Lancashire Swallow Region
Events and Newsletter
Lancashire Swallow Region Committee Members Pictures JEC classifieds members gallery regions
Welcome to the July edition of your Swallow Magazine. My front cover picture is slightly different this month. We are all Jaguar Enthusiasts and therefore really by definition we are all interested in cars – new or old. Whilst on holiday in the Loire valley recently we were visiting Fontevraud Abbey. This is itself a history lesson because of its connection with English history. Richard the Lionheart King of England is buried there. Whilst walking round I came across all these historic Bentleys in the hotel car park. They had all been to Le Mans and then down on a rally starting in Cannes. The last night was being spent here.
Diary
Remember that this is printed on the inside front cover of your magazine every month and updated as events crop up. Payment is now needed for Woodvale please. We also need names for those attending Chatsworth, Leisure Lakes, our birthday meal out at Haighton Manor, and also interest please in the Chester Weekend. We have not had a club weekend away for quite a while and previous ones have been very successful so let’s have a good turnout for this one! The hotel we have in mind is in the rural countryside but only 15 minutes from the city. This is a picture but you can see more details at www.thepheasantinn.co.uk. We shall be organising an outing but there will still be plenty of time for pre Christmas shopping.
June Club night
On our June club night we welcomed John Ratcliffe who gave a very interesting and entertaining talk on Croftgate polish which he sells as a hobby. I never realised there were so many ingredients in some cleaning products! Judging by the condition of John’s XJ40, which was magnificent, it is a very good product! We had also invited BVPG along and were please to see some familiar faces from their club. There was quite a bit of testing done be members and several panels on their cars were definitely a bit brighter. For years I have been an advocate of Autoglym but I shall be trying this one as I always find it difficult to get rid of the “white line“effect. Now John has explained why! I bought some car wash shampoo and polish so will see what it is like in due course. I also got some of the micro fibre cloths which are excellent and I can recommend them to all. I think John said he would be at Harewood if anyone wants to see the products or make further purchases. On behalf of the club we thank John for taking time out to visit us. His website is www.concoursfinish.co.uk. For further information call him on 01942 725636 or e mail info@concoursfinish.co.uk.
John Ratcliffe’s immaculate XJ40 – so the polish must be good!
Whilst we were being entertained by John the ladies were also “Polishing” This is Sandra’s report.
June’s club night was one with a difference. It was decided that whilst the boys were outside being taught how to clean their cars properly, (You would think that they would know how to do that by now!) the girls would stay inside for a different sort of polish – a Body Shop Party.
Linda was our demonstrator and started of by letting us try lots of different lotions and potions to keep our skin in good condition and gleaming.
She then asked if anyone would like a makeover – Dot was the willing volunteer. Linda demonstrated how to apply make up and everyone agreed that Dot looked lovely when she had finished.
We would all like to know if Dave noticed, or if he was too busy looking at the gleaming cars outside. We had a good turnout for the party and it was lovely to see some of our friends from BVPG.
A fun night was had by all and Linda donated several raffle prizes to be used in the future.
Regalia
At the moment we have a stock of the following clothing items with the club logo on:
Club caps in blue.
Club polo shirts various sizes both ladies and gents.
We also have some Jaguar key rings and a good supply of Armorall cleaning and polishing products. I recently enquired about the difficulty I was having in obtaining their car wash wipes which are brilliant at removing light road dirt or even bombardments from birds! [Ask Ian Pickering!] The sales department of Armorall very kindly offered to send samples of some of their products that we could use for the benefit of the club by selling or using as prizes etc for club funds. These can be seen at club nights and are available at very favourable prices. Please have a word with me.
New Members
We extend a cordial Swallow welcome to Cyril Butcher who joined at the Manchester to Blackpool run. We hope to see him at future events. Cyril owns has a Daimler 420 saloon.
Red Marsh School
Following on from last month’s item I have received a letter of thanks from Red Marsh School. I reprint the text of this below for you all to see.
“Dear Mr Cuff
Thank you very much for your letter enclosing a donation of £300 from the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club to benefit the pupils of Red Marsh School. I hope the members enjoyed their fundraising events and I’m sure you are pleased in raising this amount. I enclose a receipt for your records and thank you once again for supporting Red Marsh School
Yours sincerely
Anita Tidswell
Head Teacher”
Again, as I mentioned last month if we are going to do a similar thing in 2007/8 could we please have suggestions from members for the charity to be supported?
The Beast - R.I.P.
For those of you who have not heard Pat Ketteringham’s Jaguar Special unfortunately caught fire whilst being driven from home to its annual MOT test. Pat has sent in this account written through the tears and the medicinal whiskey!
The career of Wolf Barnato was based on his time racing as a privateer in his own 3 litre during the late 20’s. When his car was no longer competitive he raced for W.O. Bentley in works 3 or 3.5 litre cars winning several prestige races.
