March/April 2006
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IN THIS ISSUE Get the Roundabout in full colour at • AGM Kamloops Registration .......... 6 www.oecc.ca/vcb/ra02.pdf • At the Wheel ..................................... 2 (get it printed in colour at • Autojumble ....................................... 8 Office Depot or Staples) • Brits ‘round BC ................................ 7 May 2 Meeting • Calendar ........................................... 8 • English Cars at Geneva .................. 1 7:00 • Museum Eisenach ........................... 4 Seabird Bent Glass • Name This Mystery Car ................... 5 104-1875 Broadway St. Port Coquitlam • Stout’s Jowett Jupiter Story ........... 3 • Tradex 2006 ...................................... 5 June 6 Meeting • Wings & Wheels 2006 ..................... 5 TBA OLD ENGLISH CAR CLUB OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, VANCOUVER COAST BRANCH MAR-APR 2006 - VOL 11, NUM 2 Not old, mostly not English-owned, but there were MINI still has a lot of the personality as well as the visual cues of a Mini, and that far from abusing the heritage, BMW have English Cars at Geneva! respected it and applauded it. Steve Hutchens And if you want to know just how well the people who matter understand and respect Mini history, take a look at the latest Welcome to the world of tomorrow’s Old English Car Club. MINI Concept Geneva, and some of its subtler styling cues. It's Someday our children, certainly our grandchildren, will refer to another "Traveller" concept, like the one that stole the show in these as “old English cars.” Imagine that, these state-of-the-art, Frankfurt last year, and it looks back at Mini's achievements in computer-laden, high-tech creations embodying the latest of all the Monte Carlo Rally in the early 1960s. things automotive. And imagine (or at least try to) the complexi- ties of restoring all of the materials and systems on these But it's more clever than just being a composite of the rally sophisticated vehicles. cars themselves—it's a 2006 version of a mid-1960s rally "service barge" and it takes a neat little dig at one of the But for now they are new. So new, actually, that some aren’t stranger episodes in the Mini's competition career. in production yet. Some are concept vehicles and won’t ever be produced, though ideas they embody may be. Reflective of the The design includes roof-mounted spare-wheel storage, times, German and U.S. ownership dominates; the only British- classic roof-mounted sign-reading spotlights, and a full-size tool owned marque in the group is Morgan, ironically the largest cabinet mounted in the luggage space, behind the Traveller's British-owned marque left. clever split rear doors. On the side windows there are storage boxes that carry more tools, a snow shovel, binoculars, and Enough fluff. Let’s go to the 2006 Geneva Auto Show and see several boxes of spare headlight bulbs. what British manufacturers have to offer! The articles in this section were lifted from the MSN website on the Geneva show. And the light bulbs are the bit that shows how well Design Boss Gerd Hildebrand knows his Mini history. The bulbs in the spares box on the MINI Concept Geneva are genuine 40-year- old Lucas ones, the same exact type that got the whole Mini team disqualified from the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally by French rule makers. Oddly, a French car was declared as the "winner." Mini Traveller Concept by Brian Laban When BMW took over the Mini brand and turned it into MINI, old-guard Mini lovers were dead certain that the German giant would drive a steamroller over the Mini's character while Morgan 4/4 Anniversary hijacking its heritage. The British sports car legend celebrates the 70th anniversary of If you look hard enough, though, you'll realize that compared its first four-wheel production model with a run of cars visually to most brand-name takeovers, they haven't done either—that a representing each year the 4/4 has been in production. But they Continued from page 1 elegantly indeed. And the engineering is as elegant as the looks, so it still drives like an Aston—it’s just that four grown ups can will build just two examples of each model year (so two 1936s, now enjoy arriving in just the one supercar. two 1937s and so on). So wherever you arrive, you're unlikely to be upstaged. Bentley “Diamond Series” Arnage and Continental GT Bentley used the Geneva show to celebrate the 60th anniver- Rolls-Royce 101EX sary of its historic Crewe factory with the debut of two special Proving that Rolls-Royce still understands exactly what the "Diamond Series" limited editions of the Continental GT and brand stands for, the 101EX concept (or “experimental model” in