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.

We think that this is the only example of a J-type immortalised in a tattoo, send a photo if you know otherwise!

Thanks to Peter Bateman for the photo!

It’s great to see Classic Van and Pick-up flying the flag for our wonderful vans.

The March 2017 issue, in all good newsagents now, has a 6-page article on SLO 234, owned by Register-members Gary and Heather Sumner. Six pages and the main front-cover photo. Not bad eh!

Thanks to an email from its owner, Edson Eduardo Neuwald, we have updated info on this van in Brazil. The van was for sale in Uruguay a few years ago, looking a little shabby but certainly restorable.

It has now gone from being probably the only surviving J-type van in South America, to being almost certainly the only J-type ice cream van in South America! Either way, it’s still the 8th oldest surviving van.

In our archives there is a photo of a fleet of J-types and PVs which were in the service of the Columbian Post Office, so we do know that Js were exported to South America, but in what quantities we will never know.

Edson has sent the Register a little of the recent history of the van along with some photographs, which will provide a welcome article for the next issue of the Review, No. 44.

Entrant 084, the Winning Appliances J van won Outstanding Car at Australia’s greatest car event – SummerNats30 in Canberra. Congratulations!  Andrew Slender now has another trophy for this van. The next display is in Sydney on Australia Day, January 26 at CARnivale, Parramatta Park.

Over 2400 entrants with the coolest rides in the country are in Canberra for their annual weekend of FUN!
There are two Morris J vans here this year and the Winning Appliances van driven by Andrew Slender was invited to take part in the Super Cruise through the centre of Canberra. What fun! And there is more to come too.

May the new year bring health and happiness to owners and enthusiasts worldwide!

Members can expect the latest issue of the J-type Review to drop through their letterboxes over the next couple of days.

It’s another fab issue with lots of interesting content, from both sides of the globe.

JB/MR 43570, the Pipe Perfection Plumbing JB has been seen around Sydney’s inner west recently. Peter Bateman sends this image taken of Singapore Airlines A380 Airbus – 9V-SKD on final approach to Sydney airport.