The halcyon days of vintage rallies

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The '50s and '60s were a wonderful time for Veteran and Vintage cars. The roads weren't clogged up with traffic like they are today, you could potter along at your own sweet pace and you could often do so with the blessing of the authorities and general public, who were pleased to lend a hand if it made them feel like they were living out a scene from Genevieve.

It was during this period that the interest in preservation blossomed, hundreds of rare cars were rescued from the junkyard or abandonment, and there were Veteran and Vintage rallies to attend most weekends throughout the summer. As well as owners, these rallies were popular with enthusiastic car-spotters, probably clad in tweed and Fair Isle, who scurried around with their cameras, capturing for posterity the happy atmosphere of the events.

We're pleased to present a selection of these photographs, taken by a photographer who we think was based in Hampshire or Wiltshire. One of the pictures we can clearly see was taken at Wilton House near Salisbury, and it looks like some of the others might have been taken at Beaulieu. Are they the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey behind the Hispano-Suiza, and could the open stretch of road on which the forecar is travelling be the Beaulieu Road through the New Forest?

An unrestored Aston and an exotic Hispano

The photographer captured some quite important cars. The 1928 Aston Martin Sports photographed at Wilton House, chassis S25, was entered by its owner H. R. Corbett in the MCC's 1929 Land's End Trial. Originally blue, it was repainted dark green in the 1950s. A later owner, who became a wartime RAF pilot, trialled it in the Midlands in 1938. A string of owners followed, and in 1962 it ended up being sold by Parade Motors of Broadstone, Dorset, to Mr. George Bruce Styles, a university student who used it as his main car. Those were happy days for S25 until it found itself displaced in 1972 by a 'Frogeye' Sprite. Mr. Styles drove it into a shed, put a dinghy on top of it and left it there until 2014, when he notified Andy Bell of Ecurie Bertelli about its existence. Mercifully, it was stored well and hadn't deteriorated. Bell put it back on the road and it is now considered to be the oldest surviving unrestored Aston Martin.

The 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Tulipwood Torpedo will be familiar to most. The eccentric creation was built for apéritif heir, aviator and car enthusiast André Dubonnet, who asked aeroplane-maker Nieuport-Astra to construct the breath-taking bodywork. Carefully made from strips of mahogany (not tulipwood), it reputedly weighed only 160lbs. Dubonnet entered it in the 1924 Targa Florio, finishing sixth overall, and then finished fifth in the Coppa Florio despite tyre trouble. Only after that did Dubonnet equip it for more leisurely road use, before selling to perfume heir Roland Coty. In 1925, he sold it to Scottish marmalade heir Alexander Keiller, with whom it received a London registration and made trips to Brooklands. It survived the war having been placed in storage with a coachbuilder in Plymouth, where Rodney Forestier-Walker discovered it in 1950. He bought it from Keiller, quickly repaired some minor bomb splinter damage to the tail, and used it until 1956. Gerald Albertini, a Standard Oil heir, saw it on the street in London in 1955, left a note under the windscreen and bought it six months later. It subsequently received a well-deserved restoration which involved copper-plating the brightwork, and we believe this photograph to have been taken during Albertini's ownership. In 1964, the Hispano was sold to an American Bentley collector and has remained Stateside ever since.

Searching for lost Veterans

YB 6709 is a 1926 McLaughlin-Buick Standard Six roadster, which was owned by Ralph Paganel Luttrell from new until 1948. It had two more owners in the 1950s before being sold to Frank H. Maisey of Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, in 1959. It remained in the Maisey family until 1996, after which it was restored. It remains on the road today having last been sold by H&H in 2010.

P 4460 is obviously a Renault, we would guess an AX of c.1910, and that remains alive and well, though we have no idea when it last appeared at a rally. AX 785 we can see is a 1914 AC Sociable, and a fairly recent photo shows it now painted a jaunty yellow, but it hasn't been taxed for the road since 2010.

Now, we've really told you all we can. You can assist us if you can tell us more about the two Veterans. CD 750 is a Royal Enfield similar to that entered in the 1900 1,000 Miles Trial, and BH 534 is a 1903 White steam car. Unfortunately, we've learnt that both of these vehicles have not been on the road since the early 1990s, which begs the question: where are they now?

Please enlighten us if you can, and feel free to share your own memories of rallies below. Better still, if you're sitting on a treasure-trove of photos which you'd like to share, please get in touch via [email protected]

Words: Zack Stiling; pictures: Stiling Collection
 

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