I drafted Niki Lauda’s obituary at the German Grand Prix. Anybody who knew his injuries was sure he could not survive. Guy Edwards’s bravery pulling him from the burning Ferrari was recognised with a Queen’s Gallantry Medal. Later features on his team’s verdict after he lost the world championship to James Hunt, taken up in the Italian press, resulted in a lively correspondence I had with Enzo Ferrari. I can now do a new obituary.
Read MoreTurnberry before Trump
The President likes golf. I like cars. He liked golf so much he bought the Club at Turnberry rather like Auric Goldfinger “bought” Royal St George’s where he played James Bond. I liked Turnberry not so much for golf as family outings and car things. I watched my first motor race there on what had been the runways of a hundred year old airfield. I saw the V16 BRM win, so rare an event that not long after it the BRM Trust put the team up for sale.
Read MoreThe Vauxhall Motorcycle
BMW’s R32 motorcycle was a star at the 1923 Paris Salon. Max Friz’s Bayern Kleinmotor became a classic, yet another exhibit just as advanced is almost forgotten. Vauxhall had one also with shaft drive and an in-line 4-cylinder engine, against BMW’s side-valve flat-twin. Friz had already a horizontal 2-cylinder but for 1923 placed it sideways, its cooling fins out in the airstream, creating a motorcycling hallmark.
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