BENTLEY DRIVERS CLUB FORUM

The informative vintagebentleys.org website doesn't seem to have been updated for a long time. Does anyone know if there's a problem?

I recall that the Robert who runs the site was advertising for somebody to take it over from him several months ago. I guess he may have 'retired' without finding anyone to take it on. Hopefully the website will not be lost. I will e'mail the BDC office to see what they know of the situation as I understand they do not monitor this forum.
Best Wishes
Iain

Hopefully Iain, you will keep us all informed of the response from the office. It seems an obvious benefit to members, and it would be a great pity to lose www.vintagebentleys.org

David, I have e'mailed Ian Scott and copied in info@bdc. Got an automatic reply from Ian Scott advising he is not back till after the new year. Will post here when I get any reply.
Iain

Robert McLellan is a current BDC member and can be contacted via the members directory. (I would suggest email rather than PM as the latter seems to be broken).

In his October edition, Robert stated that due to ill health and age that he had decided to pass the task onto Mona, and retire from the archive site.

I think they are also looking for a new host to finance it all.
See
http://www.vintagebentleys.org/newslett ... page-3.php

Surely this should be the BDC?

DavidThompson wrote:Surely this should be the BDC?

I totally agree.
However I doubt the the powers that be would have any interest.

As I said earlier I will report back any response from Ian Scott. Would have thought the WOMBF would be the best custodian for the site.
Iain

Yes, I would have thought so too.
John, interesting that you think "the powers that be" will have no interest.
I look forward to reading the response to Iain's enquiry.

Hi All,

I fondly remember working on Rob`s 3 litre that he had bought from BDC member George Dodds most week ends while I worked in Houston Texas. He had bought an awful old lathe at a swap meet and wanted me to teach him how to use it!
Rob had worked as a geologist but while I was there, he made his living buying and selling old car documentation. He lived in a very nice house which had a huge garage that I discovered had been built by my boss at Kelloggs while he had been laid off and temporarily ran a construction company. The 3 litre had a companion, an immaculate Cord saloon!
Rob wrote to me offering the the website but I already had enough on my plate with "vintage bentley blog" and knew how time consuming it would be to organize a huge site like "vintagebentleys.org".
He had asked me to provide him with an article or two and I obliged with "The Conspiracy to Kill off Bentley Motors" that was published together with photos provided by Tim Houlding. Later on, Jimmy Medcalf asked me why I had not submitted the article to the BDC and my reply was that I had but the editor had obviously decided not to grace the pages of the "Review" with it.
As we know, Mona took over the running of the site but obviously she has not had the time to devote to keep it up to date. Will someone take it over? I doubt it, as it would take someone that is totally dedicated to keep up the pace for little reward!

I enclose an image of the barouche that I bought in Houston as a run about seen with a much younger me. Can anyone identify the make and model of this vehicle?

1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88?

Thank you Stephen,
That car had a fantastic air conditioning system and could bring down the inside temperature from 90 degrees F down to refrigerator level within seconds.
Unfortunately it resembled a bordello on wheels and was dangerous to drive on wet or icy rods as it would become tail happy under braking. I had earlier 88 while I was working in New York but that`s another story.
Alan

Tell us more about the bordello.

Well, I got me a date
And I won't be late
Pick her up in my 88

It gets a bit anatomical after that so we'll skip that bit, being British.

Anyway we look forward to the story of the earlier one, when you're ready to share it with us.

Thanks for the update on vintagebentleys.org. That really was a labour of love. Evidently there's no one else feeling that much love, including the BDC.

Have received a reply from club office which I quote below:

"Much of the information from that site is possibly taken from Clare Hay’s publications, and we are not aware of how copyright issues, if any, have been dealt with. We have an excellent relationship with Clare Hay, who in turn obtained much of her information from the Archive at Wroxton. So it is probable that most of the information is already available to us from our own sources.
However, I am going to forward this email to Ken Lea the WOBMF Chairman who may be able to give you more information in due course. Take care and thanks for your interest."

I wonder whether Clare Hay would have any comment on the situation regarding the website. Not sure if she accesses this forum. I do not have any contact details for her but I will reply to Ian Scott suggesting the as well as Ken Lea, he could forward the email to Clare for her input.
Iain

While I would agree that there is an extract of information from Clare’s excellent works, there is a lot of information that is from past and present owners. Perhaps the club archivist has regularly trawled though the site and added new information to the club’s records. However I feel that this is unlikely.

Have just heard back from Ian Scott that he has forwarded the e'mails on to Clare Hay. It would be good to learn her view of the situation.
Iain

It might be something to do with my ability to use of the web site, but I found vintagebentleys.org much easier and more accessible than the Foundation when buying my car a couple of years ago.
Even now I don't seem to be able to access Foundation information. The web site offers books and badges for sale, and invites visitors to remember it in their wills, but asks for a user name and password to go further.
Anyone any idea how to set up user names and passwords?

