About the LMC

Bob West – a former Lancia employee – was a genuine Lancia enthusiast and as early as 1935 had used his premises in Queensgate Place Mews as a kind of loose unofficial Club for people who enjoyed using Lancias, in particular his personal favourite, the Lambda. Although Bob was a quiet, down to earth character often described as taciturn, these meetings were quite lively. Afternoon sessions often dragged into the evening with drinks, snacks and cigars and the occasional night out. From being a casual affair, the meetings quickly became a fixture and it was clearly only a matter of time before some kind of basic affiliation was drawn up. There was at this stage a genuine possibility of two Lancia Motor Clubs running parallel, but post war the original 1936 club never properly recovered.

Given that new spares were virtually non existent, West began to concentrate almost exclusively on repairing, tuning, and servicing Lambdas. Although he was the best known he was not entirely alone in this, but he was by far the most active and energetic, generating business by leaving notes in the pockets of Lambda doors urging the owners to contact him for spares and servicing. In 1946 a small group of Lambda owners suggested that he formed a Club, and it was this hardcore group that provided the impetus.

After an argument with Lancia Alperton (who refused to sell him Aprilia spares) Bob ran a press advert inviting Lancia owners to join a formal Club. It was apparently not the first row between West and Lancia England. He had allegedly virtually come to blows with various Lancia executives more than once when they employed him, and this reputation was to cause problems later.

The debate as to whether Bob wanted to form a ‘Club’ or merely poach customers from Lancia will probably never be resolved but there is no doubt that he genuinely wished to develop the social aspect of running and enjoying Lancias.

Unsurprisingly, the response to his advert came mainly from Lambda owners, plus a smattering of Augustas, and a handful of vintage models. Together with those who were already regulars, it was good enough for a preliminary meeting to be called which was held on the way back from Shelsey Walsh Hillclimb, at the Royal Restaurant, Bennetts Hill, Birmingham, on 21st June 1947. At this meeting most present already knew each other well and it appeared to be little more than formalising the club that in a sense already existed. Calling it ‘The Lancia Car Club’ the 17 founder members comprised: R.W. West, Julian Jane, W.A. Richardson, Frank Barkway, Miss Nancy Varley, Mr. J. Varley, Geoffrey Robson, Dr. T. Smallhorn, T. Widdowson, Mr. Allen, Mr. G.R. Turner, Mr. Fawcett, Messrs. Robertson senior and junior, Major Clark, Mr Clayton (Solicitor to the family firm of Mrs. Smalhorn) and Mr. Cripps.

The first general meeting was held on Sept 7th 1947 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Caversham. Bob West was elected President, Julian Jane (Bob’s business partner and another former Lancia employee) Chairman, Frank Barkway Honorary Secretary, and W. A. Richardson Treasurer. A somewhat disproportionate nine-man committee was proposed, but this was bought down to six, three being the appointed officers. These officers were augmented via a proposer, seconder and a vote by three ‘ordinary’ members, namely Nevile Buckle, Mr. Widdowson, and Dr. Tom Smallhorn. It was at this meeting that the name ‘Lancia Motor Club’ was decided, as the initials LCC were already registered to the original pre war Club. In different ways all the names above were to play an important role in the development of the Lancia Motor Club.

Various meetings took place in people’s homes and sundry hostelries, but in terms of defining the club and its activities, there were two important ones in October and November 1947 held at Overstone. At the latter meeting, the committee drew up the original constitution and outlined its aims.

Within a few weeks Frank Barkway had organised the first proper committee meeting, which was over dinner in the ‘Florida’ Restaurant, on Regent Street. It was decided that membership fees should be set at £1 – 0 – 0, and subscriptions should be £1/10 per annum. This initial fee included a free badge which immediately identified a member, but remained the property of the LMC and was to be returned if the membership expired. A register of members and their cars was initiated, and Members were encouraged to publish lists of any spares they had for sale. It was also decided to invite the Earl of March now Duke of Richmond & Gordon, to act as the club’s patron. He accepted but not long after, under pressure from Lancia England reluctantly declined and also resigned his membership. In a somewhat churlish, albeit understandable move the club asked him to return his badge. The reason for the Duke’s refusal to become involved became evident when a letter was read out from Mr. Stanley W. Newman, the firm’s Managing Director. Mindful of previous skirmishes with Bob West, Mr. Newman inferred that the Club was being formed on commercial lines and the beneficiaries of this would be Bob West and Julian Jane. Pointing out that it was purely a Club and not a business both men took umbrage and it sparked an unpleasant bout of internecine war.

