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HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
 
Family Money: Direct vs. Indirect Investment - Part 1
 
The computer doctor

Successfully Yours: Jean-Fernand Wasser
 
Snap Shots: Out of the shadows
 
Modern Medicine: Have you got sugar?

Heart to Heart with Hillary
 
Grapevine
 
Animal Crackers: Lizards
 
Auto Mania: No substitutes for cubic inches

Family Money: Direct vs. Indirect Investment - Part 1

By Leslie Wright

There are principally two ways of investing into stocks or bonds.

The direct method involves instructing a stockbroker to buy shares directly on your behalf.

These are either issued in your name, making you effectively a part-owner of your selected firms, or are ‘bearer’ shares, the certificates for which can be passed on to anyone else at any time without new shares having to be issued.

Trading in bonds works more or less the same way.

The indirect method involves pooling your resources with hundreds or thousands of other people, and getting a professional manager to make and manage the investments on your collective behalf.

This method enables you to access the various cash, bond and stock markets of the world through what are often termed ‘collective investment instruments’ such as unit trusts, mutual funds and unit-linked insurance policies.

Specific Funds

Nowadays there are literally thousands of such funds to choose from. But each fund may invest only in the asset class, market sector, or geographical area which have been predefined by the fund’s trustees.

For example, a U.S. Stock Market Fund may only invest in (you guessed it) the U.S. stock market. It may not invest in, for instance, the SET or European bonds.

Similarly, a European Bond Fund may not invest in the U.S. stock market, or the Japanese bond market; only in fixed-interest securities issued in Europe.

Some funds access wider geographical areas, but may still be relatively restricted.

An ASEAN Fund, for example, can invest in any of the stock markets of ASEAN countries, but usually is required to hold a minimum in each one.

So called ‘sectoral’ or ‘specialist’ funds access specific market sectors - such as telecommunications, or healthcare, for example - but can invest in virtually any company in the world specialising in these activities.

Any of these funds may, however, hold an element of cash, the proportion of which the manager will increase when he feels the market is going to have a ‘correction’ (or go down, in other words), or decrease when he sees opportunities in his particular fund’s market sector.

Within the pre-set parameters of the fund in question, however, the portfolio manager trades the underlying assets on a largely discretionary basis.

This means you have no direct control over which companies he or she will buy shares in, nor when he or she will buy or sell those shares.

You do, however, have the choice of which funds to select for your own portfolio; and this selection can create a diversified, balanced portfolio, accessing any or all the various asset classes, sectors, and markets you choose.

Chart 1 - One Stock versus Many.

chart1.jpg (34854 bytes)

Which is better?

Regular readers will already know that I am a proponent of indirect investment. There are various reasons for this.

First and foremost, when it comes to making any investment, let alone constructing a complex portfolio, the risk element should be considered.

Buying a few shares in a single company is literally putting all your eggs in one basket. If that company does particularly well, you stand to make a very handsome profit. If it does poorly, no matter the reason, a significant proportion of your investment capital may be lost, which may take a long time to recoup.

However, if you bought shares in several companies, you would reduce the risk of all of them performing poorly, and thus protect your investment.

Inevitably, one will look back with hindsight and say of the best performer, "If I’d bought more in that firm, and less in the others, I’d have done much better." Yes, of course. Anyone can have perfect hindsight vision.

But at the time of buying your shares you had to try to guess which ones would do well in the future, not necessarily which had done well in the past - although this could give a useful indication of consistency, if that’s what you were looking for.

It was prudent to hedge your bets by buying several rather than just one. You were more likely to pick at least one winner.

This same method applies on a wider basis as well.

More spread means less risk

If instead of buying a few shares you had been able to spread your investment across all the stocks which make up the index of that market, you would have evened out the bumps quite considerably.

This is shown in Chart #1, which plots the performance over 10 years of a single ‘blue chip’ stock against the FTSE index, which monitors 100 of the U.K. market’s largest publicly-traded companies.

Clearly, being spread across 100 stocks not only gave a better overall return than just one, but had less volatility along the way.

Reducing risk by apportioning your investment allocations even wider is shown in Chart #2.

Here the risk-to-return from being invested in just the FTSE index - a single market in other words - is plotted against the risk-to-return from being invested throughout the world, using the MSCI World Index as the indicator.

