I’d not visited the Goodwood Festival of Speed for some time but the promise of rare and interesting Porsche cars – there to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the company was too difficult to resist.
To be more accurate – the 70th anniversary relates to the first Porsche badged car being built in 1948 as Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionsbüro für Motoren und Fahrzeugbau was actually founded in 1931!
A visit to Le Mans Classic has long eluded me but this year all barriers and sensible-head reasons-not-to-go seemed to disappear.
The Yellow Peril was running well (bar a last minute clutch change) and the problem of abandoning the Mrs for a long weekend to go off on a car related jolly was resolved by taking her along .
Purchasing tickets for Prescott was something of a last minute decision – one which I started to regret when weather forecasts threatened dawn till dusk lightning storms.
Oh well – we’d never go anywhere in Britain if it was dependent upon uniformly good weather would we?
Continue reading Prescott Speed Hillclimb – Sat 26th May 2108
With this year’s 356 International Event being hosted in the UK – it was essential to attended at least one of their many outings in order to see such a large concentration of these wonderful vehicles.
The gathering at Castle Hedingham seemed like the best option with it’s beautiful setting and the added bonus of some mediaeval jousting!
Continue reading Porsche 356 International (Hedingham) – Fri 4th May 2018
Such is the variety and age range of cars that turn-up for the Goodwood Members Meeting – it can sometimes be difficult to come up with natural grouping topics in a blog post.
Participants in a particular race or demo run is the safest option as these are normally related to a former race category from a specific time period unless it’s to celebrate the career of a racing driver in which case it might span many years.
Certain cars, marques and models however merit greater focus.
Continue reading Goodwood 76th Members Meeting – Sun 18th Mar 2018 Part 2
There’s a time and a place for snow and mid-March at Goodwood ain’t it!
Of all the bloody weekends to dump snow on the delicate and fragile South of England – it had to be the weekend of the Goodwood 76th Members Meeting!
“Snow! You belong up-North – get thee hence!!!”
Oh well – at least I can comfort myself in the knowledge that the Siberian origins of the cold air precipitating the snowfall can be blamed on Vladimir Putin!
I can se the headlines now – “Dyed in the wool classic Porsche man attends Ferrari exhibition!” The shame of it…………..I’ll be drummed out of the Porsche Owners Club!!!
In my defence – it was a bitterly cold and snowy day in London, I needed an automotive pick-me-up and a slippy/slidey drive in my old 911 was out of the question so a trip to the Design Museum to see the Ferrari Under the Skin exhibition was my only option m’lud!
Having hummed and hawed about whether to go to this event or not I finally conceded the night before the last day and I’m glad I did.
I thankfully selected a less busy day and could circulate freely, snapping piccies of nice motors without having to electric-cattle-prod hordes of selfie-takers out of shot.
I was also able to see motors in motion on the Grand Avenue without having to reserve a fence-side viewing place an hour in advance of the demo runs and without having to resort to rugby scrum tactics to get to the front or a ladder to witness the action.
Continue reading London Classic Car Show – Sun 18th Feb 2018
This is one in a series of posts on cars, drivers, designers etc. that have interested me over the years. I’ve bored my family and friends with this stuff for years – now it’s your turn!
See A-Z of Car Stuff page for more posts in this series.
This unique car dates from 1979 during the William Towns period of Aston Martin design which also resulted in the the similarly angular Aston Martin Lagonda saloon.
Continue reading A-Z of Car Stuff: AMB is for Aston Martin Bulldog
OK – not exactly an up-to-the-minute report but I recently found a bunch of old negatives from various motoring events that I attended in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Now digitally scanned – these images remind me of how ill-attended some of these events were at the time when compared to modern-day classic car gatherings such as Silverstone Classic, Donington Historic Festival, Goodwood’s Members Meeting and Goodwood Revival.