With war imminent Lancia Alperton’s popular Managing Director, Domenico Jappelli was recalled to Italy. His role was taken over by Stanley Newman who had been with the firm officially since November 9th 1931 where he is described as an ‘administrator’. However he had prior involvement with Lancia (England) as he signed off the firm’s accounts for 1930 and may have acted in a financial capacity from 1929. He quickly became indispensible, and Lancia’s own records indicate that they had high regard for him in both business and finance. By the time Domenico Jappelli left, he was a director and shareholder.

There is an element of mystery regarding his career with Lancia, mainly because there are two very conflicting versions of his wartime activities. There is however no doubt about his tremendous input into Lancia in the UK. We start with the version that is given us by Dr. Tom Smallhorn and which has achieved common currency within the Lancia Motor Club. Titled ‘The Smallhorn Papers’ a slightly abridged version of the following appeared in Club Magazine Viva Lancia! September 1997:

‘When Mr. Newman took up the reins, almost immediately there were problems. As war broke out Churchill instructed that all Italian Nationals regardless of their political views be interned. In this atmosphere it became standard practice for the Ministries to interview anyone who had connections to enemy agencies, with a view to ascertaining what they may have known about their employer’s activities and industrial capacity. Mr Newman (within the LMC it has sometimes been wrongly spelt Neuman in the Germanic, something that may have been calculated to give offence) was subjected to one such interview where it was discovered he was part Italian, and so late in 1939 he was interned, together with several other Lancia (England) staff. Some of them were seconded to Colnworth POW Camp, but most were sent to Elstow Camp at Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire and remained there until the fall of Mussolini. While Mr. Newman was interned his duties were taken over by one of his employees, Julian Jane. In later life Jane claimed he was Managing Director of the firm, but this is unlikely as it was purely an interregnum position. His role remains undefined but he was more probably joint Works Manager with Joe Weedon. Mr. Newman remained Managing Director throughout and it was always understood that he would take up the reins the moment he was freed. Jane’s on-off connection with Lancia Alperton lasted until 1947 when he was involved with the personnel department. His leaving coincided with the formation of the new club.

A group of Lancisti including Dr. Tom Smallhorn, Mr. Fowler and Murray Austin campaigned to have Stanley Newman freed, and they eventually succeeded. They felt that he had been unfairly treated but it wasn’t all about altruism, because they knew that Lancia Alperton, despite the trade embargo remained a source of desirable spare parts. In fact Tom Smallhorn possibly using his ‘Doctor’ status had an Augusta with a dark grey over grey paint scheme totally rebuilt over 1939 – 40 at Alperton with the help of Julian Jane and the English mechanics. Tom’s comments on this are important because he tells us the car was rebuilt as new ‘right down to the wheels’ which indicates that even obscure spares were still available.

Mr. Newman emerged from a prison camp to find his company in the hands of the Ministries for War, its output diverted exclusively for the war effort. In due course the group of LMC members who had campaigned for Mr. Newman’s freedom back in 1940, four years on pushed to have his Italian staff released from the prison camp. Their argument was that with Mussolini gone there was no reason to hold them, although the war was still raging. They won the day and Mr. Newman was not ungrateful’.

All of the above is taken from Dr. Tom Smallhorn’s notes, provided by Dr. Tom’s son, Anthony, but unfortunately Dr. Tom is the only source for this information. Its level of detail indicates that Dr. Tom not only believed it to be true, but that he was present when many of the reported events took place. However when Joe Weedon, former works manager at Alperton read the above, he responded with the following letter dated October 1997:

‘Sir, I am surprised at several of the statements made in ‘The Smallhorn Papers’. First of all, unless I can be proved wrong I don’t believe Mr. Newman was interned, nor do I believe he was part Italian. I was a frequent visitor to Alperton from 1936 to 1940 as my employer owned five different Lancia models over that period. Mr. Newman always seemed available and was always ready to meet customers personally if there was any query. Another bit of misinformation is the statement that ‘he emerged from incarceration to find that Lancia (England) had been requisitioned’. This I know to be totally false as it was only due to Mr. Newman’s strenuous efforts that we obtained war production contracts. I say ‘we’ because Mr. Newman himself took me on as a driver mechanic in early 1940 and I drove him to various appointments where contracts were discussed. It was only due to this war work that Lancia (England) survived; without it we would have had to close down as with the lack of spares and with most Lancias being off the road there was not enough servicing work available to keep the firm going. Luckily many people in authority were Lancia owners and through them we obtained sub contracts… Perhaps this is what Dr. Tom meant.

