MGCC HRDC Snetterton - 1/2 October 2011

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Ian Summers 'Black Sheep' - it's had a V8 dropped in it!

I noticed the tyres and realised I may have been optimistic.

Originally Posted by simon drabble

Morgan's are a real marmite car and I get teh impression that I am in the minority as I like them and think the front running modsport cars look a lot of fun

I concur, they are fun cars.

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by Kelvin

( I just looked at the photo)

The shirt is mightier than the trophy...

I think I got a 6.2 from the audience

[zefarelly]

I've built 2 MOrgan engines this year . . . . never liked them, but the earlier ones are growing on me, they're a lot lighter than they look as well apparently

[terence]

Always though MDF to be heavy?

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by terence bower

And so you should!

But when it comes to Morgans, I'm biased.

[John Turner]

Starters - 26
Classified - 19
Duration - 20 mins

Not just BCV8s but Midgets as well. Noting Simon Drabble's comments regarding modsports Morgans, it would also appear to be true that modsports is alive and well in the MGCC, too, as the frontrunning V8s and Midgets show here. Modsports Championship anybody?

Adrian Beer (97 - V8) was expected to win this and he duly delivered but it wasn't made easy by the fast starting Chris Tilly (90 - V8) who grabbed the lead early on and held on tenaciously for several laps in a fine combative drive which must have delighted him. The other potential frontrunner, Joe Parrington (87 - V8) retired after 2 laps and 3rd was therefore taken by Paul Sibley's Class A winning Midget (1).

[zefarelly]

It's probably just me, but Midgets look good in almost any guise. B's struggle at the best of times.

[morninggents]

What is the white car number 14 in the photos? Presumably some Sprite variant but it looks great.

[terence]

There is a clue on the back panel

[simon drabble]

isn't it the Lenham works car - looks very nice in the flesh

[zefarelly]

THe Lenhams are nice, the WSM's look great too.

Just imagine if Ford had done something similar to their cooking range.

[midgetman]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

It's probably just me, but Midgets look good in almost any guise. B's struggle at the best of times.

"Like"!

Having raced both, the Midgets are more fun too!

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by terence bower

There is a clue on the back panel

Thanks, Terry. Couldn't read it even with specs on and wasn't logged in to enlarge the image.

Hadn't realised the Lenham looked so good from that angle.

[terence]

One of the pretty ones Peter,some 'specials' were no where near as good looking.

[John Turner]

Starters - 33
Classified - 26
Duration - 45 minutes

One of my 'feature' races of the day, it had a couple of interlopers; the Kennedy's lovely Lancia Aurelia GT (no decent pics though, sorry Louise) which actually didn't look that much out of place, and the John Burton XK120 which probably did, but but was running in it's own class (Xkteers). Lovely grid of old Pre 60 touring cars, and yes, some are a bit modded and I suppose that I will always struggle a bit with the concept of Austin A40's being quicker than Jaguar Mk1 saloons, but in truth most historic cars run quicker now than in period for a whole load of reasons, and not necessarily for all the wrong ones either!

Richard Postins was quickest in his A40 (27) but had an off on the first lap which crumpled the nearside front wing and left him with a long recovery drive which eventually took him through to finish 3rd. Whilst he was doing so, Mark Daniell, also A40 mounted (9) was making good his escape, being chased by the Austin A95 Westminster (11) of Nick Maismith and John Young, and they finished in that order. It wasn't that processional however, behind, with a lot of jockeying for positions in the early laps. Several looked capable of theatening 3rd for a while but their battles allowed the Westminster to consolidate 2nd place, although it was nearly caught at the end by Postins who posted fastest lap and must have been rueing his first lap visit to the scenery. Anyway, the first of several sets of pics for this one:-

1) Winner easing away in Coram on the first lap
2) Tom Harris - Jaguar Mk7 (22 - 18th)
3) The lowlight Morris Minor (59 - 24th) of Nicola and Ian Kellett
4) The Simon Lewis/Richard Dorlin Jaguar Mk1 (6 - 12th)
5) Malcolm Harrison and Nick Adcok finished a strong 4th in the Volvo Amazon (23)
6) John Burton's XK120 (15) spent a lot of time in the pits and finished last of the classified runners but was actually one of the quicker cars out there.

