S
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1958,
Girl falls in love with a vintage
car
It's going to be a case of long-lasting
chemistry...and I know how it happens
by BASIL CARDEW
AKE a look at this pretty girl and the "Bullnose" Morris. It is the
Tsign of every well-bred vintage our and this attractive girl is the
go for the "old crocks" (an unrecognised name) for three good reasons;--
1
The graceful and mostalgic lines of the vintage piece attract attention.
2 They make a provoking contrast between the old and traditional (rar) and the gay and modern (fair lady).
2. Perhaps most import
nnt of all you rarely find r "cabbage" driver at a vintage wheel — a cabbuge being # starchy, sourpuss
driver.
Fanatics
cars.
Many wrenen reiet in the men you see fuming and polishing Be brass of the veteran fur they are the raxish, sporting lype, mostly in tweeds and cap,
who seek jun and a hobby emblems of the good old days. (They will also of
tually have a modern cur in the garage BS D concession 10 progress).
course,
Whatever the reaso,, Utey 1,c=
more fana come enthusiasts cal than on Indian priest.
They are the sort of men we naw in the cars in "Genevieve" (although these
were veteran
em, not vintage).
Į
mirably projected, even 1012 and 1920, when a change!
amorised, by being
made in we made and the cars look
ather, the fuel-drip taps, the it among the brass and old on square radiators,
bons hooper, and all that. The most popular car for this form of rhewing off, by won.
is the "Bullnose" Morris.
The Oxford, unholstered in weather, was a superior corto the rexine cove.ed Cowley. The Oxford too was more spacious with fittings of better
Here JA A grand old car quality. indeed. Soon I will become a legend. But at least 400 of them become so popular?
running are still taxed and order today, and more are com- Lima dealer gave ing on to the road every month, after being found in the garage and reconditioned.
Why did this Bullnose"
How did the "Bullno Morris begin? I started as to hp, Oxford in 1912. After
the First World War 11 became a 14 h.p. car and by that time there was a 12 hp, Cowley,
In
At the London Motor Show 1812 William Richard Morris, now Lord Nuffield, met Gordon Slowart who bad n motor showroom in Woodstock Street, off Bond Street.
Mr Stewart (laler of Stewar and Arder) agreed to sell young Morris few
caro.
reason!
An old- mo these
The cot was lower that the cost of a car of,egulva- Aunt size and quality bill by olher manufacturers. Sir Wil liam Morris (by then) led the field in price cutting.
✪ The enr was outstandingly reliable, designed and bullt for the owner who wanted to drive from A to B without a breakdown.
Long Life
the woman owne; could do her soft hood and two occasional own maintenance.
behind for scals party.
As long ago as 1925 motoring furnals were-showing--woman- driver in a cloche hat buried under the bonnes adjusting the engine tappets.
Colours
45
In hoyday the "Bullnose" gave between 25 and 35 miles the gallon. Speed in top gear for the Cowley was miles an hour, and 50 miles an Their reliability was achieved hour for the Oxford. The and they are still reliable, wheel-base for 'both
was 23. by the quality
a foursome
nose" in t
They brought out the "Buil-
number of lours.
.
lively
1923 ** BULLNOBE" PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN GOLE:
Why is it 'vintage' or 'veteran"?
VINTAGE CARS: those but E.R.A.,
Do you know that people from 1910 to the end of 1990.
Experts believe that it was quite snobbish about it? these colours that made them so That you must never call a veteran car an Edwardian popular with women.
For overboard went Henry car, or a vintage car a post- Ford's all-black T-model colour vintage thoroughbred?
Every old model (I nearly scheme, and in came the belgen and blues and reds-exelting said old crock) falls into a colours to please the faires ex pre-determined era cate-
Even today "Bullnose" models gory.
works this are being sought by loving en- way:— +
thusiasts and restored to their To please the 'sporting driver former glory, not 14 mere
bul as Their interest for the pretty and his feminine passenger the maxcom pieces.
good woman was there aven in 1926, manufacturers also produced strviceable vchleles for every- The makers claimed that the the "Bullnose" as a spazzy (in day use. "Btillnose"" was built sout those days) two-seater with Spares are plentiful
of the metal @tn. hundred
More and more "Bulinose" Morris cars were bulli as their good come became established. You may remember the pretty They thrived so well that
were yomen in that alm
ad- 168,000 were ballt between
used by the makers. This ett- sured long life)
It
NEW CLASSES
Auto-Union.
Maserati, Mercedes,
All these categories aco cover ed by two clubs-the Veteran Car Club whose members D'ETI cars built in the period up to Sporla 1904, and the Vintage Car Club whose period covers 1905 to 1938.
Mr T. P. Breen, an official of the Vininge Car Club, told me: We are now the second biggest In the country motoring club with 3,250 memberD.
Now two new
classes have been added. They are:
POST-VINTAGE THOROUGH BREDS: Cars bulit from 1031 to the end of 1939, such as the old Frazer-Nash, Lancia, Alyle, VETERAN CARS: those built Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo.
HISTORIC RACING CARS; "All the time we are growing up to the end of 1904.
shows that EDWARDIAN CARE; those. These are cars built up to the in numbers, which
They must be more and more people are bes but from 1005 to the end of end of 1939.
purely racing care like the old coming vintage-car minded.” 1015.
ROUND THE CORNER.
and
the men
who are going to
take you there...
by JAMES BARTLETT
THE men at the top
T
among the Cili makers ard canny. They keep themselves and their forward-looking idens wrapped up like a model on the eve of a show.
new
• POWER
● SAFETY
Filted seat belts. Disc brakes.
