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SVW NEWSLET TER
Paul Campbell svw.safety.fast@gmail.com
www.svwregister.co.uk
T
WELCOME TO THE
SVW NEWSLETTER
his month we have a report
on the SVW Event that took
place in Belgium in mid-June.
There were some 20 SVWs
and 52 people from seven
countries in attendance at Trooz. Mike
Dalby’s timely submission relates his own
experience of this very enjoyable event
travelling in Alan Dolman’s VA Saloon.
The 2017 SVW Event is provisionally
planned to take place near Colchester in
the first week of July, organised by Jane
and Robert Crayston.
And now a green theme! Piers
Hubbard sent in some details of MG2016
which took place in Louisville, Kentucky,
and Walter Preschl tells us about his postrestoration sortie in his VA Tourer.
Our Regalia man, Chris Cox, has
been looking at options for garments
(caps, polo shirts, fleeces, etc.) that
our members may wish to purchase
with a newly designed SVW Register
logo. Is this something you would
like? It would be good to hear
your views either way (email above
as always).
SVW EVENT IN BELGIUM
“Would you like to come to Belgium
in the VA?” asked Alan. He explained
that it was a trip organised by the MG
Car Club SVW Register to the Ardennes
region and his wife was unable to travel
great distances in the car. I had been to
Montlhery with him in the car previously
and so after about two seconds the
answer was “Yes please!”
I remembered that the German
offensive in the winter of 1944 had
taken place in the area in which we were
to stay and I hoped that we would be
visiting a museum of the events.
All bookings were made and we left
Devon on Sunday June 13 for the long
drive along the south coast to Dover for
the overnight accommodation. I knew
the first one hundred miles or so past
the “Wall and the five legged Stag” at
Charborough Park, but the scenery from
the navigator’s seat was all new to me
after the picturesque Arundel Castle. We
were due to sail on the 10am boat to
Dunkirk, but the French customs were
checking every passport on the buses and
lorries and so the process was so long
that we missed the 10am and had to
cross the Channel on the 12.00! That of
course made us late to start our journey
to our Chateau Harzé, 15 miles south of
Liège.
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Whilst waiting for the boat other
SVW cars arrived, including a large MG
WA Tickford, plus Tourer versions of
our VA saloon. John and Gail Bannister,
the dedicated tour organisers from the
SVW Register, had provided us all with a
detailed route to our Chateau. The route
was mainly dual carriageway and some
of the cars shot off at 60mph, but we
kept up a steady 50-55mph. Nearing
Brussels the traffic became very heavy
and suddenly we saw all the other cars in
our party stopped at the side of the dual
carriageway. One had its bonnet open
and it transpired that a new condenser
was required, which we were able
to supply! All was well and we again
ventured into the nose-to-tail traffic on
the Brussels ring road.
Our route took us through the
middle of Liège, but using underground
through tunnels – a brilliant method of
traversing a city quickly. It was becoming
quite late and we still had 30 miles to
go, so thinking that we were unlikely be
able to obtain food at the Chateau, we
purchased a pizza at a service station. It
was to be very welcome and, as we had
thought, the restaurant was closed!
Tuesday was a free day but we had to
register for the event at the rally Chateau
Bleu ‘HQ’ at 5pm in Trooz about 12
Restaurant on a pole at
Gileppe! (Paul Campbell)
www.mgcc.co.uk
23/08/2016 17:50
SVW NEWSLET TER
Mike Dalby dines with a mystery guest at Chateau
Bleu (Paul Campbell)
Norbert and Marcella Huyghebaert, owners of
Chateau Bleu, together with John Bannister our
event organiser (Paul Campbell)
View from the restaurant of some of the SVWs on the Gileppe Dam (Paul Campbell)
miles away. However, it was decided
to go there in the morning and meet
the other participants and see the cars.
There were many cars from all over
the Continent, including a very new
‘Woodie’ VA (see March edition – Ed)
that had recently been completed
in Holland and has been featured in
several magazines already. What a
superb job – beautiful! Another car
was a dark blue SA saloon that had
also been recently finished and was as
pristine inside as out! No dirty boots in
there!
As we had a few hours to spare and
the Spa-Francorchamps motor racing
circuit was not far away, that was the
place to visit! The weather was wet but
undeterred we found the way and toured
the circuit. The circuit lap is 4.5 miles
and the fastest lap time is 1 minute 47
seconds set by Sebastian Vettel in 2009!
One does not appreciate on television the
steepness of the gradients until one sees
the circuit for real.
Before the event I had done some
‘homework’ on the Battle of the Bulge
of December 1944 and found that the
German advance had finished at La
Gleize, which just happened to be on our
way back from Spa to Trooz. We stopped
in the village where the VA attracted
much attention, but we didn’t visit the
museum or see the King Tiger tank –
maybe later.
Registering at HQ we obtained the
rally plate for the car and an extra one for
me! The plan was to leave our cars at the
Chateau Bleu and to board a coach for
the trip back to our Chateau so we were
able to partake of the local hospitality!
Returning by the ‘school bus’ the
following morning we received our
detailed route books with the ‘Tulip’
diagrams, helpfully also recorded in miles.
The route book had been compiled by
Norbert Huyghebaert, the owner of the
Chateau Bleu, who also owns an E-Type
Jaguar and an MG T type ‘Q replica’
which sounded very ‘Brooklands’
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG_SafetyFast_Sept16_3-52.indd 39
The countryside in the Ardennes is
steep valleys and densely wooded hills
and very much an agricultural economy
– all very picturesque. Our route took us
on the ‘wigglies’, rather than the dual
carriageways, and guided us through
many villages and up and down steep
hills, but the cars performed admirably, all
arriving at the first photo shoot outside
Chateau Neuville after 17.3 miles.
