Vauxhall buff Alisdaire completes drive of his dreams - thesouthernreporter.co.uk
IT took Selkirk veteran car enthusiast Alisdaire Lockhart 22 years of painstaking work to recreate the famous Prince Henry Vauxhall, writes Andrew Keddie.
But all that toil and attention to meticulous detail paid off in spades last week when Alisdaire fulfilled a lifelong ambition by driving his remarkable vehicle on a 620-mile journey through rural Sweden.
In so doing, he emulated the feat of Vauxhall’s legendary founding managing director Percy Kidner and celebrated in style the centenary of the model’s participation in the inaugural Great Swedish Winter Reliability Trial of 1912.
Back in April, we told the story of Alisdaire, who lives in the town’s Ettrick Terrace, as he prepared for his date with destiny.
Only 60 21-horsepower, three-litre Prince Henry models – widely acknowledged as the first British sports cars to exceed 100mph – were ever manufactured by Vauxhall and only a handful exist today.
In 1988, Alisdaire, at that time resident in Bedfordshire and a passionate afficionado of the famous UK motoring marque, set his sights of following in the tyre tracks of Kidner 100 years on.
Using original parts specially transported from Australia, he began the re-creation of the famous model, finally completing the task in Selkirk, where he relocated five years ago. And his dream of taking part in the commemorative centenary reliability trial in Sweden, organised by the Kungliga Automobil Klubb (KAK), has finally come true.
Having travelled with his prized vehicle on the ferry from Harwich, Alisdaire lined up for the first day of the trial at the Tjoloholm Rally, south of Gottenburg, on Sunday, May 20.
He told us: “The following morning, we drove along the southern route of the original event, through Jonkoping and Linkoping, arriving in Stockholm on the Tuesday for a reception at the KAK headquaters where the car was photographed with the original trophies for the event. Thereafter, the car was driven back to Gotheburg by the northern route for the return to the UK on Saturday, May 27.
“On the commemorative run, I was accompanied by Kay Mordza of the Svenska Vauxhall Register, who was a great help with all the arrangements in Sweden, and my co-driver Andrew Duerden of the Vauxhall Heritage Centre in Luton.
“In total, we covered 620 miles in 22 hours of driving time spread over four days. With the open roads and low volume of traffic in Sweden, it was easy to cruise at 55-60mph without any mechanical trouble, with fuel consumption of around 30 miles per gallon.
“To my immense pride and pleasure, my Prince Henry, now safely back in its garage in Selkirk, proved a nimble little runner and was great fun to drive with easy gear changes and a lively performance.
“It must have been very impressive in its heyday of just over 100 years ago.”
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Print this pageLondon's ugliest buildings: our readers' choice - Daily Telegraph
The Queen Elizabeth conference centre offends my eyes and the Shell building on the South Bank is equally brutal.
Martin Bartlett, by email
I know most of the buildings featured: it appears that you have chosen the some of the largest projects in recent history? In terms of the Blue Fin, you should go and have a look at what used to be there. And UCL Hospital? Surely Guys Hospital should be there instead?
Martin Garthwaite, by email
The One New Change shopping centre in the City would be my choice for inclusion in London’s ugliest buildings. Not for nothing is it referred to as “the turd”.
Bob Thompson, by email
Most modern buildings are just meaningless, incongruous, dysfunctional shapes, which date with amazing rapidity. If it’s not going to look good still in 500 years; don’t build it.
John Armstrong, by email
The Shard without a doubt is one of the ugliest buildings in London. The first view I had of this monstrosity was crossing the Thames when coming from Gatwick Airport. To me it looked like a giant prophylactic.
Why do all these buildings have to stick out like a sore thumb? Isn't it about time there were height restrictions? There should also be rules about modern "architecture" (if that is what they want to call it) complementing the surroundings in which they are being built.
S Cook, by email
I would add Portcullis House. Dark brown is seldom a good colour for a building and this is no exception.
Robert Cook, by email
London 2012: injury concerns prevent BOA finalising Olympic eights - The Guardian
Injury concerns over Constantine Louloudis have prevented the British Olympic Association from finalising the men's eight crew for London 2012.
There are also question marks over the final makeup of the women's eight, with 10 athletes named by the BOA at the official announcement in the shadow of Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
Louloudis, 20, was selected as stroke of the eight at the start of the season but was then forced to withdraw from the Belgrade and Lucerne World Cup events with a back injury.