The period deliberately chosen to demonstrate this point was 1990 to 1996 - a period which saw a lot of volatility, first with the onset of the Gulf War, followed by a return to stability, then the speculative bubble in the Far East during 1993, followed by the bond-market crash and ‘global meltdown’ of 1994, and the ‘flight to quality’ which took place through 1995 & 1996 when investors moved away from emerging markets and back to the ‘mainstream’ markets of Europe, the U.K. and the U.S.A.

Some investors did very well during this period - if they managed to select their markets wisely, and move in and out at the right times. Others did very poorly, and quite a number who had made money in ’93 lost it all in ’94-95.

Being invested only in the U.K. during this period produced an average annual return of 11.5%, but with a risk factor of 12.9% - the relative annual fluctuation in this single market.

However, spreading your investments throughout the world produced an average annual return of 12.3% p.a. - higher than the return from the U.K. by itself - accompanied by a slightly lower annual risk: 12.6%.

Curiously, though, you can see from the chart that by holding 50% of your portfolio in U.K. stocks and 50% spread throughout the rest of the world, you’d have reduced your overall risk - the volatility of your portfolio - down to only 11.7%, while your average annual return would still have been a quite acceptable 11.9%.

In this case, the risk attached to your portfolio - its potential volatility in other words - would have been brought down to below the average return.

Clearly, risk management is an important part of portfolio construction, no matter whether you’re an amateur investor or a professional portfolio manager.

The problem is that few amateurs understand how to manage the risks, nor have the specialised information available to professionals which is so necessary to avoiding undue volatility or at least keeping risk within acceptable levels.

Chart 2 - One Market versus Many.

chart2.jpg (27177 bytes)

(To be continued next week.)

If you have any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning investment matters, write to Leslie Wright, c/o Family Money, Pattaya Mail, or fax him directly on (038) 232522 or e-mail him at [email protected]. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s website on www.westminsterthailand.com.

Leslie Wright is Managing Director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd., a firm of independent financial advisors providing advice to expatriate residents of the Eastern Seaboard on personal financial planning and international investments.

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The computer doctor

by Richard Bunch

From Samantha Strange, Na Jomtien: I am studying for a degree and use the Internet to research and keep in touch with my tutor. Unfortunately I do not have a PC of my own and use my husband’s laptop, which belongs to the company he works for. Whilst this works out well, he is concerned about Cookies, so can you possibly explain what Cookies are, what purpose they serve and if they are dangerous? Thanks.

Computer Doctor replies: Cookies are small bits of information saved by your browser when you visit some web sites. By doing this the sites will recognise you as a previous visitor next time you go to their site. Most cookies work invisibly, others can help automate your web surfing, e.g. sites that offer personalised content often use cookies to store the info you’ve previously entered, such as addresses and passwords. Most experts agree that cookies are fairly harmless, but if you’re really worried, you can always configure your browser to reject cookies or alert you before accepting them. There is also a wide range of third party software available that will wipe all cookies off your hard drive.

From David Thorne, Rayong: The company I work for has a program that they use for doing stock control and processing orders. They had it made a number of years ago and it was written in Clipper I believe. The problem is that when the database is queried, the records are not found even though they are there. Any ideas please?

Computer Doctor replies: In its heyday Clipper was an excellent dBase compiler but it did have one or two idiosyncrasies and you have stumbled on one of them. You do not say what operating system you are using but in any event the problem almost certainly lies with your environment settings. It is essential that Buffers is set to 8; if this is not done then the indexes will get out of step, hence the records are not found. You can prove this the next time the problem occurs by remaking the index using a utility like DBU.

Not wishing to be alarmist, but you obviously have an old program you’re working with. Have you considered Y2K yet? If you haven’t then you should do so without delay, it is almost certain your software will not cope with the year 2000.

On a lighter note, Microsoft has announced the final release of Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools will be available on March 18th, 1999! I am sure the Microsoft servers will get hammered as soon as it becomes available, although with Microsoft’s track record for meeting release dates we’ll probably have to wait a little longer.

The comments contained within this column are not necessarily the views of the author or Pattaya Mail Publishing Co., Ltd. Letters may be edited.

Send your questions or comments to the Pattaya Mail at 370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, 20260, or Fax to 038 427 596 or E-mail to [email protected]

Richard Bunch is Managing Director of Action Computer Technologies, the One Stop Shop for all your computer and Information Technology needs.

