Pictorial Mom

Sir,

It is fairly regular practice for your readers who write to you about something else to append also complimentary remarks about Motor Sport. But this letter is written for the sole purpose of trying to thank you adequately for the marvellous pictures of the Lake-restored 1902 Mors racing car, which accompanied your absorbing article on the machine in the February issue. The full-page colour-picture (which I am having framed) of the old car is alone worth much more than the cost of the February issue.

I wonder whether your readers really realise Mr. Lake’s achievement: first of all in digging that unattractive wreck out of America, and then in actually resurrecting for us all one of the legendary racing cars built before the older motorists like me were born—one of the GP racers built before (in 1903) Mercedes (and Fiat) began building cars resembling those with which we have all become familiar since. I have so often wondered what those old gilled-tube-radiatored creatures, familiar to us only through rather dim black-and-white photos, really looked and felt like. Now Mr, Lake has actually given us one. We actually have one with us. And you, with your marvellous photos, have allowed your readers to participate in the thrill of it all. Re-reading Jarrott’s book is quite a different experience with Mr. Lake’s restoration before one’s eyes.

Living in the past has added attractions amid the awfulness of the present. I think of your recent, magnificently-illustrated articles on the 60 Mercedes and Russ-Turner blower, Bentley restorations, and ask myself how one can thank you adequately for bringing a happier past back to us so vividly.

Johannesburg R.C.Calburn