Author: phildkershaw

The 403 is finished in Bristol`s Cambridge grey which is actually mid green and was allocated to Air Marshall Banks as his personal car, he was the Bristol Aircraft Companies chief test pilot, it was later pictured in the racing department possibly downgraded to team transport.

Bought by its current owner, packed in a collection of boxes and largely disassembled, the body skin had been removed from the frame exposing the super leggera construction of tubes forming the shape of the car.

All the boxes were emptied on to the clean garage floor and sorted, it transpired that all the parts were present and mostly accurately labelled. The mountain of bits turned slowly into a car, the restoration actually took 2 years but it was spread over 5 years as other projects intervened. The car is a real testament to its owner and will be part of our “owner and machine” interviews at our show on 11th August.

While we have a number of Morgans entered, both the three and four wheel variety, The F super, owned by one of our committee members, a 1948 model is one of the last 3 wheelers built, before the model was reintroduced in 2010. It has a 10hp Ford engine which provides plenty of performance in such a light body. The engine is linked by a drive shaft to the 3 Speed gearbox, which sits just behind the seats and drives the rear wheel.

see classicsoversands.org for more details

The 20/25 is the ‘small’ Rolls Royce with a 3669cc engine and ‘crash’ gearbox with the gear lever and hand brake on the right hand side. One or both are guaranteed to slide up the trouser leg when attempting to get into the car. Cruising speed is 50-55mph and the fuel consumption 14 mpg on a good day and 10-12 mpg on a bad day. Rolls-Royce did not build bodies and these were supplied by a variety of specialist coachbuilders to the owner’s specification.

The rather unusual close-coupled body is by Thrupp and Maberley.  Four cars of this design were built of which only one other is believed to survive.  Seven separate actions are required to start the car so the likelihood of it being stolen by the uninformed is small.  Total mileage from new is 149000 miles so it is just about run in.

The current owners Grandfather originally owned the car, but it was sold to a new owner the USA. The current owner tracked it down and brought it back to the UK in in 1976. So come to Classics over Sands on Sunday 11th August and see this and other stunning machinery!

Grange’s very own Classic Cars Show which took place on 13^th August was our best attended show ever, with nearly 300 cars and motor bikes entered and with over 2000 visitors.  Whilst the weather on set up day was awful; we were blessed with decent weather on show day.  

All profits will, as usual, be split amongst our charities and local groups. This year we will be donating a total of £5,500 between our main charities, we will also be donating £500 to the local Scouts for their help with running the show.

Make a note in your diary as our show next year is scheduled for Sunday 11^th August 2024.  A big thank you to all our helpers for their fantastic support we couldn’t put the show “on” without you!