Since the refurbishment of the British Motor Museum and the opening of the Collections Centre just over 2 years ago there’s been a large increase in visitor numbers. The Museum has also been the recipient of a number of awards, the latest being the prestigious VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Welcome Accolade. As a result the Museum is in need of more volunteers, particularly at weekends, to help in providing and maintaining a great customer experience in the Collections Centre.
So, if you’d like to join our volunteer team and have the time to help us between 11am and 4pm on a Saturday or Sunday, then our Volunteer Coordinator, Sonja Dosanjh would love to hear from you.
The role is about offering a warm and friendly welcome, giving visitors an experience they will want to repeat. You can bring the history of the collection to life for people of all ages.
Some of the volunteer team at a recent gathering
Throughout
the year, particularly during the summer months, the Museum site becomes the
home to many types of external events, shows, car club meets etc., which really
gives a buzz to the whole place, not normally experienced in the week.
Below are
three quotes from weekend volunteers which sum up the experience very well:-
Volunteering at the weekends is incredibly
rewarding; it is great to see how people react to the vehicles in the
collection. For older visitors it's a trip down memory lane and a
conversation that usually starts – “Have you got a..." and ends
with a happy anecdote or two from the visitor. There's a
real sense of job satisfaction from knowing that you've enhanced someone's trip
to the museum.
Volunteering at the British Motor Museum is a
really rewarding and fun experience. Engaging with visitors about cars they
have owned, helped build or wanted since their childhood is a fantastic way to
hear new stories and share your own knowledge of the amazing vehicles and their
history.
Volunteering at the Museum has introduced me to new
people, enabled me to learn new knowledge and skills and above all, share my
passion for the unique collection we have at the British Motor Museum. I
wouldn't hesitate in recommending volunteering in the Collections Centre -
here, we look after and share with our visitors some real gems in the
collection, enhancing their experience by sharing knowledge and inspiring
younger visitors through some of the awesome vehicles housed within its walls.
So, if
you’d like to know more, then do contact Sonja by email at
Volunteer andCollections Centre Guide
Cameron Slater writes yet another fascinating blog, this time reflecting on
the challenge of getting his 1955 MG back on the road.
As you may have seen on the Museum’s Facebook pages, my 1955 MG
Magnette ZA made its maiden voyage under my ownership from my home in Stratford
upon Avon to the Museum for my Tuesday shift at the Collections Centre. Now
this is no big deal, you might say, since it’s a round trip of only about 30
miles and people bring classic cars to the Museum all the time. Well, you’d be
right, I suppose, but for me it was a momentous occasion and one of the things
that made it so was the reaction I got from Sonja (our volunteer coordinator)
and my colleagues on the day, John Saunders and Dennis Allen. They were hugely
enthusiastic about the arrival - at long last – of my car, because I’d been
boring them with tales of its progress (or lack of it) for about the past year
or so.
Cameron with his MG Magnette ZA outside the
Collections Centre
And I think this illustrates one of the joys of working in the
Collections Centre as a volunteer; you can always count on colleagues to
understand what you’ve gone through to get your ’restoration project’ back on
the road, to give freely of their knowledge and experience of old cars and how
to fix them; and you can always count on them to give you a hard time when they
think you’ve done something really stupid!
I bought the MG last year in late August as a restoration project.
Despite this, it looked quite good from about ten feet away and it started, ran
and stopped, and although the interior was pretty ropey, we’re not talking
basket case here. However, it was clear that I had some work to do.
Now, on the Time Road in the main museum there is a very fine ZB
Magnette. It’s not so very different from the ZA so a close examination of its
beautiful interior, it’s more or less flawless bodywork and its original engine
acted as an incentive towards getting some work done on my new acquisition and
getting it back on the road. And that’s another benefit of working at BMM – you
can see some of the best examples of particular models which then give you an
ideal to work towards.
