One of the recent articles sheds interesting light on some rum going ons in Dalmatia...to whit=
Where one elucidates one of the great mysteries of the past....
FIA rules first binding only in the French version.
Which caused serious problems when the English assumed the dimensions stated in the rules were in inches, not centimeters....
The resulting confusion as the Threpplewhyte Special (n.45 in this daguerrotype) driven by the Honorable Cedric Bayswatter-Phiffe turned up for the 18th Coppa Dalmatia (Kup Dalmacije), run in Bosnia-Herzegovinas only tar-macadamed roads between Bibinje, Zemunik Donji and Skabmja can only be described as a klastera zajebavati.
( And was indeed in the local press, who said amongst other things: Prisutnost britanskih Racing Team, prouzročio je mnogo veselja zbog svoje idiotske čitanjapravila, čime je mučko Albion osujećeni , but we digress..)
The gentleman with his back to the camera and the trendy haircut is the chief designer of Thepplewhyte Horseless Carriage Manufacturers and Fettlers, Stan Still MMEng.PPTe, BSc, here holding his head in despair as the enormity of the mistake (and car) sunk in, contemplating doing the right thing and honourably quitting this mortal coil, as he surely would get the cut direct when returning to The Sceptred Isle. ( Car n.8, incidentally, was the locally built Hrom puž, driven by Captain Bakir Izetbegović of the Fifth Bosnian Light Bicycle Brigade, who sportingly did not protest the disparity in cubic capacity, although he did warn The Honorable Cedric that the use of both their trouser belts on The Honorable Cedric's Thepplewhyte's bonnet was hardly cricket, plus entailing the risk of losing their trews, but as all the British contingent surrounding the car did not have moustaches, he, as the only Bosnian not to have one, would not demand a handicap in the spirit of comradeship (Said moustache having been ripped off in an unpleasant incident as a student, when duelling at Universität Heidelberg, but as not germane to this tale we will elide the details.)).
The rules on belts and straps have been unclear ever since, and played no small part in louche stories about Mr. Mosley in future years.
Further embarrassment was providentially avoided the following day, as the Great Banja Luka Earthquake of 1938 (Бањалука velikog potresa 1938) destroyed the road between Zemunik Donji and Skabmja, so the competition was transformed into The First Drinking Coppa Dalmatia (Prvo piće Kup Dalmacije ), consisting in drinking the cups 4.5 liter capacity filled with Rakije in one gulp.
This played right into British hands, as, in the usual ingenuous 'perfidious Albion' way, the teams' timekeeper, Seymour Legg, insisted the British, as guests, should avail themselves of the loophole, and take as a given that the afore stated cubic capacity would be in the time-honoured Imperial British pub pints ( 1 pt (Liq) = 0.473176 L) for them, allowing the team members to be the only survivors of the contest, although the singing of Jerusalem by the inebriated crew post victory would not have fared very well at the European Song Contest had it existed then (These were more cerebral and less philistine times)...but one digresses.... For this Seymour Legg was knighted in the 1939 Christmas Honours List. (The perspicacious spotting of a loophole, not the singing.)
No such pleasant destiny for the unfortunate Stan Still, as he was mauled by a bear he mistakenly took to be a game trophy at the inn where the Prvo piće Kup Dalmacije prize giving was held, and sadly found himself dead when checking out.
No sensible explanation for the presence of a member of the Ursidae family at the inn was given. ( There is some controversy wether it was a Ursus rossicus or an Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca, although one would be very surprised to find an Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca in the region, it being native to the Urals.)
Notable historians are still undecided if this incident eventually led to the break-up of the British Empire in the unpleasantness that followed, as the Herzegovinian ambassador, a great friend of certain German politicians (sporting moustaches), secretly informed the 3rd Reich that he would release the aggrieved Fifth Bosnian Light Bicycle Brigade to aid and abet any military action envisaged by them, with the results we now know, and the further development of the Axis of Speed (Audi-Porsche-Mercedes-BMW), leading to the utter destruction of the once proud British motor manufacturing industry. (One will not go into mentioning debacles like the Allegro or the Maxi, as there might be Ladies and Horses present.)
Unattributed sources suggest that the Hrom puž (Chassi n.1/2) was subsequently used as the basis for the unraced 1942 Pappamobile Speziale, seen in all its Pontifical splendor at this years Goodwood Reunion. No trace has been found of the Threpplewhyte Special, last seen departing Cuernavaca in the Carrera Panamericana of 1947 with the Brothers Bracegirdle at the helm, disappearing during the race between Cuernavaca and Ciudad Juarez. Bears are not thought to be involved as not native to the region. Perhaps Axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum)?
Hoping this will enlighten you, faithfull readers of the Horseless Carriage Digest
One remains, pedal to the bulkhead
Sir Julius Fflang Tilly, RAC, BRDC and AA
) but I see it is up against some very stiff competition from excellent books such as David Cross' Racing Car Transporters at Work 
