ALLSORTS MOTOR CLUB Newsletter July 2016 NEXT MEETING – THURSDAY 28th JULY at THE CRICKETERS DATES FOR THIS MONTH Thursday 28th July Allsorts Meeting at The Cricketers Saturday 6th August Bill Rawles Coffee Morning, Four Marks 10am – 1pm Wednesday 10th August Annual get together with The Austin Healey Club at the Potters Heron 7.30pm Thursday 25th August Allsorts Meeting at The Cricketers Sunday 28th August Winchester City Footbal Club Car Meet and Breakfast Club 8am - noon 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. Alfredo “Dino” Ferrari died from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 60 years ago Alfredo Ferrari (1932-1956) was an Italian automotive engineer and the first son of automaker Enzo Ferrari. Alfredo was nicknamed Dino. He had Duchenne muscular dystrophy and died at the age of 24. After his death the Ferrari ‘Dino’ was fitted with the engine that Alfredo was working on and Enzo Ferrari named the car in honour of his son. 1 From an early age Enzo groomed Alfredo to be his successor. Alfredo studied economics in Bologna before moving to mechanical engineering in Switzerland. Over time, it became clear that something was wrong. Doctors had no idea what was afflicting him and he only managed to complete two years of his engineering education before returning to Modena. In his short career at Ferrari, Alfredo was credited for the 750 Monza racing car and to a limited extent a 1.5-litre V6 that would later see action in Ferrari’s early Formula racers. Alfredo suggested to his father the development of a 1.5 L DOHC V6 engine for F2 at the end of 1955. Twelve years later, to honour his son, Enzo named the Dino series of road and racing Ferraris using this V-6 engine after him. Alfredo had Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In the final days of his life, while hospitalized, he discussed technical de- tails of the 1.5-litre V6 with fellow engineer Vittorio Jano. Alfredo would never see the engine, he died in Modena on 30 June 1956 at the age of 24. The death of Alfredo took a toll on his parents’ marriage. Enzo had another son, Piero, with another woman, Lina Lardi. As divorce was illegal in Italy until 1975, Piero was officially acknowledged as Enzo’s son after Laura died in 1978. Piero Ferrari is a 10% owner of the Ferrari company of which he is the vice chairman. The Autodromo Dino Fer- rari in Italy is also named in Alfredo’s honour, with his father’s name added after Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988. Tour De Bretagne by Nita Simpson ever you have wondered which classic car tour to undertake I would highly recommend the Tour de Bretagne, organised by Neil and Annie Roden of Classic Motoring Organisation and supported by Brit Assist and the lovely Norman and Jo. This year was the largest number of vehicles at 32 and had a very wide range of marques and ages of vehicles including eleven MGs and ranging from series one land rovers, Jag XK140’s Healeys and Porches to a modern TVR and Jag XKFR This year was our third ‘tour’ and it did not disappoint. Mark and Marina in their lovely 1963 MGB roadster ‘Iris’, Neil and Roz Partridge in their red MGA nicknamed ‘Drippy’ and us in our MG RV8 ‘Fern’. We began in style with us girls partaking of a bottle of Prosecco while the boys ‘fiddled ‘with the cars and off we set for Portsmouth. At the docks we met up finally with the ‘Chuggas’ Claire and Phil in their Series 1 landrover ‘Gizmo’, nicknamed ‘Party on Wheels’, Sue and Rubie in Phil’s long wheelbased landrover ‘Chugaboom’ now nicknamed ‘The Shed’ and Becky and Andrew in Sue’s Triumph Herald ‘Betsy’ now nicknamed ‘Hark’ (try hard here.) See photos on next page below. 2 Once on board and in the bar Mojitos were the order of the day and then Dinner in the restaurant washed down with a bottle of Verve Cliquot. Well someone has to do it. Do you see a theme here? There was an electric storm as we sailed to St Malo and arrived with the boat’s fog Horn blaring and a heavy mist enveloping the lovely walled town of St Malo. This year the start was very close to the port so we had the opportunity to mooch around the town and soak up some history as well as soaking up a lot of rain. We hoped for hood down weather once the tour began. Here are the ‘Chuggas’ at the start ready for the off from Cancale a lovely little tourist town by the sea to the east of St Malo. Just time for a coffee and loo stop before the adventure began. We travelled east along the Cote de Emeraude towards Mont St Michel then inland to Pontorson for a coffee break and a visit to a Patisserie then over into Normandy, to St Hillaire du Harcouet sited on the strategic frontier between Brittany, Normandy and the Loire. The many ornate bicycles reminded us tht the Tour de France begins at Mont St Michel and travels through some of the towns on our route too. Here in this pretty town was was our lunch stop and a further stop in the lee of Chateau Comborg (right) for coffee (and Prosecco) then a lovely run to Lanvallay by Dinan and our hotel for our evening Dinner and entertainment. Day two took us west towards the awesome Fort La Latte on the coast, a fortified castle of great historical and architectural interest, dating from the 13th Century a must see location. Photo on the right below was taken from the top of the tower as seen on the right below. Stunning or what? We travelled on to the 20’s resort of Sables d’Or les Pines for coffee. This resort was originally built to rival Deauville. On our well planned route we passed the ruins of Chateau de la 3 Hunaudaye and on to Jugon Des Lacs for lunch. This is a Petite Citie de Charactuer de Bretagne built to defend the long since lost castle and is surrounded by medieval buildings. Our final official stop was at the Chateau Caradeuc where we had freedom of the fabulous grounds and able to admire the stunning view from our parking place. The chateau is privately owned and although ‘Madame’ was at home she did not invite us in for tea. (:o(). Below shows the fabulous topiary of the driveway as well as the three musketeers. The final day of our holiday, Sunday, gave us time to mooch around Dinan as we were very close to St Malo and the ferry on Monday. Dinan is one of Brittany’s best preserved old towns. We crossed the narrow bridge you can see in the photos middle right, over the Rance to the far side of the river opposite our hotel and under the high viaduct you can see in the background. We followed the switchback road high up to the main town. The photo on the left was the view of the low bridge and viaduct taken from the ramparts of Dinan. 4 We managed to park easily and walked past the church of St Catherine, right and …… …to the Basilica St Sauveur…………….with its well-known ornate Altar, left ……. …and on into the medieval town centre for coffee and finally for lunch after a spot of shopping. Luckily for the boys there is not much room in two seater classic car. I cannot find enough fine words to describe this gem of a town and the higgledy piggledy medieval buildings so I will let the photos do the talking here. ……….and so to lunch……………. Girls just want to have fun! Especially with a handsome waiter. Well one has to keep up the champagne intake doesn’t one? A fabulous long weekend with fine food, lots of champagne, great friends, interesting cars, lovely roads and NO TRAFFIC…….Whats not to like? 5 A Touring Tale by Gil Ratcliffe The Rover Sports Register held it’s National Rally on 26th June at the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke. The RSR was founded in 1953 by three Rover 12 Tourer owners who worked for Kodak in Harrow, and ini- tially there were 7 cars, all pre war tourers from the area, but later in the year, notices were put in various car magazines that a club for all Rovers was being formed, and by the end of the year there were 70 members. DML 560, my 1936 12 Tourer, was, I find, one of those initial 7 cars, being owned at the time by one Ralph Brewer of Harrow, RSR records from 1953 show him as the second owner and it having covered 70,000 miles. So despite it having been in pieces for 9 years I was determined that it would be at the National Rally on my doorstep in some form or an- other. Having cleaned up and painted the chassis that had been shot blasted 9 years ago, I put it on a trailer and bolted the rest of the body panels, and a radiator.