Jackie Stewart pontificated and name-dropped when he was selling Jaguars from the family garage in Dumbarton. Then it was his brother Jimmy, not he, who was the local hero racing driver. Jimmy Stewart cut short a promising career after crashing heavily at Le Mans. His mother worried until Jimmy, a gentle, unaggressive son, hung up his helmet. Jaguar E-typre FSN1 Dumbuck demonstrator at Turnberry Eric Dymock picture.
Read MoreDutch Grand Prix 1967
I asked Facebook and Twitter about this picture. That’s me behind Jim Clark’s Lotus photographing its new engine during practice at Zandvoort. I started commenting on it then mis-keyed and couldn’t find where it came from, but delving into my photographic archive I was pleased to find the pictures I was taking that day (below - Jim Clark’s legs on the right) in front of the Lotus pit.
Read MoreNo Show without Punch
Motor Shows are changing. London Motor Shows at Olympia or those I attended religiously at Earls Court have long gone. The Paris Salon is a pale shadow, Frankfurt is biennial. Only Geneva survives in anything like its old splendour. Its press days were an occasion.
Read MorePress Lunch with Style
They don’t do motoring press lunches like this now.Ford did it in the Kintyre Suite of the Central Hotel with partridge terrine, mussel chowder, lobster vol-au-vent in brandy sauce, saddle of venison and mousse of Drambuie. Wines Alsatian Reisling, Gevrey Chambertin 1953, and Château Climens 1952. At a mere 8 years old the Gevrey-Chambertin may have been a bit nouveau. Never mind, I thought I had hit the big time.
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