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ALLSORTS MOTOR CLUB Newsletter March 2016 NEXT MEETING – THURSDAY 25th FEBRUARY at THE SWAN HOTEL “Travelling isn’t only about looking and watching – it’s about feeling and experiencing!” DATES FOR THIS MONTH Sunday 14th February Waltham Chase Village Hall Car Meet for pre-1990 vehicles 10am – 1pm Sunday 21st February Classic Car Meet at The Good Life Shop, Springvale, Kingsworthy from 10am or drive from Staples Car Park, Fareham PO16 8SU from 9.15am Thursday 25th February 2016 Allsorts Meeting at The Swan Hotel – Film Night – PISTONS-PASSION- PLEASURES- A SICILIAN DREAM – The Story of The Greatest Road Race In History – The Targa Florio CLUB OFFICERS. The Allsorts Club officers for your information are as follows:- Chairman Geoff Wheeler 0792 5556710 [email protected] Treasurer/Membership Clive Hutton 01730 268702 [email protected] Events Co-ordinator/Website Paul/Sue Ramsden 01962 886656 [email protected] Newsletter John Hankin 01962 771297 [email protected] The general email address for the club is [email protected] and our website is www.allsortsmotorclub.org.uk where you will find all sorts of club info about what we do and how we do it NEWSLETTER. THE QUIZ A great turnout of members and friends for the Annual Quiz which had been set by The Standings, the Westhalls and John Parrington. I can assure you, the readers that no one got it all correct, in fact I suspect that the majority got slightly less that half correct. There was of course the usual banter about whether the question masters had got the questions correct and a time was spent by the Dowsett family as to whether James Bond answer should be put when a Mk 4 Aston was shown rather than the correct Mk5 – most were no bothered as to us an Aston martin of that era was a James Bond car (it was the incorrect colour after all!) 1 This year the question masters decided that instead of the winners having to set the questions for the 2017 edition the 2017 question masters would be drawn by lot, therefore encouraging competition. The quiz was won by The Misfits of Gil Ratcliffe, David Wright, Gordon Cooper and Alistair Williamson who we all decided need to get out more and less time with their noses in Encyclopaedias. However they did get there just desserts as their name was drawn from the proverbial hat and therefore they are next year’s question masters. All I can add really is that it was a fun evening thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended and our grateful that are expressed to the 2016 Question masters for spending the time and effort setting such an interesting quiz. Maria Teresa de Filippis Who was she, have you ever heard of her – I suspect not, however during January a lot of folk were getting overexcited about the deaths of a variety of singers such as David Bowie, Glenn Frey of The Eagles and Dale Griffin of Mott The Hoople but not a word was heard about Maria. She in her time was as world famous as these guys and we who are allegedly car enthusiasts have never heard of her! Shame on us. She was one of the pioneers of Formula 1 Racing in the 1950s and died on January 9th 2016 Maria Teresa de Filippis, who in the late 1950s became the first woman to compete in Formula 1 world championship grand prix, widely regarded as the pinnacle of automobile racing, died on Jan. 9. She was 89. Her death was announced on the website of the Formula 1 Grand Prix Drivers Club, a group made up of former drivers. The announcement did not say where she died. Formula 1 features open-wheeled cars that today often exceed 200 miles per hour and subject riders to gravit- ational forces stronger than a space shuttle launch. When de Filippis raced, deaths on the track were more common than they are now. De Filippis was one of a handful of women who have tried to qualify for world championship Formula 1 races. Female drivers were more common in the earlier decades of the 20th century but had become rare by the time Formula 1 took shape in the mid-1940s. Weighing barely 100 pounds when she raced, she drove a rocket- like Maserati 250F that had been modified for her slight frame. De Filippis helped reopen auto racing to women like Danica Patrick, internationally famous for her Nascar and IndyCar prowess, and Lella Lombardi, who became the only woman to re- gister points in a Formula 1 world championship grand prix when she earned half a point for placing sixth in Spain in 1975. But de Filippis’s career was brief. It peaked with a 10th-place fin- ish at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1958. In 2006, she told the British newspaper The