FIRST POSTED 16th August 2015
Back in 1977 I was 10 and as avid a motor racing fanatic as you could envisage. I got a serious telling off at school for decorating the covers of exercise books with drawings of racing cars. I also drove a few of the other kids nuts with constant references to the latest family trip to Silverstone, which back then was probably one of 4 or 5 such adventures each year (plus the occasional Mallory Park, Brands Hatch, RAC Rally etc). Pride of place on my return from any such event went to the race programme.
Programmes were a serious deal. No ‘Radio Silverstone’ back then, or repeats of any BBC TV coverage . There wasn’t much anyway but if you were there you missed seeing it anyway. And much of the time little audible commentary unless you hung about very close to a tannoy as this was the golden era of open exhausts and full-noise motor racing. So the programme, and filling in the lap chart, were vital to properly follow any race.
So in 1977 , late in the year, it was RAC Tourist Trophy time and we had the added prospect of seeing the Broadspeed Jaguars in action. This was an era when few ‘factory’ teams seemed to be active in motor racing, especially British ones . BMW or Porsche seemed to win everything outside of F1. But here was a two car team of XJ Coupe’s with top notch drivers (Bell, Rouse, Fitzpatrick, Schenken) and after a torrid season they were finally looking like a race winning prospect. And the car had a V12 that sang like an angel (one with a serious attitude and a Marshall amp) what could be better?
We turned up early on race day with our ‘grandstand’ on the roof rack. Lots of people had these at the time, consisting of two wooden stepladders and three scaffold planks which gave a good view over the heads of anyone in front. To our surprise there were a lot of people in front… thousands. The presence of the Jaguars had caused unprecedented interest in a race that was normally one for the die-hards rather than the ‘general public’. And then we found the programmes , printed on that basis, had sold out . Horror! We did borrow one from a friend of my Dad’s who happened to be nearby – those were the days when you met friends and neighbours at such events. Not motor racing obsessives, just those with a casual interest. Never seems to happen now. Anyway having read it we had to give it back. In the car, for some reason, was a 1972 Oulton Park Gold Cup programme – I distinctly remember the cover photo of Peter Revson and Denny Hulme in M19 Yardley McLarens – so turning the lap chart upside down I used that , except it didn’t have room for enough laps so I got a bit lost after a while. Anyway the race result was a disappointment as the glorious sounding Jaguars didn’t win.. or even finish. The last of them spun off on oil near the end. But, blimey, they were impressive while they lasted.
But of course I never did get the programme so the race always felt almost dreamlike, as if I imagined it and wasn’t really there. We even didn’t take any photos as the track was too far off for my Dad’s fixed-lens camera and film was so expensive back then that you didn’t waste a shot.
Fast forward to July 17th 2015 . As I pulled into the paddock at Shelsley Walsh , my car loaded with books and a trailer with the marquee and shelves inside towed behind – there, right in front of me was the muscular blue and white shape of a Broadspeed Jaguar. Alongside was the equally rare sight of the Bob Tullius’ Gp44 Jaguar E Type V12 that only ever raced in the USA. Normally that E Type would have had me drooling all weekend but on this ocassion it just didn’t hold a candle to the Coupe. And then it turned out original Broadspeed team driver, Derek Bell, was going to drive it on the Sunday. And he did, driving within a could of feet of my book stall on his way to the start.
Hell! That car sounded just as angry and impressive as I remembered from 37 years ago. The only downside of all this was that I never got to see it at speed, but you can’t have everything in life.
There were a lot of other things going on at this event – the “Classic Nostalgia” weekend for pre 1980 cars , much of it revolved around Jaguars. Three drop-dead gorgeous E Types were parked across from my, the red one being the very car crunched by the Mafia in the film THE ITALIAN JOB . Some bloke in a black hat managed to photobomb this shot…
Jaguar test driver/racer/record breaker Norman Dewis (below) was on hand to give a talk and there were original C type, D type and XKSS on hand with an XJ220 to complete the line up.
Non Jaguar runners included the steam powered WHISTLING BILLY (which the marshalls ‘loved’ as it dropped liquid all over the track while failing to reach to top of the hill) a pair of beautiful B16 Chevrons and a glorious 1905 Daimler complete with chain drive and a big brass crankcase breather that emitted as much spoke as the steam car!
Up in the sky we had a phenomenal aerobatic display and a short but sweet flypast by a Spitfire.
Derek Bell also drove a Porsche 956 Group C car up the hill – sadly that was under wraps when I wandered around so I didn’t a get a photo. A friend of mine read a comment that he made about the XJ Coupe and asked him if it seemed any better on reacquaintance? “No!” he said firmly with a smile. Oh well, he’s not a fan (and clearly never was) but for me it was the only car I had eyes for at Shelsley.
