The Things they say and said

“Actress Liza Goddard, geared up to take part in the London to Brighton (veteran car) run. Liza donned bonnet, dress, petticoats and boots to look more or less the part in the car she will race in, a 1902 Mors. Expect further frills when the vintage cars are flagged off. Only pre-1905 cars with a speed limit of 20 mph are allowed in the race.”

Some pre-veteran run publicity in the Daily Express showing that newspapers still do not get it quite right (our italics), and we remember when the VCC frowned on the crews dressing up.

“I rebuilt the car for the road, put a coupé body on it, and used it for fast touring, taking it over to California in 1933 and down to the South of France in 1934, and eventually sold it in 1936. The original radiator with its inscriptions I still have somewhere. The radiator was badly damaged when the car went over the top in the 500 Miles Race of 1932 and a new 8-litre type was fitted when the car was adapted for the road; in fact, one might really say that the inscribed radiator is all that remains of old No 4″ (the race number when it won Le Mans for Barnato in 1930).” Wing Commander Woolf Barnato, RAFVR in a letter he wrote to The Autocar in 1943, about the Speed Six Bentley known as ‘Old No 1’.

“Brooklands outside the Heritage site, of course, is now unrelieved rubble — a moonscape. Utterly depressing, in fact.” — Hugh Young in the BDC Review, after a recent visit.