Newsletter June, 2019

Newsletter, June 2019

Hi there.  Apart from the recent Spring Tour there has been little activity in the VSMA world.  The report of the Spring Tour to Cumbria can be found in our website in the events/Run Section.

Members Database Changes: 

Below are changes members have submitted to me.  All the details can be found in the Members List section and clicking on the member’s name

New Email addresses:

David Seaton’s address is now:       transport@freightexpress.co.uk

Logan Morrison can now be found at:     val.morrison7@talktalk.net

Deaths: 

I have to report the death of Derek Hastings from Biggar.  He joined VSMA 1983 having been involved in Racing and speed events until farely recently.


A new Director is to be co-opted to the Board of VSMA, namely Jack Davidson.   As you may know Jack is a former freelance photojournalist on motor sport, and contributed event reports and articles to “The Press and Journal”, “Motoring News” (now “Motorsport News”), newspapers and “Rally Car” magazine. He also wrote and produced five volumes of “Motor Sports Extra”, the history of the Scottish Hill Climb Championship from 1970 to 1999.  Originally from Stonehaven, he spent the vast majority of his working life based in Aberdeen, but upon retirement, relocated to Winchburgh in West Lothian.

He sent me the press release of his latest book on David Gillanders, which I have attached below.

PRESS RELEASE:                                          May 30, 2019

Front Cover
Back Cover

ABERDEEN’S  FORMER CHAMPION RALLY DRIVER WINS WITH HIS NEW BOOK

Aberdeen champion rally driver, David Gillanders, who won the British National Rally Championship in 1987 and then the Scottish Rally Championship in 1995, has written, or to be more precise, dictated some 95,402 words for his book: ‘DAVID GILLANDERS – I do all the talking! 

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The formal launch will be held in the Malmaison Hotel, 49-53 Queen’s Road, Aberdeen, AB15 4YP, on Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 5.30 pm. A number of Gillanders’ former co-drivers are expected to be in attendance.

The idea for a book occurred in 2015. David, having suffered a serious heart attack, was lying in hospital surrounded by his family, and quite frankly contemplating a bleak future; he thought the time had come to write down the story of his life, mainly for the benefit of his children and grandchildren. This simple idea of a family legacy has, after a lot of work and input from various sources, blossomed into an extremely readable and enjoyable book about not only motor sport, but of a varied and extremely interesting life, a life lived to the full.

The Foreword is written by Malcolm Wilson, OBE, Managing Director of M-Sport, the World Rally Championship manufacturer of the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Fiesta, and contributions throughout the book have been provided by the Late Colin McRae’s former co-driver, Nicky Grist, former Austin Rover Group Motorsport Director, John Davenport, and several of the Aberdonian’s former co-drivers throughout his long career. 

In the book, Gillanders also tells of the time he communicated with two US Presidents (and met with one), the breakfast he shared with a top female Hollywood star, his flight in a fighter jet, a sail on a former Americas’ Cup yacht, fishing on a North Sea seine net trawler, and of having his helicopter stolen, not to mention many more incidents involving the sport of Special Stage Rallying which culminated in two major championship titles. 

The paperback is to be published by FastPrint Publishing towards the end of June, 2019, but for anyone who cannot wait until then, pre-publication copies (with a free bookmark) can be purchased at the formal launch, or directly from Jack Davidson. The book comprises 360 pages (of which 8 are in full colour) and sports 237 photographs from 57 varieties of photographer. The cover price is £15.00 + £4.00 p&p (UK).

Further information can be provided by Jack Davidson:

  • e-Mail: info@davidgillanders6r4.com
  • Telephone: 07736 679520 
  • facebook.

To make you smile (I hope):

I couldn’t finish this short Newsletter without including something I thought might tickle you !  It certainly amused me. This is from a colleague in the U.S.A.

The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry mid term, and an actual answer turned in by a student. The answer by this student was so ‘profound’ that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:  

               Bonus Question:  

Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?  

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law, (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed), or some

variant.   One student, however, wrote the following: 

  • First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time.
  • So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely.
  • I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.
  • Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
  • Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.
  • Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.
  • With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.  

This gives two possibilities: 

  •  If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose .
  • If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. 

So which is it? 

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct……..leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God.’   

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.


That’s all folks………………. !                                        Stuart Parker, June 2019                                                                                                    Back to top

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