Motoring
Compulsive passions
Alan Judd
Three books and two cars this month. The late Alan Clark's motoring writings. Backfire (Weidenfeld, £18.99), have been rightly praised. Clark was Mr Toad, but he drove accurately as well as fast and owned some of the most desirable cars ever made. His fleet ranged from a Citroen 2CV to a modern Bentley Continental, but it is in writing about his older cars — his Derby Bentleys, his 1930s Buick, his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost — that his passion and detailed knowledge really show. He couldn't write badly and, like everything else he published, this book is compulsive. He was once invited to be motoring correspondent of The Spectator but wanted too much money. In journalism as in motoring, you get what you pay for. You got me.
The first London to Sydney car rally was in 1968 and was won by a Hillman Hunter, In 2000 there was a millennium rally in which Anthony and Pamela Johnson, with Peter Hornby, came a creditable 11th in a Subaru Outback estate (the same Hillman Hunter competed — and completed). Anthony has written a very readable and — for would-be rallyers — helpful account of their 32-day adventure, or ordeal (East into the Sun, £8, 01454 218569 or old.hundred@virgin.net). Much as I love cars, I'm not sure about spending 12 hours a day cooped up in one for a month, at least not with my back. But a bad back ought to have persuaded me because they raised £65000 for the International Spinal Research Trust. Ten per cent of sales go to the charity.
Clark would have had little use for Hugh Cantlie's A Break from the Motorway's (19.95, Cheviot Books, 01668 213313, or enquiries@chcviotbooks.co.uk) since he liked to race from Kent to the north of Scotland with only pit-stops. If, like me, you prefer leisurely journeys punctuated by lingerings, halts, refreshers and potterings that become a reason for travelling in themselves and double the journey time, then you'll find this guide to what's available five minutes off the motorway very useful. It's well set out and illustrated and I'm all the happier to recommend it because it does not include my own favourite halt, which is just off the Al and quite busy enough already, thank you. But it does include a lot else that's enticing.
Among the cars Clark mentions with approval is the Mark VI Bentley, the postwar standard steel saloon that still employed the old right-hand manual gear change. In price terms, it's usually the poor relation of older Bentleys. That's how I came to own one many years ago, in an acquisition process that was a perfect example of how not to buy an old car. We ended up in court together, a fight I won hands down, but the other party defaulted and I had to sell the car at such a loss that for years afterwards I could not see one without burying my head in Fiats and Citroens, anything flimsy and cheap. Its chassis number was B172FV, engine B86F, registration — I think — 0MU52. Has anyone got it?
Bentleys have been growing on me again recently and I was pleased to see Clark praising their qualities as a driver's car. So pleased that I rang up about a couple and went to see one, which I was prevented from buying only by a continuing supply problem in the means of exchange. It had black coachwork and grey leather, new headlining and carpets and a rebuilt engine at 92,000 miles (it's now done 107,000). There was sonic bubbling along the bottom of one door but otherwise the body was good. It was owned for many years by the former chief constable of Blackpool and drives sweetly with plenty of low-end torque, light steering, good brakes and a smooth gearbox. Mr Neil Brierley of Yorkshire (01423 322798) — not a dealer but something of an authority on these cars — is asking about £12,500. It looked and felt a genuine car.
Another that sounds genuine — I haven't seen it — has lived for 34 years in Dorset with Mr Richard Fowler (01297 489496). It spent its childhood in Kuwait and is a distinctive navy blue with a grey interior. It, too, had an engine rebuild, with new sills and front-seat covers, and there is no known rust. Mr Fowler is selling because he is giving up driving and is looking for £10,000.
People who genuinely cherish such cars tend to be nice to deal with, and if I were Alan Clark I'd probably have bought both, As it is. I'm hoping the editor will buy one for me so that I can report regularly on it and take his staff for picnics on press days. Tell that to the Marines.
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