By John Sutton

VSCC BROOKLANDS DRIVING TESTS

Text, photos and video by John Sutton

The first event of the year and this year the weather was good.  Back in 1996 there was snow on the site, but that wouldn’t stop the hardened VSCC competitors.

Brooklands has now become a regular venue for this VSCC event, which is fitting as it was the birthplace of British motoring competition. 

The Brooklands Museum is host to a full calendar of events throughout the year for aeroplanes, bikes and cars and details can be obtained from their website at www.brooklandsmuseum.com being so close to London it is a must for overseas visitors.

Video of Event

Burgess Bugatti T13

The oldest car by far was the 1902 Dennis Tonneau driven by John Dennis of the same family.  There was a “needle” match in progress throughout the event between David Marsh and Edmund Burgess both mounted on Brescia Bugattis, whilst Andrew Marsh managed to roll his Austin Sports.  Somehow we never seem to catch them at it having missed two inversions last year.  Never mind next year may be third time lucky.

Robin Batchelor	Morris Oxford Sports

The Model A Ford Roadster was well used being driven by both Giles and William Hedley.  The Morris Oxford Sports of Robin Batchelor looked very splendid with it’s polished aluminium wheel discs.

Gary Clare	Nik Wall	Richard Lance

Gary Clare was out in his recently acquired Austin 7 Special which is so narrow it could almost be described as a single seater, but he looks very pleased with it.  Nik Wall was airing his Austin 7 with a smart little Cambridge Engineering body.  So also was Richard Lance in his black 1936 Austin Nippy.  There were 22 Austin 7 entries in all out of a total of 70 which demonstrates how popular and versatile this little cars have become.

Rogers Morris Minor	Privett Austin 7

This is one event where saloons can compete and it is interesting to compare the Morris Minor Saloon of Paul Rogers with the Austin 7 Saloon of Hugh Privett. 

Belsize-Bradshaw	Cluley	Gwynne 8

There were many more vintage cars in the paddock that were not competing and we spotted some very rare cars. The Belzize-Bradshaw was one which we have added to the Marques Section another was the Cluley and perhaps not so rare the Gwynne.

MG’s were also well represented particularly amongst the spectators, but here is Richard Morbey in his very smart P Type from 1934.

It was a good start to the vintage motoring season in the UK and let’s hope the fun can continue before some mindless bureaucrats try to put a stop to our hobby by claiming that we are causing global warming and using it as a taxation system.