Old stuff on Aprilias

[ColinMarr]

I have really enjoyed the recent exchanges on this forum about some of the things that make the Aprilia such a magic car. I was prompted to look back into my archive of old stuff to look for the article by Paul Frere about the rear suspension, which I had mentioned early on. I couldn’t find it, but I did turn up some other things that might be of interest again now.

One article that I was pleased to read again was by the late Norman Wilson, who did extraordinary things with Aprilias in the late 60s and early 70s – this is a long article from the LMC Journal published in Spring 1973. It describes competing at Shelsley Walsh and tells how he fitted BRM rear wheels to reduce the final drive ratios, and in vivid detail how he got on with it. There is quite a good photo of the car too.

I have scanned this article using OCR (which I think in this instance stands for ‘optimistically capturing rainbows’), but it’s still a large file. If you are interested to see this, please email me and I will send a copy to you.

Also, I have scanned an article I wrote in 1991, which tells of how I got involved in Aprilias and what it meant to me in the 1960s. And there are some notes on maintaining an Aprilia by a number of people including John Savage.

Please let me know if you would like to receive any of this.

Footnote: Dipping back into my chaotic collection of old stuff makes me think again about the advantages of having a proper LMC archive easily accessible online to members. I’ll do another post on this in the Members Only section.

Colin     

[Richard Fridd]

hi Colin , i would love to have a look at this old stuff!would i be right in thinking i may already have the 1991 article if i look back through my old LMC mags from that time?      richard.

[Scarpia]

count me in also Colin please.

[inthedark]

I would be most interested in "catching up". Thanks for the offer

Geoff

[ColinMarr]

The article that I refer to as the one written by me is in the LMC Journal of Spring 1992 – it was written as a tribute to Roger Perry who had died the previous year. If you have old copies of the Journal, then best to see it in that form complete with photos that I now seem to have lost.

I’ll send you all copies of what I have.

Colin

[Scarpia]

Colin,
I have the 92 spring journal and enjoyed the article when I read it. I always liked the look of the farina aprilia I must say.

I would be interested to read the 73 Norman Wilson article if not too much trouble ,
Thanks
William

[donw]

Whilst not wishing to detract from Colin's kind offer, for all those interested in what has been published by LMC in the past the LIBRARY has a virtually full set of Newsletters, Newssheets, Journals and Viva Lancias and I believe an index of articles.  There are also lists of items held by model for most models and the Librarian can supply photo copies to members at very modest cost to cover copying and post.

The Library is a service for members and a good place to start finding out what is available in you area of interest.

The Librarian's details are pubilshed monthly in Viva Lancia!

Don

[rogerelias]

Just as a bit of useless information> The ex Roger Perry Aprilia special, used to belong to John Maltby, older members will remember him, I can remember when my father worked with John, he borrowed the car for the weekend and we went to Ramsgate, all four of us, alas i was only a mere sprog at the time , but can still remember it was noisy!! Told you it was a useless bit of information. Regards to all. Roger. Been trying to remember the reg number.

[Harvey]

Further to Don's post, the library would seem to be a great starting point for a digital archive. Surely, the least contentious area when it comes to copyright!

[inthedark]

Now now Harvey, don't start coming up with your own ideas It can only lead to..............

[ColinMarr]

Roger,

It was “NGP 50” – bodywork by Stabilimenti Farina. I remember it too as being very noisy and not particularly nice to drive. Perhaps unique in having a steering column gearshift into a non-synchromesh box!

The picture below was taken by John Maltby.

Colin

[Sliding Pillar]

Colin, if you remember the steering column was extended as the driver sat roughly in the place where the rear seat was in a stanard Aprilia!!!  I think Roger sold it to someone in Italy, I wonder where it is now?

[Sliding Pillar]

Back to the subject of the Digital Archive, it's all well and good that the Club has the Library. I have most News Sheets and Journals back to the year dot........but if you want to find something it takes hours of searching and you keep getting side tracked by other articles. Just imagine how easy it would be if all you had to do was log on, type in Aprilia and hey presto you had a list of all Aprilia articles ever written in the Club publications.  We can but dream!!!!!!!!!

[donw]

Ade

Thats just what the Library has all be it currently in paper form!  I believe that the cost of electronic archiving is being investigated but this will take time and the expense may not be justified until most members are active computer users.

Don 

[fay66]

Ade

Thats just what the Library has all be it currently in paper form!  I believe that the cost of electronic archiving is being investigated but this will take time and the expense may not be justified until most members are active computer users.

Don 

I'm all in favour of a digital archive but as the Library currently makes money for the LMC then surely a charge would need to be built into the system, if it's free then I feel a restriction would need to be placed on the amount a member was allowed to print off, otherwise we could have the situation where some people (excuse me being a bit cynical) might be tempted to pull off a complete manual for their own use, or to sell on; it may sound a bit harsh but having lent my one of my Dedra Manuals to someone to look up a particular job for himself, I shortly after found that he was selling copies of my Dedra Manual on ebay I was not amused.

Brian
8227

PS.
Harvey, any chance of moving this to a seperate thread of it's own,
My PC was playing silly B's and I lost my place, taken me a hell of a time to find where it is