The Things They Say......

“The dashboard . . solid walnut, at a time when Packard and Cadillac were apologising for their painted steel facias by ornamenting them with foppish scrolls.”—Horace Fitzpatrick, writing about a 1930 Model-79 Marmon tourer he once owned in America.

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“Everything was as it should have been—the walnut dashboard carefully laid out with all the instrument buttons, indeed more than you would find in a 1966 car — 18 years its junior. Once again I experienced the sensation of sinking into an old friend of an armchair in an exclusive West End club.”—Paul Pickering, who runs “The Twenty One Page” in the Sunday Express, writing of his 1948 4-1/4 -litre Bentley. (Incidentally, the fact that it cost him a mere £305 makes most of those advertised for sale seem wildly expensive.)

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” I ordered an Alfa Romeo—actually put down the money for it. But when I got home I thought: ‘ This is not a practical thing to do. There’s only about six inches of space in the boot.’ So now he has a sober Jaguar saloon.”— A patriotic gesture by John Bird, the TV satirist, recommended in the Sunday Times Magazine of December 11th.