BCF 2013 in Classic & Sports Car Magazine

C&SC February 2014

The February 2014 edition of the U.K.'s Classic & Sports Car magazine has devoted about half a page to SABCC's 2013 British Car Festival. The article includes three photos of select cars at the festival and several paragraphs describing the record-setting event. Some of you may recall a C&SC blog post from last November highlighting the show as well.

The February 2014 issue of Classic & Sports Car is just now hitting newstands here in the U.S.   

Having His Name on the Building Was No Help

Courtesy Bloomberg

As a young auto salesman in the mid 1970's, I recall that the answer to most dealership policy questions was, "Because his name is on the building."  It was good enough for most questions that arose.

Apparently, it is not good enough for Morgan in Malvern Link. Charles Morgan, the grandson of Morgan founder H F S Morgan was relieved of his duties as strategy director of the firm. 

Autoweek has the full story.

A Future Where Driving is the Exception and Not the Norm?

National Public Radio's Morning Edition radio show ran a story today about children and cars. The take away here is that most young people today do not see driving as a step towards personal freedom. 

"Indeed, driving as a rite of passage has diminished greatly in recent years. For some, cars still mean freedom, speed and escape; for others they mean isolation, gridlock and pollution."

You can read (or listen to) Sonari Glinton's report here. 

Vanquish Your Trust Fund

• You like a V12 soundtrack
• You enjoy open top motoring
• You want a bit of exclusivity
• You've got about $300,000.00 sitting around

Aston Martin can tick all the boxes with their new V12 Vanquish Volante.  Check out the
introductory video and let me know when you place your order. 

 

The Great Race - 2013

The folks who publish my favorite monthly enthusiast magazine - Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car - are also prime sponsors for the premier classic car roadtrip in North America.

Hemmings Motor News' The Great Race Presented by Hagerty is scheduled to kick off in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 22, 2013 and finish on June 30 here in Positive Earth's own back yard in Mobile, Alabama. While the cars in Pos' stable are too young to participate, classic car guys in our area are thrilled to be included. 

The route will wind along the back roads along the Mississippi River with several crossings planned. The race will enter the deep South in Mississippi and then into Mobile from the West. While the actual schedule and list of stops have not been published as of this time, I'll do my best to pass along the news as it develops. 

Fifth Gear Coming Stateside

While Top Gear continues to build its fan base in America, its UK rival program is largely unknown here. All that is about to change as Fifth Gear is coming to American television

Hosted by race drivers Tiff Needell and Jason Plato, Fifth Gear is a more cerebral show than Top Gear. You won't have many laugh out loud moments watching Fifth Gear, but you will learn a lot about the new cars that they test. Yes, the are a lot of tire smoking sequences when high powered motors are put through their paces, but there are also a lot of segments about classic racing, concours competitions and more pedestrian modes of transport. 
 
The host team is rounded out by race driver Vicki Butler-Henderson and presenter Jonny Smith with occasional appearances by Ben Collins, the driver who portrayed The Stig on Top Gear a couple of years ago. 

Fifth Gear will be on Velocity, one of my new favorite cable channels now that Fox has dumbed SPEED TV down to room temperature I.Q. levels (with the notable exception of their race coverage).

The Greatest British Car Ever Made

One of Sir Alec's "Fag-Packet" Sketches

Readers of Autocar, one of Britain's oldest and most respected motoring journals were asked to name the greatest British car ever made. They chose the classic Mini in a surprising vote.

Sir Alec Issigonis' revolutionary small car design set the formula that is still followed today: efficient interior packaging, transversely mounted engine in front and front wheel drive. Compared to modern cars the classic Mini is spartan. Sir Alec deemed radios an unnecessary distraction, but he made sure that the storage pockets in the doors were designed to be large enough to accept a bottle of his favorite gin.

These days, MINI is the direct descendant of the classic, but safety requirements dictated a much larger and complex car, as all modern cars must be. Indeed, the Mini "Spiritual" concept was put forward as a design proposal that closely followed Sir Alec's original guidelines of maximum space inside a minimal footprint but the BMW directors decided that the car should be more a fashion statement than super efficient transportation. Judging by the MINI's success, they were correct in their choice. 

Five Hundred

Five hundred. It can mean a car model or a race or a list. In the case of this humble blog, it is the five hundredth post since it went live in 2008.  It started as a way to capture items of interest to the South Alabama British Car Club in particular and to enthusiasts of British cars in general during my term as president of the club. 

During that time its been a source of news for the club but to my surprise, it has gained a modest following in most English-speaking countries. The occasional comment generated by readers in spite of the onerous spam-fighting system that Blogger (the host service) has in place is really appreciated.  While not impressive in comparison to "real" blogs, this little corner of the Internet averages about 1,500 page views per month. 

Some of the posts have been picked up by other blogs and magazines for reprint, much to my delight. Once in a while a particular entry's views spike due to links shared on various forums or mentions on other Web sites.

For all this, thank you for spending some time here.  

Jaguar F-Type

Jaguar F-Type

OK, lovers of the feline marque,  the so-called spiritual successor to the iconic E-Type (that's an XK-E to you, cowboy) is to be unveiled in Paris later this month. Jaguar has been playing a tease marketing game with the new model by giving it its own dedicated Web site and running camouflaged test cars in public with "SEARCH F-TYPE" proudly pasted on the body.

The aluminum-intensive body structure is said to be highly rigid - a good thing since the F-Type is to be sold in a convertible version only. It will be powered by your choice of two V6 engines with the hotter one cranking out 380 HP. Cog-changing duties are entrusted to an 8 speed paddle shift autobox by ZF.