The MG Magnette ZA was introduced in 1954 but was not liked by
your typical MG enthusiast because it used the monocoque body shell from the
1952 Wolseley 4/44. It did, however, have a twin S.U. carburettor engine, a
more luxurious interior and rather more energetic performance than the
Wolseley. The designer was Gerald Palmer and you can also clearly see his
influence on the BMC cars of this period in the much bigger Wolseley 6/90
(1954) and the Riley Pathfinder (1953). The ZB Magnette was introduced in 1956
with a slightly more powerful engine and minor changes to the exterior chrome
work and this is the model you will see on the Time Road in the main museum. MG
also offered the Varitone version of the ZB which had a larger, wrap-round rear
screen and two-tone paint combinations.
The Museum’s MG Magnette ZB on the Time Road
‘Magnette’ was an old-established name for MG. It started with the
Magna in 1931 which was a very respectable sporting two seater in its day which
went on to carry a number of body styles. ‘Magna’ is Latin for ‘big’, since you
ask, so, for example, magna femina
means ‘a big woman’. Then, in 1932, MG introduced the famous K1 and K2 Magnette
series. Magnette is a kind of
combination of Latin and French and could be translated as ‘the little big
one’. The Collections Centre has a lovely 1936 NB Magnette with a beautiful
1271cc 6 cylinder engine and I always draw people’s attention to this car in
any tours I do. The MG octagon badge is everywhere on the car and even the
sidelights are octagonal.
But to return to my own Magnette, the first thing I usually do
with a ‘new’ car like this is to get the wheels off and have a look at the
brakes. Things here could hardly have been worse. The brake shoes were worn,
certainly, but on all four wheels the pull-off springs were fitted in front of
the shoes rather than behind them and the beehive retaining springs simply
weren’t there. The drums were all badly scored and the rear drums were working
as a kind of reservoir for the oil in the rear axle (if there was actually any
oil left in there). So that was two
fairly major jobs that needed to be done before I could even think of taking
the car out on the road; the brakes I could deal with, but I wasn’t so sure
about the axle seals and bearings.
The next thing I discovered was just as dangerous as the state of
the brakes. The S.U. fuel pump is mounted in the boot and the feeder pipe to
the carburettors runs under the floor and bends up into the engine bay. Now I
think we would all expect this fuel line to be either copper or steel. Wrong!
Some previous owner with either a warped sense of humour or a desire for
self-immolation had run a plastic pipe, of the sort you would normally use for
windscreen washers, from pump to carburettors and had fed it up into the engine
bay through a tight space already occupied by the downpipe from the exhaust
manifold; there was about a centimetre separating them. I sorted that one out
very quickly!
There were other little idiosyncrasies that became clearer as I
worked on the car. The original engine for this car is the BMC “B” Series
engine of 1489cc; however, the number on the bulkhead did not match the
registration documents I got with the car which now has the later 1622cc engine
from either a Wolseley or a Morris. So a previous owner had changed the engine
for the later, more powerful one but had neglected to tell DVLA. (Actually, I
haven’t got round to that either.)
The other thing I hadn’t got round to was the problems with the
rear axle mainly because I had never tackled this before and my facilities at
home are a bit limited to deal with this kind of job. So I approached one of my
local garages and after some discussion and a look at the workshop manual they
agreed to take it on. Just as well they did, because one of the hubs was very
reluctant to move and I do not have the kind of heavy lifting gear they had to
use!
Then there’s the electrics. I’ve removed miles of redundant wiring
from behind the dashboard and the engine bay but it’s still a bit of a mess.
Neither the trafficator switch (yes, I’m still using trafficators) nor the horn
button on the steering wheel boss works; the switch for the trafficators is now
under the dashboard on the left and the horn is under the dashboard on the
right. There’s no panel light and the
wiring for the sidelights, fog lights and headlights is bizarre – but they all
work. The thing that didn’t work was the dipswitch so I thought this would be
an easy fix. Wrong again! A job that I thought should have taken, oh, let’s say
about half an hour at the most, took me five days! The details are too painful
to remember but involved seized nuts and bolts, broken drill bits, angle
grinders, skinned knuckles and a very painful back for about a week after the
damned thing was finally installed. Just
another example of the joys of classic car ownership!
By the middle of October, which was a couple of months more than a
year after I had bought the car, I was feeling pretty confident that it was
roadworthy and keen to try it out on the road. The day of my CC shift, I
thought, would be a good opportunity for a first drive and so it was. The car
behaved pretty well on the whole, although you forget how awful brakes were in
the 1950’s! Still with no mishaps it got me to Gaydon and back home again to my
delight and surprise. Sonja showed much more confidence in it than I did when
she said “It was never in any doubt.”
