Test to destruction 2

Sir.

The Hon. Alan Clark’s account of Some destructive testing makes entertaining reading but is, of course, an irrelevancy as tar as deciding which vintage car embodies the best combination of speed and endurance is concerned.

Any vintage Bentley, apart perhaps, from the more hugely-bodied 3-litres, will see off his indigestibly carburetted Royce—as he knows perfectly well.

Mr. Clark, having entered, failed to turn up for the last Rolls-Royce and Bentley Pass-Baiting rally, knowing that his machine would be used as a faintly-mobile chicane by the Bentleys in the Alps. On the most recent Mille Miglia Storica (1973) the two H6B Hispanos were unable to match the Bentleys, and lost their brakes and most of their exhausts before even reaching Florence.

“A contest of speed between the Dachsund and the Pekingese is of faint and passing interest to the Greyhound.” (Recently rediscovered Chinese proverb.)

Shawford T.J. THRELFALL