Observer that her racing hero, the five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, thought she could be reckless on the racetrack. “He used to say, ‘You go too fast, you take too many risks,’ ” she said. “I wasn’t frightened of speed, you see, and that’s not always a good thing. He worried I might have an accident.” She qualified for three major 2 races, persevering in the face of skepticism from other drivers and race officials. But she said that gender dis- crimination had rarely been an issue. “The only time I was prevented from racing was at the French Grand Prix,” de Filippis said. “The race director said, ‘The only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser’s.’ Apart from that, I don’t think I encountered any prejudice — only sur- prise at my success.” She retired after Jean Behra, a racer who designed a Porsche For- mula 1 car for her in 1959, died after crashing during a rainy race in Berlin. De Filippis was born on Nov. 11, 1926, to an aristocratic family in Naples. She said she was goaded into automobile racing by her three brothers, deciding to try ra- cing in a Fiat 500 after they had challenged her ability to drive one, fast. She entered her first race, a hill climb called the Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni, at 22 and finished second over all. She soon progressed through the levels of racing until reaching Formula 1 in 1958. Her survivors include her husband, Theodor Huschek, the general secretary for the Formula 1 Grand Prix Drivers Club; a daughter, Carola; and grandchildren. MG’s and Others of the Age CHAPTER 1 – The Beginnings by Neil Simpson So as I took the stair carpet up ready for the new one, it was with some horror that I realized that all was not well and the stairs required some serious repairs. I needed to get under the stairs and decided to enter through the under stairs cupboard that a lot of us have got. I instantly transformed into Grumpy Old Git mode as I marveled at how much old “tutt”** that Nita had managed to stash into this somewhat small space and how long it took to remove. Possibly worthy of Guiness World of Records Book? I managed to rip out a plywood false wall to reveal not only the workings of the stairs but even more possible storage space for Nita’s old “tutt” **. I tried desperately to finish the repair job and put the cupboard back as it was before Nita returned home and had chance to claim ownership of these few extra cubic metres of storage. Again I failed!!! Once more the local tip has been denied!! What has the ramblings of this old fella got to do with cars and BMGOC? Well, amongst the contents of this cupboard, I found some old photo albums that I had forgotten about and which took me down car memory lane. Photography has clearly moved on from the days of my Kodak Brownie 127. You will either know what I am talking about or you will have to Google it. If you have to Google it, I probably have to explain that a Photo Album is a book into which you placed hard copy photos that you had printed at some expense by Boots the Chemist. Storing photos on hard drives, I clouds, portable hard drives or sticks did not even feature in the most outrageous Sci Fi books or films of the time. Our car history is as follows:- 3 My formative years took place in the mid to late Sixties. I am pleased to report that I cannot even remember whether I took photos of my minivan followed by my Riley Elf. They say if you can remember the 60’s you did not make the most of them!! However, I can remember the amazing difference that the additional 150cc and 4bhp did for the Elf above the Minivan! The Elf’s walnut dash and leather seats were a statement!! I then moved onto an Austin Healey MkIIA + 2 (2 what - was difficult to define!). It was a triple SU job – never did get them balanced properly! However, I was stopped in this car by a Police motorbike and prosecuted for doing over 50 mph down London Embankment by Old Scotland Yard on a Sunday lunchtime on the way to a jazz club. Speeds that are now completely and utterly impossible to achieve due to weight of traffic at any time down the Embankment. I felt myself lucky as I had the hood down and apart from me and a front seat passenger with long blond hair and micro skirt there were three other passengers sat on the boot of the car with feet in the +2 bit!!!! The Police said nothing about this! Maybe the micro skirts worked? I did find the only photo I have of the car as above but still have the pencil sketch and oil painting! Also am still married to the girl who fancied this car more than it’s driver! How shallow is that? Simpson then went MG!.