A GP Itala at GBP 25

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Alistair Dray from New-Zealand surprised us with several interesting pictures and a great yarn. He writes: “They date from 1934, when my wife's grandfather, John Pole, ‘barn-found’ the famous 1908 GP Itala, nick-named ‘Floretta’. He first saw the car behind the Scole Inn in Suffolk in 1927. Once the VSCC had been founded and interest in old cars was rising, he returned to the Scole Inn. The car was still there, and he negotiated it's purchase for 25 pounds. He returned a week later with two friends and a Morris truck with plenty of supplies. It took them three days to cut off the old hardened tires and get the car ready for a tow-start. They pulled it with the Morris, he let out the clutch, it burst into life and jumped forward, ramming the Morris truck and bending it's chassis. He then drove it back to London and used it for about 12 to 18 months until he sold it to Cecil Clutton in 1935 or '36. The pressure a new wife with a young baby puts on a husband! That baby is now my mother-in-law. The rest, as they say, is history.” The Itala is famous in VSCC circles, and if rumors are correct it comes up for sale with Bonhams at Goodwood in June this year.
(The hill climb photo was taken at a 1935 VSCC Aston Clinton hill climb)

Update by  Graham Rankin: Following your photos of the magnificent 1908 Itala I thought your readers might appreciate sight of the other (1905) Itala when it was rediscovered way back in the nineteen thirties. The attached photo appeared on the cover page of the relatively newly formed VSCC Bulletin in September 1938 and was taken by co-founder member Anthony Heal. It is a very exciting and evocative sight... The car can, of course, be seen at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

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