Another item which I strongly contest is concerned with the statement that many of the Alperton staff were interned. To my knowledge – and I was allowed to roam freely round the factory while servicing work was being carried out – there were no Italian employees, and after the war I was directly involved in hiring and firing staff, and never had an application from any internee. The only Italian I ever employed was some time in 1959, just before the introduction of the Flavia. He was a very good mechanic and before coming to England had been employed by the Lancia factory, but I can’t remember his name.

However I do agree with Dr. Tom on one thing – the controversy between Lancia (England) and the Club. In 1947 when the Club was formed we were then only just getting back into our stride at Alperton, reconditioning Aprilia engines and getting cars which had been stored back on the road. These included stock belonging to other agents and was not confined to Lancia cars. It included a 40/50 Rolls Royce petrol tank which had been left with petrol in it, and this had evaporated over the years leaving a sticky, toffee-like deposit which took some shifting.

Consequently Mr. Newman was concerned regarding other people carrying out work which would otherwise have been done at
Alperton. I don’t remember if Harry Manning (an eccentric but highly regarded and popular independent Lancia specialist) was active at this time, he was anathema to Mr. Newman but they eventually became reconciled and we used to do some work for him including straightening bent Aprilia front axles. There are a number of other statements I don’t agree with such as the importation of cars after the war and role of the Austin family – I for one never heard of them!

Joe Weedon expanded on this in a number of interviews and letters. However, within the club the ‘Smallhorn Papers’ version persists and at the time there was a general sentiment that Mr. Newman owed the club a debt of friendship. But when the club was formed the committee were taken aback to find that he was actively hostile towards them.

Stanley Newman fought hard for the fledgling Lancia Motor Club to be disbanded for a number of reasons. Firstly he saw the club as a potential business rival to Lancia’s monopoly in spares and servicing. His suspicions were fuelled when he read the club’s stated objectives: aside from organising rallies, races and hillclimbs, its main functions included the provision of spares, advice, technical help, special tools and handbooks.

Secondly he felt that the existence of a club and a thriving secondhand market would prejudice sales of new cars. In this he was looking ahead, because at the time no Lancia cars or spares could be imported. In fact secondhand cars were all that was available to anyone, as Britain had embarked on a huge export drive.

Unwilling to accept that things had changed, Mr. Newman’s aim was to restore the firm to its pre-war position in the UK, and he felt he could achieve this through the strict control of spare parts in addition to sending apprentices to Italy for training. He also wished to finish the job he had started in the 1930’s with Domenico Jappelli (viz. re-establishing Lancia as a premium brand in the UK) and in line with this wanted to build up the business and protect jobs.

Apart from reviving Lancia’s UK operations, Mr. Newman also had the near-impossible task of persuading Lancia Turin to give as much support as possible. In 1947 Lancia executive Sig. Maina visited Alperton with a view to ascertaining what assets could be salvaged and to discuss a way forward but Mr. Newman’s sole objective must have been survival. In his report Sig. Maina noted the capacity for expansion commenting wryly that a second floor and various sheds had been added to Alperton, a leftover from the war.

Lord March’s pre-war club had been a largely social affair, based around a group of friends and Augusta owners linked to ‘Kevill Davis and March’. They were clients of Lancia England, not competitors, and they had a very good relationship with Mr. Newman. The new club, Lambda-based yet open to everyone, looked like it meant business in every sense of the word.

There were a number of terse meetings between club officials and Mr Newman throughout 1947 and into 1948, which ended in deadlock. Mr. Newman was a tough and clever negotiator, completely unflustered by powerful characters like Nevile Buckle and Tom Smallhorn. He remained adamant that the club could not be allowed to compete with Lancia (England) in any possible way. Moreover he felt that using the ‘Lancia’ name and logo without express permission from the parent company was a major infringement of copyright and he insisted that the Club’s letterheading was amended to take account of this. As a result, for many years the Club used a modified version of the Lancia logo. Likewise, making up tools or adapting Lancia tools was a breach which could affect the Company’s warranties. He felt that Bob West’s tools and stock of spares were old and that the tools had been much modified, giving customers the wrong impression of what Lancia was about. Furthermore he believed that Julian Jane was using inside knowledge gained during his brief tenure at Alperton to drum up business for the Club and thus Bob West.

