvo P1800, e-type Jaguar, sidevalve Morris organise all of the ten Wednesday lunch runs and earlier this month a Minor, Fiat 500 and a couple of Ferraris. He also collects model ships, volunteer was not forthcoming at the April 2 Sunday lunch run to do the radios, cameras and books. Now 71 years old he’s back on radio at 5AA writeup of the event. Consequently, Colin Allerdice who does a lot for the Adelaide the last 5 years. club, put his hand up in the absence of anyone else. Somewhat reflecting the times, I received notice this month that one of Yes, this is a great club and the extensive and interesting calendar of the classic car magazines to which I subscribe is ceasing publication. events goes a long way to making it a great club but it should not be left up Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car has succumbed to the headwinds of digital to a handful of members to organise and report on the events that all media and news stand supply chain struggles resulting in its business case members have the opportunity to enjoy. Please give a thought to putting a no longer making sense. The parent company Hemmings Motor News, is little back into the club from time to time. however financially strong and will supply the former’s 55000+ subscribers with an alternative publication. Ciao for now. TOP GEAR MARCH-APRIL 2017 Two-finger Typing Stephen Knox most ‘experts’ will ever know. He tells me that there are hundreds of factories in China producing tyres, from pram tyres and retreads to top What’s round and black and stuffs goanna’s? quality brands. The top ones, numbering about 50 and including all the Tyres of course, those cost-too-much, wear-too-quickly essential items on well-known brands, are as good if not better that those produced our cars that influence the handling and enjoyment of a car more than elsewhere, particularly as some are equipped with more modern almost any other component. machinery than some out-of-date facilities in other countries. At the recent Tesla drive day I told a fellow club member that I was fitting a The second tier of factories, another 30 or so, produce cheaper tyres of the new set of tyres to my Ferrari, following the unexpected journey into a kind often discounted by tyre chains, sometimes as home brands.