Veteran Report

Veteran Report

It’s been a quiet month for veterans, which is understanding considering the weather lately. I’ve certainly not had ours out, but I have at least started doing some maintenance. The clicking noise I had noticed in the driveline of our 1912 car has turned out to be nothing more than wear in the front universal joint, so I’ve bought some blank bronze bushes to turn up some new parts and tighten everything up again. I was worried it may have been a rear axle problem, which would have been a bit more of an issue.

Now that the Annual Veteran Rally date has been locked in as Sunday 26th September on the branch calendar, planning has advanced a few steps and the main venue for the run, Racecourse Hill homestead, has now been confirmed. The run will start in Darfield, and maybe stop at another place of interest on the way. There is going to be an open day at the Homestead and our cars will be parked nearby as an added attraction, so with that and some fun field tests, it will be an interesting day. Entry forms will be in the August Hub, so keep an eye out for them next month.

Other events to consider include the Daffodil Rally on Sunday 22nd August (see page 27) if we get reasonable weather, and the VCC display at the Hororata Highland Games on Saturday 6th November which Malcolm McGibbon is busy organising (the display of course – not the main event!).

It was great to see Bevars Binnie out and about at the last OCBC, and although he still needs a bit of assistance from a walking stick, he is making solid progress after being knocked off his 1913 BSA a few months ago. He reported that he’s managed to start the 1914 Hupmobile, although driving it is off the agenda for a bit longer. He’s also busy planning out the repairs that are required on the BSA – it’s such an original machine that he doesn’t want to see the originality lost, so it will be a case of repairing the damage whilst trying to preserve the patina.