“Gentlemen, start your engines!” It
was off to the lunch stop and tour of the
Chateau de Modave. Another beautiful
chateau originally built in the Middle
Ages, but rebuilt in the 17th century with
very elaborate interior stucco work, too
ornate for my taste. However our lunch
was good!
A number of cars had minor troubles,
the only major one being a slipping
clutch on a supercharged SA saloon
that had to be taken back to England
on the back of a lorry! But only after
the transport had picked up the wrong
car and had to return it, much to the
SEPTEMBER 2016 SAFETY FAST! 39
23/08/2016 17:50
A quick stop at The Menin Gate at
Ypres on the way home (Paul Campbell)
amusement of the others and the
consternation of the German owner!
The route took us past our chateau
and so we stopped there, only to
find that we had been locked out of
our room even though it had been
cleaned earlier in the day! A joiner was
eventually found who broke the lock
and we were eventually able to change
for the evening’s festivities. There was
all-round amusement to hear of our
exploits. Looking on the bright side we
had, however, missed the Register AGM!
It was again onto the ‘school bus’
after the festivities to our chateau,
to be returned next morning after a
hearty breakfast to re-join our car at the
Chateau Bleu.
Thursday’s tour was to finish at a
scenic restaurant, but first a visit to a
Second World War museum about the
Battle of the Bulge. It was a superb
museum with a mobile device that told
the story of each exhibit. There was
also a film show during the visit.
Off again to drive to the lunch
stop! However, this was the only time
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that the route book let us down and
there were cars going in all directions.
All was duly sorted out when we
realised we had still a further 15 miles
to drive. What a restaurant we found
when we did arrive! It was 150 metres
up in the air and we had to go up the
outside in glass lifts! Very scary, but the
view of the dam from the dining area
was superb despite the rain and the
mist. The scariness tended to wear off
after two glasses of wine!
For some this was the official end of
the tour and they made their farewells.
The rest departed back to their chateaux
and we took a couple who had been in
another car all day, but were staying at
our hotel. Our route took us again past
La Gleize and this time we paused to see
the King Tiger tank – it was huge! It was
obtained for the museum in exchange
for a bottle of brandy! Going round
the museum, it was quite similar to the
other with dioramas depicting various
phases of the battle, all with authentic
military uniforms of both sides. We took
a route from the museum up a steep hill
and with four in the car it performed
admirably and never missed a beat.
That evening we went out for a
farewell meal at a local restaurant
in the village with our new friends,
saying that we would meet up again
next year for the annual SVW event in
Colchester, Essex.
Leaving for the drive back to
Dunkirk at 6.30 the following morning,
the car made good progress until we
were held up after Liège in a 3.5 km
queue following a lorry accident. It
took over an hour to pass, but crawling
along the temperature of the car’s
radiator never climbed at all. We still
made Dunkirk with an hour to spare!
Back home in Devon, we had
covered a total of 1,152 miles in
weather that at times had left
something to be desired as we had
some torrential rain, but the car had
never leaked and had done all that we
had asked of it, at a speed that was in
keeping with the age and time of
the car.
Mike Dalby
www.mgcc.co.uk
23/08/2016 17:50
SVW NEWSLET TER
WEDDING DRIVE IN GERMANY
Walter Preschl in his VA Tourer driving Anke and Thomas
In 2015 for the mid-September weekend I was asked to transport a bride and
groom in my vintage car. Why not, I thought, as the old lady VA764 had just completed
a frame up restoration of seven years a few months earlier. VA764 was bought in 2007
in Reading from the son of the late Dennis Sears.
So on Saturday September 19 I visited the flower shop in the morning and at 2pm I
had to be at the church in our neighbouring village of Willsbach. Shortly afterwards the
ceremony was over and the newly married couple came out.
After a photo session with about 50 guests, they climbed into the car and off we went
to the restaurant where the extended family and many friends enjoyed a champagne
reception. The restaurant was nicely located on top of a hill between vineyards.
On my ride to the flower shop and back we had rainy weather, but before the
ceremony was over and with the ringing of the church bells, the sun came through and
I could open the top. All the way to the restaurant the couple, Anke and Thomas, were
competing with the sun with their smiles.
Walter Preschl
CHAIRMAN’S
NOTES
The Register held its AGM in the
Ardennes, Belgium this year - we
always try to hold the AGM at
our annual event as that way we
get a goodly number of members
attending.
Keith and Ann Bush, Jeff
Gibson and David Smyth all left the
committee and I want to record our
great thanks for their enormous
contribution in recent years. John
Bannister and John Bates have both
rejoined and I look forward to their
company over the coming months.
The new committee structure is
shown on our website.
John Bannister also organized
the annual event in the Ardennes,
about which you can read here - he
did a great job, despite the weather.
My especial thanks to Paul for
putting this newsletter together
- Paul has taken over as full-time
scribe for the Register following
Anne Bush’s departure.
John Dutton
MG2016 –
KENTUCKY
MG2016 is the five-yearly gathering
of MGs in North America when the
Registers come together. The SVW cars
come under the banner of MMM. It was
held at Louisville, Kentucky, this time; a
big gathering as there were 100 tables
of 10 or 11 each at the farewell dinner.
This car was the only SVW in attendance
at the Show. There were outings to the
Corvette factory, a Bourbon Distillery
and continuous tech sessions prior to
this. It was hot on the show ground; I
gave up counting MGAs when I melted
at 95⁰F. Both Peter Cook and Brian
Woodhams from MGCC Overseas were
in attendance, so there may well be
further details of this event published.
Piers Hubbard
www.mgcc.co.uk
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