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Reader Julian Bell’s photograph of an Aston Martin DB3S (Letters, September 2021) brought back happy memories of my days as an architectural student at Manchester in the early Sixties when our favourite activity on a Saturday morning was to tour the ‘backstreet’ used car dealers’ emporia in search of exotica. On one memorable occasion, in 1962, my fellow architect/petrol-head and I were offered a DB3S for £625 which exceeded our collective student maintenance grants, so we declined. On another occasion we were offered the ex-diana Dors Delahaye with Figoni et Falaschi two-seat sports body for a more reasonable £475.
Post-graduation, I ran Armstrong-siddeleys, Bristols, Alfas and now in my 80th year a ‘big-bore’ Bentley Mark VI. My fellow student opted in 1967 for an Aston Martin DB6 which he still owns; however, he did inform me a few years ago that the ex-dors Delahaye had fetched over two million dollars in a Californian auction!
Professor Emeritus A Peter Fawcett
Mercedes R107 memories
The features on the Mercedes SL R107 in the August issue brought back many memories of growing up in the Seventies and Eighties in the New York City Tri-state area here in the States. I didn’t grow up in a rich neighbourhood on Long Island, but the SL was definitely the aspirational car that people obtained to show that ‘they’d finally made it’ financially, and there were plenty around back then. In the mid-eighties, it got a reputation as the battle gear of the Wall Street Gordon Gekko-type, and plenty of finance guys (and gals) drove them in that era.
I also enjoyed your nods to the SL in popular culture, but there was one major omission – In the film American Gigolo, male prostitute/hustler-for-hire Julian Kaye, played by Richard Gere, drove a yellow 1980 450SL. Who can forget the opening title sequence, with Julian driving his SL along the Pacific Coast Highway, to the strains of Blondie’s Call Me! blaring? The car even plays a pivotal part in the plot of the movie, but I will not be a spoiler!
Thank you for brightening up my three or four days every month (I never rush through your magazine!) with the great articles. Every issue is an education. Glenn Krasner
Merc R107 again
Being the fortunate owner of a 1987 Mercedes R107 I very much enjoyed the August issue. The timeline of its development and evolution was particularly interesting. They really are lovely cars to drive – and look at.
However, the article that really had me was the piece on the 1957 Le Mans-winning Jaguar-d-type. What a remarkable triumph of design and engineering, especially for the period. Pretty good team management and driving too. To be able to get behind the wheel and experience such an historically important car must surely be the drive of a lifetime.
Ashley Walkley
Quentin’s gone electric
As a lover of driving old cars, I found it shocking to read on a BBC news page that Quentin Willson will, ‘Never go back to an internal combustion engine,’ now that he’s bought a ‘wonderful Tesla Model 3’. Maybe it’s time he stopped trading these old relics, and started mining Bitcoin?
Quentin also boasts, ‘My car will do 0-60 in 3.1 seconds.’ Yes, it will, but if you put it in the Ludicrous mode to do this more than five times your warranty is void.
Remember who reads your printed word! Ed Wright
Wronghand drive
Not sure what Quentin means by his righthand-drive Citroën 2CV (The Insiders, June 2021) being useless in France. Like you, we have a home not far from yours in France, where we took a rhd Peugeot 305SW to use when we visit by air. With the absence of traffic, and recent speed restrictions making overtaking a rarity I have had no problems driving this car. Indeed I believe the French in a hurry appreciate it because I drive much further from the centre than they do, so can be overtaken with ease. Michael Tinn