Pleasant surprise

As is my custom, I always make a point of scanning through all the motor magazines as they appear on the bookshop shelves and make a purchase if there is something interesting to follow up on — and that, of course, usually relates to Riley cars. And it is an interesting observation that in all the motor magazines which are available, there are very few articles which involve Rileys.

It therefore came as a pleasant surprise to pick up the October 2017 issue of the New Zealand Classic Car ( No. 322) to find an excellent article on a beautiful white 1948 RMB Riley. The write-up was generally factual, and in addition gave a short potted history of Riley’s development over the years, and the final decline with the badgeengineered BMC products.

It got me thinking that perhaps as a one-make car club we tend not to seek the limelight, but rather enjoy our Rileys in quiet obscurity.

If your magazine were to (say) cover our next annual National Rally and highlight the great variety of classic quality cars that Riley produced, I am sure that readers would be greatly enlightened. However, is that necessarily a good thing to promote, or do we continue to enjoy our cars in quiet obscurity?

Food for thought …