WELCOME TO THE WORKSHOP
Where the team is using Matt as an engine…
By the time you read this, the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show will have been and gone, and the volunteers who were present in all of the packed out halls will be recovering from what is always a weekend full of fun and hard graft.
The NEC is a huge, imposing, expensive and sometimes foreboding venue, but the event itself always makes those issues dissolve into a sea of classic car community goodwill. It always punctuates the year beautifully – a proper end of season party.
The show was missed this year by two classic car legends, both of whom represent something of the spirit with which we live out our passions. Actor and classic car enthusiast, Leslie Philips had just passed away at the time of going to press. I met him a couple of times at classic events and he was exactly as you would imagine, witty, erudite and with a twinkle in his eye. He had something we seem to have lost in our fastpaced, spreadsheet-worshipping world… the ability to smile in the face of adversity and roll with the punches. He, like this magazine, knew the true meaning of fun. A very sincere 'Ding Dong' to you, sir.
Our other departee was Richard Calver,
‘Mr Jensen’. A man who compiled and collated every shred of detailed information about the marque and the cars; everythinhg you could possibly imagine and then presented them in easy to access form. Without him, and his ‘chassis data’ book in particular I would not have been able to discover the true history of my own car, thousands of owners are indebted to him.
Both missed, both should have a glass or two raised in their name. RIP.