Picks from the Orchard: the static stars of V.S.C.C. Prescott 2024

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After last year's unfortunate soaking, fair weather smiled down on the Vintage Sports-Car Club's flagship hill-climb event at Prescott this year, sending sunny spells and a cool breeze, which encouraged dozens upon dozens of vintage motor car enthusiasts to dust down their faithful mechanical friends and sally forth into the picturesque hills of the Cotswolds. Of course, as with any hill-climb meeting, Prescott is, first and foremost, all about the action on the hill. But while the Edwardians thundered, Austins buzzed, and GNs slid every which way, there was considerable additional interest to be found in the Orchard, which housed what must, today, be one of the largest vintage car gatherings in the country.

This year, both the V.S.C.C. itself and the Talbot Owners' Club are celebrating their 90th anniversaries, so a particular effort was made to present a large spread of Talbots, in all their varied majesty. There were some elegant examples of 1930s coachwork, and no fewer than three marvellous Edwardians, but one of the star exhibits was the 1924 10/23 coupé presently being restored by a young lady enthusiast, Morwenna Corry. The car was built originally as an exhibition chassis with distinctive nickel-plated fittings. It was not bodied until four years later, when its unique coupé coachwork was constructed. The car was found derelict in 2013, and over the following 12 years, Morwenna and her father have come very close to putting the car back on the road.

Returning to the subject of Edwardians, one of the most charming cars across the whole site was the 1912 Iris tourer owned by Rodney Fowler. This car is the sole survivor of the Iris marque—"It Runs In Silence"—and has been in Mr. Fowler's ownership for the past 40 years. It is notable as one of very few cars to have been produced in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. While the idea of venturing out of Aylesbury and exploring the ups and downs of the lovely Chilterns epitomises, to your scribe, the appeal of veteran and vintage motoring, some people prefer to press along more rapidly, and to that end the 1914 DFP 12/40hp TT Speed Model looked perfect. This car appeared as one which raced in the 1914 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race, at the behest of British DFP agent W. O. Bentley. We cannot say for certain that it was the original TT racer which appeared at Prescott, but matching number plates would suggest that it was.

All sorts of other rare and unusual machines appeared, including a 1936 Riley TT Sprite wearing a replica of the flowing bodies constructed by Pourtout for the Le Mans 24 Hours, but it was some of the simple vintage touring cars which pleased this writer the most. I am by no means a newcomer to the vintage car world, but until Prescott I had never encountered a pre-Rootes Hillman in real life, save for the 1908 Hillman-Coatalen of the Coventry Transport Museum. Needless to say, I was delighted to find a 1930 Hillman 14 tourer sheltering under one of the trees. It, and other family-sized touring cars of similar rarity, were far more interesting than the numerous Bentleys and 30-98 Vauxhalls...

As mentioned earlier, the V.S.C.C. is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, and the Prescott event kicked off a week of celebrations which is still ongoing. Events still to take place include the Anniversary Hill-Climb at Château Impney in Worcestershire on Friday 9th, and the Anniversary Driving Tests back at the racecourse on Saturday 10th. If you missed Prescott, you really should head along to one or both of them.

Words and photographs: Zack Stiling
 

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