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Successfully Yours: Jean-Fernand Wasser

by Mirin MacCarthy

Jean-Fernand Wasser, the new Executive Vice President and G.M. of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Pattaya is a consummate hotelier. Attentive, cosmopolitan, suave and smiling, he stops to greet guests personally, alternating easily between many European languages. His attention to detail is such that you presume he must be from the exacting Swiss hotelier mould. However, scratch beneath the surface and a very different Jean-Fernand Wasser will appear.

A chance remark will touch on a nerve and Jean-Fernand becomes an excitable Frenchman. When he speaks of something interesting he smiles broadly, throws his head back and laughs, waving his arms like windmills. You begin to feel that if his hands were tied to the chair he would be struck dumb. He is really French.

suc.jpg (33112 bytes)"Yes, I am French," he said, having been born in Alsace-Loraine in the late forties, waving his arms again and exhibiting Gallic pride. Being awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Merite by the President of France, Jacques Chirac in 1995, ranks high in the typewritten C.V. I was given. Make no mistake about it, J-F Wasser is as French as the Eiffel Tower.

He made his career choice early, deciding on hotelier rather than his other interests of photography, film making or journalism. "I chose the hotel business because of the possibility to travel and meet people. It is truly international with no restrictions, unlike other occupations."

To this end, he studied for three years at the Ecole Hoteliere in Strasbourg, graduating with his Hotelier’s degree with certificates as Waiter, Chef and Maitre d’.

With his important pieces of paper in his pocket, he then left France in 1969 to spend the next twelve years in the Pacific, New Caledonia (Vanuatu), Indonesia and Hawaii.

One year into his travels and he met his life’s companion, Sine Yune Wan, a beautiful Oriental lass from Tahiti, who just also happens to be French! She has been travelling with him ever since. They have one daughter (French, naturally), called Maya.

His "free spirit" becomes very apparent when you continue to read his CV. He has not, as so many have done before, progressed through the ranks of just one single hotel chain. "I was always a mercenary, a freelance," he laughed, amused by his own metaphors.

However, his position changes were always an advance to somewhere bigger and better. This soldier of fortune had an eye for the future.

From a catering school instructor to a food and beverage manager in Noumea, Jean-Fernand then became a restaurateur in the true sense of the word, opening his own restaurant there, "La Taverne Alsacienne". Three years of being both chef and maitre d’ was enough and he shifted direction to hotel and casino management.

After becoming a consultant to Tokyu Hotels International he changed continents, moving on to more of their five star resorts in Malaysia and Singapore.

He enjoyed working in Singapore. "Definitely Singapore was the best for working life. It is efficient and runs so fast. It is not the most thrilling place to live though. There are so many rules. The French are like Latins, they prefer a more impromptu life. For a personal life my choice is Asia and Thailand. There is so much hospitality, everyone smiles, and it’s a great place to see." Jean-Fernand began smiling too, and the pace of the arm waving was increasing.

We spoke of some of his other interests. Originally snow skiing, now squash, which may explain the reason why he looks so fit, and scuba diving. In the Pacific he had many opportunities to dive, even doing a wreck dive off "The President Coolidge" in the Vanuatu Harbour.

He indeed hopes to be able to do more diving here and has plans to introduce more activities to the Royal Cliff including diving, professional tennis and golf. His secret passion, though, is motoring. "I’ve had the opportunity to drive fast cars over the years. I love mean machines." This love sprang from childhood. "Little boys draw cars when they are not interested in lessons. I drew a lot of cars!" He has competed as an amateur in rallies, but sadly his work is such that he no longer drives himself. "But I have driven several Porsches, a Lotus and BMW’s. My favourite would have to be a Simca-Abarth." (A French car, how strange!)

Jean-Fernand’s advice to those following him in the hotel industry is simple. "Work very hard. Be open, don’t be shy. Don’t shy away from any job responsibility. Be daring, believable and an entrepreneur." Add in the word "French" and you have Jean-Fernand!

He is certainly a breath of fresh air, so do not be surprised if you hear the strains of the "Marsellaise" next time you visit the Royal Cliff!

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Snap Shots: Out of the shadows

by Harry Flashman

There is a tendency for many photographers to try and eliminate shadows from their photos. They do this by turning their photographic subjects so they directly face the sun, or turn on their on-camera flash if the sun is not blazing down as the super celestial light source.