Although a gentleman, he used all the spoiling techniques available to him. He tried firstly to avoid club members, refusing to answer the phone, then acceding to meetings which he cancelled at the last minute. Letters were acknowledged, but nothing more. When he did meet with club officials he was curt and dismissive, and could barely be civil in his candid dislike of Julian Jane and Bob West. The club’s response was to embark on a charm offensive, taking him to lunch several times, inviting him to become Club President, and to dispel any fears as to how the Club operated even sent him copies of minutes from committee meetings. He was also furnished with newspaper cuttings and results sheets from race meetings where Lancias had performed well against the likes of Aston Martin, Alvis and Frazer Nash, the idea being to show how the club was promoting Lancias and raising the profile of the brand. Mr. Newman’s response was that the club was an irrelevance, the cars were old and the results meant nothing. He couldn’t stop the club from moving on but he certainly meant to make life as hard as possible.

In the summer of 1948 he gave Frank Barkway an ‘interview’ at Alperton which became a fraught two-hour game of wits. For much of the meeting Mr. Newman had his General Manager, Major Hulme in attendance and the two generated a forbidding atmosphere. He pointed out that this new club was running alongside one which already existed albeit dormant, and the name ‘Lancia Car Club’ was registered to them as a Limited Company. Despite the fact that the Duke of Richmond and Gordon had given written permission to use his name as Patron on the new Club’s letterheading Mr. Newman challenged this, inferring it wouldn’t be for long. He questioned the longevity of a club of this nature, asked questions about its financial status, and was openly dubious about its objectives. He flatly refused to have anything to do with the club as long as Bob West and Julian Jane were officers. Although a number of other subjects were touched on, for Frank Barkway there was nowhere to go. As a former accountant turned salesman he’d suffered his share of bad calls, but by any standards this meeting was a disaster.

Bemused but unbowed, Frank reported this to the committee at the club’s second AGM in October 1948 and as a result of this report by dint of not seeking re-election Julian Jane resigned as chairman. Treasurer Bill Richardson also announced that he was emigrating to Canada, taking his Lambda with him (it has recently resurfaced and is being restored by his son). Bill was replaced by Tom Widdowson, a great Lambda enthusiast who was later responsible for locating and rescuing a number of cars from sundry breaker’s yards and back gardens.

Regarding the impasse with Mr. Newman, it was proposed that if no progress could be made then Lancia Turin should be contacted. But there was a glimmer of hope. Mr. Newman was certainly interested in what was going on, if nothing else he was a Lancia enthusiast and his curiosity had been stirred. Try as he might he found this impossible to hide and an experienced salesman like Frank Barkway was bound to spot this. Additionally Mr. Newman had agreed to consider allowing the use of the ‘Lancia’ name and logo on the club’s headed paper; he promised a facility for answering member’s technical questions within 20 hours (this may be a typographical error, he probably meant 24), and time permitting, didn’t entirely rebuff invitations to the next race meeting and the next committee meeting. Frank’s view of the situation read as follows:

‘To sum up, it is quite obvious that Newman has no interest whilst R. West and J. Jane are officials of the Club and he would, I consider, make things difficult for us; if Mr. West and Mr. Jane were no longer officials he would take a keen interest’.

Another meeting at Alperton with Dr. Tom Smallhorn was cancelled, this time by Dr. Smallhorn whereupon Air Commodore Nevile Buckle bullishly offered to ‘sort the matter out’. His confidence was misplaced, as this third meeting, where a fuming Buckle was kept waiting an interminable time, merely underlined Mr. Newman’s intransigence. He was ready for a war of attrition, and to the frustration of the club his control of new spares, tools and workshop manuals seemed to be giving him the ascendancy. The dispute actually went as far as Turin, with the Club supported by the RAC writing a letter to Lancia, explaining their position. After a wait, the committee minutes state that finally ‘Sig. Lancia gave the club his approval’. But the ‘trade’ argument dragged on for several months before it was finally resolved by Frank Barkway, who’s good humour and interpersonal skills came to the fore, and by a fortuitous chance.