There is, of course, still much to do. The seats have several
tears in the leather, the door cards are wrong and need to be replaced, the trafficators
need to be replaced with flashing indicators, the windscreen washers need to be
brought up to date and so on …… and on …….. and on. But maybe someday I’ll be
able to bring it to the Museum, put it beside the ZB on the Time Road ……. and
then realise that there’s still a lot to do before it reaches that standard!
Friday, 17 August 2018
Tales from Overseas
Volunteer and Collections Centre guide Dennis Allen gives an interesting account of the friends he has
made during his time at the Museum.
Two way interactions with visitors to the Collections Centre
is probably one of the most important parts of my role of a volunteer. They
often want to know a little about me, my involvement in the British motor
industry, what vehicles I have owned in the past. Where I come from and
countries I have visited.
Equally I make the same enquiries of visitors.
Over the last thirty months I have met lots of interesting
people from all over the world as well as the UK.
Most memorable to me are visitors from New Zealand and South
Africa, my two favourite countries and I have exchanged email addresses with a
few visitors.
I received the following email from New Zealand:
Hello Dennis
I'm the guy from New Zealand that you were so
kind as to show around the British Motor Museum.
We had a fantastic trip but the highlight for me
was the Museum and Collections Centre... I have attached a photo of my
latest restoration project. A 1956 Daimler Century Drophead. I also managed to
purchase a number of rubber seals and grommets etc. when I was in the UK and
this has enabled me to progress on a couple of my other projects. I hope
all is well with you and thank you.
Regards
Dave
I have been fortunate to visit New Zealand three times in the last 5 years and following suggestions from some of our visitors have visited: 1) The Wow Museum (World of Memorable Art & Classic Cars) situated in Nelson on New Zealand's South Island. www.wowcars.nz 2) Southward Car Museum situated just outside Paraparumu which is 35 miles north of Wellington on New Zealand's North Island. www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz Both are well worth a visit if you are in the area. While visiting South Africa last year I went to the Franschoek Motor Museum which is 40 miles from Cape Town. www.fmm.co.za This came about following a visit to the Collections Centre from a lovely South African couple, who lived not far from Cape Town. We got on well talking about cars, the motor industry, life in South Africa and places to visit. I mentioned that my wife and I were touring in South Africa a few months later and they said to let them know when and we could meet up. Well, this is exactly what happened. A few months later they picked us up from the Cape Town Waterfront and drove us to the Franschoek Motor Museum. The museum is located on the L'Omarins/Anthonij Rupert wines estate and as well as the winery there is horse stud farm and a racing track and off-road course. Fiat launched their Alpha Romeo Giulia there last year. We were introduced to Wayne Harley the Museum Curator, last year he rode a 1934 Triumph 350 3/1 in the Durban to Johannesburg Motorcycle Rally (700 kms) - the DJ Run, starting 77th and finishing 61st. We then met Lorenzo Forella, the workshop manager, who took us on a guided tour of the museum. The collection of 80 cars and some motorbikes are located in four separate buildings around an open grassed courtyard.
The vehicles were arranged in groups of four or five so about 20 in
each building. Lorenzo explained that there were other vehicles not on display
but the collection did change from time to time. He jokingly told me off for
ignoring the four Ferrari's but I told him (tongue in cheek) that we lived in
Royal Leamington Spa and saw them there all the time.
After a pleasurable and informative two hour tour with Lorenzo we left
the museum and took a scenic tram ride (an old style charabanc) taking in the
picturesque views of the estates and surrounding Franschoek Wine Valley. This
ended at the wine estate bistro where we had lunch (delicious tapas) with a
glass of wine of course.
We were then driven back to Cape Town late afternoon.
A really fantastic and amazing experience that came about just by
talking to Museum visitors.
Collections Centre volunteer Alan Toft tells a fascinating story
about model cars, his love of motorsport and his favourite car at the Museum,
the Jaguar XJR9.
