Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980
Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980
Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980
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many long articles about <strong>the</strong>m appear<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> motor<strong>in</strong>g<br />
papers, written for him by Dennis May when he was<br />
too busy to do <strong>the</strong>m himself. This detailed analysis pi<br />
his Bentleys and Rovers, up to his last Rover 3500, was<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r feature of Mays’ <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> good cars. That this<br />
tall, unchang<strong>in</strong>g enthusiast, with <strong>the</strong> deep, even gruff,<br />
voice, who never uttered unnecessary platitudes but<br />
who knew absolutely what it was all about, will never<br />
aga<strong>in</strong> be seen is almost impossible to contemplate. All<br />
we can do now is to recapture <strong>the</strong> flavour of his busy,<br />
dedicated life by read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> many hooks <strong>in</strong>. which he<br />
figures, and especially “Split Seconds”, ghosted for this<br />
great personality by Dennis May, with a foreword by C.<br />
A. N. May.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> time of his death, Mays was Director of<br />
Rac<strong>in</strong>g for <strong>the</strong> Owen Organisation. Chairman and<br />
Manag<strong>in</strong>g Director of Raymond Mays and Partners Ltd..<br />
Manag<strong>in</strong>g Director of T. W. Mays and Sous Ltd. and<br />
Chairman of Mays Chemical Manure Co. Ltd. — W.B.<br />
VETERAN<br />
EDWARDIAN VINTAGE<br />
A SECTION DEVOTED TO<br />
OLD-CAR MATTERS<br />
Why Do They Do It?<br />
IT IS fitt<strong>in</strong>g that various advocates of Historic Car Rac<strong>in</strong>g,<br />
such as Michael Bowler and our Clive Richardson and<br />
Denis Jenk<strong>in</strong>son, have been writ<strong>in</strong>g about <strong>the</strong> absolute<br />
necessity of be<strong>in</strong>g able to decide, before such races<br />
escalate, which cars are eligible because <strong>the</strong>y are orig<strong>in</strong>al<br />
or at least decently historically au<strong>the</strong>ntic, and which<br />
are dismal fakes, <strong>the</strong> result of too many rebuilds, if not<br />
actually entirely new replicas of old rac<strong>in</strong>g cars.<br />
I do not envy anyone <strong>the</strong> task of sort<strong>in</strong>g-out this<br />
vexed situation, even less he who has to turn away<br />
undesirable entries, perhaps <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Paddock after<br />
scrut<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g. But sorted out it must be! The situation<br />
seems to revolve round why people go <strong>in</strong> for v<strong>in</strong>tage<br />
and historic rac<strong>in</strong>g. Is it for <strong>the</strong> joy of driv<strong>in</strong>g old and<br />
<strong>in</strong>dividualistic mach<strong>in</strong>ery <strong>in</strong> competition? Or is it to<br />
earn money from sponsors, ga<strong>in</strong> some fame and glory<br />
<strong>in</strong> a grow<strong>in</strong>g section of motor rac<strong>in</strong>g, or to <strong>in</strong>crease <strong>the</strong><br />
already high value of eligible pre-1961 cars? A bit of<br />
everyth<strong>in</strong>g, of course.<br />
May I suggest that, among <strong>the</strong> VSCC at least, <strong>the</strong>re<br />
arc those who like to race <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> older motor cars because<br />
this is nostalgic for <strong>the</strong>m and <strong>the</strong>y like to recapture to<br />
some degree an idea of what it was like <strong>in</strong> rac<strong>in</strong>g for<br />
drivers <strong>the</strong>y admired, perhaps <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir first youthful<br />
flush of enthusiasm for <strong>the</strong> Sport? This may seem farfetched,<br />
but I can only remark that 1 can th<strong>in</strong>k of one<br />
driver who, as he drives out of <strong>the</strong> Paddock at a v<strong>in</strong>tage<br />
race meet<strong>in</strong>g, sees, I am sure, not Silverstone or Oulton<br />
Park, but Brooklands and Don<strong>in</strong>gton of before <strong>the</strong> war.<br />
And may I make so bold as to suggest that if Kenneth<br />
Neve does not go so far as to th<strong>in</strong>k he is F. T. Burgess<br />
com<strong>in</strong>g down Bray Hill when he conducts his 1914 TT<br />
Humber <strong>in</strong> a VSCC contest, at least he is glad to be <strong>in</strong> a<br />
very orig<strong>in</strong>al pre-WW1 rac<strong>in</strong>g motor car, on <strong>the</strong> correct<br />
size tyres, so that he is enabled to know very closely what<br />
it was like to race such a car when it was new?<br />
It seems to me that those who like emulat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />
drivers of old will want <strong>the</strong>ir cars to be decently orig<strong>in</strong>al.<br />
If you stiffen-up a chassis, change from cable to hydraulic<br />
brakes, alter <strong>the</strong> weight distribution, and especially if<br />
you run on tyres oversize from those fitted orig<strong>in</strong>ally,<br />
and on modern-type shock-absorbers, etc. <strong>the</strong> difference<br />
<strong>in</strong> “feel” of a car so modified will be quite appreciable.<br />
No longer would it be honest to say of a great driver of<br />
<strong>the</strong> past who used it, that, hav<strong>in</strong>g raced it today, you now<br />
know how he tell, can appreciate his skill for example,<br />
or perhaps that you “don’t know how he did it, on those<br />
th<strong>in</strong> tyres and <strong>in</strong>effective ‘shockers’, on that circuit. ...”I<br />
would have thought that a good deal, if not <strong>the</strong> whole,<br />
po<strong>in</strong>t of rac<strong>in</strong>g a v<strong>in</strong>tage car, or an historic car for that<br />
matter, would be to try to re-enact, to recapture, a pretty<br />
big slice of what it used to be like; <strong>the</strong> nostalgia, <strong>in</strong> fact.<br />
But once it is simply a matter of try<strong>in</strong>g to w<strong>in</strong>, most of <strong>the</strong><br />
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