Rare Breeds at Sparkford

Where else would you find a BSA 3 wheeler next to a Hamblin Cadet? Note yank tanks in the background and a Peerless GT

Motormind, aka Peter Tuthill, talked me into going along to this event and I really enjoyed it. It was held at the Haynes Motor Museum on the Sunday after the Great Dorset Steam Fair and attracted the sorts of cars that are so obscure that no club usually exists for them.

There were vintage cars, yank tanks, coachbuilt Ferraris and trialing Bucklers. The weather wasn't brilliant so we strolled around the museum and tried not to let the redness of The Red Room (where every car is red) overwhelm us.

The Red Room at the Haynes Museum reminded me of that Two Ronnies where a library classified all its books by colour instead of the subject. Liskeard library actually did this once and it was a great idea because they knew what colour each title was - apparently this sketch is world famous among Cornish librarians. I'm not so sure classifying cars by colour works as well, though. But most of the cars were sensational and some unique.

The display of speedway bikes, however, was very interesting. I'm not a speedway fan but I really liked the variety of this display.I particularly admired the engines. There is something primeval about- a 500cc single and in this room you could trace the single(!)-mindedness of designers over the decades.

Did this speewday JAWA engine inspire the Buckingham-Jap? Or was it the other way round? Did the designers know about each other? Frankly I doubt it. I don't know which came first. The date of the Buckingham-Jap was something I never asked about. Incidentally, some unattended dogs were roaming the Haynes museum when we visited and the cat litter around these engines - presumably a representation of a cinder track - confused these animals into mistaking the speedway room for a latrine. Consequently, it reeked of dog piss. Could've been worse I suppose...

One bike looked suspiciously like the 4-valve Buckingham-JAP speedway engine I featured on here as Vintage Thing No.62. The pressed steel cover for the cam belt caught my eye but the bottom end was defintely not a JAP. Closer inspection revealed this engine was a Jawa. My limited knowledge about speedway engines and Jawas in particular leads me to suspect that this belt-driven jobby was a conversion, too, as most of the DOHC Jawas I remember from the seventies were chain driven. I'd be interested to know if there is a link.

This is a 1950 Kermond-JAP, built by Vic Kermond at the Peamore Garage, Alphington in Exeter

Among Peter's published books is one on the Cornish motor industry and he's assembled a lot of information on one covering that of Devon. Of particular interest, then, was this Kermond-Jap. I took several pictures of this machine. If they don't look too much like snaps I might yet be a published photographer.

Peter is planning a book on specials from the fifties so was extra keen to go to the Rare Breeds Show. Believe me, that is very keen indeed and I've already put my name down for a copy.

He was rewarded by the presence at Sparkford of not one but two Hamblins and the attendance of Tom Hamblin, son of the founder Sid. There ensued an exchange of info and copies of brochures between Peter and the attendant descendant. This happens all the time with Peter and everyone went away up on the day, having seen something they'd not known existed before. 

Looking ready to scamper off to the Mille Miglia is the Hamblin Cadet of Tom Hamblin. This is the Mk2 version with  integral rear wings and screens

Tom Hamblin had heard of Peter's project and brought with him a Hamblin Cadet (rare) and a Hamblin De Luxe (very rare). More about these cars another time - suffice it say that the De Luxe won the organiser's choice of the show.

A similar conumdrum surrounds the Hamblin Deluxe. Did it inspire the TR3 of vice versa? Apparently, it was a case of parallel development. TR3s are very nice but they don't have the take-me-home-and-play-with-me quality of the Hamblin Deluxe.

I liked the Formula 3 racers and one gentleman remembered from the Wiscombe Park meeting earlier in the year when I'd watched in fascination as they loaded tow of these into the back of Transit. This spectacle was just as good the second time around. Before that, though they had a quick blast around the kart track and they didn't look out of place at all.

These look good, sound good and smell good, too. Forget the Bisto kids going "Ah!", it was more a case of "Castrol R!"

On the way up to Sparkford, Peter expressed concern that the specials and low volume cars might be swamped with custom cars and hot rods but apart from the volume production American cars there were none. I think the weather put them off. I wouldn't have minded them coming along at all, though. They are just another type of special and all part of the broad church that is Engine Punk.

Occasionally, Peter would ask me a motoring trivia question to me. Some I could answer, many I could not.Did you know that a Packard carries no badges? Packard considered themselves above such things and recognisable by grille shape and styling alone. Only on the hubcabs did any name appear.

Look - no grille badge. In fact, no badge at all on the bodywork.

And what's so special about this Bentley?

The SWB saloons don't exactly look "close-coupled". The LWB Turbo is an awful lot of motorcar. When they were introduced I thought they were massive and ugly but in four headlamp form the Bentley Turbo has grown in its appeal, though I'd prefer a manual box (in the unlikely event of me being able to afford one).

It's a Mulsanne Turbo obviously but it's also unique for being a long wheelbase Turbo R. The story goes that management decreed that a demonstrator be built and someone picked the next car down the line to fill that function. They chose an LWB shell and this high performance leviathan was the result.

I wouldn't have given it a second glance without Peter Motormind to point these things out to me.

The Rare Breeds show certainly lived up to its name and, looking forward to next years event, I wonder what other oddities will appear?