Frank was forced to concede that ‘no member of the car trade would be an executive of the club’ at which Bob West immediately resigned, refusing to have anything further to do with the Committee. He was subsequently replaced by Nevile Buckle. Julian Jane was invited to become Competitions Secretary and he accepted, as he felt it was a role far enough removed from the motor trade to deflect any criticism. Although somewhat aggrieved, he threw himself into the role with characteristic dynamism and gusto. In return Mr. Newman gave the club the right to create a spares register, which at the time was vital. With no spares available many cars would have gone to the scrapheap. It also allowed various model consortiums – each specializing in one model only – to become established. Without this resource, the club’s growth and activities would have been greatly curtailed.

Fortune came into play when Murray Austin a respected industrialist, replaced Julian Jane as chairman. Austin was a great car enthusiast who ran a Bob West shortened Lambda in hill climbs and sprints, and while he was successful never consistently hit the heights that Julian Jane was to later achieve in CUL 636. Nevertheless he was a serious competitor, especially with the Midlands Auto Club of which he was a founder member. We have to rely once more on Dr. Tom Smallhorn’s notes for this chapter of events and we get off to a bad start as strangely, Tom’s notes refer to Murray Austin’s son as being ‘a great help to his father’. He gives him an initial ‘L’ and implies he was employed as a BBC commentator. However we can find no reference to Murray Austin having any issue, and this was confirmed in December 2009 via John Vessey by Mr. Reece, son of Murray Austin’s mechanic who knew the family well. (See also Joe Weedon’s letter above).

According to the Smallhorn Papers and committee minutes (which Joe Weedon strongly disputes) as a manufacturer of filing cabinets and office equipment, Murray was able to obtain a quantity of sheet steel for Lancia England, something that stood him in good stead and he also used his wide-ranging connections to press for Lancia imports to be reinstated. Late in 1949 he managed to obtain import licences for two Aprilias which were destined for that year’s Earls Court Motor Show. They had been sent from Italy at Mr. Newman’s behest but Italy had not yet signed a peace treaty and was still technically at war with the UK. With exotic looks, high quality, and tangibly superior to British offerings Aprilias were very much the cars to have post war but Mr. Newman’s gamble had not paid off. The cars had become a source of embarrassment to him, they had been impounded and were held in bond by the Board of Trade. No-one expected to see them for some considerable time and Lancia Turin made it understood that under the circumstances they didn’t expect them back. In fact Lancia Turin were very tentatively feeling their way back into the UK and could give only minimal support during this period, the economic miracle was yet to come and Lancia’s priority was to rebuild. The best that Mr. Newman could hope for was to eventually get the cars released, pay any duties or penalties and then attempt to sell them, a process that looked like taking several months. Knowing this, Murray Austin offered to try and obtain the requisite permits via his extensive network of friends and contacts. His success put the club in a much better light with Lancia England. It was a substantial coup and proved that the two groups could work together, and once the club’s new officials were approved, Mr. Newman fully acknowledged the LMC. Note that as before, Joe Weedon contested virtually every part of the above as well as those in ‘The Smallhorn Papers’.

Minutes from committee meetings express the Club’s pleasure when in 1950 Stanley Newman officially joined the LMC and became a Vice President, lifetime Member. He was listed as owning an Aprilia, and subsequently an Aurelia B12. With the official Lancia importers on board things began to move on apace. Mr. Newman began to promote the club within Lancia and encouraged several of his staff and drivers to join; later he tried to persuade leading UK race personalities to attend club meetings, and asked the Duke of Richmond and Gordon to once more act as Patron. The Duke felt that being Patron was no longer feasible, but he did rejoin and became a long term, very active member occasionally providing articles for the club’s Journal. With hindsight, the problem was quite clearly Mr. Newman’s intense antipathy towards Bob West and Julian Jane, but both sides had reluctantly made concessions and beneath the genial exterior there remained an undercurrent of ill-feeling.

These events have unfairly led to Mr. Newman’s somewhat negative reputation in UK Lancia circles. Mr. Newman worked unceasingly for Lancia (England) during the war and it was entirely due to his efforts that the firm was not closed completely or taken over for munitions work. Lancia Alperton was an important contributor to the British war effort, and more than once was targeted by enemy bombers.

