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Long-time member Michael
Falconer was inspired by an
article by Bill Buys back in 2014
to send me an article that
appeared some years ago in the
South African
Classic Car
magazine, written by motor
racing historian Pat O'Brien.
Pat has told me that after
moving from Johannesburg to
Cape Town he spent many
hours with Bill Jennings who
was a major rival to Jo'burg's
Frank Brodie and his MG
Special when Pat's father was
actually on Brodie's crew.
Ed.
Michael wrote:
While I haven't been an
active racing member of the
VSCC for some years now due to work and other private commitments, I look
forward to receiving the monthly newsletter and keeping abreast of the action and
club progress and booklet notes when it arrives.
I refer to an article published in issue #282 of June 2014, that featured "The
Remarkable Bill Jennings" by Bill Buys, and words that were put together on the
very successful and amazing Riley that was built and raced by Bill Jennings in
South Africa and Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe.
The article ended by saying "What happened to the Jennings Riley is not known",
and after reading the article I wanted to call and tell you exactly what happened to
the car, but wanted to get its current owner's permission before doing so.
To cut to the chase, this car resides in Bulawayo Zimbabwe and is raced and
owned by my great friend Bruce Glasby. Bruce has owned the car since the late
1970's and I actually had the pleasure of driving and racing this car in Zimbabwe
before I immigrated to Perth in early 1983 with my Brabham BT18b and Elva Mk7.
Bruce and I are very close friends and I visited him in Bulawayo in July, just last
month, and showed him the VSCC article and asked if he would mind if I revealed
where the car is now, and shared the photos taken of the car in his workshop with
the gang in Perth. Bruce was very obliging and gave me the go ahead and thus I
have attached the photos that I took on the day.
The car is magnificent and even better than magnificent to drive. It is like driving a
kart, and it goes like a speeding bullet. It has a pressurised fuel tank and a hand
pump that the driver needs to continuously pump while in competition. This always
draws comments and questions from onlookers and the observant car enthusiast.
I will forward a few more emails with additional photos of the Jennings Riley after
this email as well as a very interesting article done on the Jennings Riley by Pat
O'Brien from the Classic Car magazine some time ago.
Michael Falconer
SPECIAL BEST
The Jennings Riley on the trailer ready for the next meeting