All quiet on the P & W front this time, no real news to tell…..although I picked up my order of a new front and rear screen from Pilkingtons. Made the Trophies for the forthcoming NYB Awards. Rob Comber finally finished his rebuild and I have found photographs never before seen of the Le Mans entry cars and more!…..C’mon avids, there’s lots really!
Finally got the time to go over to Pilkington’s to collect my order the other day. Very pleased with the new glass. I had decided to go with the heated rear screen option as (for those who use their cars in all weathers) the rear has a nasty habit of steaming up. (It wasn’t such a nasty but naughty habit when I was younger). The element that is sandwiched in the glass is very discrete, however, the buzz bar (as they call it) which is the rail that supplies the power around the edge of the glass is rather prominent and I wonder how it will look when finally fitted (whether the rubber seal will cover it or not). Has anyone tried yet? let me know.
Cars
Rob Comber has very courageously said that his Peerless GT is finished and ready for the road. the (ex- Tony Joslin car) phase 2 car has been a long restoration and last time I saw it Rob was tackling re-trimming all the interior himself after a few training days on the subject.
Graham Sutton has been in touch to ask about who can reset rear springs for his Phase 2. I have sent him details of Jones Springs in Birmingham phone number 0121 568 7575. email: sales@jones-springs.co.uk
Hanspeter Kuster has been in touch via email to say he is about to start restoring GT2/00206. Purchased from Las Vegas and formerly the Floyd Ackermann race car. Hanspeter is in Switzerland and clearly needs my input and guidance on a personnel level. If you think this is a worthwhile cause then please do subscribe to the “support your registrar” appeal.
I have had a great deal of communication with Rupert Lloyd Thomas in Ontario. He is writing a history of Standard Triumph competition cars in Canada for the Toronto Triumph Club magazine and wanted to know of any dealers/suppliers of P&W’s in the late 50’s early 60’s. I have very little on the subject but thought that if they supplied ST then they supplied P&W’s?
Photos for the Archive
Well avids this is a real story of adventure, determination and dogged research….all from my office chair!
About 18 months ago I started looking on a website (steady) called Stanford.edu. they have a huge collection of automotive images, publications, and auto memorabilia which they are scanning and uploading to their library. To date, 194 million files have been created. As with most of these projects the people who are scanning the information sometimes don’t always know what they are looking at. This becomes a problem when you go looking for specific items but with a lot of ingenuity, this can be overcome (although I suspect there is more out there to be found). Firstly, as I have mentioned before, I found images taken on the day of the road test of the Phase 1 Peerless that were not used in the Autosport article. Not only is great to have good quality images of my car at the time but also some of the detailing shots that were not used are most helpful (when I get round to putting the car back to how it should be!). You can see those images here.
From this line of research, I have also found the images (used and unused) in the Warwick road test and some great images of the Warwick GT 350 as well.
Then I went searching for race related images. I found some “Privateers” racing at local circuits, some of well known factory registered cars competing and some (by their registrations) that are not on the register.
The really exciting find was a couple of weeks ago when I found images of the two Le Mans cars in the workshop prior to the race and lots of shots of 706 EBH ( the only car to pass scrutineering and complete the race) competing. I know that other registrar’s are researching this website and all sorts of interesting images are starting to appear that have not been seen before. Take a look at those images here.
So what does this mean for us? Well I would like to have a selection of these images for our archive. I hope to show these to Ken Wilson (who owns 706 EBH) and I am sure he will want to personally buy some of these, as do I. I have been in touch with the institute and they have advised that if I were to purchase images I am able to use them within this magazine but not for magazines that are bought over the counter (unlike FJ’s magazines that a bought from underneath). The cost of these images are $40 each. I (and I suspect Ken) will happily buy some of these for my own collection to stay with my car but I do think we should have some for prosperity within the group? if you think this is a good idea then please let me know. And don’t forget there’s the a PayPal account set up to help with this long term project. If you are familiar with PayPal and how it works then all you have to do is use the gt2@peerless-gt.co.uk email address to donate. More on this in the future me thinks.
Shows
Went over to the MG & Triumph spares day at Stoneleigh on the 1st of March. I had said I would help with erecting the stand but got a last minute contract abroad so Richard jumped in single handily to save the day with guidance from Merv Parkes, stalwarts all!. It seemed very busy and we were there to the death to help breakdown and load the van. I didn’t see another club stand with so many members on it and with the added bonus of our local lass, Maggy Gleed pouring out “hot coffee cups of love” it was well worth a visit. Again well done Merv for doing all the organising, loading, unloading at Didcot etc it might only be a one day show for you but it was nearly a weeks work for him.
I have just had another invite for the Haynes Rare Breeds Show…..I have to confess I first read it as the Rear Breads Show, worth sandwiching that one into the report I thought! Anywho, it’s on Sunday 6th September, if anyone wants to go or organise a group outing let me know as I have entry forms etc.
That’s all for this one, see you sometime. PayPal donations to 07803 201600 or gt2@peerless-gt.co.uk