In 1924 RAC ran a Small Car Trial, for four wheel machines under 1,600 cc, cyclecars were excluded. This was based in Llandindrod Wells. Whilst competitive, this was meant to show how production cars entered by individual makers could perform over six days. There were certainly no specials or private owners. Repairs were to be carried out by the drivers, the Gwynne team however had calculated that the number of penalties earned by having a car full of spares would be easily outweighed by time saved, a gamble that was most successful.
There are two reasons for mentioning this. One is to seek further information about the sole Austin entry driven by Gunnar Poppe. With a couple of years competition activity, the Seven was already making a name for itself. Yet Poppe had much trouble, and retired on the Thursday of the trial. The car had to be a factory entry, but do we know if he had little support, or why the Seven underperformed. What have Seven historians unearthed?
The other reason is to find out if anyone might be interested in a Centenary Celebration in April next year. The Southerly loop from Llandod was via Llandovery and Sennau Hill, and the Northerly loop across the challenging heights of Bwlch y Groes. Road surfaces are greatly improved, sadly the bigger “watersplashes” such as Beulah now have bridges. The hills are as character forming as ever.
A couple of us intend to have two days of fun, or would that be hard work, in April, but if there is further interest this can become more formal with a correct roadbook and lots of historic notes. Please contact via PM or email; stevekaytwo@btinternet.com
Actually there is a third question. Amongst Austin Harris’s magnificent LAT archive is this image, captioned in the report in Autocar as Gunnar Poppe at Penybont. Sitting at my desk with OS maps, google map on the screen and copies of Pevsner to try to identify the church, I cannot find the spot. Poppe is driving South, but does anyone recognise it? If it was not so wet I might suggest that Howard puts on his deerstalker and whizzes out immediately.
Now what has happened to the picture? Gosh, damn, bother and similar words.
There are two reasons for mentioning this. One is to seek further information about the sole Austin entry driven by Gunnar Poppe. With a couple of years competition activity, the Seven was already making a name for itself. Yet Poppe had much trouble, and retired on the Thursday of the trial. The car had to be a factory entry, but do we know if he had little support, or why the Seven underperformed. What have Seven historians unearthed?
The other reason is to find out if anyone might be interested in a Centenary Celebration in April next year. The Southerly loop from Llandod was via Llandovery and Sennau Hill, and the Northerly loop across the challenging heights of Bwlch y Groes. Road surfaces are greatly improved, sadly the bigger “watersplashes” such as Beulah now have bridges. The hills are as character forming as ever.
A couple of us intend to have two days of fun, or would that be hard work, in April, but if there is further interest this can become more formal with a correct roadbook and lots of historic notes. Please contact via PM or email; stevekaytwo@btinternet.com
Actually there is a third question. Amongst Austin Harris’s magnificent LAT archive is this image, captioned in the report in Autocar as Gunnar Poppe at Penybont. Sitting at my desk with OS maps, google map on the screen and copies of Pevsner to try to identify the church, I cannot find the spot. Poppe is driving South, but does anyone recognise it? If it was not so wet I might suggest that Howard puts on his deerstalker and whizzes out immediately.
Now what has happened to the picture? Gosh, damn, bother and similar words.