Whatever the truth, against this backdrop of suspicion and regulation, Mr. Newman constantly strove to further the reputation of Lancia and jealously guarded the firm’s good name and commercial prospects. He was determined that Lancia (England) would survive the war and, when hostilities ended would be in a position to resume business. For years this looked unlikely. Throughout the war there was a constant threat that Lancia England would be closed and were it not for Stanley Newman’s diplomacy and his extensive contacts this would have almost certainly have been the case. There was some munitions work, but rather than produce armaments he managed to obtain contracts for building and painting pontoon bridges, painting landing craft, welding airplane fuel tanks, modifying trucks and fitting them with half tracks. There was also a good deal of repair work, engine rebuilding and refitting vehicles for the military. A few of these were for Lancias, a fact that must have irked the parent company though no doubt they had other considerations to contend with. Pivotal to Mr. Newman’s success was Joe Weedon who, with various interruptions was works manager at Alperton from the late 1930’s to 1961. Joe Weedon and Mr. Newman also managed to keep things going during the difficult intervening period when the ministries withdrew from Lancia (England) and Turin were still unable to properly support the business. Throughout most of the war, bolstered by military contracts Lancia (England) had few problems obtaining materials and getting work done, in fact they’d never been busier. But immediately afterwards rationing was introduced, work became scarce and materials hard to source. Ironically, with the war over Lancia’s situation seemed more precarious than before.

It was entirely due to Stanley Newman that disaster was once again averted and Lancia’s standing was if anything enhanced. He decided to focus on the firm’s superb reputation for trimming, bodywork and refinishing. In particular Lancia (England)’s painting facilities and quality of work were much admired and Mr. Newman built on this, diligently promoting the paint shop and offering his spare capacity to anyone who would listen. His efforts were good enough for the firm to be awarded substantial contracts by Rolls Royce and Sunbeam. It was through hard-won agreements like this that Mr. Newman kept the firm running. People who worked with him still remember him with respect and admiration. There is no question that without him, the firm would have been either taken over, run into the ground then stripped of its machinery, or shut down as an enemy asset. It was due to Mr. Newman that Lancia were one of the first – if not the first – Axis owned companies to resume trading in the UK.

From this viewpoint his misgivings over the club, who’s number included two men already well known for repairing and modifying Lancias is understandable. It was no secret that Bob West had taken advantage of Lancia’s wartime difficulties, and even before the war was making inroads into the market; Lancia’s own servicing and spares situation having become somewhat indifferent in the lead up to hostilities. Although this situation changed for the better after the arrival of Domenico Jappelli, it deteriorated again when Jappelli was recalled and trade sanctions were applied.

Julian Jane’s role in the new club appears to be have been little more than introducing Lambda owners to Bob West and helping out with some of the less technical engineering work. Prior to this Jane had been involved in a small short-lived business in a London mews with Bob and renowned photographer Guy Griffiths, under the banner ‘Julian Jane’. They produced some quirky albeit amusing adverts which appeared in the VSCC newsletter 1947 – 50 in which Jane claimed to have been Lancia (England)’s Northern Manager, though considering the parlous condition of Lancia (England) at the time its pertinent to ask Northern Manager of what? The trio proclaimed themselves experts in FIAT and Lancia, but it came to nothing, and long before 1950 Guy Griffiths had gone, leaving Julian alone to work with Bob West. They were strange bedfellows; few would have predicted that an outgoing dilettante like Jane would strike up a friendship with the closemouthed Bob West. A fair proportion of the work came from Jane himself who was notoriously hard on his cars. Wags joked that ‘Jane bends ’em and West mends ’em’ but Jane was a very gregarious socialite who knew a great many Lancia owners, some of whom he’d met during his time at Alperton. He was thus an ongoing source of business for Bob West, which was enough to annoy Mr. Newman, especially as Jane was technically an employee of Lancia Alperton until 1947. Mr. Newman was a man who demanded loyalty and he must have wondered where Jane’s allegiances really lay. Jane’s public school attitude, and his propensity for saying what he felt, (in truth a defence mechanism for his illness and insecurity) also irritated Mr. Newman. In contrast Jane held no rancour and was in fact the committee member who seconded Mr. Newman as a Vice President, and then seconded the proposal to make him a Life Member. Mr. Newman remained with the club for several years, but was taken seriously ill in 1955 and died sometime mid-1956, aged just 55. Its arguable that his efforts with Lancia contributed to his death, but irrespective of the reasons, his loss was a serious blow to Lancia in England, and until now his immense contribution has been underrated and at times denigrated. He was succeeded by Claude Steen, and then W. Allan Davis.