Sure the subject is now well lit, but you have also removed shape and form from the photograph. You see, the way to convey shape is by showing the shadow the object casts. No shadow and it looks flat. Incorporate shadow and "Hey Presto!" you have invented 3D.

Shadow has another benefit - it gives an air of mystery to any picture. Dark shadows allow the viewer to imagine what is being hidden. Your photograph "hints" at something and their mind does the rest from there.

snap.jpg (22786 bytes)Shadow portrait.

Here is an exercise for this weekend. Let’s put some shadows into your pictures. Let’s do a portrait to incorporate shadow. And let’s do this indoors to increase the fun.

Find the largest window in your house or condominium and put a chair about one metre away from it. The chair should be parallel to the window, not facing it.

Place your sitter in the chair and position another chair facing the sitter. This one is yours, and you will take the photo sitting down. Reason? This way you keep the camera at the same level as your subject’s face and you will get a more pleasing portrait. If you photograph from a position below the subject you tend to give them "piggy" nostrils and if taken from above it elongates the nose.

Now, make sure that your auto flash is turned off. This is important with point and shooters that can fire off as soon as light levels are lower than usual. Look through the viewfinder and position yourself so that the sitters face is almost filling the frame. Notice that the side of the face away from the window light source is now in shadow. If you have the ability to meter from the lit side of the face, then do so. But if not, just blast off a couple of frames on auto and let the camera do the worrying.

Now here is a super trick to do if you have an SLR. Turn the film speed dial from the ASA of the film you are using to the next highest film speed. For example, if you are shooting 100 ASA go to 200 ASA. If you have used 200 ASA then bump it up to 400 ASA. What you are doing is effectively reducing the amount of light falling on to the film by 50%. This way you should "fool" the camera’s meter and make sure you get some good shadows.

You should also slightly angle the sitters chair so that one shoulder is closer to the camera and get the subject to turn their head to face the camera again. Try angling in both directions so you will get a choice of shots.

Another variation to try is to place a thin voile net over the window. This will soften the light and is particularly effective when taking shots of women. Again go through the variations, including the change of ASA rate.

For a portrait study such as this it is worth using a complete roll of film. Remember that you are not doing 36 identical shots - you are making variations in pose, lighting and exposure. There are also facial expressions to change - laughing, smiling, serious or sad. It is very easy to have 36 different shots.

By the time you add up the costs of film and processing you will have spent around 400 Baht. That is a very cheap "professional" portrait! Try it.

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Modern Medicine: Bed wetting!

by Dr Iain Corness

I can hear some of you groaning already! Bed wetting is a problem for many people. For the children themselves, for the parents - in fact one child with this condition can affect the lives of whole families.

The medical name for bed wetting is Nocturnal Enuresis, but we reserve this term for bed wetting in children over the age of 5 years. It is also a very common problem, so take heart, your child is not the only one with this embarrassing complaint. 15% of 5 year olds are sufferers (that’s almost one in seven), but the percentage falls from there. By age 7 this has fallen to 7% and by age 10 only 5% still have the problem, however by age 15 there are still 1-2% of kiddies wet at night. Groan again!

So what are the reasons for Nocturnal Enuresis? Firstly, start looking at the family tree. If both you and your partner had a problem as children then there is an 80% chance your kids will too! If only one of you were bed wetters then there is a 45% chance. Frightening statistics!

The genes responsible have been identified by our clever "backroom boys", but the exact mode of action is still a little hazy. Emotional problems, insecurity, attention seeking, physical abnormalities and all those are very rarely involved in Nocturnal Enuresis. If a kid is dry by day and wet only at night, suspect his genes!

So what can you do as parents to help your child with this problem? The first thing is not to load up your child with an emotional "guilt trip". It is not the kid’s "fault" - especially if there is a family history of this. Imagine the emotional relief you would have had if your mum told you she had the problem too, but "grew out of it." Letting a child know that one in every seven 5 year old children have this problem helps as well.

Forget medication. There are really no useful and totally safe drugs to assist. Imipramine has been used for years and really it does not work. There are some new synthetic hormones being used in some areas - but this is far too risky and unnecessary in my humble medical opinion.

