[Ashley James]

Kevin

I think you are beating this one to death for no real purpose. I've
opined that Setright wasn't always historically accurate and that it
annoyed me and you've stated that he admitted there were mistakes in
his Bristol book. Therefore I think it's reasonable to assume that his
other books have mistakes in them too.

I don't know if any of you read the Automobile which is an excellent
Magazine for historical accuracy, but a couple of months ago Jonathan
Wood (an excellent Historian and writer) did a piece on the 400 and,
as he usually does, introduced new and verified information to the
story. He showed that Bristol paid BMW for the drawings and he better
explained the contrasts between AFN and Bristol, so he filled in a few
holes where Jenks had stuck to facts and avoided politics and Setright
had reported hearsay. It's an interesting story and worth getting
right and Jonathan has done that.

Over the last nine years I've paid thousands of pounds out to provide
properly designed websites that contain verifiable information not
readily available anywhere else simply because I had trouble finding
it when I was rebuilding my cars. I've used some of the most
authoritative sources in the world and where possible relied on
company records. I've also published stories from owners explaining
what their cars mean to them, I've published stories of old car events
from all over the world and for the last six years I've organised
trips to France that have produced visitors from all over the world,
often from Australia and including David Neely (one time Editor of the
OZ RROC bulletin and noted R-R Historian) and Paul Samuels with his
wife who I'm sure you all know. I think it is fair to say that my
sites are now widely regarded as the best resource for the cars they
cover. As I previously stated my webstats show up to 1000 unique
visitors a day, which I think remarkable considering the number of
cars registered with the clubs. I derive no gain of any sort beyond
friendship for all this either.

Therefore if I provided a link to them in response to someone asking
technical questions, needing specialist help or suppliers on your
Forum, it is because it is the best and most helpful way to answer
their question. It is not spamming!

The only reason any of this functions is because we all love our old
cars, we like making friends and we want to help one and other. In my
view links to anything and everything are are part of this as well as
a vital source of knowledge and helpful to us all. They are not spam
either!

Ashley