Although ostensibly healed, the rift between Lancia (England) and the Lancia Motor Club ran for many years and it was not fully resolved until the 1960’s, when Tony Hemelik Managing Director of Lancia (England) and Allan Davies the Chairman, made a concerted effort to repair any perceived injustices. In fact things improved so dramatically that both men were present at the club’s 1969 AGM, and in a speech Mr. Hemelik (formerly of Lancia France and then Turin) promised to do his utmost to persuade new Lancia owners to join the LMC. They went on to attend several other AGMs and relations became cordial enough for the club and Lancia (England) to hold a very successful “30/50” event at Donnington celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Club and 50 years of Lancia (England) Ltd. Allan Davis, ex Air Fleet Arm, helped the LMC in many other ways, including giving the Club numerous spares which Lancia considered obsolete, but most notably allowing the club access to Lancia (England)’s accounting and secretarial team in order to help with the books and minutes, typically generous gestures for which he asked nothing in return. The relationship became so close that at several subsequent AGMs Allan Davis presented the financial minutes and read out the report. He remained a member of the LMC for years after his tenure at Lancia (England) and remained a club Vice President until his death.

Formerly a senior accountant with Dunn Wylie, Allan Davis was an urbane educated man, popular with the motoring press for whom he sometimes wrote articles, they liked him more when he proved to be accessible and usually happy to give a quote or an opinion; he was also liked and respected in Turin. However after Lancia his career took a somewhat unexpected turn and he was briefly Mayor of London. He was also responsible for initiating the highly successful ‘Air Ambulance’ service in London which has since saved many lives. Under Allan Davis, Lancia virtually used the Club as its sporting/PR arm and the two groups worked very closely for some years. Davis was especially close to Frank Barkway and rated his abilities very highly. When Frank passed away, Allan Davis was among the first to send his condolences and wrote a moving obituary in the Club Journal.

One of the club’s strengths was racing but hiring a venue was expensive and complicated by RAC ‘Rule 20’ regarding safety and maintenance, and it limited clubs to running just one event a year. The way round it was a joint venture known as the ‘Eight Clubs’ where eight motor clubs joined forces and invited each other to compete at designated races. This was the start of a long, unbroken run of sporting activity. At the same time the Club grew steadily in numbers as it became a source of spares and advice. There were also trips abroad, especially Italy, France and Holland, a lot of racing and hillclimbing and regular events such as track days, gymkhanas and trials. Lancias also distinguished themselves in official rallies like the Measham and others. It was clear that Lancias, and the Club had become major players in the classic car scene, and in the 1950’s as Lancia was re-established in the UK with models like the Flavia, Fulvia and Flaminia, their reputation grew. Perhaps the best summary of how things progressed is again from Tom Smallhorn, by now President of the Club (he also served in several other capacities) writing in 1996:

What of the future of the Club? With a membership of about 1,000 and growing, the conditions are similar to the conditions existing in the immediate post-war era. We have cars which are in regular use after 50 years, as well as those used as the “exhibition” models and in competition. Technical advice, service and spares are the main asset of the Club. Through the consortia, we now have a service for spares and advice, which has become International. The people who look after the consortia are a dedicated and highly technical body of men and women. They are all voluntary workers and deserve our thanks. Do not abuse them, for there are hundreds of cars dependent on their goodwill. The major difference which exists as we approach the Club’s 40th birthday, is that we have the goodwill and help of the new Lancia organisation, who are most helpful. I ask myself, why Lancia? I have tried to answer this in the 50 years I have used the vehicle. Design, dependability and economy have always influenced me. The genuine integrity of engineering has been the hallmark and this continues to this day. Two of my cars exceeded 200,000 miles, without major defect, and three others well over 100,000 miles. I still travel an average of 30,000 miles per year and still get reliability. The cars are serviced properly; my livelihood has always depended on my car, I am not a 10,000 mile commuter or shopper. The Fulvias have always been trustworthy, and have been costed carefully and are exceedingly cheap to run, less than a Mini. The Lancia Company is unusual. The make has won World Championships, races and rallies consistently, producing some of the design revolutions in modern cars. Their designs are ten years in advance of most other makes. They do not produce ‘one off’ cars, and never freaks. They have produced commercial vans, trucks, buses, military vehicles, you name it, always of very advanced design. I have yet to see a Rolls Bus, but know that they have tried to make truck engines. Lancia introduced unitary construction, independent suspension – front and rear – the short Vee engine 4s, 6s, and 8s, which were all epoch making, but are seldom mentioned. They are modest people and are usually copied by other designers. They are different, and have engineering integrity…

This time there is no argument and no contention.