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Hi folks.
Having missed a couple of years I plan to attend on the 17th January. I have also told Brian Kendall who plans to come along. Soon the 'old timers' will outnumber the contemporary +4 racers!
Happy Xmas to all you true believers!
Roger Bonsall

Hi Andrew.

I think John McKechnie called his team "Team Cedar" after the name of his garage in Cheltenham - you can just about make this name out in one of the pictures recently posted.

Roger Bonsall.

Hello Andrew. A very good source if information about John MacKechnie would I'm sure be Mike Duncan. After serving his appentceship at the Factory around 1960/62 I think he went to work for John in Cleltenham. I competed against Mike a few times and remember a story about John rallying a 4/4 and as ...

Hi everyone. A couple of years ago I was able answer an enquiry in the ‘Where Are They Now?’ topic about 49AFK, one of the first +4s to receive the ‘LawrenceTune’ treatment and the car used to homologate those modifications in 1961. Because of my close friendship with the three drivers who principal...

Just to more or less complete the story of this car ... Thanks to Guy Loverage's eagle eye applied to Jim Tucker's apparently very comprehensive notes, it would appear almost certain that 818AOA was invoved in a monumental shunt at Siverstone in, Guy thinks, around 1967. It would appear to have been...

So was that one car or three cars that Gerry had in stock ... ?!

Incidentally, I raced against Gerry on quite a few occassions. When he wasn't in front of me he was about to be. Following him was to witness the ultimate in car control.

Roger.

Hi Guy Re 'the Kendall car', do you mean the EX Kendall (and Dence) car 818AOA - presumably in Alan House's hands? When? Do you know if it was serious and therefor probably not worth reparing? Any other info would be very welcome as I've drawn a complete blank after late 1965. Thanks. Roger.

Hi Bruce, Mark and Everyone Bruce, the current owner of 49AFK told me he bought it it from your firm in 1969 with some front end (possibly racing) accident damage, hence the price! Did the car pass through your hands once before - possibly late 66 or early 67 and do you know anything about Griessema...

Richard P was quite right to correct my wild leap of conjecture! I was getting away from following the AOA/MOG1 evidence to trying to trace House and North. In fact the trail of the car runs cold after House won the 1965 'Autosport' Championship in Class B. By the Spring of 1966 he's racing North's ...

Good morning Mark and Andy - everyone else! Anyone can find out if a car got onto the DVLA records when they were computorised in the early 1980s. Just go to the DVLA's vehicle online services and select Vehicle Enquiry. You'll need the make and registration no and, if it got on their records in the...

Hi Andy Adrian Dence's 2nd place in the Freddie Dixon Trophy series and his victory in the Brooklands Memorial Trophy series were both in 1963. I'm not so sure about the Veedol Trophy. Brian Kendall was lying 2nd= in the Freddie Dixon in 1964 when the money ran out! All in 818AOA. I've not investiga...

Happy New Year to all you +4 racers - have a good 2010 season - I hope to pitch up at one or two races. Now some help please! 818AOA! There is now little doubt that Brian Kendall sold 818AOA (in July 1964 after only a year's ownership) to either Roy North or Alan House. The car almost certainly was ...

I was very sad to hear of the death of Joan Meredith and would like to send my sympathy to Mike and the rest of her family. The west-country +4 racers and their wives knew her well and her death severs another link with the great ‘+4 days’ of the 1960s, when she was an ever-present part of the Mered...

Sold! I'll leave you to guess which Morgan racer has bought it. Doubtless you'll see him and his wife on the bike in various paddocks next season.

Roger.

Paddock Poser! Yamaha LB80 ‘Chappy’ – Yamaha’s answer to Honda’s ‘monkey bike and even rarer! Small with fold-down handlebars and will fit easily into a transporter or onto a trailer. Super fun and very useful in the larger paddocks such as Silverstone, Brands or Castle Combe or if you’re down at th...