In 1928 he designed the 6 light 4 door body which was built by Maythorn of Biggleswade. It is recorded that the car was wrecked in 1936 when it was in collision with a tree. It re-emerged in 1980 at a derelict farm in Aldborough in Suffolk and it was acquired by a friend of mine who sold the engine, chassis etc to Stanley Mann in London. It was then clothed in a replica 1928 racing body and is now resident in the U.S.A. The damaged body was due to be burnt when I found it in two feet of flood water.
Bribes of several pints produced a gang of lifters and we loaded it on a trailer and I took it home. It took two years to dry out before any work could be done other than removing panels and rotted woodwork. The body was just a shell – no floors, roof, interior, engine, bonnet, grill, mudguards and of course no chassis, running gear and engine.
I happened to have a spare XJ6 tow car and this became the donor vehicle. A new chassis was “Taylor made” by Autotune of Rishton to fit both the body and the XJ6 running gear and engine. I spent many days [enjoyably] at auto jumbles sourcing parts but a vast number were handmade.
My cooperative M.O.T. garage provided M.O.T. bookings so that I could road test such things as brakes etc. they also offered good advice up to it being on the road in April 1996 all legally and above board.
Mrs Pat & Jently
Since then it has rallied, and pub crawled its way around Cambridgeshire Sussex and Lancashire.
On Tuesday 5 June 2007 on its way to its 11th M.O.T. it burst into flames, burnt out and has now been written off. A very sad end for a vehicle which in 1928 was a futuristic design and very different form the run of the mill boxes of the time.
We shall miss “The Beast” but at least I can now get into the garage!
North West Historic Motor Show
Southport
This report from John Andrews.
The weather forecast had been suggesting showers and heavy rain in the North West for the weekend of the “2007 North West Historic Motor Show”. It was therefore a welcome relief to wake up to a dry if not bright Saturday morning. So with no further ado I trolled my merry way down to Birkdale to my garages and the Mk 2 that I had washed the previous day. (Between showers that is). Yes this is the same MK 2 that had failed to start, let alone finish the Manchester to Blackpool Run three weeks earlier. [You are being a little hard on yourself John. You did start, although short cutting it lunch! Ed] Not really a failure of the car but as the result of a mistake made by its enthusiastic but amateur mechanic and owner, during a routine oil and filter change.
Our club stand at Southport
It was 9:45 when I set off from the garages on the 5-minute drive to Victoria Park; the roads were empty and there wasn’t the usual queue of interesting vehicles at the exhibitor’s entrance. In fact I was beginning to think I had got the wrong weekend. I drove round the park to the far side where the various JEC regional spots had been allocated. The Swallow spot was empty, but we had an excuse. 4 members were on holiday in France, another member had travelled up to the Scottish weekend, and several other members were attending the Totally Transport event in Blackpool. However the Cheshire region pitch was also empty and Red Rose had only got three vehicles and one of those was the JEC raffle car.
I pulled onto our pitch and parked the car sideways to take up as much room as possible and then formed myself into a crowd. About 15 minutes later a car pulled onto the Cheshire region pitch and after a few comments such as “Johnny No Mates” etc. had been exchanged, the second Swallower arrived in the form of Bill Mollony in his nicely turned out series II E Type roadster. Bill wandered off to get himself a coffee and I unpacked the club banner and gazebo. Isn’t it funny how quickly the site empties when a gazebo appears. Fortunately a couple of my mates from the Mercedes club were walking by, so with the promise of a pint or two they quickly had it erected. I didn’t even have to help.
Later that morning a few more cars turned up to the Cheshire pitch, a couple of which I managed to direct over to our side. This was typical of the whole show, Saturday is never the best day and with the threat of bad weather and other events happening in the region it was a poor attendance. It just meant we had more room in which to enjoy the sunshine because despite the forecast we actually got a suntan in the afternoon.
Now Sunday. Well that was well different. We doubled our attendance, because now as well as Bill and I, (yes Bill had returned, but this time with his wife adorning the passenger seat), Ian, Sharon and family had brought their Series 3 XJ6 V12 and Peter Breaden came in his XJR. Peter also provided four troughs of flowers to decorate our site; well we had plenty of space. We also had a mystery car on our site in the form of a late series 1 ½ E Type roadster, a re-importation that had been converted from LHD. It was in quite nice condition and the owner, a non-club member, who we later found out also came from Birkdale, was asking in the region of £25,000 for it. The car created a lot of interest and brought people onto our stand, which was good for us. Bill seemed quite keen for me to buy it, but I think I’ll finish my XJ 140 project (Aristocat) before asking permission of “herself” to commit to yet another venture!
