Noise

Sir,

Recent correspondents extolling the virtue of noise and complaining about moves to silence exhaust systems seem to have missed the point. No one particularly wishes to spoil their fun but they must realise that other citizens do not necessarily share their enthusiasms and clearly if we cannot obtain the good old British Fair Play by voluntary methods it is going to come by legislation. Any one with experience of organising race meetings knows the difficult negotiations that have to be made with local authorities and one of the main stumbling blocks is noise as received by local (and not so local) residents, and as affected by wind speed and direction. Inability to guarantee a reasonable degree of noise can easily precipitate the loss of a circuit, to everybody’s dismay. After all, 90 db. at 33h. (or whatever) is “the same for everybody” so the drivers don’t mind and the object of the race is victory for the fastest driver/car combination, not the noisiest vehicle.

Ripon – SQDN. LDR. R. Kay R.A.F. (Ret’d.)