At the time
of my 11th birthday my mother asked me what I was going to do with
my birthday money. I replied that I was going to buy the first Dinky Toy with
'fingertip steering' – this happened to be a model of the Jaguar 3.8 Mk 2 not
unlike the one we have in the Museum.
She replied
that I was now too old for that sort of thing – she never explained what I was
supposed to replace 'that sort of thing' with – something in the line of sex,
drugs, and rock and roll, I assumed! So she was even less impressed when the
next thing I wanted to buy was the 45 single recording of Del Shannon's 'Little
Town Flirt'!!
So I do
wonder what she would think of the display cabinet at my home in Vancouver that
is filled with 50+ 1/43 scale models of racing cars that I have either seen
race or just wish I had. In the latter category are two cars which are part of
our Museum collection. The first is Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell March 701 and the
second is my favourite car in the Museum – the 1988 Silk Cut Jaguar XJR9 in
which Andy Wallace won Le Mans, but developed a gearbox problem at
Coventry Motorfest recently and prevented me seeing it running the next day!
The 1988 Le Mans Silk Cut Jaguar XJR9
There's
something about this car – it could be that I admired the designer, Tony
Southgate, because he also designed my favourite F1 car, the 1971 Yardley BRM
P160 which I saw Peter Gethin drive to victory in the Victory Race at Brands
Hatch, a race in which his teammate, Jo Siffert, sadly died. I used Yardley
aftershave for years because of that car!
Or it could
be because I admired and respected John Egan, who pulled Jaguar back from the
pit of British Leyland, supported the racing efforts in America and Europe, and
who forged a strong relationship with Sir William Lyons and allowed him to pass
away knowing that his company was now in good hands.
But I do
wonder if it really should have been called the XJR9. Bob Tullius, and his
Group 44 team, were loyal Triumph and the Jaguar supporters through some tough
times. He raced Triumph TR3's and 4's until he raced his XJR1, which is the
lovely Series 3 V12 E-type that is in the Museum and which I did see driven at
Coventry Motorfest. I used Quaker State oil in my car in Canada because of this
car! Hey, I'm loyal to racing sponsors!
Bob used
the nomenclature XJR2, 3, and 4 for the Jaguar XJS's that he raced after the
E-type, and for which John Egan arranged support ,and then he had Lee Dyktra
develop the gorgeous XJR5 that we have in the Museum and which first took
Jaguar back to Le Mans.
So when,
following his wonderful success with the XJS in Europe (another car I saw
running at Coventry Motorfest) Jaguar understandably asked Tom Walkinshaw to
take over the task of winning Le Mans, I thought it somewhat rude that they
named his first prototype the XJR6. Sure, the IMSA XJR5, with the overly
complex 48-valve engine, may not have been a Le Mans winner given the different
rules between WSC (and especially Le Mans) and IMSA, but Tom Walkinshaw could
have developed his own naming convention!
Anyway, I
think that Tullius's XJR7, and the XJR8 he built that had no relationship to
the TWR XJR8, are the best looking XJR's ever made!
I liked the
TWR XJR6 in the original Jaguar green but it was Gallagher's 'Silk Cut' money,
arranged by the king of sponsor-seekers, Guy Edwards, which probably ensured
success. One of Guy's personal sponsors was Barclays International and I used
to watch him race Lolas in those colours in F5000 and in 2-litre sports cars.
Tom
Walkinshaw was honest with Jaguar about how long Le Mans domination would take.
The XJR6 of 1985 and 1986 was fast and won races, the 1987 XJR8 won the WSC
World Championship, but the 1988 XJR9 was, to me, the highpoint for the V12
engine. My cabinet does have a model of the 1990 XJR12 Le Mans winner, that
came later, but pride of place goes to the 1988 Silk Cut XJR9 that won Le Mans
and the 1988 Castrol XJR9 that won Daytona.
There are
so many links from these cars to the Museum. Walkinshaw knew that the 24-valve
V12 Jaguar engine, even when it grew to 7.4 litres, was becoming uncompetitive,
certainly in terms of acceleration, against the turbo Porsches and
Sauber-Mercedes, amongst others, and that's why he bought the design rights for
the normally-aspirated Metro 6R4 engine from Austin-Rover and had it totally
revamped to allow twin-turbos before he put it into the WSC Silk Cut XJR11 in
3.5-litre form and the IMSA Castrol XJR10 in 3-litre form. By 1991, the IMSA
XJR10 was being sponsored by Bud Lite which is an old Native American word
meaning 'Dishwater'.
