As editor of News from the Mews I puzzled over Ecurie Ecosse’s exclusion from E-types. Encouraged by Graham Gauld, who probably knew more than I did about Murray’s falling star, I took one to the Mews. Everybody wanted to goad Murray into an E-type but it was already too late. George Williamson, Glasgow camera-shop owner had bought one of the first E-types in Scotland. I promised him lunch with David Murray.
Read MoreWE "Wilkie" Wilkinson
He had certainly impressed Bill Boddy veteran editor of Motor Sport covering a 1950s Charterhall who gushed: “Try as Moss did in (Tommy Wisdom’s) XK120C Ian Stewart of Ecurie Ecosse won by 15.6sec, setting fastest lap. Clearly Wilky (sic) Wilkinson has given the Scottish car something others haven’t got”.
Read MoreEcurie Ecosse: Classic Jaguars
Wilkie Wilkinson made his name polishing the ports, freeing up bearings and balancing crankshafts preparing Evans’s Bellvue Garage MGs for Brooklands in the 1930s. Even Ecosse mechanics had doubts. Wilkie belonged to an era when engines were tuned, literally, by ear.
Read MoreClassic Jaguar: Ecurie Ecosse
The 1844 North British Railway Company was ambitious. Like its rival The Caledonian Railway, it wanted to operate south of Berwick-on-Tweed. By railways’ 1923 amalgamation it was fifth largest in the UK so was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) yet its hotel above Waverley Station remained, steadfastly The NB. “North British”. Earnest Scot Nats could scarcely contain their delight in 1991, when it was reopened by (soon-to-be Sir) Thomas Sean Connery, and renamed The Balmoral.
Read MoreAnother d-mn’d thick, square book.
Paul Skilleter is to Jaguar what Edward Gibbon was to Rome. Like Gibbon’s comprehensive vision of ancient empire Skilleter’s Jaguar history is profound, his award-winning books command premium prices. Accurate, comprehensive on models, aspects of design and development, Skilleter is prolific as writer and publisher
Read MoreWHY NOT A CITY CENTRE GRAND PRIX?
Sunday Magazine 11 October 1981
A full-scale British Grand Prix sweeping through Parliament Square with Big Ben showing a new lap record was a piece of artist Geoff Hunt’s imagination. But racing cars tearing along Park Lane at 180mph, braking hard into the sharp right-hander by the Hilton Hotel, and going flat out in fifth gear past the Serpentine— all very possible and long overdue, according to Innes Ireland, veteran of 50 world championship races
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