Notes from the Library February 2023

Over the holidays I have been reading “John Britten” by Tim Hanna, which follows the life of the legendary motorcycle designer whose revolutionary design finally succeeded in defeating the factory jobs and whose career looked destined for true greatness before being cruelly cut short by fatal illness. Saddest to me was to learn how his legacy was squandered by his estate and one can only wonder what might have been had he led the lifespan granted to most of us or that his final wishes were followed.

There was much more to this complex man than just his motorcycles. He was just as flawed as the rest of us. I found it a fascinating read that I would recommend to both motorcycle enthusiasts and anyone interested in the life story of a remarkable Kiwi, well researched by the author, who has included numerous quotes from members of the Britten Team and others. Three more books have arrived in the Library having been intercepted for perusal by our worthy Chairman. Two of these came from Bernie Fairbrass, “On The Road –the car in New Zealand” by Grahame Hawkesmore on this anon-while the other was a massive tome “Great Book of Automobiles”, by a triumvirate of authors, well known UK motoring historian and journalist, Michael Bowler, and 2 Italian collaborators. It has huge dimensions and also 630 pages, so it’s a big mother in all respects. It is lavishly illustrated, a few familiar from other publications but mostly unique.

The third volume was another Jaguar book from late Les Wenlock’s collection. It is simply entitled “Jaguar”, it is by American author John Hellig and naturally gives an American perspective to the decade by decade story of the big cats. The majority of illustrations are left hand drive cars so unlikely to be encountered in other publications. I have actually started reading “On the Road” mentioned above. It started out jarringly with the first photo being of a Vauxhall Vagabond, a uniquely Aussie model, not sold new in NZ, wearing Aussie number plates and clearly still in Australia. There are also errors in fact and in captioning for example where a clearly vintage Buick is labelled as 1916. These irritants aside the book is still worth a look, giving decent coverage to the very early days of New Zealand motoring and the later periods also. There are many very interesting historical photos.

Barry Barnes

Librarian

Wanted

Short articles and/or photos of events attended by VCC members when taking their special Marque vehicles to events other than VCC events.

Les Rzepecky Editor