Geneva, like Gibraltar, seemed rock solid, permanent, everlasting. Motor Shows came and went but in the calendar of the car, the Salon Auto Genève was a Pillar of Hercules. Every spring come March the automotive world beat paths to its doors. Excepting wartimes, for more than a century the Committee and Council of the "Salon International de l'Automobile" would confidently fix a date for the next one.
Read MoreA List of Firsts
First weekend in a posh hotel. Maybe it was Easter. First sight of a Jowett Javelin, only just launched so it was 1948 or 1949. First grown-up kiss with intent. First camera, first pictures of cars at Peebles Hydro. Well-off clientele had Jaguars, Standard Vanguards and elegant upright “razer-edge” Triumph 1800s as they were before 1949.
Read MoreCold Night in a D-type
Champion magazine on 22 year-old Jim Clark’s chilling experience. Border Reivers didn’t have a trailer, so loaded its D-type on to Clark’s farm lorry. It was a frosty April 1958 so the radiator had been drained, and half-way to Berwick-on-Tweed its engine seized. Jim Clark drove on through the snow.
Read MoreClassic Survivors: should they be saved?
Montegos, Maestros and Metros have been rusting away. Only well-looked-after or museum pieces survive. We should preserve a few to remind ourselves how bad they really were. Yet now John Mayhead, UK editor of the Hagerty Price Guide claims: “There is a real sense of nostalgia for them. People have a strong emotional connection.” Maybe, I say.
Read MoreOLD NUMBER ONE MG
Morris Garages’ Longwall Oxford workshop had only simple machine tools, no space for production and made only one MG, Old Number One. This was not the first-ever MG, in 1922-1923 they were mostly highly coloured fancy-finished Morrises. I found it surprisingly lively when drove it at Gaydon’s British Motor Museum researching material for MG Classics.
Read MoreAdvantage Aston
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.
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