The F-Type will give Jaguar an "entry-level" sports car competing with the likes of Porsche's Boxter. 

If you want to get the details that Jaguar has released to date check out the official F-Type Web site.

 

British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash

My son, John, was kind enough to give me a basic Kindle recently for no apparent reason other than his generous nature. Amazon produces several versions of this e-reader whereby the owner can purchase electronic copies of books, magazines and even newspaper subscriptions. Mine is the simplest version, ideal for the old dog to learn new tricks.One of the first books in my electronic library is British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968-1978 by Christopher Cowin.

The book is available only in electronic format and can be purchased for your device from Amazon for $6.50. This is the my first experience with a volume that cannot currently be had in print form but I understand that this is the wave of the future for works of limited public interest. While the printed version will not likely happen, the ability to e-publish is a boon to authors who wish to share - and sell - their work.

Chronicle of a Car Crash is written in a scholarly tone and charts the creation of the huge British Leyland conglomerate through the efforts of the British government. If you're looking for road test results or driving impressions of the cars we know and love, you won't find it here. Rather, you will learn about the people and firms behind the erstwhile auto giant and see how the deck was stacked against the success of the company literally from its inception.

Seeing that the economics of auto production favored automakers who could produce literally millions of cars per year, the British government decided that, in order to preserve the domestic auto industry, it had to arrange several shotgun marriages to create a true world-class player to take on the growing Japanese threat. As most British car enthusiasts know, British Motor Holdings and Leyland merged under pressure and incentive of the government. Until I read this book, I was unaware that Her Majesty's Government worked very hard to bring the Rootes Group into the fold as well. 

Chronicle of a Car Crash is not a rehash of history or a finger-pointing screed, but a concise, deeply researched work about the slow motion death of a nation's auto industry. The book is very possibly worth purchasing an e-reader just to read it.     

Mao's Garage?

Some Chinese automotive web sites are unbelievably reporting that the iconic MG brand, owned now by China's Shanghai Auto Industry Corporation, is to be recast as "Mao's Garage" in a hat tip to the leader of the Communist revolution there. 

MG enthusiasts around the world know that MG grew out of one of  William Morris' early business concerns named Morris Garage. Cecil Kimber, Manager of the business, developed a line of sports cars based on Morris automobile mechanicals and the new marque grew into world wide fame. 

In SAIC's early days of MG ownership, the MG marque was introduced to the Chinese buying public as the car for the "Modern Gentleman", with a heavy dose of cloying British imagery to go along with it.SAIC is now apparently trying to ride the wave of Mao's revived popularity as a Chinese icon. 

Reports indicate that the change will take place on or about April 1, 2013.   

A Future Triumph?

The Autocar web site is reporting that BMW - the owner of the Triumph marque - has been granted an EU trademark for the use of the wreath logo on automobiles and a wide range of products including personal goods like clothing, handbags, etc. There has been no concrete plan for a Triumph-badged car announced yet, but with the global success of MINI under BMW stewardship, I wouldn't be too surprised to see it come to light.  

In addition the Triumph name, BMW holds rights to the Riley marque. 

BMW has no relationship with the Triumph motorcycle concern

Read the Autocar story here.

The Cat Gets a Makeover

Jaguar released images of its new logo today and, like so many other new things, it will take some time to become easy on the eyes. 

The most significant change is the return to the "sculpted" leaper. Jaguar abandoned the raised, three dimensional cat back in 2002 in favor of the line-drawn version seen here on the left. Ten years later, its back along with a type font that eliminates the dark green color and dropped "J". 

So what do you think, Jaguar fans?

A New Look for the SABCC Website

If you haven't looked in on the South Alabama British Car Club's website lately, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. This afternoon, the newly renovated site went live.

A lot of the content will be familiar but the graphics -as well as a number of features- are brand new. Some of the improvements include:

• An events calendar with all the latest SABCC events noted. There is even a mapping feature that shows the location of the event on Google Maps.
• A photo slide show consisting of photos from the mid 1990s until the present time.
• Easier to use navigation buttons and links to help you find your way around the site.
• More photos from club events.
• An expanded links page.

We owe a debt of gratitude to club president Richard Cunningham for his efforts in mastering some new web site creation software to bring these improvements to fruition. The original SABCC web was launched in the late 1990s on the gone but not forgotten Geocities hosting platform. I worked up a web site mostly as a personal challenge to see if I could do one. As time passed, the club reserved the sabcc.org URL (having just nosed out the South Australian Blind Cricket Club for the address) and then moved to paid hosting servers.

If you would like to see the changes the club web site has undergone over the years, check out these links:

• September, 2002
• September, 2004
• March, 2005
• July, 2007

As you can see the site has undergone many changes - some good and some best forgotten. Bear in mind that the Wayback Machine Internet Archive does not do a perfect job of rendering the old sites, but it's close. Sadly, the Geocities site is long defunct.

We will be making a number of further improvements in the site as time permits.

Counterfeit BMIHT Heritage Certificates

Courtesy Classic & Sports Car Magazine

Classic & Sports Car magazine posted an article detailing how false Heritage Certificates have been discovered recently. While a bit of a novelty here in the USA, the certificates are accepted as legitimate documentation of an automobile's build date and, important for taxation purposes, the registration date in the UK. 

A Heritage Certificate will confirm the details of the cars original paint color, options, dispatch date and to which dealer it was shipped to in America. SABCC'er and E-Type restorer Richard Cunningham applied for and received one for his 1964 E-Type coupe. It is an impressive document that will do any owner proud.

See the C&SC article here.