The BOA has named only seven rowers and the cox Phelan Hill, who survived a challenge to his selection from the 2000 Olympic champion Rowley Douglas.
Selection for the women's eight was complicated by a combination of injury and illness, which led to Louisa Reeve, Annabel Vernon and Natasha Page all returning to the boat in Lucerne.
Vicky Thornley, who raced in the quad at the last World Cup regatta, and Lindsey Maguire, who was injured, are also in the mix and battling for the final selection. The two athletes who miss out will be selected as reserves.
The BOA said the final selections would be confirmed "in due course" and take the full squad to 52 athletes, the largest Britain have ever fielded at an Olympic Games.
Despite the uncertainty over the eights, Britain were able to name a powerful squad that featured five of the six Olympic champions from Beijing.
Britain were the leading rowing nation in China and they were still on top of the world at the world championships in Bled last year.
Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Tom James are joined by Alex Gregory to defend their Olympic title in the men's four. Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase will do the same in the lightweight men's double scull. Greg Searle, a gold medallist at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, will compete at his fourth Games at the age of 40 after being confirmed in the men's eight.
Britain are aiming for their first women's Olympic gold medal, with the three-time silver medallist Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins the leading hope in the double. The women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning also have gold medal ambitions.
Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton, silver medallists alongside Grainger in 2008, are joined in the quad by Beth Rodford and Melanie Wilson. The women's lightweight double is comprised of Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking.
The lightweight men's four features the brothers Richard and Peter Chambers, plus Chris Bartley and Rob Williams. The men's quad is made up of Charles Cousins, Stephen Rowbotham, Tom Solesbury and Matthew Wells. The men's pair will be George Nash, who has taken a year out from his studies at Cambridge, and Will Satch. Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend compete in the men's double with Alan Campbell going it alone in the single.
New Opel/Vauxhall Astra saloon revealed - AUTOCAR.co.uk
Opel/Vauxhall has revealed this new Astra saloon – but the four-door is not destined for sale in the UK. The Opel Astra saloon will instead be sold in select western European markets, including Germany and Spain, where 'notchbacks' are popular, as well as Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey.
The Astra saloon is offered with four petrol and three diesel engines. The most powerful engine is a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol unit with 177bhp. The most frugal is a 94bhp 1.3-litre oil-burner with CO2 emissions of 99g/km and 76.3mpg.
Opel has also confirmed its new family of turbocharged four-cylinder 1.6-litre petrol engines will be launched in the new Astra four-door from early 2013.
The Astra saloon, sister car to the Buick Verano, is 4658mm long, 1814mm wide and 1476mm high. That makes it 239mm longer than a standard Astra five-door. The four and five-door models share the same 2685mm wheelbase, but the extra length allows for an increase of 90 litres in boot capacity. The 460-litre volume can be increased to 1010 litres by folding the 60:40 split rear bench flat.
Visually, the Astra four-door is identical to the five-door from the rear doors forward. The rear screen has a sharp rake to better integrate the boot. There’s also an integrated rear spoiler and an ‘inner wing’ shape for the rear lamps, an Opel hallmark.
The new model is set to make its public debut at the Moscow motor show in August.
London 2012 Olympics: David Millar faces battle to earn place with Team GB - Daily Telegraph
Millar, presently competing at the Critérium du Dauphiné, has endured an injury-disrupted season after breaking his collarbone and a bone in his hand racing in Belgium at the end of March.
Although his track record with GB is excellent and Cavendish has always insisted he wanted Millar in the team regardless of any BOA selection issues, the Scot badly needs to offer compelling evidence of fitness and form before being given the nod because GB have several viable options. With time running out, that effectively leaves Millar with a four-day race in Holland from June 9-17 and the first week of the Tour de France during which to impress.
Much the same goes for Steve Cummings - a powerhouse domestique and a key man at the World Championships last year - who is also returning from injury and Ben Swift, whose switch from the track programme to the road six weeks ago has been hampered by a shoulder injury after he crashed in training with Team Sky ahead of the Giro d’Italia.
Swift is embarking on a busy road programme with Sky and, although he might not feature in their Tour de France plans, the world scratch-race champion could force his way into the squad. If anything happened to Cavendish during the road race at the Games - a crash, mechanical or problems on the Box Hill climbs - he represents a potential Plan B with his climbing ability and sharp turn of speed The GB long list of eight will include obvious starting selections such as Cavendish and Wiggins as well as Chris Froome, back to health, and Ian Stannard, a stalwart worker for Cavendish at the recent Giro and in the form of his life. When naming the final five, Brailsford and the GB road coach Rod Ellingworth have strong candidates to fill the Millar role should he not regain his best form.
