minerva and Belgian cars

[gilletman]

Hello,

I'm new here and would like to know if there are any Minerva owners on this forum. I'm interested in all about Minerva and other Belgian pre war cars.
old pictures, commercials etc....
Thanks for all responces.

[Allan L]

Hello and welcome!
You'll find there are not many of us with an interest in pre-war cars, let alone people who own them, but we all have hidden depths of knowledge so don't dispair.
My 1912 Mors 12/15 pre-dates the use of Minerva-Knight engines so I'm no help even there.

[moffspeed]

As above - not a lot of interest in pre 50’s stuff here.

However if we combine Belgium and your user name something else equally interesting and more modern comes to mind. Do you own one ??

[gilletman]

I have noticed that not so much prewar stuff is on this forum, but if one does not shoot, you can't hit.
Lots of Minerva's have been sold in the UK, so i'm hoping to find at least something.
There must be some of them old cars lurking in some sheds and garages somewhere.
Kind regards from Belgium.

[gilletman]

Allan L said:

Hello and welcome!
You'll find there are not many of us with an interest in pre-war cars, let alone people who own them, but we all have hidden depths of knowledge so don't dispair.
My 1912 Mors 12/15 pre-dates the use of Minerva-Knight engines so I'm no help even there.

i did replay to this message, but since i'm new do not know how it works. i think i did something wrong.

[gilletman]

moffspeed said:

As above - not a lot of interest in pre 50’s stuff here.

However if we combine Belgium and your user name something else equally interesting and more modern comes to mind. Do you own one ??

Hello, i did replay to this message, but since i'm new i do not know how it workt, think i did something wrong.

[4rephill]

Welcome to the forum!

Not sure why your previous replies might not have appeared, but don't give up, as you seem to have got the hang of it now

I must confess, the only Minerva's that I've ever really been aware of, are the licensed built Land Rovers.

I have to say, having done a quick Google search, I'm loving the "chopped roof" look to some of them:





They've got quite a "hot rod" look to them! (Highlighted nicely by the deep dish rear wheels on the blue sedan )

[Allan L]

gilletman said:

i did replay to this message, but since i'm new do not know how it works. i think i did something wrong.

You sent me a message which came via e-mails and I have replied to it.

[gilletman]

Allan L said:

You sent me a message which came via e-mails and I have replied to it.

oh thanks, i did not get any of those… my mail adres is [e-mail]

[sunbeam alpine]

A couple of years back, we visited the old Imperia factory in Nessonvaux near Liege. One of only 2 factories in Europe to have a rooftop test circuit - it has unfortunately fallen into disrepair. The drop at the back of the factory is more than 200 metres into a valley, and the circuit is not very wide. The test drivers must have had balls of steel.

The drop is behind this curve...

Unfortunately most of the track isn't in a good state.

Impressive entrance.

The cars we took...

A bit of urbex... the factory is still full of machines. Will have a look this evening to see if I have more pics of the interior (I've pulled these off Facebook).

A good contact for everything Minerva is Dieter Vandebroucke from Dikkebus (near Ieper). You may already know him? You can find him on Facebook - Vitesse Vintage Automobilia.

Dieter's (advanced) man cave!

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 6th May 16:44

[gilletman]

gilletman said:

i did replay to this message, but since i'm new do not know how it works. i think i did something wrong.

i found your mail in my spam box, wanted to replace it, but it got lost. I marked now as not - unwanted…. should be good now. please try again.

[gilletman]

sunbeam alpine said:

A couple of years back, we visited the old Imperia factory in Nessonvaux near Liege. One of only 2 factories in Europe to have a rooftop test circuit - it has unfortunately fallen into disrepair. The drop at the back of the factory is more than 200 metres into a valley, and the circuit is not very wide. The test drivers must have had balls of steel.

The drop is behind this curve...

Unfortunately most of the track isn't in a good state.

Impressive entrance.

The cars we took...

A bit of urbex... the factory is still full of machines. Will have a look this evening to see if I have more pics of the interior (I've pulled these off Facebook).

A good contact for everything Minerva is Dieter Vandebroucke from Dikkebus (near Ieper). You may already know him? You can find him on Facebook - Vitesse Vintage Automobilia.