The best method of treatment is the pad and bell alarm. This should be put in place by the child (you supervise) and when the alarm goes off the child goes to the toilet. You must let the kiddie be the one who manages this treatment regimen. He or she must turn off the alarm - not you. In this way, the child becomes responsible for his or her welfare, while you reward with constant encouragement. Obviously, going to bed with an empty bladder is good common sense, but not the answer.

The pundits say that use of the enuresis alarm can begin from 7 years of age and its use, with parental backing and reassurance, will reward you with dry bed linen and the child with a great sense of achievement.

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Dear Hillary,

I have a problem. When my family moved to Thailand, we brought all our things from our home country. It was comforting to see my overstuffed Victorian furniture, decorated with my great-great grandmother’s antimacassars, doilies and handiwork which women these days seem incapable of producing, due to their ferocious socialising. You, of course, know that ‘empty hands are the devil’s workshop.’

Well, I was shocked and heartbroken upon leaving my house on our third day here. All my lovely lawn flamingos had been stolen!

Hillary, this was doubly disheartening. Not only had I been robbed but also these treasures had been in my family since the advent of plastic!

So, not only do they have sentimental value, they are probably worth a pretty penny now.

I called the police and tried to explain. They understood the word ‘flamingo’ but ‘lawn’ seem to escape them. They kept saying something which sounded like, "Good. Flamingos like hot!"

Hillary, I know my flamingos were hot. They were stolen.

I can see how people would want them but I don’t understand why anyone would steal family heirlooms. My sister back home has offered to send me half of her collection but it just won’t be the same.

I can’t get any...

Satisfaction

Dear Can’t Get Any,

I can see how this would be devastating to you. But Thai people, like most of us, find flamingos to be the most lovely of birds. Who wouldn’t want them?

I should warn you, though. The callous thieves who stole them probably assumed they were real birds. They will be plenty put out when they find them to be plastic. This could lead to vengeful reprisals.

Too assuage your torment, I suggest you accept your sister’s offer.

But this time, be a bit wiser. I would compromise a bit and chain the avian beauty queens to the largest tree in your yard. People may think it odd that you want to keep flamingos in bondage but it will prevent a world of mental torture.

To frighten off very audacious thieves, I would have your maid write a sign, ‘Rawang Flamingo Du’. This means ‘Beware of Vicious Flamingos’ and may be a deterrent to any thieves thinking of stealing them.

Remember, those snapping beaks are at waist level!

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GRAPEVINE

Postmortem travel
Highly original visa runs are being organized by a US firm with offices in Bangkok. Stardust Celestis is offering to blast your canned ashes into the stratosphere for a modest $9,000. Your spaced-out send-off includes a commemorative video and the chance to orbit the earth for ten years before burning up. A company spokesman said there had been several inquiries from Pattaya. But he warned that the service is only open to the dead and is not available to get rid of cheating wives nor motorbike rental dealers.

Critical vegetable
Active animal rights campaigner and strict vegetarian tourist, Laurence Quam, turned up at a Pattaya school dressed as a seven foot red carrot covered with green leaves and shrubs. He intended to talk to the pupils about healthy eating and caring for pets. But the plan misfired after the principal warned the ten year olds here was a good example of why they must not speak to strangers. Packing his suitcase, Laurence told Grapevine that Pattaya, environmentally speaking, was a basket case.

Your prayers answered
Farangs have long complained about the lack of a good non Frankfurter sausage in Pattaya. Now Sportsman’s Restaurants are offering for sale a choice of the homely fare British style. Choose between Old Cumberland Lake Sausage, Lancashire Lad English Breakfast, English Traditional Black Pudding and Big Al’s All American amongst others. Minimum order is half a kilo for you to cook at home. Further details at Sportsman’s hearty eating outlets in Soi Yodsak and Soi 13.

Ting tong farangs
Amongst tiresome complainants heard by the tourist police this week was the guy from Blackburn who wanted the salesman in a gold shop arrested. The Lancastrian angrily stated double pricing was afoot after he was charged 800 baht for a gold chain which he had already been told was just one baht... An Italian tourist complained he had been cheated after paying 400,000 baht for a partnership in a bar which he found empty and all locked up the morning after parting with the cash. The proof of his investment turned out to be a parking ticket with 400,000 scrawled on the back.

