Doug Nye: 75MM from the ground

Any old-time BARC Member who attended a Goodwood club meeting through the Motor Circuit’s frontline career – 1949-1966 – would have had difficulty addressing the quality of cars set out before him or her in last weekend’s paddock.

Quite a few old timers I saw there were all staring eyes and droopy jaws – yes, I said jaws. Here were a fleet of Formula 1 Coopers and Lotuses – there was not just a Ferrari 250 GTO but also a rear-engined 250 LM – an Aston Martin Project car – here the biggest fleet of assorted Lister-Jaguars and Lister-Chevrolets that most had seen in many years – ooh look, a supercharged straight-8 Indy Maserati – the 1923 Land Speed Record-breaking Delage V12 – excuse me, I’ve just turned a corner and here’s an entire flotilla of Ford GT40s – Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spiders (well how many might sir want?) – and if touring cars are your thing, goodness me here’s the cream of several crops, from American V8s to genuine Triumphs of Midlands engineering…

And then there were my beloved endurance racing sports-prototypes – from Matra V12 through Porsche 908/3 to a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, and the gorgeous McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ Coupe… and more. 

For me it was a typical weekend of this is what we do. Taking a tour of important sponsor’s guests around the paddock, primarily to see the Listers and to hear about the Cambridge company’s celebrated star driver, little Archie Scott Brown. Born without a right hand, his forearm ending short with just a vestigial thumb, and with short legs, the heavily-moustachioed little man – a travelling salesman for Dobie’s 4-Square tobacco – had begun racing with an MG TD. As an enthusiastic member of the local Cambridge motor club he got to know fellow enthusiast Brian Lister, part through seeing him compete in his Tojeiro special, and part through seeing him play drums and vibraphone with a pub jazz band. Brian quickly realised that while his forte might be building cars at his offshoot of his family’s old-established engineering business, then Archie was the natural born driver. Today little Archie, barely five feet tall, would be a personable, highly promotable, star paralympian sportsman. Back in the mid- to later 1950s he was an outstanding little driving talent who had to fight some battles just to retain his racing licence and medical clearance, just because of his “birth disadvantages”. When RAC Stewards at one stage declared him physically unfit to compete, none other than Earl Howe – the patrician elder statesman of British motor sport – and Gregor Grant, editor of ‘Autosport’ magazine, went into bat on his behalf… and officialdom speedily backed down. Archie went on to build the Lister legend – before crashing fatally at Spa in Belgium, in May, 1958…

So I told the story to the guest party and when our time was up and we walked back to the Race Control building for them to take tea and biccies, one said to me “fascinating story, so how do you remember all this detail?”. I’m not sure that my instinctive response was quite as expected. But one has to be honest. “Oh I don’t really – I just make it all up as I go along…” I hope no one else was listening…

Another duty called in the Bonhams Auction since I have worked for years with my friends there as well. A faithfully-built Aston Martin Project 214 replica had just sold for £551,666 and Bonhams director Jamie Knight then knocked down the former Harold Young team/David Hobbs Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spider to a new racer/owner for £270,300 – an Alan Mann 1968 Ford Escort Twin-Cam racing saloon for £203,100 – a Mann-built Cobra Daytona Coupe replica for £158,300, 1957 Jaguar 3.4 Mk I saloon for £189,660 – a 2004 Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR for £191,900… and then a 1903 Clement “4-Cylinder Rear-Entrance Tonneau” for no less than £281,500. Ooh yes – and for the WW2 military vehicle fan, how’s about the c.1944 NSU Kettenkrad ‘motor-cycle’ half-track at a cool £51,750…

Wandering back from the auction to the scene of the central action, I could have sworn I saw a TVR win a race that wasn’t confined to TVRs only. But I might have imagined that bit as the Jaguar E-Types and Shelby Cobras were all gobbled-up and left gasping in the silver-blue Coupe’s wake. And the loony VSCC heroes careered around like truly magnificent men in their flying machines to entertain royally in their age-old wonder cars. And the simply gorgeous little 1-litre screamer Formula 3 cars also not only entertained but impressed hugely.

With the weather for the most part dry and a Spring-dawn sun just managing to break through only the remembered, keening Easter Monday Meeting aerodrome wind reminded one that this is only mid-March. I always loved the drive to Goodwood, zooming over the hills from the north, and for 75MM I had to make the two-way trip on Saturday night, being on a three-line whip to attend a quiz night in our village hall. I’m happy to report that our team led by 6 points going into the final round – which involved decoding some puzzles called ‘Dingbats’ – hitherto unknown to us. That’s right, it was an intelligence test. The outcome was predictable. We promptly lost by 12 full points. I thundered back down to Goodwood over the hills in the faithful Land Rover – and returned to what I know best…