More glass to improve vision Radar warning system
Gas turbine or atomic reactor engines Automatic transmission
• LIGHTING
Dual headlamps
for improven bean
and less dazzle.
• COMFORT
Air conditioning. Improved seating using more plastics and foam rubber materials Anti-glare tinted glass
* SUSPENSION
Springs replaced by fluid or ait Independent on all wheels for greater road holding
PERFORMANCE Greater engine efficiency
Cleaner fines to redece air drag
STYLING
Lower and sleeker. Larger doors. Aconier interiors. Multi-colour schemes Less chrome. Plastics and Fibreglass bodies
Michael Rand sketches the plus ideas that are coming up
is tic
But they can see uhead ns He right-hand man clearly today በዚ when they tall, shy, retiring eputy-chair- were schoolboys...when a young man of the Numel organisation man, WILLIAM RICHARD SJAMES REGINALD WOOD- MORRIS, was out in front, COCK, who was lockding phead shaping their inture careers, L a motor-making apprentice
SIR LEONARD LORD is the just 35 years ago blunt-speaking, 62-year-old These two top nico have the merger which linked the Morris experience, the knowhow, to probe Into the technical
when their mysteries dotiguer ALEC 1991GONIS (or
chairman of Bitinia's mummath
and the Austin empires seven years ago. ~
י
Shy Man
nowes Morris Minor acetalfa) puts before them hly blueprints for "cars of the future."
le Lenard Sant
andard car engine into the
These top men have to judge 100kon
that
they
сл keep "hoited-up" version which en- whelber tha new discoveries, that success going for another arted Birling Moss to reach the now inventions in all other long time tool 243 miles an hour last year in a cord-breaking run at tab.)
Problems
making his own bicycles in d Comfort
In
contrast I make some forecasts....
MORE and more caTS
offered handles.
without starting ⚫ THE swing back to floor-
● OTHERS charging extras
for starting handles (cost
Loard gear levers will con tinue.
MORE cars with auto-
10x.) and oven tool kits matic transmission.
(cost 258.).
NEW and completely re- shaped range from me of the Big Six manufacturers.
● POWER steering adopted more famous bly
onl
CETS.
two
A NEW model from the factory producing the "ear for the doctor” category.
of
• ADOPTION
air.
• AT LEAST a dozen new cars before the Show.
7
• FEW new models at the Motor Show (October 22 November 1) in tune with
·makers' new polley, the which is to bring out cars only when they are ready' and not when the Show le ready fof them.
• PRICES to go up not down because of rising wage-packets for factory workers.
NEW details of Donald Campbell's 500-mile-an-
felds, will fit in with the motor- It they guess their public apringing in a new British making Ideas they have in mind. rightly, the cars of the future model. Air-springing, now
Inspiration can be drawn from it still keep a cheerful out
coming out of their factories in extensive tine in U.S. cats, the example of their 80-year- oki honorary president, Lord look for UCHARD COUCH. automatically balances the Nuffield, who had started as a director of ear output.
the hearty burly 48-year-old car when loaded, prevents hour car to break the world
the rear half from "sitting": "peed record. Then W, EA. CULLUM, de an-man business... a 16-year-
down, and the top half from eptor of Britain's biggest radia ok youth with £ capital,
MORE use of the emer lifting dangerously. for plant, can look with the ex-
gency "get-you-home? tyre, perience of an expert mechanic backyard building of his father's
It is a solid thin disc which engineer Into the cooling prob- house at Cowley, near Oxford,
From bicycles lems of power units of the
to motor- The shape of tho' car tu comu
FAMOUS. 11⁄2-litre lasts for only 60 miles. You They are rulers in an in-
future,
cycles... then curs.
might be in many experts in the British sports car with an it it to the punctured wheel A talented production.
cdustrial empire where millions slupe the motor-car pattern SIDNEY YEAR,SMITH, dlr- The vision of the young man Industry have prophesied .......... gineer with commercial air of pounds can be lost or won that suffi lies hidden from other ector in charge whom Morris recognised back by their deelzians,
of research who wanted to be his own boss slightly nearer to the ground, entirely new engine include and it saves you from run-
cam- ning on a “flat” tyre. prying syn
en brought a fame and fortune with more glass in its rooks-uping twin overhead and development, ed so
automatic transmission, shafts. .GEORGE · · DONO, · 35-year- the drawing boards of his that grow ne more than 3,250,000 moro Ho known already the kind under them... 450,000 vehicles old head of the shoot-metal staff almost into the year vehicles linked with his name revolutionary
THIS will lead to one of pouring out from British
rolled out to the world. that thousands
DIORIN- A.D. 2009,
atomic power wolfuld or air | pimenn of car
It is not so very far away. A The motorists will be driving in a torfer, judged on last year's SON, the quiet, 68-your-old
top suspension for greater com- A BRITISH sports car manufacturer offering fus 24 manufacturer producing a new car with only four Dow your time but there in figures 100 million pouring backroom scientist who made That year's model, indeed, is mostly do thoir. Aftics-bavi for
Nobody coopt the men at to j too much money in that kind back from exports.
himself a master of metallurgy nearer than the fist Moria cue abared in that muccem, of; secret for him to give out They can call on their nearly 30 years ago. (Ho was that rolled out of the Cowley. They have made and wold the top can be sure unit the 2-litre Grand Frix aur tyres, ie., minus the ortho
for the first time,
dox spare tyre and whael. follow-directors 'the, cluas' beiptą" (thair" "fline,"
to help them responsible for developing factory in 1912.
cars for a long time and they wrappings come off,
in the 1930s as'n successor and make a managing director.
For they have 45,000 workers
fae-division;
EDWARD
10 crott
the