Stranger than fiction
From Reuters. Two salesmen from an Iranian catering company have been arrested on their way to a food fair in the southern Syrian city of Damascus. An enormous plate of hummus strapped to the roof of their car had been mistaken for a spying gadget of some kind when the area was photographed by satellites. They were fined $5,000 for wasting police time whilst the hummus was confiscated for being in breach of import regulations.

El cheapo tickets
Very heavily discounted air fares to Bangkok often carry the penalty that the return date cannot be changed. It says so on the ticket. So what do you do if you unexpectedly receive an overseas telephone call to say a close relative has just died? The best course is to obtain a letter from your embassy backing up the emergency story and be ready with the name, address and phone number of the person back home who contacted you. Then contact the airline in Thailand and hope for the best. Because of the opportunities for abuse, airlines will likely make independent checks if they agree to help out at all. Easier, of course, to pay for a new ticket and possibly rely on your insurance company to make a claim later.

Setting up a company
Farangs often establish a shareholder’s company to buy a house in Pattaya. This is to get round the law that foreigners cannot own land here. Of course the company owns the house, not you as an individual, but the system usually works satisfactorily with proper legal advice. However, don’t forget that the company has to pay taxes every year and the capital invested is liable, whether or not any business has actually been transacted. Then there are lawyer’s fees to pay annually. Expect to pay in total around 8,000 baht every year for each million baht of capital.

Explaining too much
A farang applicant was filling out a job application form for a supervisory position in a Rayong electronics factory. When he came to the question, "Have you ever been arrested?" he answered "No." The next question was clearly intended for people who had answered in the affirmative to the previous one and asked "Why?" But the bright spark answered it anyway and wrote, "Never been caught."

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Animal Crackers: Geckos

by Mirin MacCarthy

Lounge Lizards

The common household gecko is not limited to Asia only but is a happy inhabitant of the tropics of New Guinea, Australia, the Pacific, even Fiji and further afield in South Africa.

In the seventies there was a story doing the rounds in New Guinea that the expatriates swore was true about a certain new comer patrol officer who slept on the table for his first week because of the geckos. He was sure that if there were so many baby crocodiles around then the mother was bound to be nearby.

Geckos

Certainly no building in Thailand, even high rise condos, would be without the addition of these efficient little insect catchers. Generally nocturnal they have sticky pads on their feet to allow them to readily run up wall and over ceilings. Surprisingly many people are afraid of geckos but they do give a valuable service of ridding homes of mosquitoes, moths and spiders. To encourage them in the house leave out the occasional small saucer of ground cat biscuits (not fish).

Night Life

animal.jpg (36601 bytes)Madagascan Gian Day Gecko.

If you want to keep these cute geckos as pets then provide a large dry ventilated terrarium in a warm area with lots of daytime hiding places. To mimic their nocturnal lives and make viewing easier switch on a red or blue light globe at night and be prepared to feed them a variety of insects every second day. Yes, fun stuff like crickets, grasshoppers, small spiders, cockroaches and moths. A daily mist of water completes the picture. There are other colourful and striped varieties of geckoes, some of whom are even diurnal and eat fruit, though unfortunately they are more common in Madagascar than Asia.

O.K. Tokays

If you thought that the odd visitor was frightened of geckos, then try them on for size with their larger cousins the tokays. Native to Asia, they are most commonly kept gecko in captivity world-wide. Light blue in colour with orange rust spots, they are have a vocal scream, "To-kay" and bite readily and hard. Nocturnal insect eaters, they can be released in the house if no insect spraying is done. They will usually cooperate by hiding behind picture frames during the day and patrolling the premises for spiders and cockroaches at night. Our cat caught one once and got bitten for it’s trouble. The tokay sensibly took up residence outside.

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Auto Mania: No substitute for cubic inches!

By Dr. Iain Corness

That was the general theme of last week’s Autotrivia Quiz where I asked you about the 21 litre monster car. For all of you who didn’t know, it was the Metalurgique of around 1919-20. As I mentioned last week, this particular engine was a four cylinder, that’s five and a quarter litres per hole, or about two Toyota Hilux engines per cylinder. That’s REAL cubes!

The Metalurgique also sported 21 inch alloy brake drums to try and stop the beast, which they didn’t do all that well.

