There are times when no matter how much planning you do somehow it will still go pearshaped, in this case I’m referring to the centenary celebrations. We had the bad news a couple of weeks ago regarding the Lawrence House Museum in that during heavy rainfall a large quantity of it came in through the roof of the museum and as is usual brought down a ceiling or two, whilst this is bad news for the club it is extremely disheartening for the museum in that it will not be opening this year. The repair bill will be into six figures and being closed during the Summer is a big loss in terms of revenue for the museum and as a tourist attraction for the many visitors to the town.
The museum had been whole heartedly in support for our centenary celebrations particularly in that we were planning a take over of one of its rooms to display a lot of club memorabilia including a vintage motorcycle, we have had special display boards designed to hang up showing different decades of the 101 years of the club’s heritage . Joe Caudle and Sandra Pollard have put in a huge amount of work to produce these boards, for which we are extremely grateful, the museum is hoping to possibly get use of one of the empty shops in the town so that they can create a “pop up” temporary museum so fingers crossed that we might get to see the finished results of the boards, in the meantime we are holding a display of trials vehicles (bikes and cars) in the town square on Saturday the 7th of August starting from around 11.00am to approximately 3.00pm so come along and show your support.
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Now over to our Club President Robin Moore
The Ramblings of RHTM.
Part 3 Of the Graham Paige Story.
I can’t help thinking that the editor and myself are rather like the cartoon characters, Tom and Gerry, me being Gerry of course. Occasionally Tom gets caught out and Gerry has a good laugh, but more often than not it’s me, (Gerry). When todays call came (3rd of July), “It’s that time again Robin”, I had to admit to John that I’d been caught out again, I hadn’t even given it a thought, let alone put pen to paper. So bang goes my weekend of rest and solitude, while he’s away enjoying himself with a bunch of Elevenseventytwoites,- It just ain’t fair.
Anyway back to the story of my Graham Paige. As mentioned previously XV4512 with its coachbuilt body was unique and something quite different of the standard offering of the Graham Brothers. But in all other respects it remained their basic 615 model, a 3 ¼ litre straight six sidevalve with their pressed steel Sedan bodies that would have been found swelling the ranks of the yellow cabs plying for hire on the streets of New York at the time.
For all that, there were a number of distinguishing and advanced features. I mentioned the steering lock in part 2. I was told the engine was originally fitted with cast iron pistons, although at some time in its life these had been replaced with “Ali” pistons, without any loss of balance in the reciprocating parts. I mention this, for when Colin Vincent replaced cast iron for ali in the engine of his veteran Belsize, a vibration occurred as the crankshaft counter balance weights were then cast out of sync.
Another novel feature for its time was that the oil level in the sump could be checked at a glance when raising the bonnet, (the yanks call them hoods) as the engine was fitted an oil level indicator,- no dipstick. Cast into the offside crankcase/cylinder block was a narrow open channel enclosing a rod which contained a ball bearing, held captive at its top end, whilst a float was attached to the bottom of the rod floating on the oil in the sump, therefore rising and falling, with the ball bearing doing likewise in its captive housing. One could see at a glance the level in the sump,- no mess, no wiping a dipstick for an accurate reading,- a novel feature sure enough.
The engine was fed by a single updraught Schebler carburettor, and the electrics , if memory serves me right , by the North East Lighting Co, and were a 6 volt system. Brakes were hydraulic by Lockheed with external contracting shoes working on 14 inch drums, and the wheels had detachable rims carrying 500 x 19 tyres . The 4 speed gearbox was a little unusual , in that it was really a 3 speed with a reserve bottom gear, which to engage, one had to lift a catch just below the gear lever knob should this gear be required for any steep gradient restart. I never had to use this cog, (useful on Sims Robin, Ed) the box was a 3 speed for all intents and purposes, as this old Graham like most of the larger engine cars of the vintage period, had tremendous torque, and there wasn’t really much need for gearchanging. In the old favourites class at Camel Vale’s standing start ¼ mile it was basically 3rd and top gear only.
