It has been a busy start to the month.

We attended the The National Car Club Awards ceremony – we were shortlisted for Best Club Newsletter. Had a nice time, but didn’t win anything, though.

Did meet TV star Ant Anstead briefly. He likes J-types! His eyes lit up when we mentioned the Register.

Autocult, a specialist German modelmakers, have introduced a 1:43 scale resin model of a J van. They use resin as it gives them the flexibility to make models in small batches. Apparently only 333 are made of any model, which sell for around £90 each. Undoubtedly the most accurate model made so far, the windscreens and other windows sit so neatly in their apertures for instance, the model is only let down by a few errors. In particular the rear wheelarches seem wrong, as does the curvature of the grille area. The model also looks as if the real van used to model from was seriously overloaded at the point that measurements were taken. But nevertheless, definitely the best so far.

Ebay currently has the ex-Frank Horton pick-up up for sale. This had a diesel engine and auto gearbox when in Frank’s ownership. It might just surprise whoever buys it!

In Australia another ‘new’ van has surfaced. We will be giving more details of this in the next Review, no. 44, which we are putting together with a view to posting it out very early in May. This is a good time to say that if you have anything of interest now is the time to send it to the Register for inclusion.

The Register is also collaborating with the Australian arm, J-types Australia, to commission one last batch of chrome grille ‘hoops’. These have been ordered and should be ready in a few weeks. If you need a pair then let us know asap so that we can reserve a set. They will be £80 plus postage for the two pieces.