Bangkok International Motor Show

Yes, it’s on again, the International Motor Show to be held at BITEC (Bangna-Trad Highway Km 1) at the end of March. This will be the 20th International Show and its continuation has been through the hard efforts of the Grand Prix International Company, magazine publishers of Grand Prix, Off Road, Motor Cycle and XO Autosport.

Despite all the cries of doom and gloom we are actually seeing some interest in the motoring world in capturing whatever there is of the dwindled consumer market here in Thailand. Some small players are trying hard to snaffle some heads and firmly entrench themselves in the volatile market place.

auto.jpg (19182 bytes)The big movers in Thailand, the Auto Alliance of Ford and Mazda will be displaying their pick-up range that was launched at the motor show last year, and The General with its investment on the Eastern Seaboard well underway should be there too.

BMW showed the M6 coupe last year, but with the company in some disarray back in der Faderland their presence could be smaller this year.

Dates are Saturday March 27th through to April 4th. Doors open at noon and close at 10 p.m. I will try and get some more details for you next week.

The Thunder Begins!

The "new look" Bira International Circuit kicks off its first race meeting of the year on Sunday March 21st. A lot of work has been done to smarten up the track, and the "new look" management is trying very hard to brighten the place up. Well done, chaps.

This is a National meeting so we will see the usual frantic horde of Thailand Touring Cars all racing as if there were no tomorrow in the Singha Beer All Thailand Championship. Let me assure you that some of these guys think they are racing for the F1 World Championship decider and a pension of $1,000,000 a year for life!

Now, here’s the offer of your lifetime! By leaning heavily on a few people and using the statutes of the Old Chums Act of 1908 I have wangled a few passes to the meeting, AND you can join me as my guests in the Official VIP tower to watch some of the races in air-conditioned comfort.

No hard quiz questions either, fax or email me at the Editorial Office (427 596 or [email protected]) and I’ll get back to the lucky ones. First in, best dressed. Contact me now for a fun day at Bira.

Other dates for the race meetings are 12-14th April (South East Asian Zone Touring Car Challenge), plus further rounds of the Singha Beer All Thailand Touring Cars 7-8th August, 9-10th October and 18-19th December. Pencil the dates into your diary now!

Who remembers the Berkeley?

This was one crazy little sports car built by some crazy little people in Biggleswade in the UK. They appeared in 1956 and disappeared by 1960, but they have left behind a small but intensely loyal bunch of enthusiasts.

The Berkeleys came out in both three wheeled form and four wheelers and had several engine changes in their production run. The initial ones had a 322 c.c. alloy Anzani two stroke twin. This was dumped in favour of another two stroke, the Excelsior Talisman with another 6 c.c.’s - imagine the extra grunt!

However, the cars were very light and so, in chasing extra performance, some were given a 492 c.c. Talisman engine delivering a staggering 30 BHP. This was called the B95 model, but the performance option did not stop there. In 1958 they came up with the 40 BHP B105 R Le Mans and this was really quite a weapon.

The cars were so small with a 1.12 metre track and a 1.8 metre wheel base and just over 1 metre high. They were also very light, being a fibreglass monocoque construction and weighing in around 320 kg.

For the era, they also had enormous brakes and at one stage had the best brakes in the world, being able to stop from 30 MPH in under 4.5 metres.

The factory was not afraid of competition and race and class wins resulted at Verona, Monza, Le Mans and the Mille Miglia. I actually saw one of these B 105R Le Mans pocket rockets in competition in Australia where it had a race-long duel with, of all things, a 300S Maserati! At the (now abandoned) Lowood circuit, an ex-airfield with a one mile straight, the Maser would get up to around 125 MPH and belt past the poor little Berkeley, which could only do as many miles per hour as its name suggested. At the braking area it was another story, however, as the Maser would be struggling to pull up throwing out the picks at 250 yards, to be passed by the Berkeley still on full noise up to the 50 yard marker!

The factory only made 2000 of them, and most of those were the nasty little 3 wheeled 328 c.c. model. That there are any left is a marvel. That they have worshippers is an even greater one!

Autotrivia Quiz

Since I have mentioned the Berkeley marque I may as well make them part of the quiz. So for this week’s FREE beer, what was so unusual about the transmission and drive train with these cars? Fax the Editorial office 427 596 or email [email protected]. Let’s see how many of you can remember 40 years back. If anyone out there has ever ridden in one, or owned one, I’d like to hear your experiences too!

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Created by Andy Gombaz
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