Classic emails, letters, tweets, posts & threads
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Blast from the past
I was recently chatting with my uncle and he was reminiscing about the cars he had owned over the years, one of them being a 1954 Riley RME.
He remembered the registration (140 CMH) and so I checked online and found that it was still on the road. I then joined the Riley RM Club on Facebook to see if I could find out a little more about it. The club registrar duly responded and informed me that it in 1998 it underwent a nut and bolt rebuild and won Practical Classics Rebuild of the year award at Stoneleigh National Restoration Show in 2000.
A browse through back issues led me to the Spring 2001 issue that featured the rebuild. As no copies were available through the website, I managed to purchase one through eBay and then presented it to my uncle, much to his delight. The above photograph of the car was taken when my uncle had it in the early Sixties.
It didn’t end there. When I last visited him, he showed me a number of photographs of various cars that he had owned over the years. His two favourites were the Riley and, from many years later, a 3-litre Ford Capri. He was very excited, as he’d read through the rest of the Spring 2001 issue and come across that very Capri! It was the then editor, Will Holman’s, car and had had a 5-litre small block fitted to it. What an amazing coincidence, two of his favourite cars featured in the same magazine. What are the chances of that?
Rainbow bright
I couldn’t agree more with John Simister’s excellent opinion column on ‘Monochrome Motors’ that appeared in the March 2022 issue of Practical Classics. With that in mind, I thought that this photograph of a recent meeting of the AVO Owners’ Club, North West branch, demonstrated his case rather well. Great colours!
Quick posts
What’s good for a B-road blast?
Triumph Vitesse – and every time marvel at how it’s happy at 20mph in top gear, then pulls up all but the very steepest hills in top too. And all with that wonderful six-cylinder soundtrack.
MG ZS 180 is my choice for pure enjoyment!
The one below as I’ve not yet reached the stage post-rebuild where I trust it to get me anywhere for a specif
