This festival in the south of England is always a big adrenalin rush.
The Audi 'sculpture' in front of Lord March's family home.
Noises in the front garden... a Merc goes up the hill.
Tony Dron who I well remember at school far too long ago.
But who's this? Answers please by posting a Comment below!
Tomorrow Cat and I fly back to Bangkok.
It's been an amazing couple of months during which we've stayed with friends and family in Petersfield south of London, in Taunton, in Lapford near Exeter, in Stockholm, in the Charente, the Correze and the Morbihan in France, up north near Leeds and finally in Shrewsbury and Kidderminster. In total we've driven three thousand miles so Papa really is a rolling stone.
They call me Papa in Thailand and I'm not sure I like it too much and I'm dreading the day somebody stands up for me on the bus or Skytrain. Meantime I'll keep travelling and I'll take inspiration from one of the drivers at the Goodwood Festival of Speed who's still going fast at eighty years old.
The festival is an amazing celebration of motor sport and the car and I always love it for being so in-your-face. Burning clouds of carbon and truck loads of cash, it's so non-PC but such fun.
Cars from every possible era of motor sport in the hands of drivers equally historic tear angrily up the drive in front of Goodwood House, the home of super-toff and petrol head, Lord March. They push them hard though it's not too serious, just an excuse for the sounds and the smells and for the world's greatest gathering of the motor car made fire breathing monster and art.
It's good too that you can get so close to the cars and I managed some good shots of Tony Dron at the wheel of an eight cylinder Mercedes-Benz of 1937. My contemporary at school, he's had an exciting life as a motoring journalist and racing driver and at six foot five looks every bit the part.
Even more exciting was to see and hear one of the heroes of my childhood in another pre-war Mercedes, now aged eighty. His picture appears above.
Bearing in mind what a rolling stone fails to gather, do please post a Comment and tell me who he is.
Andrew Hicks The 'Thai Girl' blog July 2009
4 comments:
Stirling Moss!
Stirling Moss of course! As soon as I saw the photo it twigged who it was. Of course the clue just confirmed it, but there's no mistaking that profile, is there?
A bit late with this but the answer is Stirling Moss.
Yes, Moss is my man!
What an amazing guy. He was just coming back into the pits and as he stalled the Mercedes he apologised profusely to his attendants for so doing as they then had to push him home.
Apologise? I and a million others would die for the chance to push Stirling Moss!
And a final point. The last Comment says that it was removed by the author. It wasn't.
It was delivered to my Hotmail account as usual and yes, it was offensive but as I've been travelling I've only just read this on the blog. Rather that delete it I was going to reply to it.
But did Blogger get there first? Can its software detect nasty comments and delete them?
If so I am again amazed at such things.
Andrew
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