This engine, suitably modified for road use,
made its way into our production XJ220, of course, whilst the road-going
version of the XJR9, the XJR15 that we have in the Museum, got the V12. The
turbo V6 engines had limited success in Europe but did better across the
Atlantic, especially in 1991 when the much improved XJR16 was introduced. In
1989 the XJR11 wasn't ready for Le Mans and 3rd was the best that
could be achieved with the XJR9. The
XJR11 was much more reliable in 1990 but the V12 was used for the endurance
events like Le Mans, where pole position didn't matter – interestingly the
winning Silk Cut XJR12, with all the Ross Brawn instigated changes, was built
from the chassis of the 1988 Daytona-winning Castrol XJR9, whereas our 1988
Silk Cut XJR9 was never raced again after its victory at Le Mans.
By then
Jaguar was Ford-owned so, when turbos were banned in WSC, it was easy to slide
the Ford HB Cosworth 3.5 litre into a new Ross Brawn-designed XJR14 for 1991
and dominate the championship. However they still had to race the new-livery
Silk Cut XJR12 at Le Mans and they finished 2nd, 3rd, and
4th. I just bought a model of this car and need to apply the Silk
Cut logos! And no-one begrudged Johnny Herbert his win in the Renown Mazda 787B
Rotary.
Jaguar left
WSC at the end of 1991 when the Gallagher's Silk Cut sponsorship ended – the
XJR14's and XJR12's raced in America in 1992 and 1993, but Ford had other
issues by then.
Still it
was a wonderful run. I sat in the Museum library a couple of weeks ago and
browsed the copy of Leslie Thurston's wonderful book 'TWR Jaguar Prototype
Racers'. It's one of those books where you say 'I have to own a copy' and the
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust was happy to sell me one at a very reasonable
price and I received it in two days!
I was
mentioning this to fellow volunteer Tony Bagley recently and he told me Leslie
Thurston built those wonderful large-scale models that hang above the XJ13 in
the Museum – I've spent hours staring at those models and I want 1/43 scale
models of all of them – I also want one of the Suntec-sponsored Japanese XJR12
and could be persuaded to house a Bud Lite car!
And I tend to watch our video of Jaguar racing success at least once a
week too – I never tire of it!
But I was
thinking who, if I had the chance to go back, I would most like to have dinner
with and grill about XJR's. I was thinking John Egan, Tony Southgate, and Tom
Walkinshaw but then I realized who I respected most – it would be Bob Tullius.
So, at the
height of the XJR14's success, Jaguar left WSC to the Le Mans-winning Peugeot
905's. And yes, mother, there's three of them in the display cabinet at home
too!! But I need to clear the DVD's off
the top shelf – there's more Jaguars coming!
Volunteer
Collections Centre guide Cameron Slater tells a fascinating
story of what he believes to be the Star Car of the Show at the British Motor
Museum.
Star
quality is a very rare thing. The X
Factor and Britain’s Got Talent
and The Voice spend millions every
year searching for people who have it. From
its very beginnings, the Hollywood film industry has based an entire philosophy
of business, art and entertainment on the idea of “The Star”. Since then, every
form of entertainment has had to have “The Star of the Show”, “The Top of the Bill”;
today’s leading film actors are not just stars but megastars … and so the hype
goes on.
Now this is hardly surprising. The car
is a supercar long before the name was thought of. It’s enormous and magnificent
with the flowing lines of its coachwork by Hooper, painted in a two-tone design
of silver-grey and deepest blue and the hood is made from the best black
mohair. It’s powered by Daimler’s owneight cylinder, five and a half litre engine which develops 150 hp and
gives the car a top speed of …… 83mph!! This hardly compares with the 200mph
plus performance of today’s McLaren or Bugatti Chiron, but the Daimler is not
made for speed; it’s made to be a statement about real star automotive quality
and in any case, it weighs in at a shade under three and a half tons. You only
have to open one of its two doors to feel the weight and to appreciate the
engineering that has gone into that wonderful, solid, metallic ‘click’ when you
shut it. So there it sits, lording it over everything else around it. A Star.
