Wolseley Hornet Special Club of Australia Inc

Hornet Special Newsletter

Issue 40March 2010

RACV Showcase FlemingtonBob Nichol’s ‘34 Hornet Special, Jeremy Williams’ ‘34 Hornet Saloon, Bob Anderson’s ‘34 Nine Saloon and ‘33 Hornet Coupe, and Bill Russell’s ‘34 EW Special. Also there, was Richard Sneddon’s Sanction 51 Hornet Sports.

Wolseley Hornet Special Club (UK) 60 years logo

Page 2 Hornet Special Newsletter

The Wolseley Hornet Special Club Jubilee

The Wolseley Hornet Special Club is 60 years old this year. Founded in 1950, it now has some 280 members throughout the world. Whilst the UK is home to most, we have 33 members in Europe, 22 in Australia and 8 in the USA: there are others in a further 6 countries.

The Club believes there are some 200 Hornet Specials on the road, around three quarters in regular use. The cars compete in sprints, hillclimbs, race meetings, rallies and trials throughout the year with regular success.

The Annual General Meeting and Concours d’Elegance is at Heythrop Park Hotel, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire on Sunday 6 June 2010

Club President Dick Serjeantson said ‘It is my dearest wish to see a record attendance at our big day in June, and a large gathering of current members, plus friends old and new. We now have more members than ever before.’

201080th Anniversary of the Wolseley Hornet

60th Anniversary of the Wolseley Hornet Special Club

Paging Glen Logan - Member No. 62/529 !As part of the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the WHSC, UK Hornet President Dick Serjeantson has established that the first Australian member of the Club was Glen Logan, in 1962. Glen Logan is a person we would like to find. Con’t Page 6

Issue 40 Page 3

In a previous article I have described the arrival of the 1934 Hornets in Melbourne. In this article, I will turn to the arrival of these cars in Sydney.

In Melbourne, the first announcement of the 1934 line up was in the issue of Table Talk for January 18, 1934, with Kellows advertisements appearing for the line-up from April 12, 1934.

In Sydney, the announcement of the 1934 models came in the Sydney Morning Herald of 9 February 1934, which reported that the 1934 Hornet was “a well-proportioned and attractive car, whose upholstery and fittings seem to be of excellent quality. The interior of the body can be quickly converted for camping and the spare wheel is carried in an enclosed and locked recess in the rear panel, the door folding down to form a sturdy luggage platform”. The reference to the car being easily converted for camping relates to the fact that the front bench seat was connected to the squab by chains, which could be inserted in different slots to alter the rakes of the seat, or disconnected to allow the seat to lie back completely for camping purposes.

The Sydney article also contained the first announce-ment of the Hornet Special, reporting that “two styles of Hornet chassis are available, a standard and a Special which has certain extra equipment for high speed work. Both chassis have the same wheelbase, 7 foot 11 inches and a track of 3 foot 9 inches. The standard salon weighs 19 cwt and the Special chassis 11 and a half cwt. The engines are similar but the Special is equipped with dual

Bill Russell continues our ongoing tribute to the fine 1934 models, with:

When the 1934 Hornets first came to Sydneycarburetors and exhaust pipes, dual valve springs, large brake drums and various minor refinements”.

This report appears to have been published before the cars were available, as it states that the distributors advise that price has yet to be determined.

The distributors in question were Dalgety’s, of 236 Phillip St, Sydney, and their first display ad for the 1934 Hornet was published in the Sydney Morning Herald of Friday 27 March 1934, priced at 275 pounds. This was quite a bargain – later in the year Dalgety’s were advertis-ing both the saloon and the special for the 375 pounds!

In Sydney, the Royal Easter Show was held around 27 March 1934, and Dalgety’s probably displayed the Wolseley range there. They also displayed at that show new Wolseley sheep shearing equipment based on new ball bearing overhead gear, as well as Wolseley stationery en-gines. Although by now Wolseley Motors (1927) Ltd – the car company - and the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company were quite separate entities, Dalgety’s were the Sydney agents for both. At the Royal Show, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that small British sports cars were prominent among the stands – a reminder that the Hornet represented a popular and fashionable car choice at the time. In 1934, British car imports to Australia ex-ceeded those from the USA and were at the same level as those from Canada – bearing in mind that many popular American cars came to Australia from the Canadian plants to benefit from Imperial preference.

DWK, Hudson & Wolseley Showrooms Photo: Sam Hood, 1872 - 1953 State Library of NSW

Dalgety Showrooms Photo: Sam Hood, 1872 - 1953State Library of NSW

cont’d next edition

Page 4 Hornet Special Newsletter

by Lyle Cooper

CONVERTING TO A MODERN OIL FILTER

Peter Baker converted his (1932-33 model) Sanction 78 Hornet Filter to accept a modern screw in filter. This activated me to do the same.

Use a Z386 Filter.

1.Remove the steel pressing at the bottom of the filter housing, it is only a press fit and will sometimes come out with an Easy Out, if not drill it out with a ½” drill.

2. Bore the filter housing out to 2 ¾” ID to a depth of 2 ¾” (the casting are not perfectly round, so you can only “average” the centre position).

3. While you have the filter housing in the chuck, tap the bottom hole where you removed the steel plate with 5/8” Whitworth plug tap.

4. Make a brass ring 2 ¾” OD, minus a few thou 1 7/8” ID and 3/16” thick (when machining the OD of the ring, try the machined filter casting so that the ring will slip in with very little play).

