It's March. March is cold. My good friend and fellow trader Dirk Hillgruber did warn me the when I asked him if he'd be at Prescott Hillclimb's pre-season test day. “No , March is a useless month! ” he said. Well… by lunchtime I was inclinded to agree with him as I hadn't made many sales and when the early blue skies had disappeared my fingers had turned blue in their place. Then as I was in the process of taking a card payment , the hail started ! Normally this isn't too big a deal but for some reason there were no marquees available to hire for this low-key event so I was travelling light. I only had a couple of tables of books and some plastic sheets to thrown over them for just such a situation.
Dirk's other comment was that “It will be windy…books will fly!” and he sent me a photo of a butterly net saying I would need one! I tip my hat to his powers of anticipation. One book did fly when the breeze picked up. Luckily no damage was done but with lunchtime in full swing, and nothing going up the hill, it had gone very quiet . The sky was looking ominous and the wind had picked up further . Time to take action.
I just got everything loaded into the back of my car when it rained and for selling books that was the end of the day… at 1pm. So I sat in the dry watching the rain drops on the windscreen and eating my cheese and ham sandwiches. When the blue skies reappeared I could not be bothered to get everything back out as it was clearly only a temporary respite. Instead I went for a wander round the paddock and enjoyed looking at the cars that were running on the famous course, and having a chat with familiar faces, back for another year : Bob the Ice Cream man (I recommend the salted caramel flavour), ‘Mrs and Mrs Camera’ (photographers Gail and Rob), Nick, Rich, Keith and numerous others whose names I have never known but who are always around and call by for a chat.
As ever there was an ecletic mix from the latest single seaters to genuinely vintage cars (pre 1931, if you take the term literally, as most people these days no longer do) . A couple of Bugattis among them including this T35
And a very nice early MG - a Montlhery Midget?
One thing that always strikes me is just how small cars used to be…. case in point the “Big' Healey in this shot, next to a ‘small’ modern day Fiat 500! Or is it more a case of the current cars being emormous?
And talking of eclectic, Volvos are not that common a sight in speed event paddocks…
Neither are Austin A40 Farinas, a car I have a certain fondness for as my Dad's version in exactly this colour scheme is the first car I can remember riding in. There's a photo in the family album of me as a toddler sat on the bonnet at Oulton Park. That must have been the 1968 Gold Cup F1 race meeting . Ahhh the days when F1 cars didn't only race for world championship points and TV ratings… Ferrari even entered 3 cars (Chris Amon, Derek Bell, Jackie Ickx) at that one and there were four past or future F1 world champions on the grid. Happy days!
Aside from modern Mini Coopers and Fiats there were some nice sporty ‘moderns’ including this sculptural Alfa Romeo …
And aside from the modern day Goulds (like Will Hall's, above) and Empires, among the single seaters was this lovely Lotus 51 Formula Ford
I watched for a while as the action resumed on the hill, temporarily under more blue sky, and then made my way home, having enjoyed the day. Looking forward to the first competitive event here in late April - for which I am booked in .
See you there?
