Old stuff on Aprilias

[JohnMillham]

   I drove Maltby's Farina bodied Aprilia NGP 50 many thousands of miles when I worked for him. It was a great car and had the most superb gearchange. I helped Bob West rebush all the bell cranks (when "photographic" business was quiet) and it was probably the best steering column change I have ever used. You could change gear with one finger. The roadholding was more predictable than ordinary Aprilias and it went faster, probably due to its shape and weight distribution.
   At one stage, Maltby put EGF's engine in it, which was a particularly good first series motor, which made it a great car for long distances. Maltby and I went on a job to Scotland in it and he was done for speeding in Glasgow and cautioned by another policeman further north (I forget exactly where). There was an old "hill climb" alongside Lock Lomond which we went up and down a few times, just for the hell of it! That was my favourite Aprilia.
    I don't remember it being particularly noisy, but it had a useless handbrake and on one occasion, Maltby and I drove it back to London from Weymouth without any brakes. We waited 'till it got dark and the traffic thinned out a bit, but we made it without hitting anything. One of the dodgier drives of my life! Happy memories, John

[rogerelias]

Thanks John & Colin,for the replys and pic, for those who knew John Maltby, you can see it is one of his photos. I am sure that my father has a photo of his old Lambda BCO 987, taken at the same spot as this photo was, when Maltby had BCO, after my father had sold it too him  way back in the early 60s. Re driving without brakes, if someone has to hand the article from the 1992 mag about Roger Perry, then could they please post on here, the bit about when Maltby took Roger out for a drive in his first Aprilia, then you can imagine the glorious noise that i used to hear, as Maltby would be arriving at our house for dinner driving a B20 at full chat, i can remember hearing every gearchange from about 2 miles away, bearing in mind i was only a youngster at the time. One day maybe i will have my own B20, been close a couple of times, but not quite got there. Regards Roger.

[ColinMarr]

John,

I agree with you about the gear-change, and nothing I wrote was to disparage this aspect of NGP. You must have done a good job on re-bushing it. As I remember, it was all within the grasp of the outstretched left hand, with a big knurled amber knob and it just clonked in and out with ease. I envy you the hill climb experience! Did you ever have any photos of the dash and controls of this car?

Others have asked - what happened to it?  Some time after Roger died it went to Italy to a buyer who insisted on being anonymous, and then it went on to someone else – who knows. One day it will surface.

Colin 

[Sliding Pillar]

Sorry to bring this up again on the Aprilia page, but you are correct Brian the Club does make a profit from Library activity........ last year it was £12. Now this is no fault of the Librarian but simply because the Library is under used. If the information was available to all members for free on the forum I am sure we would easily get more revenue from increased membership, something the Club is in desperate need of. As for manuals being reproduced, correct me if I am wrong but I don't think that the Club have any manuals in the Library, as these were owned by the ex-Librarian.  If there are manuals these could be provided electronically for a fee. Ade.

[ncundy]

I agree with Ade. I am sure I have paid good money for literature from EBay or other sources that I could have (and would have preferred to) get from the club. If I am am spending a tenner I would rather it went to the club then an individual I don't know. But to make that a reality a searchable resource is what is needed - technical knowledge about Lancias is the key element we have in abundance that no other club has, let us use its to our advantage.

[inthedark]

Jumping in with both feet, if we had a complete list (on the forum perhaps) of what the library
contained it would be easy to then contact the librarian and ask for a specific item and cost
of reproduction.

Geoff

[Scarpia]

following Geoff's theme
A hybrid proposal could be;

1)A list on here of library contents
2)order via the forum the article/info needed.
3)Pay by visa etc on the main website (same system as membership renewal)
4) and we buy a scanner (laptop also perhaps) for the librarian.
5) he sends the attachment electronically to the member.
6)At the same time he archives the doc. on the "library" computer hard drive and we have a basic start to electronic archiving.  Rather than a very complex costly investment discussion

[ColinMarr]

While looking for something else, I find a really nice article by my old friend Howard Moon, who wrote several memorable articles about Aurelia and fine things from the past. This is reprinted from Lanciana in 1992 and is about his Aprilia, and links back to lovely impressions of John Maltby, who he knew from the 70s. I have scanned it in and will be happy to send it to anyone who wants it.

Colin

[Chris Hopkins]

Well, I am more than a little surprised.
I have publisised lists of the documents, including lots of manuals Ade, also did no one see my note in VL about the model specific lists of articles in all the VLs that it took quite a while to create. I obviously need to re-publisise it. Also I have a list of articles in the Journals that another club member has created.
Oh yes, by the way, I do not have a LMC PC or lap top, I use the family one for accessing personal stuff and my machine has been out of order for a couple of months. It is sort of fixed now, I hope.

My contact details are in the VL. If you need anything that you think the library could help with, then please send me an E-mail as I do not have time to look at the Forum regulary to read everyone's mutterings like the majority of club members.
Chris

[inthedark]

Chris,
It was not a criticism of your work if anything it was to make your life easier in the future and to raise funds
for the club. Part of the suggestion was that the Club could possibly purchase a scanner and lap-top for the
Librarian eventually leading to an electronic database, which would be easily accessable, which I imagine with
the piles of literature is not easy at the present time.
regards
Geoff

[Scarpia]

Chris,

I don't think you should be suprised really, these discussions have been going on for some time now and the take up of library material appears low despite a thirst for knowledge. The idea that if people want something enough they will find it doesn't really promote maximum use of the resource, at least not in the spirit of the club philosophy. If I even mention a need for information , I often have it in my mailbox within a few hours due to the kind efforts of fellow forum users.To follow the logic of your comments , I for one don't have time or patience these days to mess around with stamped adressed envelopes/trips to the post office/photocopying so I wouldn't expect you to operate this way anymore either.
Geoff is right in what he says and some of the ideas mooted might make the job less time consuming.I for one proposed the club supplies a computer /scanner with the idea of simplifying the process of distributing library articles.