Club Cars
Let me introduce myself to you –
David Halsall; owner of 1932. Wolseley Hornet Special.
APB 670. One of only three survivors with a Hardy
Body. 6-Cylinder, OHC, Twin SU Carburettors, 1271cc.
My father Stuart is a keen vintage car and motorcycle enthusiast
and I cherish many happy childhood memories of riding in
various cars owned by him including an Alvis Silver Eagle, 2 litre
Hi-Chassis Lagonda, 3 litre Red Label Bentley and various
veteran cars including an 1898 Panhard. I developed a passion
for motorcycles at an early age and from the day he taught me to
ride and let me loose in our back garden on a 1932, OHV, 350,
AJS, I was hooked for life. The thrill I experienced that day as the
bike surged ahead will live with me forever. I trained as a
motorcycle technician in South Africa and enjoyed some success
in motorcycle racing before moving back to the UK in 1999. My
love for all things motorcycling remains and I am currently a
Market Area Manager and test rider for BMW Motorcycles.
My father and I have lived on separate continents for the past
thirty years until he recently joined me here in the UK from Cape
Town, bringing his beautiful 1920 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost along
with him. I thought it would be a good thing for us both if I were to
buy a car of my own affording us the opportunity to share a
common interest and to embark on some new adventures
together. With this in mind, I joined the VSCC and attended a
meeting along with my father in Attleborough in Norfolk. It was
there that I was introduced to Dave Phillips the Wolseley Hornet
Special Club Parts Secretary who kindly offered me a ride in his
1934 Eustace Watkins bodied Wolseley Hornet Special. I was so
impressed with this Hornet’s smooth engine and brisk
performance that I asked him where I might find a car like his.
Dave suggested that I join the WHSC and look in the bulletins to
find a car of my own. I am not a patient man by nature so I called
the following day, joined up over the phone and asked if there
were any cars for sale in the newsletter. As luck would have it,
there was an early Hardy bodied 1932 car for sale owned by the
Age Concern charity and the club secretary kindly passed the
number on to me. I called straight away and made an
appointment to view the car that afternoon. When I saw the
bright red Hornet Special, it was love at first sight as she looked
really tidy with just a few minor jobs needed to finish her off
properly. A deal was struck and a week later I collected the car
and it promptly broke down on the return journey resulting in a
rather nerve wracking tow home. As the Wolseley was red and
the Poppies were in bloom at the time, I decided to name the car
‘Poppy’. After much tinkering and adjustments, Poppy would run
but lacked any real performance and the oil consumption was
alarming. I checked all the obvious places for gremlins and
resorted to running her on a rolling road but even with the
assistance of a tuning guru, she eventually limped up to only 21
BHP at the rear
wheels and that’s the
best Poppy could
manage.
“Poppy”
Extremely Rare
Immaculate 1932
Wolseley Hornet
Special
I ran Poppy over
the summer with
mixed
results.
Sometimes
she’d
struggle valiantly on and get me home again and sometimes I
had to be recovered by the truck of shame. Eventually Poppy ran
a main bearing and that was the excuse I needed to take out the
engine and investigate further. I enlisted the services of Andrew
Kirby of K V Engineering in Attleborough in Norfolk who had
been recommended to me as being a ‘more than capable’
vintage car engineer. Andrew stripped the engine and found,
what can only be described as, a chamber of horrors. Poppy’s
engine had been rebuilt very badly some time ago and due to the
atrocious workmanship inflicted upon her in the past, the engine
was virtually a basket case. I made the decision to go ahead and
have it rebuilt completely as Poppy was so pretty and just what I
wanted in a pre-war car. I plan to keep her in the long term and I
wanted a car that I could rely upon to provide many years of
brisk & trouble free motoring. Andrew and I decided that, as the
crankshaft was so badly machined in the past, a new Phoenix
crank should be ordered including six beautiful CNC machined
steel con-rods. With such a good foundation for a strong engine
we then went on to fit new sleeves, pistons, valves, valve seats,
valve guides, cam followers, rocker tubes, gears, sprockets,
cam-chain and a David Newman hi-lift camshaft etc. In fact, we
changed every single moving part and some that didn’t move
too. The head was blue-printed and polished at great expense to
add that extra sparkle of performance.
The engine was
assembled with oversize head studs, modern oil filter (hidden)
and an oil-feed modification along with a new lightened and
balanced flywheel. Andrew did an excellent job of machining and
assembling it all and Poppy started on the button first time (and
has done ever since).
Whilst the engine was being rebuilt and in preparation for the
expected improved performance, we replaced the king-pins,
overhauled the brakes, including the master and slave cylinders,
replaced the wheel bearings and skimmed and powder coated
the wheels and brake drums etc. We replaced the ring gear and
clutch and generally made sure that we wouldn’t leave any
weaknesses in the build that would come back and haunt me
later.
Attractive sports car complemented by daughter Abigail
Whilst all this was going on, my father and I were planning a
trip to the south of France in our two old cars, which in retrospect
was rather ambitious, as we, along with poor long suffering
Andrew were subjected to many hours of toiling under the light of
midnight oil in order to meet the ferry deadline. My dad who was
used to maintaining a seven and a half litre Silver Ghost kept
looking in a mystified way at various Hornet Special components
and couldn’t help passing comments like. ‘Call those pistons? My
valves are bigger than that’ and ‘is that a gearbox? My starter
motor’s twice that size’. Well, his car may be magnificent but
because it’s built like a lorry it can’t compete with the lively little
1271 cc Hornet Special which is far more agile. And anyway, I
can’t afford to run a car that, although very smooth and
comfortable, only returns 11 miles to the gallon!
The Hornet’s rebuild was completed just three days before
we were due to depart for Dover, so after she passed her MOT, I
ran Poppy in that week-end covering over 500 miles in two days.
Then it was off to the dyno guru again for a final tune. I was
delighted to find that Poppy on song produced 60 BHP at 4200
rpm and was as smooth as silk with a beautiful exhaust note to
boot.
Mechanically, both the Rolls Royce and the Wolseley
performed faultlessly in France where we covered nearly 3000
miles in two weeks, although I did suffer from three rather
exciting punctures due to the rim tapes not being fitted properly
after the wheels had been powder coated. At one stage, I caught
my co-pilot eyeing up the Silver Ghost Since to check out its
passenger carrying capacity, I can’t say I blame him as a 60
MPH blow out in a vintage car is a pretty scary experience.
Poppy has since covered a further 3000 plus miles attending
various VSCC meetings and events including the Norfolk and
Lancashire tours and finishing third in the Preston and District
Vintage Car Club driving tests.
Poppy now sports indicators, wiper motor, new hood, leather
upholstery and new carpets, (A & R Pound trimmers in Baldock
did a really neat job in a record three days) and all four wings
and the fuel tank have just been beautifully re-sprayed by Roger
at Walrus in Kimpton (near Luton).
Peter Sprot (green MG TD) introduced me to your club last week
and I enjoyed meeting some of you at your judging competition
held at the White Hart in Great Yeldham. I found you all to be
most welcoming and I hope to be an enthusiastic member of
your club for many years to come.
I also have a 1942 Ford Jeep called Wendy that was restored
th
in the USA last year. Rachelle and I enjoyed driving it to the 70
D Day celebrations in Normandy a few weeks ago but that’s
another story....
David Halsall (new Member)
Hundon, Near Clare, Suffolk