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...
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...Memories of the Cad
It's been a great privilege to have worked with, and sometimes befriended, many great names of motorsport. Some have become household names while others, often of equal talent, are known only to real enthusiasts. One of those was the remarkable Alain de Cadenet. Alain - or De Cad as he was widely known - was one of those rare people who, when he left a room, those left behind...A Stig in the Tale
Two unexpected but welcome guests turned up at my office in the autumn of 1985. Chris Lord had been an indecently successful privateer on the international rally scene through the seventies. In the same period, Malcolm Wilson had made his debut as the boy-wonder of rallying, and had evolved to take the mantle of works driver for Ford. I'd not seen either for far too long, and...A Swedish Rubber Movie
Usually, when you head off for work in the morning, you've got a pretty decent idea of what you'll be doing before sitting down for your tea. Dunlop Racing Division sometimes exhibited a habit of changing that. Well, I say sometimes...The European Touring Car Championship was probably our most important formula, so we were stocked up and fully prepared for the...