Magazines Motoring Classics

Motoring Classics Autumn 2014

Classic motorsport is never far from our thoughts and in this edition we bring you up-to-date with the travails of BMH’s racing Managing Director, and deliver a profile of renowned marque specialists, MG Motorsport. It’s hard to credit, but Ford’s original racing supercar, the GT40, is 50 years old this year and we pay tribute to this automotive icon with a few factoids that might just have evaded you to date.

Motoring Classics Autumn 2014
Motoring Classics Autumn 2014

At the time the GT40 was conceived, no American car or driver had ever won Le Mans.

Publication Information
Cover Price: Free
Page Count: 20 pages
Subject: Aviation, Cars, Motorsport, People
Format: Digital (pdf)
Frequency: Quarterly
Publisher: British Motor Heritage
Le Mans Legend

Download British Motor Heritage’s Autumn 2014 Motoring Classics Magazine below!

Motoring Classics Autumn 2014

Welcome to the 19th edition of Motoring Classics. I’m conscious it would have been numerically neater if we’d waited until issue 20 to increase the number of pages from the previous 16 to, well, 20, but we were in a hurry to deliver more to our reader.

Like me, you probably associate circuits such as Silverstone and Brands Hatch with motorsport and Bexhill with sand and sea. In which case the fact that that pleasant Sussex resort gave birth to motorsport in the UK may come as something of a shock – discover more on P.14-15.

While on the subject of pioneering, the history of aviation at Farnborough and Britain’s first aviator, the colourful and outrageously talented S.F. Cody, are inextricably linked and equally full of surprises – see P.12-13 for an insight into that story.

Classic motorsport is never far from our thoughts and in this edition we bring you up-to-date with the travails of BMH’s racing Managing Director, and deliver a profile of renowned marque specialists, MG Motorsport. It’s hard to credit, but Ford’s original racing supercar, the GT40, is 50 years old this year and we pay tribute to this automotive icon with a few factoids that might just have evaded you to date.

Our Classic Character is Tony Crook, a man who will be best remembered for his years of devotion to the Bristol marque and his considerable racing prowess, while this edition’s Missing Moniker is Frazer Nash – the marque behind the wheel of which Crook delivered many of his best results.

Add talk on trademarks, automotive art and BMH’s appointment as a distributor of VP’s range of ethanol free-fuels (bet that’s got your attention!) and there is hopefully something in here for everybody.

Happy reading!

Gordon Bruce, Editor

For all the latest news, offers and great tips… Motoring Classics

Contents
Dealer Spotlight: MG Motorsport

Visiting MG Motorsport for the first time, one can’t help wondering how such a renowned multi-faceted business can operate in so relatively small an area. It doesn’t. That first bespoke wooden workshop leads to another and another in true Tardis-like fashion, slowly revealing the secrets of 24 years of organic growth.

Le Mans Legend

Studying its timeless curves, it is hard to credit that Ford’s legendary GT40 is currently celebrating its 50th birthday. The story of its evolution and development into a four-time Le Mans winner is pretty well known, but here we pay tribute to this automotive icon with five factoids that may just have passed you by…

News From BMH

Managing Director John Yea reveals how the company is combining motorsport with student training.

BMH: Manager of Marques & Trademarks

Unique is one of the most overused words in the English language, but definitely applies to British Motor Heritage (BMH), which has key roles in addition to the manufacture of replacement panels and bodyshells for British classic cars and the online supply of related parts and accessories.

Missing Moniker: Frazer Nash

For a marque that was placed third at Le Mans and achieved victory in both the Targa Florio and Sebring 12 Hours, Frazer Nash remains surprisingly off-radar for all but the ardent devotees of this fascinating manufacturer.

Classic Character: Tony Crook (1920-2014)

When Thomas Anthony Donald ‘Tony’ Crook passed away one month shy of his 94th birthday, the automotive world was robbed of one of its greatest characters.

Motoring Classics In Motorsport

British Motor Heritage MD John Yea reports from the cockpit.

From Cody To Concorde

For 109 years, the otherwise unremarkable town of Farnborough, Hants has been inextricably linked with the field of aviation, and no other location in the world has contributed so much to the development of aeronautical science. As we write it is hosting the UK’s premier air show and is where the flight recorders from Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 will reveal their sad secrets.

Bexhill: But Not As You Know It!

Motorsport enthusiasts taking a weekend off from the hustle and bustle of Silverstone and Brands Hatch to treat their families to the sand and sea of Bexhill, must be bemused by the signs proclaiming the town as ‘The Birthplace of British Motor Racing’. But it was and, if the 8th Earl De La Warr had had his way, would doubtless be a thriving race venue to this day.

BMH Contested the Twin Town Charity Challenge: And lived to tell this touching tale

The land-locked Oxfordshire town of Witney has been twinned with the sun-soaked seaside resort of Le Touquet for almost 30 years. In the immortal words of Michael Caine, ‘not a lot of people know that’, though more do now as a result of the recent four-day Top Gear-esque Twin Town Challenge that ran between the two, and raised a stunning £100,000 for the Charlbury-based disability charity SpecialEffect.

BMH to sell Ethanol-Free Fuels

Of all the topics covered within the pages of Motoring Classics magazine, none has so far prompted a more impassioned reader response than that about fuels for classic cars and, in particular, the possible ill effects of ethanol content.

“The very mention of the word seems enough to raise the blood pressure of some owners, many of whom have suffered fuel-related problems they feel are directly attributable to ethanol”

John Yea, Managing Director, British Motor Heritage
Wheels For The Wall: A personal view by Tony Clark

Motoring art is a very wide field for collectors. If your pockets were deep enough you could collect the cars themselves, as it is hard to deny that some are pure art forms. Besides the beautiful flowing bodywork of some of the continental carrozziere, more recognisable cars have been literally decorated by artists – e.g. the BMWs which ran at Le Mans, one of which featured a ‘paint job’ by Andy Warhol. The British artist Dexter Brown has also put paint to car; most recently a Force India F1 racer which was auctioned for Charity in 2011.

About British Motor Heritage
British Motor Heritage

British Motor Heritage Limited was established in 1975 to support owners and the marketplace by putting genuine components for classic British cars back into manufacture, using original tools wherever possible. Since 2001, when the company was acquired from BMW, it has been successfully run as an independently owned company.

British Motor Heritage is the largest organisation of its type in the world. With access to unparalleled knowledge, authentic production information and original drawings and patterns, the company manufactures previously unobtainable body parts for British classic cars.

It occupies a unique position since it assembles 32 derivatives of body shells and has built total production volume of over 7,000 for the MGB, MGR V8, MG Midget, Austin-Healey Sprite, Triumph TR6, Original Mini and Mini Clubman using original press tools and assembly jigs.

Website: https://www.bmh-ltd.com/

Tex Automotive

Tex Motor Accessories have been manufactured in England for over fifty years, and many of our products are still produced in our factory in Witney on the original tooling.

Since their first appearance on British cars in 1947, Tex products evolved over the years to keep in step with changing car designs. The current range includes wipers and mirrors that were original equipment on a huge range of Austin, Ford, Morris, MG, Triumph, Vauxhall, etc. from 1974 to 1983.

Tex are also major distributors of the Renovo car care product range (specialising in hood refurbishment) and Samco Silicone hose Kits.

Website: https://texautomotive.com/

Copyright Information

Motoring Classics is the printed and online publication of British Motor Heritage and its retail trading arm.

Motoring Classics reproduction in whole or any part of any text, photograph or illustration without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

The publisher makes every effort to ensure the magazine’s contents are correct but can accept no responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions.

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