Sebastian Vettel’s Azerbaijan podium surprised everybody. Commentators maybe remembered there had been a Formula 1 Aston Martin once, but it wasn’t on their crib sheets. They had forgotten Jim Clark. He had been contracted in 1960 to drive the overweight and clumsy Aston DBR4/250 but Colin Chapman trixied him out of it.
Read MoreElectric Groupthink
Making decisions as a group means unchallenged conclusions. Yale psychologist Irving Janis coined Groupthink to explain what happens when leaders agree. But with Focus Group-guided government and mainstream media subscribing, Groupthink flourishes, matters of opinion become unimpeachable Truth. Seven in ten claim they want to buy electric cars but hardly anybody does. It may not be a formal conspiracy, but such a body of opinion seemingly backing electric cars means subjective judgement is abandoned.
Read MoreJIM CLARK'S SCHOOLDAYS
Bill Cormie, Jim Clark’s room-mate at Loretto School. “When he came back at half-term and said he’d been driving at 90 miles an hour we didn’t believe him. He was only 14.” picture Champion magazine’s 1965 Dessin de Boivent Duffar imagined Clark’s schooldays: “As always top at running, winner at cricket and hockey but behind in English and Maths” Cormie in the front row maybe. JIM CLARK: Tribute to a Champion by Eric Dymock
Read MoreJAGUAR AT JABBEKE
Jaguar’s chief experimental test driver 1948-April 1951, Roland Manners Verney Sutton (1895-1957). When Norman Dewis took over as chief test development engineer his brief was wider-ranging brief. Paul Skilleter’s Norman Dewis of Jaguar, portrays “Soapy” Sutton’s aristocratic connections. Sutton set a seal on the XK120’s reputation with 132mph at Jabbeke.
Read MoreFirst MGB, Lowrey, Turing, Boddy, Bell Archive
Four days after it was announced I took one of the first press MGBs to Charterhall. Did anyone get a picture of MGB 523CB on 23 September 1962? New to The Motor road test staff I was putting in the miles, grateful for the tutelage and relishing every minute. I was so taken with it I had one of my own (above).
Read MorePrometheus Pundit: Archive 017
Repeating Sir Clive Sinclair and his report to the Adam Smith Institute was a bit tongue-in-cheek. It was only four years since his C5 debacle. Yet it was hard to imagine smart and cheap miniature electronic gadgets. Cruise controls and lane-changing by radar or lasers were closer than we thought. Cheerful predictions of the 21st century were well wide of the mark.
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