Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 3)

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, due to take place in November has now been postponed, due to continued uncertainty over the Covid-19 situation.

Whilst the club had decided not to attend this year, it may be that individual members had decided to do so. There is no date yet specified to which the show has been postponed, but the organisers have offered this advice:

For those who have never seen the Austin publicity film about the trip by the intrepid Alan Hess and his team in which they took an A40 Sports around the world in just 21 days there is an opportunity to do so on Monday 21st September here in the UK, and in parts of Europe via satellite. The film has been available on DVD for some time, but as far as I’m aware this is the first time it’s been shown on free to air TV.

The film is to be shown at 6.30 pm on Talking Pictures TV, which can be found on Freeview channel 81, Sky channel 328, Freesat channel 306 and Virgin TV channel 445.

Talking Pictures typically show films more than once over a period of time, so if you do miss it it’s very possible it will be shown again at some point in the future.

Update – The car was sold for £4,200 + buyers premium and other costs. Sounds like a bargain!

Club PR representative Alastair While spotted this nice A70 Hampshire up for sale in a forthcoming ‘timed online auction’ (similar to an eBay approach) at Brightwells in Leominster on 21st September with bids staring at 10am.

This car is being sold from a deceased estate, and was last on the road 18 months ago. The auction estimate seems pretty reasonable, at only £4,000 to £6,000.

At one time, some years ago it shows as having belonged to a club member. There are quite a few photos on the website, and the car looks to be in very good condition – little, if anything, it appears, would be needed to make it a regular driver.

These cars come up for sale very rarely – so if you’re looking for a Hampshire, this could be a good one to go for – but be quick – it’ll be gone next Monday!

The green A90 Convertible which belonged Former club A90 Atlantic Rep., the late Vernon Cox, is to be auctioned later this month at Ascot Racecourse by Historics Auctioneers.

The car underwent a full restoration quite a few years ago and was a regular sight at ‘Counties’ events for a long time before being laid up. It has been part recommissioned for the purposes of the auction, but will require some further recommissioning before road use.

You can see the details here . It would be great to see this well-known iconic car purchased by a club member if at all possible.

The Austin A70 Hampshire previously owned and restored by Colin Peck, which won car of the show at the NEC Classic Car Show some years ago, and has been in a collection for the past few years is coming up for auction – see the link here

It would be great to see this rare car returned to the ownership of a club member!

The club’s bank has stated that it will only accept cheques made payable to ‘Austin Counties Car Club Ltd.’

An amended spares order form has been uploaded to our spares page to reflect this.

Hopefully by now, members will have received the May/June issue of ‘County Counsel’ and in most cases will have received either a membership card, or a renewal notice.

With the impact of the global pandemic, we’ve allowed quite a lengthy grace period, but if you are amongst the latter group (with a reminder), and haven’t already done so, or advised Membership Secretary Mike Greasby of your intention to do so, then can you please address this quickly, as otherwise you will not receive the next magazine, and will lose access to other club benefits, such as the spares service. We do value your membership and would like to keep as many of our loyal members as possible.

You can download a renewal form on our membership page – and you can even complete this on a PC in the PDF version if you download the latest free Adobe Reader and use the ‘fill and sign’ feature within it. You can return it to Mike via membership@austincounties.org.uk.

If you have previously provided the club with a valid, current email address, you should by now be receiving ‘County Counsel’ by email, as well as through the post. If you’re not receiving the magazine by email, and would like to, please let me know and I can update the list of recipients.

Pete Simmonds

During the last couple of months Ray and I have had many enquiries and have been able to fulfil most of them. It has been good to talk to members, many of whom are busy with restorations or just servicing their cars. During these conversations or email exchanges we come across interesting discrepancies. The most recent is dealing with two overseas members who both have GS3 Devons but with a GS2 engine fitted.

As the restrictions ease Ray will be able to make infrequent trips to the club stores to obtain parts and will continue to avoid the Post Office. We have decided that we will have a ‘Spares Despatch Day’ each week. Orders will need to be received by Tuesday evening for packing Wednesday and despatch Thursday. Ray will continue to use various courier services for the delivery of parts which may incur an additional carriage charge. I will continue servicing any requests from the parts I have in my stores in Kent.

As the country continues to recover from the crisis we expect that some parts may be difficult to source particularly the New Old Stock (NOS) parts. These are either purchased from autojumbles, dealers or the general public which is impossible at the moment. Water pumps are still a problem. We have few to recondition and are having problems with our suppliers. We will continue with our efforts to resolve this. If you have any old pumps please let us have them.

My final comments refer to cheques. We are no longer able to accept cheques as we cannot bank them. The bank we use does not accept scanned cheques so they need to be paid in at the counter which Ray is unable to do. We have the facility to do a bank transfer and the details will be on subsequent invoices. We can also accept most credit and debit cards.

Ray and I would like to thank members for their support and understanding at this time and the cheery phone calls.

Graham Potts and Ray Dawes

After quite a few years of the previous version, I’ve finally found the time to update the site. Improvements include:

• Better compatibility with tablet and mobile phone displays
• A cleaner full screen width look to the site
• Nicer graphics and images – hopefully members will like these

If any member has comments or suggestions about the website please email editor@austincounties.org.uk .

Due to the latest very necessary restrictions placed on the population due to the Covid 19 virus, the club has been left with no choice other than to suspend the spares service for the time being. This is because Ray can no longer visit the spares store to fulfil orders for members , as it is not classed as a necessary journey.

Club Magazine

Following the successful publication of the March/April magazine, and its secondary distribution via email, we are continuing with creating the May/June issue, which, all being well, will be distributed once again via both means.

I’ve managed to find a better means of bulk email distribution, rather than the slightly clunky MS Outlook means currently being employed. Next time you should see an email from ‘ACCC Editor’, which offers the option of downloading the magazine. I’ll send out a covering email via the previous Outlook method beforehand, just to confirm that I’m about to make this switch.