Spyker man
Thank you for the article about the Spyker C8 [above] in 204. As the proud owner of chassis 138 for 11 years, I’d like to add an owner’s perspective – and correct one misconception.
Ownership of a Spyker is as much an experience as driving the car is. Following purchase I became a member of a fortunate community: visiting the factory, the paddock at Le Mans, Spyker trackdays, and many social events with Victor Mueller in New York, including owner reunion events in the Catskills.
Even after all this time, the quality of the design and execution astonishes me. It is my favourite car to drive, one that is easy to find a balance with. It’s light and scarily fast on the road, but most of all it is just fun!
Servicing is straightforward, and for the major belt change a Spyker engineer has flown in to do it for owners as a group, again helping maintain the feeling that you’re part of a community.
Now to that correction. Starting is not ‘a three-step process’. The Audi fob in the glovebox is keyless and should be left there; you use the beautifully engineered Spyker fob to unlock the car and remotely open the door, and then press the button to start. Just make sure the car you get has the fob with it! Matthew Robinson, New York, USA issue 208 [see pages 108-112].
In the early/mid-1980s, my school recognised that pupils my age would soon be buying their first cars or motorbikes, and so needed educating in road sense. One afternoon my year were all sent to the tarmacked tennis courts to see a demonstration by ‘hot-rod racer’ Barry Lee in a Ford Sierra XR4i.
At one point Barry asked us to estimate braking distances by placing a cone where we thought the car would stop from 30mph, and then from 40mph. Of course, we severely underestimated the distances and it was quite sobering to see the cones disappear under the Sierra’s nose.
He also asked us to time him driving around a course, first in an exuberant tail-out manner and then in a much neater fashion. To our surprise, the smoother and neater lap was faster. I have practised a smooth driving style ever since.
My impression was that Barry Lee was a highly skilled driver who wore his talents lightly and performed a valuable education while keeping us entertained. Thank you, Barry: you made the streets of Swindon safer and did wonders for my go-kart driving about ten years later.
Michael Harper, Watford
I passed on my copy of
204 to my father for him to read about the Hawker Typhoon on your ‘Icon’ page, because he remembers the Typhoon squadrons flying overhead from airfields across the south coast during 1943. Many years later, after retiring from the aircraft industry, he sought out historical records to find out more about them and their pilots’ exploits.
My favourite story unearthed by my father concerns ‘Bob’ Merlin, a South African pilot who was shot down in Northern France. Being a fluent French speaker, he joined the and helped them map the V1 sites and defences along the north coast.
Bob then travelled to Switzerland, walking most of the way, using forged papers with the maps hidden in a hollowed-out French loaf. Once there, he reported to a British Consulate and handed over the maps. Refusing help in repatriation, he walked back into France.
After D-Day and having learned that his squadron had relocated to Normandy, he turned up at their airfield in a German staff car, fully bearded, wearing a German long leather coat, brandishing a Sten gun and with a huge Alsatian dog on a leash. After nearly being shot on sight he was – of course – immediately charged with desertion and taken into custody.
If anyone is interested in reading more about this aircraft and the men who flew them, find acopyof by Desmond Scott, RNZAF.
Julian Cheese, Kent factory, driving an MG Metro. In the back was a Norton Wankel engine and he told Lockhart: ‘Put that engine in this MG, will you? Call me when you’ve done it.’
Lockhart did as he was instructed, and called Poore, who arrived, driven in an MG Metro Turbo. Lockhart advised Poore that the car would top 100mph but the engine had no usable power below about 4000rpm. Poore, racing driver that he was, waved Lockhart’s advice aside, jumped in and told the driver of the other MG to follow him. He set off down Holyhead Road and around the Coventry Ring Road, leaving the other car miles behind.
About half-an-hour later, Poore arrived back at the factory and jumped out, with a huge grin on his face. ‘It’s fantastic!’ he said. ‘Tell your friends at BL to put it into production straight away!’
Needless to say, that never happened.
Bill Munro, Surrey