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VELOCETTE ERROR

   
Glad to see the little Velocettes make an appearance in the magazine. I refer to your report on the Stanford Hall meet of the LE Velocette OC. Pity you could not refer to your reference works before going into print. I refer of course to your commentary on picture one. The Viceroy was not a four-stroke, it was a very unusual and effective two-stroke twin. Unusual, because it was a horizontally opposed twin with 180 degree cranks. This meant that both cylinders fired together, otherwise there was no crankcase compression and gave almost perfect balance to the engine. The exhaust note of this machine is unique. Unfortunately it took so long in development that it appeared long after foreign imports had secured the UK market and it suffered too from a hefty price tag.

Martin Luker
Via email

LICENCE ENTITLEMENT – THERE’S MORE

With very good reason, the sore subject of licence entitlement continues to be aired by those affected, those who might be affected and those of us who can recognise this as the tip of a very large iceberg.

How many of us who ‘upgrade’ our driving licence to a photo licence, for example when we move home or on passing a test for another class of vehicle, actually realise that your new licence only has a 10 year expiry – or even less if you have already attained your 60th birthday? When I changed details, and had to pay the appropriate fee for a photo licence, it was never pointed out that the licence had only a 10 year validity period; I picked-up this nugget of information when I overheard a conversation in a hospital waiting room. At the time I had doubts that it was correct but immediately checked my licence and found it was true.

Also, how many of us realise that when our licence expires we will also lose the entitlement to tow some types of trailer? The following is an extract from http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/ website. If you go to this site make sure you have a clear head or a translator in gobbledegook because it certainly is not straight forward – as we have come to expect:

Car licences obtained before 1 January 1997

If you passed a car test before 1 January 1997 you keep your existing entitlement to tow trailers until your licence expires. This means you're generally entitled to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8.25 tonnes maximum authorised mass (MAM). You also have entitlement to drive a minibus with a trailer over 750kg MAM.

Car licences obtained on or after 1 January 1997

If you passed a car test on or after 1 January 1997 you're limited to vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass towing a trailer up to 750kg, or a vehicle and trailer combination up to 3.5 tonnes MAM providing the MAM of the trailer doesn't exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle. You will need to pass an additional driving test in B+E if you wish to tow a caravan or trailer combination which exceeds these weight limits.

All that we need now is for the Government to assure us that these measures are being introduced to reduce the country’s carbon footprint just to really add insult to injury.

By the way, on the subject of the magazine’s layout and content – absolutely the right balance for me, especially the articles about the music of ‘my era’.

Paul Taylor
Sandbach, Cheshire

Ed Note – Send your licence to the DVLA with a covering letter asking for your old licence to be returned. The DVLA will now return said licence with a hole punched in it, as well as your new licence. Ending the fiasco of lost entitlements.

 
More letters in the magazine >>