The veteran Jeremy Hunt, a lead-out specialist that Cavendish rates highly, could come into the equation, although the feeling is that if the Olympic race finishes in a sprint it will be contested by a relatively small bunch. The need for a pure lead-out man might not be paramount.
Just getting Cavendish to the final one-kilometre is the priority. He has proved many times, not least this season, that he can take it on from there alone if necessary.
Meanwhile, the competition for places in the women’s team is so strong that again British Cycling and the BOA will announce a squad of six squad rather than the four-rider team they must confirm on July 6. Lizzie Armitstead has been the stand-out rider all season, while reigning Olympic champion Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley, a silver medal winner in the time-trial at Beijing, have been less consistent although Pooley did claim a fine win, her first of the season, at the Emakumeen Saria race in Spain on Tuesday. Sharon Laws, Katie Colclough and Lucy Martin are also well in contention.
As with the men, the time-trial entrant - probably Pooley - has to come from the final four. The National Championship later this month could be the most important race in the selection process.
On an Olympic course that could suit both the sprinters and breakaways, the decision on whether Armitstead or Cook is the protected rider could be delayed until the day of the race. Armitstead’s form puts her in a strong position.
On the track, the only real issue likely to occupy the selection panel is whether the sole place in the individual sprint should go to reigning champion Sir Chris Hoy or to Jason Kenny, who has placed higher than Hoy at the past two World Championships, taking gold and silver. The selectors might again tarry - their only requirement before the Games is to name the men’s team sprint squad - though the memory of Hoy decimating the world’s best sprinters at the World Cup meeting at the London Velodrome could well hold sway.
World’s fastest street legal car smashes speed record at 250mph…. but it’s a Vauxhall Vectra that cost £60 - Daily Mail
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The British maker of the world’s fastest street legal car has smashed a world speed record covering a quarter of a mile in just over six seconds.
Andy Frost’s vehicle can clock an incredible 250mph and will take the driver from 0-60 in under ONE second.
He bought the red Vauxhall Victor for just 60 in 1980 and has gone on to transform it into the world’s speediest street legal car - complete with MOT to prove it.
Andy Frost with his pride and joy, a suped up Vauxhall Victor, bought in 1980 for just 60
On Saturday Frost took the current record from an American completing a quarter of a mile in 6.59 seconds at a speed of 220mph at the finish line.
Frost, from Wolverhampton, said: 'It has been an on going 29-year project, but it is never going to be complete - I’m always trying to improve it.
'I’ve spent almost 4,000 a year on this car since I bought it second hand. I have slowly improved it bit by bit in my spare time.
'It is a bit like Triggers broom in Only Fools and Horses - I’ve changed so many parts that it has has evolved into a super car from just a bog standard Vauxhall with nothing done to it.
On Saturday it became the world's speediest street legal car, completing a quarter of a mile in 6.59 seconds at a speed of 220mph at the finish line
'It is hardly recognisable from the the car I first bought. I have sacrificed having a holiday each year to spend the money on the car instead.
'I don’t ever go to the pub or spend money on other trivial things like that - I just plough it all back into improving the car.
'It has been a life long dream to be able to say I own the world’s fastest street legal car. it makes all the hard work worthwhile, but I won’t stop tinkering with it even now.'
The car's engine is a powerful V8 engine combined with two turbos lifted from a large digger to help it reach its top speed
The 50-year-old, who runs Penn Autos in Wolverhampton, has devoted over 1,600 hours to painstakingly crafting the sports car in his garage.
It weighs a hefty 1,200kg due to the modifications, and is estimated to have cost Andy over 100,000 in total.
When on the drag strip it can zoom from 0-220mph in 6.5 seconds, and comes complete with a parachute to help slow it down.
Under the bonnet a powerful V8 engine combined with two turbos lifted from a large digger give it enough boost to reach its top speed in a matter of seconds.
Andy Frost has spent more than 20 years and 100,000 to make his car a record-breaker
Despite the car being geared to racing, he still uses the car as a run around every so often.
'It is just like a normal car when you drive it on the roads - it handles easily around the corners and isn’t tricky to drive like many people think.But on the track it goes like a rocket.
'I used to take my three lads to school in it. They loved it obviously as they were the envy of all their friends. Everyone would stop and stare as we roared up in it.
The car comes with its own tongue-in-cheek speed guide
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