Mercedes Memories

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Mercedes Memories

Sir,

What memories W.13, awakens with his salute to those great Mercs. of the late Twenties and the Thirties! Thistlethwayte’s SS 36/220 resting outside the Shelbourne Hotel with throng of admirers of all ages. His passenger inquiring “who prepared her?”, and his reply drowned in a great snort and rumble as he pressed the starter and they shot away in the direction of Phoenix Park and the Irish GP. Then Thistlethwayte leading the field on the first lap; the Mercs. supercharger screaming like a circular saw biting into hardwood, then out in the second lap with a blown gasket.

Lord Howe driving his pale blue and silver 36/220 down Grafton Street sporting half a yard of blue cigarette-holder, left hand sustaining a matching blue umbrella against a soft summer shower; engine turning over so slowly that the exhaust gave the individual cylinder beats. His racing overalls inevitably blue, too.

Caracciola closing relentlessly on Dorothy Paget’s Big Six Bentley with Tim Birkin up, on the Phoenix Park circuit, clipping seconds off, lap after lap. My mother waving her stopwatch at him excitedly and later receiving an acknowledging wave from the maestro as he came through in the lead after Mountjoy Corner.

My hope of scrounging a lift from Frau Caracciola in her man’s tweed cap at the wheel of the SSK “works car” alas unfulfilled!

Long live MOTOR SPORT and W.B. London, SE13 M. F. COSTELLO