The information board tell us that it
was one of seven such cars built to the design of the original Green Goddess
(because it was painted green, since you ask). The Hooper-bodied Coupe was
introduced at the 1948 London Motor Show although the DE36 chassis had been
available since 1946. The first Green Goddess was run by Sir Bernard Docker,
who was at that time the Chairman of BSA Industries, the owners of the Daimler
Motor Company.
Those of us who have reached a certain
age will remember Sir Bernard and Lady Docker who were, I suppose you could
say, the Posh and Becks or maybe The Kardashians of their day. Their
extravagant exploits in the London social scene of the early fifties kept the
gossip columns (and frequently the front pages) of the popular newspapers full
of tales of a lifestyle that the rest of the country could scarcely imagine in
their wildest dreams. Where our Green Goddess is chromium plated, theirs, I
seem to remember, was gold plated and they tended to favour zebra hide and
ivory for interior trimmings. All this in the early 1950’s when the country was
still reeling from the after-effects of the Second World War and when just
about everything was severely rationed. Nothing succeeds, as they say, like
excess.
But back to our information board
which also tells us that the first owner of the Daimler was a New York opera
singer called James Melton. Now I have been going to ‘The Opera’ since the
early 1970’s and I know a bit about opera stars of the past, but I had never
heard of James Melton. So I did some research and I discovered a Star in an
Exorbitantly Priced Car (with apologies to Jeremy Clarkson). Our Daimler which
James Melton bought and had shipped out to New York cost £7,000 in 1950. I
looked this figure up in an inflation calculator website and the 2018
equivalent is £235,200. So this guy must have been some opera singer to be able
to spend that kind of money on a car.
Many hours of internet-surfing later,
I discovered that he wasn’t just an opera singer – he was a popular recording
star, a film star, a radio star, a television star, a concert singer and, yes,
an opera singer; and it wasn’t just one car – it was a hundred cars and he
owned his own motor museum, first as the Melton Museum of Antique Automobiles
in Norwalk, Connecticut from 1948 until 1953 then as the James Melton Autorama
in Hypoluxo, Florida until his death and the closure of the ‘Million Dollar Museum
of Motoring Memories’ in 1961. So, yes, some opera singer!
Melton was born in 1904 in Moultrie,
Georgia. His musical abilities were obvious from an early age and developed
during his time at Florida State University. He went to New York in 1927, determined
to be a singer and joined a singing group called Roxy’s Gang at the Roxy
Theatre. He then joined a vocal quartet called The Revellers as lead tenor and
performed with them across the USA and in Europe until 1933.
But from the late 1920’s he was also a
recording star in his own right. He had a beautiful light lyric tenor voice of
the kind that was very fashionable at that time. He recorded for the major record
labels of the day - Brunswick, RCA and Columbia - with a repertoire that
included such gems of popular sentimental song as I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.
In 1934 James Melton went solo and
established himself on concert tours (including one with George Gershwin) and
on network radio. However, as the thirties progressed, Melton’s style of singing
began to go out of fashion and he found himself competing with a new, popular style
of singing-star such as Bing Crosby. Melton continued to broadcast on national
radio, but he knew his career was at a major turning point so decided to become
an opera singer.
Now, today, this would be a very
unusual step, but Melton made it work. From 1938, he appeared in various
regional opera companies in the USA, singing major roles in operas by Puccini,
Verdi and Donizetti. His operatic career reached the heights when, in December
1942, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York where he remained
as a leading tenor until 1950.
During the 1950’s, however, James
Melton’s career went into decline. He had been a star in almost every form of
musical entertainment, but time and alcohol began to take their inevitable toll
of his voice and the huge popularity of singers such as Mario Lanza, Frank
Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Perry Como meant that Melton gradually disappeared
from the scene.
As I said earlier, James Melton’s other
passion was his fine collection of historic motor cars. He was, in fact one of
the world’s earliest private collectors of historic cars, especially from the
period the Americans call The Brass Era and we in Britain call The Veteran Era.