[John Turner]

1) The other Jaguar Mk7 (7), of Graham Love and Chris Logue, finished 14th
2) Fabulous Rover 105S (58) of Victoria and Charles Beever finished 22nd.
3) Peter Burton's Jaguar Mk1 (69 - 8th)
4) Andrew Davenall, laps the Rover, which courteously stays out the way in Brundle, on his way to 11th in another lovely old beastie, the Austin A105 (76)
5) Stephen Miles (2 - Austin A40 - 9th)
6) Bruce Chapman's MG Magnett (19 - 15th), another favourite from my childhood!

[John Turner]

1) The Morris Minor (26) of Russell Martin who finished 10th
2) Richard Postins presing on to make up for lost time
3) The John Arnold/Richard Gane Renault 4CV 1063 (75) which was understandably the slowest car in the field with its tiny 750cc engine finished 25th. What does the 1063 allude to?
4) Minor and Jaguar
5) The 2nd placed car
6) Richard Butterfield and Peter Dorlin were 5th in their Jaguar Mk1 (48)

[zefarelly]

great stuff John. I do like the little 4CV, dog slow as it may be they're game and enjoy it, we where watching it and someone said its got a problem, but you can see they're flat out, it either needs a few steroids to dice with anything else, or better still a dauphine or topolino to race with . . .

[John Turner]

A sweep up, including a few pairings:-

1) The Italian Job(s)! Jason Kennedy is almost hidden in the Lancia Aurelia behind the Alfa Romeo Guilietta Berlina of Richard Frankel and Geoff Turral. Sadly neither finished the race
2) 40 is the A40 of Donegan and MacGregor (21st) and 3 is the Mercedes-Benz 220 of Stewart Kimber who finished 23rd
3) This is at the beginning of the race and only 7 seconds covered them after 45 minutes of racing! The Lynch/Steward A35 (6th) whilst the Matthew Moore A40 (30) finished 7th
4) Michael Peet was 17th in his Sunbeam Rapier (60)
5) Fine old Borgward Isabella TS (51) finished 16th in the hands of Gavin Watson
6) Unfortunately, the Ford 100E (81) of Ed and Chris Glaister was unclassified having spent most of the time in the pits.

And that's your lot for this race!:-

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

great stuff John. I do like the little 4CV, dog slow as it may be they're game and enjoy it, we where watching it and someone said its got a problem, but you can see they're flat out, it either needs a few steroids to dice with anything else, or better still a dauphine or topolino to race with . . .

Yeah, a Topolino would probably be a good match, but I rather think that a Dauphine would run well ahead of them despite it's propensity for swapping ends!

[zefarelly]

or running on its roof!

Eds been plagued with problems this season, and hats off to him for not giving up, I discussd it with him after the race and we're not sure exactly what the problem is, a suspect block was our best guess.

[simon drabble]

nice to see Stuart Imber out and in a Mercedes I haven't seen before - it looks very nice.
Julius has encouraged some cars out which normally only see the light of day at Goodwood - hats off to him....

[John Turner]

Starters - 25
Classified - 19
Duration - 20 mins

A race for all and any post war MGs, and including, on this occasion, a couple of guest Fiat Punto Abarths. The race was won by Ollie Neaves in his MGB roadster (1) although Rob Spencer almost, but not quite, had the leader's pace and finished 2nd in his MGB GTV8 (55), 6.3 seconds down. A further 14 seconds back was the MG Midget (43) of Simon Hutchinson:-

1) Michael Piggott - MGB GT (60 -18th)
2) Rob Spencer
3) Kevin Hewer - MGB GT (27 - 17th)
4) Chris hughes - MG Rover 100 (00 - 19th)
5) Ollie Neaves
6) Simon Hutchinson

[midgetman]

Wasn't it Rob Spencer who inverted violently St the same meeting a couple of years back? I think we must have been stood side by side without knowing it that day John! If it was him, good to see a fine result for him.

PS the Rover 100 was never an MG! Even less than the A Series Metro!

[Paulaweybridge]

Great piccies John.

Can't believe that it's 51 years ago that my brother and I were sitting in the back of my Dad's new Sunbeam Rapier Series 3. The novelty of being able to look up at the sky through the rear window was something else.