As the compiler of this collection of articles, | draw on no extensive personal experience of Scotts. My own search for technical information, and a belief in the likely value of such a collection to other Scott owners and restorers provided the incentive to compile this anthology. The articles which follow are taken almost entirely from the pages of “Yow!”, and it is to their many authors that any credit is due. In scanning the past issues for suitable material, one cannot fail to be impressed with the range and quality of the technical contributions.

The original “Yow!” or other reference to each article is shown by volume, number, month and year, together with the name or initials of the author where this has been published. Some of the authors remain anonymous; some are no longer with us. Where prices and sources of supply are quoted, these, of course, may no longer apply.In the case of those articles which first appeared in other journals or in the technical literature, the original source of the material, in most cases now over forty years old, is nonetheless gratefully acknowledged.

A photo-copy technique has been adopted in the interests of cost-reduction and simplified production, but at the price of either omitting photographs or at best poorly reproducing them. A photographic section, with good-quality prints of original machines and authentic restorations, would be a useful future project.

The loose-ieaf format of the anthology has been chosen to simplify the addition of further material, although it is not proposed to establish an on- going service to produce and distribute supplements to this volume. Most . people have access to a photocopier, and it should be a relatively simple task to keep up with the new material from “Yow!” , The chapter divisions are somewhat arbitrary, and there is some overlap, but the inclusion of an article has been regarded as more important than its location. Occasionally, articles offer differing or conflicting views on the same subject. No attempt has been made to resolve these issues, and readers are left to form their own conclusions.

The decision to include or exclude an article has sometimes been difficult, and will not please everyone, and I have no doubt missed a number of worthy items. Many useful bits of information are buried in general articles, and with the exception of the material mentioned in the next paragraph, these, for the most part,have not been included. The anecdotes of “Lofty” Avis are a case in point, although some of Lofty’s advice as Technical Correspondent does appear. His narratives must surely be worthy of a separate publication.

A part of Section 10 has been devoted to the correspondence of the late Tom Ward, written in the course of his Scott Postal Discussion Group,(S.P.D.G.) These articles range across the entire spectrum of Scott interests, and are packed with useful and thought-provoking comments. It seems neither necessary nor desirable to attempt to separate this material into specific technical topics.Extracts from “Yow” are reproduced with the the permission of the Committee of the Scott Owners’ Club. I am most grateful to Les Scott for his assistance in making available back~numbers, and in providing copies of particular articles from out-of-print issues.

For those unable to find in this collection the solution to their technical problem, reference to Harold Wood’s version of “The Book of the Scott”, reproduced in Section 9, may offer some consolation.

Dr Steven Enticott