Again, it's probably my fault, but any idea how to join the spares scheme? The web site takes you in circles for a bit then announces "Error"

Hi All,

Christopher,

Subject Bordello!

You shouldn`t really get me started on my favourite subject but a little light relief wouldn`t go amiss on the Forum. I expect a few glum faces among the powers that be but here it is;
I was working as a site engineer on an LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) project in Skikda (originally Phillipville) Algeria. This region was once the bread basket of the Roman Empire and has a wonderful little known ruined Roman city called Timgad. This is close to the modern city of Constantine, obviously also of Roman origin.
We had been working hard on this difficult project and progress was slow due to the machinations of the Algerian State bureaucracy! I decided to organize a trip to Timgad in order to get a break from the everyday grind and a motley crew of welders, riggers and a couple of engineers crammed into a VW van started out on the 2 hour plus drive over very indifferent rods to our destination.
The visit to Timgad was very nice but it was womans day and there were a lot of visitors to this usually deserted site. The boys started to chat up the girls of course and a large crowd was soon surrounding us. I had to hustle the boys away to avoid trouble and on the way back we stopped in Constantine for a three hour break.
I chose to visit a grand hotel for a bite to eat and was welcomed by a commissioner in a grand uniform and was shown to a table. The wine list was rather disappointing as it only had two wines available, both Algerian! A visit to the toilets revealed that all the sanitary wear had been demolished by the French before Algerian independence and had not been replaced since!
Back at the rendez vous there were several people missing and after waiting for a while I asked the Algerian driver to take me round to the bordellos to try and find them. We went to several in the casbah but with no luck and then to a large building resembling an old cinema, where I was allowed to enter. I won`t describe what I saw but soon located the welders who were looking very drunk and happy, they had lost all concept of time and told me that they were going back for "seconds". I explained to them that they would be left behind if they did not leave immediately and so we left.

Well that`s the story, I left out the juicy bits but if you buy me a beer I will reveal all! So what about the welders? A few days later they weren`t looking so happy

Hi All,

I heard From BDC member Frank from Holland that he also could not access the spares scheme.

Could it be that as all the spares scheme stock is stored at Neil Davies premises and he is selling the same items under his own flag!

Alan

Having checked out the three BDC spares schemes I think they should all be reviewed as for their usefulness for members. I think every part available in the WO scheme is available from one or other of the suppliers advertising in the magazine. The same applies for most of the Derby scheme parts and the Crewe scheme appears to have only one part available. A quick review of the annual accounts shows that the Crewe scheme, at least, is trading at a considerable loss. These spares schemes were undoubtedly of great use when they were instigated many years ago, but with the development of the many independent businesses supporting our hobby I think their days are numbered.

[quote="DavidThompson"]
Even now I don't seem to be able to access Foundation information. The web site offers books and badges for sale, and invites visitors to remember it in their wills, but asks for a user name and password to go further.
Anyone any idea how to set up user names and passwords?

David, I was advised by Ian Scott that there is no ability to log into the WOBMF web site, and that "when time and funds permit" they will resolve the issue.

What is the WOBMF income spent on? Personally I though the purchase and restoration of the model of Hall's car a curious priority as it had very little to do with WO Bentley.
John

John
I wrote last week to Ian Scott asking about accessing the Foundation , and the spares scheme, but received an automated message telling me he was unavailable until today.
It seems odd that the Club web site promotes the availability of Foundation data, but offers no way into it.
I'm uncertain what sort of entity the Foundation is, but performance does not seem to be reported. If it is - as seems to be claimed - the font of all W.O. validation data, it would be good to be able to use it, and would appear to be the perfect home for vintagebentleys.com, providing a ready made gateway.

David
I may misunderstand your query regarding the Foundation website, but it can be found by clicking the blue WOB head at the top of the page, just to the right of the flying wings link to the Bentley website.

Thanks for the reminder.

That's a dangerous place to visit as you risk ending up spending an hour or more browsing back issues of Foundation Corner.

I speak from personal experience.

Nicholas Simons wrote:David
I may misunderstand your query regarding the Foundation website, but it can be found by clicking the blue WOB head at the top of the page, just to the right of the flying wings link to the Bentley website.

The Foundation website is accessed as you describe, but provides little, there is at the top a "log in" but this does not seem to work, as confirmed by Ian.
Stephen, how did you access the back issues of foundation corner?
Edited: The website doesn't seem to like my iPad, I can acces
all the back issues when using a laptop!