The other unusual feature were the shock absorbers, whilst the suspension consisted of the normal leaf springs all round but these were dampened mechanically . This shock absorber consisted of a strong flat coil spring contained in a circular housing and linked to brackets on the leaf spring by a heavy duty strap of webbing. I had never come across this type of damper before, but I must say , it seemed to work pretty well.
To be continued RHTM.
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For Sale Ford 109E (Anglia 1200 ? ) engine and gearbox . Both items are in need of a strip down and check over. Would otherwise be useful for parts. The engine is missing its rocker cover and a few other bits, but includes clutch and flywheel. Gearbox looks complete except for gearstick. £75.00 buys the lot, collect from J.T. 07971 249783. These items are no longer found in scrapyards and considerably cheaper than on that well known auction site.
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Forthcoming Events
11th of July. Motor Traders Trial at Waterloo Farm by kind permission of the Werring family, reg’s are on the website, get in quick or you will miss it. If it isn’t immediately obvious on the website click on the “more news” button.
25th of July. Spry Sporting Trial to be held at Ashley Farm by kind permission of Paul Webber, reg’s on the website.
Marshals are needed for both events so do please volunteer.
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The rechargeable torch found on section at the Lanson Trial has still not been claimed, email the Ed to claim.
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There will be the much awaited AGM followed by a committee meeting on Thursday the 12th August at Tresmeer Village Hall, everyone welcome, come and have a chat even if you don’t want to be on the committee.
Midlands Motor Club Heritage Trial held near Crewkerne 4th July 2021
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The Heritage Trial at Crewkerne last weekend was a very enjoyable event, the weather was mostly kind to us although it did decide early afternoon that it was time for us to go home, so gave us a gentle soaking just to encourage us to abandon camp. For sidevalve fans it was great to see 18 Dellows assembled , although I didn’t take part in the actual trial I took the car along as a chance to pose. There was also 4 big Allards there along with a few specials making it an entry of 40. Full credit to the organisers who had everything under control, all competitors and marshals were required to wear face masks as per MSUK recommendations, even the free cakes that Hilary of the Dellow register made were all individually wrapped (full covid compliance).
The site itself was perfect for this type of event, it was easy to view what was going on without needing to walk miles, the sections were non damaging meaning people who were not normally likely to trial their much loved vehicle were able to have a go. An extra bonus for Vivien and I was that our dog Thorn was on best behaviour and didn’t destroy anyone’s tent or awning, I’m sure he’ll make up for it though. Hopefully the event will run again next year and I will have the Dellow suitably “run in” and be able to compete.
The following picture is one which I had in my small collection of Dellow memorabilia, taken from a newspaper, possibly the Plymouth Western Evening Herald around 1972, certainly no later than 1973 showing Roger Brewer of Camel Vale M.C. in action. Having shown this picture to a couple of people in the register it turns out that it’s something of a missing car, the earliest history the register had was around 1975 when it belonged to David Wigley, it then went through a succession of owners in the Yeovil area with Stephen Hiscox owning it from 1993-95, it then completely dropped off the radar.
If anyone knows anything of this car or its whereabouts I would really like to hear from them, the DVLA have no record of it since 1993/4 but it was registered as being blue in colour, the register even knows its chassis number, but not its whereabouts.
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Tailpiece
Don’t trust the vehicles in your garage, they communicate to each other, it’s well documented the trials and tribulations that my Dellow has given me during the time of ownership with it. Recently it appears to be behaving itself, little did I know it would pass on its mischievous ways to one of my scooters I have been rebuilding. Just like the Dellow this bike has had its engine, removed, stripped, rebuilt and refitted back into its frame more times than I dare to admit, and still it goes on. I have come to the conclusion all vehicles should be kept on their own in isolation to stop this happening, you have been warned !!
All for this month. J.T.
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