Memories, laughs and scar tissue from the world's silliest job
Forty-odd years' worth of kneeling on oily tarmac with my head jammed under the wheel arch of an expensive and noisy car, driven by an equally expensive and increasingly impatient driver, makes for experiences that are far more enjoyable to look back on than experience at the time. Here are a few rambling recollections...
Getting Race-Ready
"Summer is y-cummin in" and it's time to pull off the dust sheets and get your most rewarding money-pit ready for action again. And while you're changing the fluids and regretting or repairing the depredations of those bloody mice, it's a good idea to check out the important bit that keeps you and the scenery separate.It's pretty easy to check...
Gordy takes it slow
Gordon Spice was one of the people who made the lunacy of Dunlop bearable; a thoroughly nice and entertaining man who was also seriously bloody quick on track. Some time around 1978, he entered a 24-hour club event at the Nurburgring. Here in Britain, we think of club racing events in terms of lovingly tuned cars that will probably be driven home after the race. In Germany it's...Bad Map Reading in Wales
My last post recalled sharing the Ford Consul with John Horton. It was a few months ago that I learned that we'd lost him. JRH was, without doubt, one of the most annoying people I've ever known, which doesn't easily explain why it was impossible to dislike him. But despite - or more probably because of - his idiosyncracies, he was great fun to be around, and I miss him...Pushing Albert
I was in my twenties when I joined Dunlop Racing Division. That's an age when you know you're the best driver on the planet. It's a few years since you passed your test, and your handbrake technique, wheelspins and steering-wheel-twitchery have all been refined to a perfection guaranteed to increase the humidity of any fair maiden with negligible IQ, low self-esteem and...