Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

Comment - August 2011

However, the old vehicle movement is under constant threat from rules and regulations that could restrict or even remove our right to own such vehicles. As well as this, our old motors are sometimes in danger of being caught up in rules that are really aimed at modern vehicles, but because the politicians didn’t think about classics they also get included.

To combat this, the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) challenges any proposed regulation that may affect us and attempts to persuade the law makers to modify their proposals to accommodate us. To do this the FBHVC needs accurate information about the movement and the contribution it makes to the economy – large sums of money and jobs on the line will certainly capture the attention of politicians. This information is currently being collected via a survey conducted by the FBHVC – and we all need to take part. There are two ways to do this. If you have the internet go to www.fbhvc.co.uk/2011-survey and complete it online. I did mine last night and it only took five minutes. If you don’t have the internet you can get a paper copy to complete by writing to the address in our news section. Even if you don’t have an old vehicle please take part, but remember all surveys must be completed by the end of July.

I’ll change the subject completely now – to cooking! I really am not much of a cook. In fact most of my culinary creations seem to just involve adding Marmite to everything. However, you may be surprised to learn that I recently got a cookbook, but it’s actually for my collection of odd transport things. It’s called ‘Manifold destiny’ and it’s about cooking on your car engine! Inside is a load of recipes that instead of them going in the oven at gas mark five for 30 minutes goes on your engine for 30 minutes at 45mph! Apparently an E-Type Jaguar is the best vehicle to cook on as the food sits nicely between the cam covers. Now, the introduction to the book states that in America lorry drivers have been doing this for years, so I can’t believe it never happened here. However, nobody I’ve spoken to has ever heard of it. Did you ever cook a steak on your Gardner? Please let me know!

Stephen Pullen
Editor