2 replies to this topic

[lakesrally]

Hi, I’m new to this forum so the first thing I am asking is probably common knowledge.  Are the Autosport archives available on-line?

 

I am researching Rover 14hp Special WJ 7040 built for hill climbs and trials just prior to WW2 by Alan Eadon.  There was an article written by the man himself in Autocar, May 1945.  I know it was subsequently owned and campaigned by Bruce Spollen, ex leading light in the VSCC.  The last information I have is that it appears to have been in the Wolverhampton area in June 1948, possibly owned by someone called Jim Draper.  I would be most grateful for any information from magazine reports of trials and hill climbs of the period or indeed any other information on the car.

 

 

[bradbury west]

Welcome to this Forum, I am sure you will find you are leaning on an open door. It may be useful if you give us some idea of the research you have done thus far, to avoid duplication or stating the proverbial obvious. Presumably you have spoken to the Spollon family and the VSCC. A letter to them for their Bulletin may prove productive.
Roger Lund

[lakesrally]

Hi Roger, the photo above came from Bruce's son Guy, unfortunately Bruce is no longer with us but before he passed away Guy was able to tell me that the car was a cream colour and that Bruce could not remember who he sold it to.  I have a postcard, purchased on eBay, showing the car in 1948, which is where I deduced that the car may have been owned by someone called Jim Draper, though it is a case of putting 2 & 2 together and possibly coming up with 5, see below.  The original article was published in the May 1945 edition of Autocar as part of a series called "Talking of Sports Cars".  Alan Eadon was selling it through a classified advert in Autocar in October 1945, presumably this is when Bruce bought it.  The VSCC bulletin did an article on Bruce and his cars in the Summer 2010 edition, I have copies of all these publications.  I also have copies of some of Alan Eadon's original drawings, though close inspection shows that  they may have been drawings of a subsequent 4-cylinder project.

 

 

 

Stewart Devlin