Motor Enthusiasts Club

MOTOR ENTHUSIASTS' CLUB I The term's first meeting was held on 1st May when Mr. W. Taylor,

Sales Manager of Parish's of York, addressed the Club and showed us the many interesting features of the new Austin Maxi which had been announced only a week earlier. Mr. Taylor also answered a great number of questions about the Maxi and the future of the Austin/Morris

Division of the British Leyland Motor Corporation.

On Thursday, 15th May, the Pirelli film, "The Tortoise and the Hare", was shown. The film is unique in its theme of a girl in an E-type Jaguar and a Pirelli truck driver combined with brilliant photography and scenery. Although this film differed greatly from any film we have shown before, it was exceptionally well accepted, as were the lavishly produced maps which were distributed to the members. The film "The

Law and Your Tyres" was also shown at this meeting.

The following week Mr. John Wiggins, of the Rose Bower Garage in

Easingwold, showed his thoroughbred post-war Alvis sports car to the

Club and answered many questions about it. Mr. Wiggins owns several other Alvises, and has occasionally used this particular model for hillclimbing and track-racing. The sound of the engine alone makes this car endearing, and the smell of the "vintage" Castrol "R-type" oil gives the car a truly nostalgic air. In direct contrast the film of the 1968

Indianapolis 500 was shown at this meeting. The film was entitled "The

Silent Revolution" because of the prominence of gas-turbine cars in the race.

On Whit Saturday a few of our members attended the B.R.S.C.C.'s race meeting at Rufforth. The next Tuesday a school bus load of our members went to Harewood hoping to see cars participating in the

Practice Evening event, but unfortunately the meeting had to be totally disbanded because of heavy rain. It seemed as if the same was going to happen to our outing to the British Automobile Racing Club's National

Hill-Climb on Sunday, 1st June, as all of the previous day's practice had been cancelled. However, the sun did shine, and with the help of some of our B.A.R.C. marshals the meeting was successfully held and there were some very fast climbs. One of the most interesting cars there was the very powerful British Vita Mini. The fastest climb of the day was made by David Hepworth in his four-wheel-drive Hepworth Special.

On Thursday, 5th June, Mr. Keith Chippindale of the B.A.R.C. made a return visit to the Club, and succeeded in recruiting some more Junior

Members for the B.A.R.C. He showed the Club two excellent Triumph films. The first of these was an account of the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally which is famous for the dispute over the use of quartz-iodine lamps by some of the teams. This incident had marred the whole rally because all the Mini-Coopers were eliminated near the end of the rally, and so, although a French Citroen was officially proclaimed the winner, it was a Mini-Cooper which was the moral victor. Although Triumph 2000s featured prominently in the film, it gave a very unbiased view of the event. The other film told the story of the evolution of the Triumph TR sports car. It began with the development of the TR2 and progressed through the many successes of the intermediate models to the recent petrol injection TR5 PI which was the predecessor of the current TR6 PI.

Both of these films were notable for their excellent photography and the commentaries by Raymond Baxter.