News
29 September, 2021
Singers tour the valleys
Eagle-eyed motorists might have spotted a mini-convoy of vintage sports cars crisscrossing the Somerset, as members of the Singer Car Club of Queensland visited the region.
Russell Tuck, the infamous ‘Rusty’ to his friends and travelling companions, took on the role of spokesperson, explaining the similarities, and differences, to other British sports cars of the same era.
“They do look a little like some other British sports cars, but ours date back to the early days of motoring, and we like to keep the tradition alive,” Rusty said.
As well as a range of road cars, ‘Rusty’ said the Singer Factory was also a prolific supporter of competition cars.
“Jim Bertram, one of our members actually raced a Singer at both the Strathpine and Lowood race tracks, in 1960 he not only raced his own car in one of the support races, but he prepared the car for Chas Whatmore that finished 8th outright in the Australian Grand Prix.
“Jim is guiding us through this region, as he has many connections to it, not just from his racing, but also through family, and we are loving the whole trip.”
The convoy of sports cars worked their way through the district, making a number of stops, ‘to share the love’, during the two day trip.
“We went to the Lavender farm at Thornton, then across to Gatton, we stayed a night in Esk, before travelling into Kilcoy and Mt Mee on our way back to Brisbane, we made sure we stopped and spent money everywhere we could.”
Rusty said the club’s main function was to ‘keep the Singer marque alive’, but other marques were welcome to join.
“Many of our cars were restored from basket cases, but they get a lot of love, so that two of these cars ‘Singer 9’ and ‘Le Mans’ regularly win many trophies at rallies and car shows, graham Smith, our parts officer, has a huge shed, and stores many of our second-hand parts, and there are British manufacturers who do production runs of parts, we will buy a number of those, just to keep them handy.”
With a mix of cars in the club, Rusty said the oldest is a 1912 model, with the newest a 1960 Singer Vogue sedan, out of the approximately 30 cars actively on the road.
“We have members in northern New South Wales, but they can’t join us at the moment, as well as Queensland and even New Zealand.”