The usual show attractions were there, including the TA with a fine selection of military machines, a couple of American Car Clubs and a several stands featuring motor cycles, including one for disabled riders. Opposite us was a company who will be trading on Eastbank Street Southport from 25th June under the name of Hogfather. They specialised in custom bikes and Harley Davidson’s. This again was a bit of a honey pot, bringing more visitors over to us. There were also quite a few new car dealerships displaying their current models, as well as the usual brass band, fun fair, stunt riders, parades, burger bars and a beer tent etc.
Pete Breaden taking advantage of the shelter and peace at Southport
To give credit where it is due, congratulations to the Red Rose region, who by 2.00 Sunday afternoon had sold over 1,400 tickets for the 2004 XK8 being raffled by the JEC to raise money for the NSPCC, and still the punters were queuing. Swallow however was not without its moment of glory when Bill and I rescued a red nosed, sorry Red Rose maiden in distress Yes it was Eileen, you remember, yes her what has the two E Types. Her series 3 V12 was running at 4,000 rpm on tick-over and being an automatic with no clutch to slip was deadly. Well you already know that I always have a boot full of oil, so it will come as no surprise to hear I also carry a can of WD 40. This was liberally applied to the throttle cable and linkages and in the flap of a swallow’s wing all was back to normal.
The show was a success despite the overall lack of attendance and although the weather was showery until late morning, it brightened up in the afternoon and we all had a lot of fun.
BVPG “Wheel Meet Again” at The Edge Poulton-le-Fylde
Dave Williams and I went along to the above event at the beginning of July. Organised by Blackpool Vehicle Preservation Group it is basically an evening gathering of classic or unusual cars on the public car park behind The Edge pub in Poulton-le-Fylde.
I went in the E Type as it is now running again after some electrical problems. Dave took the Sovereign as the support vehicle in case it stopped again! [Ok Chair that one is now wearing a bit thin. Who was it broke down on the way back from London Brighton?] There was a large variety of some hundred cars there and some very unusual ones. I don’t think I have ever seen a Lamborghini Diablo in real life! About ten Ferraris of various models including a Testa Rossa for those of you who remember Miami Vice on the TV. Also present were four immaculate Austin Seven variants, numerous MG’s. a Stag, Triumph Mayflower and a large contingent from TVR owners club.
The two pictures show a nice XK 150 and a TVR Chimera which was actually for sale for £12500. Luckily it was dry if not very warm and we had a pleasant couple of hours wandering round the vehicles on show. The event attracted quite a number of spectators as well.
Manchester Blackpool Photographs
As many will remember Martin Davidson spent a considerable part of his day taking photographs along the route. He has let me have a CD of these. Tony Gregory also took photos at Blackpool and again I have a CD. If anybody would like these I can copy the CD for a voluntary donation to club funds. Please contact me for further information.
Harewood 2007 Stop Press
There will be a full report on Harewood next month. The event almost did not take place due to the terrible weather earlier in the week. However with the cooperation of Harewood estates the JEC Northern Day was moved to another field rather than the one which normally used. There was only one shower on the day itself lasting for about 20 minutes. We were told there was a theme to the club stands this year. We had done absolutely nothing about organising this at all and at one stage decided it was too late to tell other people. However on Wednesday at Poulton-le-Fylde our Chairman came up with the idea of creating a used car pitch! Simple to do and we would put silly prices and descriptions of the cars. On Thursday I went along to a dealer friend of mine and borrowed various price displays and number plates for the weekend. Once he was stoked up with a few drinks on Saturday Dave W wrote descriptions for mine and his and we handed out card for everyone else to do theirs. There were some very funny ones and extremely high prices!! The end result was that Swallow region won the prize for best regional Stand on the day. Chairman Dave was duly presented with a voucher for a weekend stay at any Warner’s Holiday site in the country!!
We shall use this to raise money for our chosen charity this year so we need ideas please!
Swallow Car Sales at Harewood……………….
…………And a selection of our quality stock!
Savings Club
This is still running if you want to put something away for the events or weekends away. As much or little as you like with instant access. See David or Isobel for your saver card at club meetings.
Swallow Stickers
When you joined you got a Swallow windscreen sticker for the car with your membership. As many members seem to now own more than one car they can get extra ones for £3.00 each. Treasurer always has them with him at meetings.
Club Contacts 20067
Ian Pickering: 01254 882352 [H] 01282 434343 [B] 07774 087361 [M] Jagian@btinternet.com
Dave Williams: 01772 791499 [H] 07710 592282 [M]
David Cuff: 01995 603884 [H] 01524 410727 [B] 07850 434878 [M]. cuf3@aol.com
Sandra Williams: 01772 791499 [H] 07821 780852 [M] Sandra.williams21@btinternet.com
Website: www.lancashire-swallow-region.co.uk
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