5. Make a brass upstand from ¾” OD brass, 3 ¼” long. On one end put a ¾” UNF thread ¾” long to take the filter. Drill 3/8” right through and tap a 7/16” Whitworth thread about 1” deep. On the other end machine a 5/8” Whitworth thread 3/8” long. Recess the shoulder end so that it will screw right up to the shoulder on the bottom of the filter housing.

6. Important: Try all the fittings to make sure they are correct before you glue them in place. Use a 7/16” whit bolt 4” long as an insert tool. Screw the upstand onto the bolt and lock with a nut on the top. After cleaning the housing and upstand of any oil, kero etc, use a suitable adhesive to attach the upstand into the bottom of the housing. I used “Stag”. When you release the locking nut you can remove the insert bolt. (I used a 14mm spark plug socket to release the nut).

7. Next put a little adhesive around the machined face inside the filter housing and push the brass ring home (the adhesive should not have any gaps, but not too much that it runs). Screw the filter on to the upstand and onto the ring to hold it in place while the adhesive sets (the adhesive must be suitable to be used with oil).

8. The filter cap has to be machined inside to fit the crown of the Z386 filter. With the filter in place in the hous-ing, it can be tried against the cap while still in the 4 jaw chuck. The housing and cap should come together so that there is no gap between the faces.

9. Make a gasket for the housing cap. (In theory there should not be any need for the cap to keep the oil in, but with the cap on it looks very original).

Toyoto sell a filter remover for the Z386 that fits nicely over the little of the filter that protrudes above the hous-ing.

The 34 models Sanction 114 and 127 have the filter combined with the oil cooler. It would need to be machined in a milling machine or radial drill. I think all other aspects would be the same.

Issue 40 Page 5

Page 6 Hornet Special Newsletter

SOLD to John Balthazar of Victoria, Ian Broughton’s West

Australian car, as advertized in Just Cars magazine, below.

WOLSELEY HORNET Special 1934, steel aluminium body, supercharged, recent re-build, near new blockers, elec pump and fan. VIN:115A 127

WOLSELEY SUCCESSAt the Maroubra Speedway, Sydney, recently, Wolseley Hornet 1934 cars were seen to much advantage. In the five-mile handicap for cars between 850 c.c. and 2000 c.c. Hornets finished first and second, the winner averaging 68 m.p.h. Hornets also finished first and second in the five-mile open handicap for cars under 2000 c.c. capacity, while a team of three Hornets won the relay race.

The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld) Tuesday 27 February 1934 Page 8

John and Sharon took the car on their first outing to the Vintage Drivers Club’s Kalorama Rally on Sunday 21st March where it attracted a lot of interest. They also own a “very charming” Bullnose Cowley Roadster and, as well as being committee members of the Morris Register of Victoria, are members of the Vintage Sports Car Club. As John says “ there is a limit to how competitive one can be in a two wheel brake Cowley.”

Welcome John and Sharon!

Paging Glen Logan! Con’t from Page 2Glen was a medical student who owned Gerry Dunford’s superb 1934 Hornet Special airline coupe (pictured below). It was one of two built by Coachcraft – and designed by A H Messervy, later Managing Director of Coachcraft. Glen Logan went to Coachcraft, still in business in 1964, and obtained a plan and photo of the car – which we’d love to see. Unfortunately, all attempts over the years to locate either Glen Logan or A H Messervy have failed, and Coachcraft is out of business and its building demolished. But fortunately Gerry rescued the car some years later from where it lay, abandoned under a block of flats, and returned it to Brisbane, where it had been part of the automobile scene in earlier years. And later, we found an owner and some photos of the second airline, though not the car. So, can anyone locate Glen Logan? We think he would be about 90 years of age now.

Gerry Dunford’s 1934 Hornet Special Airline Coupe by Coachcraft.

Issue 40 Page 7

Subs are due againSubscriptions to both the Australian and UK clubs for 2010/2011are due on April 1. To assist with funding the Australian club’s operating expenses (most of which are incurred in producing this newsletter), we encourage all newsletter recipients to subscribe a nominal yearly sum.

The committee has managed to keep the Australian subscription unchanged for several years and due to the improved exchange rate and the generosity of the UK Club, your options once again are to:1. Pay $25, which helps to cover the costs of this Australian newsletter;2. Pay $70, down $10, which gets you this newsletter, Membership of the Wolseley Hornet Special Club (UK), copies of their excellent magazine and access to their parts service;3. Pay nothing. We’ll still send you this newsletter, but please let us know if you no longer wish to receive it.

Cheques should be made payable to WHSC, not to any individual person, and should be sent to the club trea-surer, John Ireland, 83 Riverside Resort, Riverbrooke Drive, Coomera, Qld 4209.

VALE JIM BAINES

Jim Baines died in February 2010.Left, a Series II 25 hp Wolseley - one of many given sanctuary on his Toolern Vale property - molders quietly under the gum trees.Above, a 1934 21/60 keeps company with his 1942 Chevrolet bus.

Canberra to host The September AGM

Yes! This year the annual Hornet Extravaganza

& WHSCA Annual General Meeting goes to the site of the 1935 Australian speed record for unsupercharged cars up to 1500cc.

Program: Friday night - Welcome dinner Saturday - Around the houses Saturday night - Dinner and AGM Sunday - Easy

Friday Sept 17 to Sunday Sept 19

Floriade Canberra

Full Details in June Newsletter

Bob Nicol and his 1934 Hornet Special nearing completion, the only known surviving Hornet built by Adelaide bodybuilder T J Richards

Richard Sneddon in his Sanction 51boat tailed sports Bob Anderson’s 1933 Coupe’