Arnage. The Crewe factory built its first Bentley in 1946 when it Rolls-speak) is a classic Grand Tourer in the old sense of the shifted from manufacturing airplane engines to support the war word, for people with both money and time on their hands. The effort to building luxury cars, starting with the Mark VI. Many place to arrive would obviously be the Cote d’Azur—and send notorious Bentleys came out of the Crewe factory over the the bags on the train, with the valet. years, and in 1999, when Volkswagen purchased the company, more than 500 million pounds were invested to rebuild and reequip the entire factory. Jaguar XK Coupe Because Jaguar has finally got it so right, and the more people arrive in it, the brighter Jaguar’s future will look. The XK is AT THE WHEEL gorgeous in the flesh, technically impressive, wonderful to drive, Chairperson: Bart Shaw and in this end of the market it’s a good deal of car for the 604-946-4700 money. It is also by general agreement the closest thing Jaguar Vice-Chairperson: Ken Miles has made to a genuine sports car since the early E-Types, and [email protected] - 604-576-8036 that alone is worth enjoying. Treasurer: Elaine Lafontaine [email protected] - 604-591-3332 Membership renewals: #73-8190 King George Highway, Surrey, BC V3W 5B7 Secretary: Dennis Nelson [email protected] - 604-599-9032 New memberships and correspondence: 10932 Scarborough Drive, Delta, BC V4C 7X1 Meeting & Event Coordinator: Steve Diggins 604-294-6031 Phone Committee Chief: Michael Smith [email protected] - 604-936-8674 Roundabout Editor: Steve Hutchens [email protected] - 360-733-3568 Articles and photos for the Roundabout: 2090 N Shore Road, Bellingham, WA 98226-7864 Roundabout Printing & Distribution: Richard Taylor [email protected] - 604-298-9346 Aston Martin Rapide ICBC AirCare Liaison: Fred Bennett An Aston Martin with four doors? Whatever will they think of 604-939-1773 / Fax 604-939-1753 next? But you’d have to say, Aston have dealt with the usually Good & Welfare: David Ballantine thorny problem of stretching an iconic sports car shape very [email protected] - 604-980-4120 2 Mike Stout Goes on Safari and Brings Back a Rare British Beastie As told by Mike, himself Reprint from Western Classics, April 1993, with thanks to Steve Diggins and Mike Stout It all started about eighteen months ago when at the all Brit handled. Any cavity was full of nuts and critter’s nests, but the car show in Vancouver, I saw some photos of a unique collec- body was remarkably dent free and complete and apart from the tion of cars stored outside Sacramento, some of which might be battery boxes, door supports and floor the car appeared restor- for sale. For some time I’d been thinking about another restora- able. I decided to make an offer and now I’m the owner. tion project, particularly since retirement was just around the Bits and pieces were collected from around it (I didn’t know comer. There was also a vacant space in the carport, waiting to whether it belonged to the car or not but I did find the spare be filled with some interesting old machinery. tire). New tires had to be fitted, wheels freed and trees felled Apparently this before it could be retired car dealer dragged from its from Sacramento home of over had collected open twenty years, past European two and a prewar DKW, a four seaters during very nice Riley the 1960s, when coupe, sundry they were quite MGs (including a cheap. When he T-Type) and a died his wife lonely TR2. One of inherited the the Singers had to collection. A phone be actually dug out call to her showed of the hardened that the asking mud before it could prices for most of be towed out of the these relics were way. The owner high considering has already sold that although the three 2 litre average age was Sunbeams and an forty, at least XK120; her prices twenty of those were high and she years were spent is not actively outside. But the looking for buyers. price for one of Towing it home these cars was was an adventure however quite low and within my price range. It was a Jowett that took two and a half days. Whenever I stopped at rest stops Jupiter, but what the heck was that? I had vague memories of (which are very well looked after) or campsites, a group would Javelins in my teens but little else until a few phone calls later gather around, some amused that I would buy an old wreck like and an article from the now defunct “Collectors Car” filled me in. that, other, previous sports car owners, were encouraging. And The Jupiter was quite a character in its day, winning its class at others slightly indignant that I was taking it out of the country, to Le Mans three times, which was no mean feat, and placing well the cold and barren North lands, even beyond Seattle.