Too much racing?

I have bought Classic Driver ever since its beginning. However when this subscription runs out I will not renew. I find there are too many racing stories. This last copy being mainly about racing, or racing cars. I realize you can’t please everyone but a few stories about classic cars would be nice.

The cars I like to read about would be from veteran to post war classics. Commercials, tractors and motorcycles as well. These are all vehicles I’ve had dealings with.

A story I told Allan Dick once and I think you will appreciate it. You will know being a vintage car man that when your needle valve in your carb is a bit dicky it can drain your vacuum tank pretty quick. So when you saw all those old guys park their car, the first thing they did was to turn the petrol off.

One day when I was doing some bulldozing on a farm at Aorangi near Feilding, I was walking out to the road to pick up my vehicle to go home and came across this car shed with the doors open and a lovely Model A parked in there. This was about 1966 and they were getting pretty scarce by then.

While I was looking at it an elderly man came up. We were talking about his car and he mentioned his friend across the railway track used to have a nice roadster. The man said he was working near the house one day and heard this almighty crash. He rushed out and over the road to find a trail of canvas, wood and bent Model A bits.

Lying in the middle of all this was a battered and bruised neighbour. He yelled “Are you ok Jack?”

Jack’s reply was “Switch me petrol off.” Wilfred Whittingham, Tauranga TH Thanks for expressing you views on what you do (or don’t!) want to see in Classic Driver. This is after all YOUR magazine and I am here to fill it with what you, our readers find interesting. So if there is something you don’t like, don’t just tell your mates, tell me as well. I can’t change anything if no one tells me they aren’t happy. We on the Classic Driver team do listen to what our readers tell us so don’t be shy. I hope you find this issue is more your thing – there is only one racing car, one racing driver and more Model As than you can shake a stick at! to the teacher and his car but it was exciting at the time.

I now own a totally original 1995 Toyota Celica, which I use every day, a truly excellent car.

Great magazine, keep up the good work. Doug Braddock, Avalon