By the time he set up his first
museum, The Melton Museum of Antique Automobiles, in Norwalk in 1948, he had
amassed about fifty-five cars as well as bicycles, car accessories, model
trains and music boxes. As the collection grew, it became clear that the
Norwalk museum had become too small and Melton built its replacement in
Hypoluxo, Florida. So in 1953, the James Melton Autorama was completed and in
typical show business style the cars were driven – under their own power - in
cavalcade and with maximum publicity from Norwalk to the new building in
Hypoluxo.
The collection by this time numbered
about a hundred cars, some of them extremely rare and important. The oldest was
an 1893 Custom Steam Coach and the collection had a number of early steamers
including a Stanley Steamer Mountain Wagon and a White Steamer. It also
contained a 1900 Rockwell Hansom Cab which was thought to be the first New York
City taxi, a fabulous 1913 Peugeot “Skiff”, - a Type 150, 4 cylinder, 40hp
roadster with a 7478cc engine. Melton’s personal favourite was, apparently, a
1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost which had been the very first Silver Ghost to be
imported into the USA.
So I don’t think it’s a coincidence
that, in the great days of his musical career, he often appeared in a radio
show called The Firestone Hour which
was sponsored by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company; his own weekly radio
show in the thirties was sponsored by Texaco; his weekly television show in the
fifties was called The Ford Festival
and was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. And it was Melton who first sang Back Home Again in Indiana over the PA
system at the opening of the Indianapolis 500 in 1946 which then became a
tradition that continues to this day.
Our Green Goddess, therefore, is not
only a star in its own right, but in 1950 was bought by a genuine star in the
old Hollywood tradition. And you can see both the car and the star in the YouTube Video below...
The
visuals accompanying the music include a photo of James Melton and friends, in
front of the American Airlines office somewhere in New York, with our very own 1950
“Green Goddess” Daimler DE36 Drophead Coupe right there in the foreground of
the picture – where the real stars always are.
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
1960 STANDARD ENSIGN (Part 18)
The engine runs and the car moves – a big day
Our last blog described how, for just a few seconds, the restoration volunteers finally managed to fire up the Ensign again for the first time in many years. However, because the car is located on the first floor of the Collections Centre in the public viewing area, any further running would have to be done in the workshop. So recently, following a final check over and the completion of the instrument wiring, the car was ready for its short decent to the workshop below.
The Ensign on its way down to the workshop in the vehicle lift
As the photos illustrate there was a good turnout of the restoration team, who were on hand to help or just watch this big test of their hard work. So, with space cleared in the workshop, connection to the exhaust extraction system in place and around two gallons of petrol added, everything was set up for the big moment. Whilst the team could smell petrol, they weren’t totally convinced it was finding its way via the pump into the carburettor and the engine initially lacked any sign of life. However, a quick check of the still exposed fuel tank and then a look at the workshop manual confirmed that the car’s reserve tank tap was in the off position!
Progress on the Ensign has been quite slow recently, due to the time involved reassembling all the fiddly bits on the car. Everything was photographed when the car was originally stripped down and this pictorial record, plus the extensive workshop manual we acquired have proved invaluable as the rebuild has progressed.
The fitting of things like door seals, lock mechanisms, wiring looms, brake pipes, steering column and engine ancillaries has taken many hours. Even what should have been the fairly straightforward job of refitting the front and rear windscreens was not without its problems. New rubber seals had to be sourced and then cut and the actual fitting process required a bit of expert help from the Museum’s workshop staff.
Fixing the door lock mechanism and inserting the chrome strip in the rubber window surround
However, the most encouraging news on the project for some time has been that the engine, now installed with all its ancillaries, was at last fired up recently for a short period. Just to recap the engine is a 1670cc OHV straight four, which we believe had done around 83,000 miles. The block had a slight crack, which we’ve had professionally repaired and new pistons and rings have been fitted. A new water pump was required and the original radiator was refurbished with a new core. Given that the car currently resides on the first floor of the Collections Centre a further running and testing of the engine won’t be possible until we can move it into the workshop. The fact that it appears to work OK, has been good for morale.
