V8 Column
for May 2004 published in Safety Fast!, the award winning monthly magazine of the MG Car Club

This month we have news of the first V8 Gathering at Hazeley Heath in May, a reminder of the V8 arrangements for the Club's annual International MG Meeting at Silverstone in July, and advance notice of a Talk by Geoff Allen as the third in the annual series of Don Hayter Talks.

The next V8 Gathering at the Shoulder of Mutton on Hazeley Heath in North Hampshire is on Sunday 23rd May from noon. It's a popular event with V8 enthusiasts and other MG members too. Bryan Ditchman will be there to greet you and Steve Thorning (the landlord who is a former V8 enthusiast) offers Sunday lunch or tasty bar snacks. The pub is easy to find as it is north of Hook and south of Reading. Full directions and maps are available on the V8 Website.

The International MG Meeting at Silverstone over the long weekend of Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th July will have the usual V8 Marquee and dedicated car parking area for V8 enthusiasts. For new members this is the principal annual meeting of the MG Car Club and is widely recognised as the best annual MG event with a three days of motor racing practice and events on the track, driving tests, concours, traders stalls with spares and books, the Club marquee and Club dinner on the Saturday evening at which there is always a V8 Table. The V8 Marquee is a popular gathering point for V8 enthusiasts where you can meet the RV8 guru Bryan Ditchman, the V8 Register's spares member Clive Wheatley, and obtain copies of the workshop notes CDs at special prices for the weekend. A longstanding tradition of the V8 Marquee is real ale and stilton cheese which Victor Smith collects from the independent brewery at Hook Norton on Friday on his way to Silverstone. If you have not been to Silverstone for

Back

a few years then you will need to know the access roads and layout have changed. Full details are available on the V8 Website providing directions, maps and a plan of the Circuit plus hints on how to book accommodation in the area. We are planning another V8 Track Laps session for the Sunday morning as it proved so popular with V8 members in 2003 as a V8 25th Anniversary event.


Keith Baylis, the parts manager at Ames MG at Bury St Edmunds who is an enthusiastic supporter of MGV8s. (Photo: Victor Smith)

Geoff Allen has offered to give the third Don Hayter Talk in 2004 on his recollections from 27 years at the Abingdon MG Factory which many members will be keen to attend. The date is not yet fixed but it is likely to be in August or September. The V8 Scribe should add here that he has to be in west Africa for two weeks in August and hopes he will not miss the talk! Dr Gavin Bailey plans to make another video recording so the talk should be available on DVD for members who are not able to be there.