The Wolseley Register Overseas
Woseley Register friends John Mallia (Australia) and Kurt Hoppe (Switzerland)
The Wolseley Register Overseas
The Wolseley Register membership includes a substantial number of owners around the world, many of whom organise local activities in conjunction with local classic car enthusiasts. Members are based across Europe, in Australia, New Zealand, Scandanvia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and North America.
Overseas Members are warmly welcomed on visits to the UK and their hospitality to members travelling abroad is legendary.
This page is for Overseas news, events and reports. Overseas Members are welcome to submit articles and images to the Website Editor
Summer 2011 Swiss Mountain Trip by Wolseley 1500
by Kurt & Margrit Hoppe
This week we drove and walked in the Swiss mountains. The Wolseley 1500 climbed two mountain roads at 7491 and 7595 ft.
We walked from 4920 to 7675 ft. The air at this level is very thin so we and the Wolseley had to work very hard.
It was so nice - it is good for body and mind to connect with nature.
At the village of "Sils Maria" near St Moritz
From Norway to Naples by 1959 Wolseley 6/90
by Vilhelm Lange
In the summer of 1959 my parents and I were invited to take a passage on a Norwegian cargo ship from Naples via Casablanca to Norway by the ship-owner, who was a friend of my father's. This involved getting to Naples in time for the sailing date. My father - not trusting any kind of public transport - opted for the family Wolseley, a dark green 1956 6/90. The car had a pair of front seat-belts fitted for the occasion.
I was 13 years old. I had never been abroad (not counting one or two Sunday drives across the border to Sweden) and was very enthusiastic. I was also the owner of a quite simple but usable Agfa camera. My photos from the expedition still survive, and some of them picture the Wolseley at various points of the journey, which did not go quite according to plan.
The drive from our home in Trondheim, Norway, to Naples was a long one. My father had planned it carefully and meant to cover fairly long daily distances to give room for a few breaks of a day or a half-day to visit places of special interest. But the Wolseley proved uncooperative.
The first 250 miles or so were covered mostly on gravel roads, typical for Norway of the 1950's. There were import restrictions on new cars since the war, so anyone who wanted a new car had to obtain a licence from the government. Consequently there was little traffic, and my father would normally make use of the empty roads to push his Wolseley to the utmost.
After about five hours the car stopped and refused to go any further. It was a mystery. For all his energy behind the wheel my father was no mechanic, and neither were my mother, I or my elder cousin who was coming along with us as far as Oslo. A passing bicyclist even less so. What we could do was push the car up a hill and see what might happen on the other side. I acted as a reporter/photographer and took the first couple of pictures from the journey. I do not remember how we got the car going, but we finally made it to the small town of Elverum where we spent the night in a hotel. And the next day the car was all right again.
In Oslo we boarded the M/S 'Vistula' on the passenger line from Oslo to Frederikshavn in Jutland, Denmark. She would also take cars and other cargo as required, but not in the modern roll-on/roll-off fashion. My next photo shows the Wolseley being slung on board the ship in Oslo.
From Frederikshavn my father had planned to go to Hamburg, a distance of just over 300 miles. It was purely a transport leg, and I remember very little of it. My Agfa stayed in the bag until we had crossed the border to Germany. The next morning we set out for Heidelberg, experiencing the famous German 'Autobahn'. Two lanes in each direction - a miracle of modernity unseen in Norway. My father found that the Wolseley was able to sustain 75 mph over longer periods; anything faster would make it overheat.
We were allowed half a day of sightseeing in Heidelberg, and I took a (to me, now,) surprisingly large number of pictures of the old castle on the hillside above the city. After lunch we set off once more, my father intending to reach Basel that day. It was not to be. After an hour or so we came to a sign reading 'Ende der Autobahn 1000 meter' and very soon came to the exit where the road curved back to a bridge across the motorway. We were just coming out of the curve when the car started to swerve from side to side, my father desperately turning the wheel and finally bringing the car to rest just before the bridge. Something was obviously very wrong: With the car stationary, the steering wheel could be spun without resistance. One front wheel was pointing straight ahead, the other sharply to the left - as can be seen on the last photo. My father was able to get a lift with a passing car to the nearest town, and after some time returned with a couple of men in a recovery vehicle. With the car on its rear wheels we were all transported to the small town of Bühl. Here we were accommodated in a guest-house, and the Wolseley taken in hands by C. Grethel's garage where they immediately started a search for replacement parts. The advantage of driving a British car in Germany was doubtful; clearly this was not going to be a case of next-day delivery. There was a real possibility that we would not be in time for the ship in Naples.
On our third day in Bühl we were told that the missing part was located at a BMC agent in Zürich, and by noon the next day we were off. According to my father's calculations we might just be able to get to Naples in time by abstaining from any normal tourist activities. So we roared across the Alps, arriving at inns and hotels long after dark and leaving at first light. There are no photographs of the Wolseley from this part of the journey, possibly because I was never allowed far enough from the car to get it in focus. We made a short stop on a ring road outside Pisa, and I pointed my Agfa in the direction of the leaning tower which I was too short-sighted to actually see. I got a convincing picture of it all the same, though. In Rome we had about one hour to spare - and so on.
We got to Naples in time, of course. The Wolseley was once again lowered into a ship's hold and I think we were all relieved to see it disappear.
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