Martin Squires Automotive Illustration: September 2013

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

VHRA at Pendine Sands

Well ever since Neil from the VHRA (Vintage Hot Rod Association) told me this event was going to happen I'd been eager to attend, even though there was the mighty Trip Out and the Beaulieu Autojumble on the same day Pendine was the place to be. On arrival the car park around the Museum of Speed was teaming with hot rods and american machines all waiting for the tide to retreat and reveal the drag strip for the day.

A quick warm up sketch amongst the cars.

(ink sketch)

Stromberg Special

(ink sketch)

I've seen photos of this special before and had to spend some time with it, it has great attention to detail and it looks right. I don't really know anything about it so if someone else does please let me know, so I can make this bit look a bit more informed.

1930 Morris Cowley Folding Head Coupe

(ink sketch)

Well some purists may not be into this one but I think it's a really great lateral view on the hot rod as seen from a British perspective. The Morris has all british parts and runs a Daimler 2.4 with a 36 Daimler saloon diff. I for one would like to see more of this as it encourages creativity and stops the same thing being done over and over, besides I bet it was a heap of fun to build and drive.

1934 Station Wagon

(ink sketch)

Only been in the country for a few months and mechanically restored this incredible woody looked just the ticket on the beach, very apt for it's first major run out.

'37 Ford Midget Sprint

(ink sketch)

Originally a barn find in the late 90's not much is known about this Midget. One theory is that it was imported along with a bunch of other Midgets to promote the sport over here. It's dated as '37 as the original engine, was a Tin Side v8 Flathead (60hp) which was only produced for 9 months in '37 as a racing engine, hence the tin sides. The car is now run by Niall who drives it everywhere using the power of a Fiat 1.6 twin cam.

Lovely shot by the ever inspirational Stefan Marjoram

A couple of overexposed shots inspired by the Don Montgomery Scrapbooks

Hot Rod Takeover

National Microcar Rally 2013

I've always enjoyed sketching microcars whenever I get the opportunity and this was an opportunity not to miss.. a whole field full of microcars. Run by the National Microcar Rally Committee on behalf of all the Microcar clubs, and takes place over several days, where like minded micro owners meet up and have runs out to various locations during the days leading up to a static display on the final day that is open to the public, and so I went along to sketch these fascinating and unusual cars in the Malvern hills. The most interesting of the cars on display all seemed to belong to the Register of Unusual Microcars, otherwise know as RUMCar.

1956 Rollera Francaise (type r1)

(ink sketch)

Designed by Egon Brutsch the Rollera is one of the smallest microcars ever made, the size up from the worlds smallest microcar the Brutsch Mopetta. Brutsch was apparently a genuine con artist who travelled around convincing people to build his designs and then never paying them. After a few unsuccessful car designs he went on to design segmented houses also made from fibreglass:

(photo found on www.rollermobilclub.ch)

This Rollera is one of only 4 known in existence and was bought via a small ads article in a French motoring paper, with no photo. Upon arriving in Pau in southern France to see the Rollera the current owner found that the seller had bought 4 of these cars in the 70s hoping to make his fortune. After not selling a single car he scrapped 3 of the 4 and kept one to remind him of his mistake.

Scootercar Mk1 vs Trojan 200

(ink sketch)

After seeing the back end of the Scootercar I decided to produce this sketch comparing the back ends of both machines, as I find the back ends are more exciting than the front.

Fuldamobil S4 and Frisky Sport Micro Sketches

(ink sketch)

In order to catch two of my favourite cars of the show before the day was through I decided to go small by dividing an A4 page in 4. This was great fun and I learn a lot from doing these as each sketch took about 15 min tops. Now for the geeky stuff....

The Fuldamobil was produced in the NWF factory in Germany between 1950 and 1959. Several versions of the car were made and the design was also licenced out to various countries including the UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Greece, India, Chile, South Africa and Argentena where a pickup verison was made. The S4 has a neat trick where the seat folds down into a double bed, unfortunately once the bed is down you cannot access the door handles to get out.

The Frisky was made in Wolverhampton between 1958 and 1961. The car was originally conceived by racing driver Captain Raymond Flower. After many attempts to sell the idea Henry Meadows took on the concept and worked on a prototpe called the Bug in 1956 and from there the Frisky was born. This particular model the Frisky Sport runs a Villiers 3T twin 2 stroke. The Frisky Register was set up in 1978 to support owners of the cars.

1956 Berkeley SA322

(ink sketch)

Built by the Caravan manufacturer of the same name and designed by Laurence Bond the Berkeley was a great seller back in the 50s, but the cars were only manufactured for 4 years. The body is fibreglass and the engines were motorcycle engines. This model in particular runs a British Anzani twin 322cc 2 stroke.