John

Thanks Nicholas, I have found my way in and learned something of the Foundation!
However, I am uncertain how the information provided allows me to research the history of my car. Perhaps my expectations are the problem.
I did read that the objectives include "obtain any Bentley material that comes to light"

Hi All,

I was able to access the Foundation website on my laptop without problem.
Those of you that may wish to purchase drawings should read their piece about "The issue of Drawings". This sets out the conditions on which the sale of drawings will take place and it is important to read directive 05, which states that "It is to be noted that in many cases the drawings carry insufficient data for use in manufacture of parts and no warranty is given as to the completeness of any drawing of any part".I have no issues with the foundation and have always found their staff very helpful.
Before the Foundation was established, members were able to access the drawings at Club HQ and I took advantage of this whenever I needed copies of drawings, the only drawback was that the Club copier was A3 & 4 format which made copying of the AO size drawings very difficult!
When Simon Towle worked at Club HQ he very astutely arranged that all the drawings be copied electronically which made the way for the Foundation to control access to them and allow charges to be made for copies of the drawings.
After the drawings were copied, for a while, it became difficult to access the drawings while I was researching the 4 litre engine story that I later turned into articles published in the BDC "Review". Luckily the late and lamented John Hunt who was the spares controller at that time let me browse through the drawings to find what I was looking for and over the years I have spent several thousand pounds buying drawings from the Foundation.
On vintagebentleyblog in the piece "Building the Compensator" I highlighted the problems of using the original Bentley drawings as the dimensioning on them was not suitable for assembly of some of the parts.
Alan

Quite right. This interesting and valuable site hasn't been updated since September 30th and appears to have 'gone dead'. If you scroll down through their "About Us" section, mention is made that the site is now owned by Jatinder Pal Singh, who lives in New Zealand and specialises in historic buildings. It doesn't give a date, but presumably some time ago. I emailed Mr Singh a month or so ago enquiring about the status, but no response so far. I do hope nothing amiss.

Does anyone know anymore about the Vintagebentleys.org website situation?

Why can I not
read all of this
post?

The right hand
end of all the
entries is not
visible, so on
my devices I am
unable to read all
of what has been said.

Is it to do with the
oversize pictures in the
information.

The problem is the same
whether I use my
antique laptop or my
up to date iPad.

Cheers
John

John
This appears to be a programming error with the forum. If I shrink the page by zooming to 90% I can then see everything. I use a proper computer that sits on a desk so I am not familiar with these mobile things but you may be able to do the same on your 'modern' laptop and other thingy.

Thank you Nicholas.

I can set the points on an R-type, but IOS Devices are sometimes beyond me!

Cheers
John

This topic has gone very quiet. Has anything further happened regarding the vintagebentleys.org web site.

I find it very hard to understand how 'The Club' can say that most of the information on the site is from Clare Hay's various publications. Yes there is an extract from her work on each of the cars, but there is an additional mine of information on cars from past and present owners that is not found elsewhere.

I hope that the Archivist is extracting all the information possible, but from previous posting it seems unlikely.

I note that while the vintagebentley.org website is still accessible, there is no sign of new life. I do hope that this great resource will not be lost for good.

John,
The site hasn't changed for ages, over two years I think, and I agree with you that the archivist ought to download everything on it, but appears to be uninterested.
I wonder if any computer expert on this forum knows how to download all the quite remarkable amount of history and other data on the vintagebentley.org site. I think I emailed them ages ago asking what was happening but got no reply. Someone must be keeping the site online and if they're willing to do that I wonder if they'd be willing to give whatever database it uses to others for safekeeping - though I suppose whoever it is would say that's what they are doing already.
The moral probably is that if you think there's anything on the site that you want to look up do it and copy it now.

It would appear that the treasure trove of this website ( http://www.vintagebentleys.org/ ) is now devoid of content, or perhaps I looked on a bad day, but I fear it is lost.
I wonder if it’s content was gathered by the club?
Did the WO Bentley Memorial Foundation gather the information, but it seems to me that it is more interested in the cars built post WO, vehicles in which he had little or no involvement.

Fear not John, it is still there and has not been hoovered up as you suggest.

Martin

Martin, are you able to see the individual chassis numbers and accompanying details? For me that section is blank. The various articles still seem to be there.
I’ve tried on my ipad and a chromebook.
It’s the individual car details that were so interesting for me, so many past owners had given details that don’t seem to be available from the club.

You have to search among the remains of the body, for a scrap.

It is nearly dead.

So pleased to see that the website has been restored but under a new url.

https://vintagebentleyregister.com/

I find it a bit more difficult to search compared with the old platform, but the information is still all there.

John, thanks for pointing this out. There is in fact a large but rather minimalist announcement on p.20 of the latest advertiser.
I am very relieved that it looks as though it's running properly again.