Dieter's (advanced) man cave!

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 6th May 16:44

Thanks.

Yes the imperia building and cars are wel known here in Belgium. Normaly this year an event was planned on the site from royal veteran car club.
there is a smal television program you can find on the net under ' Publiek geheim ' (publik secret) I do not know Dieter Vandebroucke, good to know.

Kind regards from Belgium.

[sunbeam alpine]

There used to be a guy somewhere around Wervik/Menen on an old farm who did nothing but classics, and had quite a few pre-war cars.

He was often at the Esplanade meetings in Ieper. I don't think he had anything Belgian but he had a couple of very nice Salmsons and a couple of pre-WW2 Alvis sports cars.

I know he had to move from the farm a couple of years back (expansion of the industrial area). One of my customers knows him well. Next time we speak I'll try to get his new address.

[gilletman]

sunbeam alpine said:

There used to be a guy somewhere around Wervik/Menen on an old farm who did nothing but classics, and had quite a few pre-war cars.

He was often at the Esplanade meetings in Ieper. I don't think he had anything Belgian but he had a couple of very nice Salmsons and a couple of pre-WW2 Alvis sports cars.

I know he had to move from the farm a couple of years back (expansion of the industrial area). One of my customers knows him well. Next time we speak I'll try to get his new address.

okay thanks, i wil keep watching.

[gilletman]

i wunder of someone knows this car in the UK. picture was made in 1966 at a meeting. The yellow car was seen in the 1970 ties.

all info welcome about Minerva cars in the UK

[gilletman]

JPvanRossem said:

How interesting. Is that easily accessible or by appointment only?

one can just walk it to it. But verry poor condition now. Near by is a Imperia museum, you have to look for opening hour, and even verry close is an other unknown car museum/ cafe. not Always open. If you contact imperia museum they can tel you about it. If you are looking for a place to stay, there is chateau bleu, owner is a pre war car enthousiast.

Good luck.

[gilletman]

JPvanRossem said:

Many thanks

(By the way, I am not really Jean-Pierre van Rossem)

that would be awkward, because he died last year…..

[sunbeam alpine]

JPvanRossem said:

gilletman said:

one can just walk it to it. But verry poor condition now. Near by is a Imperia museum, you have to look for opening hour, and even verry close is an other unknown car museum/ cafe. not Always open. If you contact imperia museum they can tel you about it. If you are looking for a place to stay, there is chateau bleu, owner is a pre war car enthousiast.

Good luck.

Many thanks

(By the way, I am not really Jean-Pierre van Rossem)

Glad to hear it - otherwise you'd be a bit dead.

As Gilletman says you can just walk in. When we visited we were actually on a day trip to an Italian car show at a castle in the area. Unfortunately it was called off on the day itself due to torrential rain.

One of my friends used to work for Alfa Romeo at international level, and he seems to know pretty much every interesting spot in Europe. We were talking about the rooftop circuit in Turin, so he took us to Nessanvaux, and then on to a couple of other places, although we missed the local museum.

We spent quite a while exploring the site, and managed to get into most of the buildings (without breaking in/causing damage!). Part of the site seemed to be used for housing/storing building materials and there was quite a lot of construction machinery on site. The police turned up just as we were getting back into the cars, but they didn't speak to us.

[gilletman]

JPvanRossem said:

That's useful, thanks. One never knows when such places might be bulldozed and gone forever, so that has fired my interest in visiting sooner rather than later.

Since assuming this online username, I am encountering more Belgians than ever before, mostly by coincidence. Anyway, I won't interrupt any further this interesting discussion about Minervas.

Suffice to say that it prompted me to mention Minervas to my father, as he had recently met the owner of a beautiful and obscure interwar English car that neither of us had ever heard of, called a Squire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squire_Car_Manufactu...

He immediately responded with this link https://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/unique-ae...

Those were the days, eh?

interesting, onley jut the cahssis is Minerva all the rest ….. i gues a matter of taste, i would have done it a different way, but anyhow good to know about.

[MGJ2]

Hello,

Did you read this article: https://www.prewarcar.com/minerva-a-brand-that-des... ?

We participated in a prewar rally from Chateau Blue and Ernest was also a participant with his Minerva.