MATT JAMES EDITOR THE STARS COME TO PLAY

I saw double British Touring Car champion Chris Hodgetts before I had a proper chance to explore the show halls at the NEC for myself.

But he fired me up. “You simply have to go and look at the Ford Sierra RS500S,” he told me. Like I wasn’t going to anyway…

I made my way to the far corner of hall 19 and was blown away by the collection of Boreham’s finest: north of 500bhp on tap on tyres, whatever their brand, that were nowhere near capable of translating that grunt on to the Tarmac.

Such is the love for the car that more than 10 of them were gathered to celebrate 30 years since they ruled the roost. Boy, do they still look the part. Modern cars might well be faster and have more grip, but they don’t move around so much and they don’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It always seemed to me that those who were lucky enough to race the Ford Sierra RS500S were truly taming the beast.

I was personally delighted to bump into Karl Jones when I ventured over to see the cars that Paul Linfoot had unearthed. Jonsey was a childhood hero, and there he was, basking in the reflected glory of the flamespitting cars. The trip down memory lane was fully complete.