A glimpse into the future at Gaydon
SUNDAY
One enjoyable Goodwood sidelight was a chance meeting with Hugh Chambers, new(ish) CEO of Motorsport UK, the former MSA that makes motorsport work in the UK. Chambers was all smiles as he told me about recent success in an autosolo, driving a Suzuki Swift. These events are tremendous fun. You get to campaign the family car, with your kids if you like. We’ve done a few in the Mazda MX-5. Half the time you’re on the limit – but at low speed, so no helmet – and the other half you’re learning marshalling. And you always go home happy.
Chambers, MSUK chairman David Richards and their revitalised team are doing a fine job. As a competition licence holder, I see their new flow of emailed bulletins and keep hearing of success at streamlining the sport’s governance. “Of 5000 UK licence holders,” says Chambers, “about 100 make their living driving race or rally cars. My job is to improve things for the other 4900.”
MONDAY
During a Crewe factory tour that accompanied Bentley’s launch of its astonishing four-engined self-driving EXP 100 GT concept (News, p17), we passed a lovely, just-built Continental GT in rich silver. “There’s one of our new coupés in Hallmark…” sang the guide, which amused me because Bentley’s boss of 18 months’ standing is called Adrian Hallmark. He insists the colour came before the appointment, but I still wonder what the colours Norman, Flewitt, Popham and Palmer would be.
TUESDAY
So sorry to report the death at 81 of legendary Jaguar chief engineer Jim Randle, who I knew very well and always appreciated for what his engineer son Steve aptly calls “his patient, firstprinciples approach”. He began at Rover on the 2000TC but spent most of his career producing ever-better Jaguars, starting with the XJ-S, then drawing Sir William Lyons back into the company to create the all-important XJ40 of 1986. With his direction and support, Jaguar won Le Mans in 1988.
Working semi-secretly with a Jaguar group known as the Saturday Club, Randle somehow produced the mighty XJ220 supercar and also proved himself to be an early advocate of hybridisation, before leaving the company for other projects. His most influential car was undoubtedly the XJ40, whose echoes remained for 20 years, and Steve Randle proudly owns the earliest surviving example. With typically realistic Randle reserve, he reckons “it still drives pretty well”. What better legacy is there for a great British car engineer than the admiration of a son who’s up to his ears designing future great cars of his own?
❝ Next they should abolish the ‘luxury’ surcharge on BEVS ❞
THURSDAY
The government is full of surprises – such as the decision to drop benefit-in-kind tax on company cars from next year. The next step, says BP Chargemaster’s influential head of strategy, Tom Callow, should be to abolish the ‘luxury’ surcharge on BEVS. There’s a petition running: find it at petition.parliament.uk.
FRIDAY
Forged northwards on my private test track (the Fosse Way former Roman road connecting the Cotswolds and Leicester) to Gaydon and the opening of the British Motor Museum’s future car exhibition called ‘The Car. The Future. Me’. Fascinating to see the motoring of 2050 summarised with such authority – and in a place chock-full of answers to the problems of the past.
“No one can say exactly what motoring conditions will be like 30 or 50 years hence,” said BMM curator Stephen Laing, when I dropped into his office for a chat. “So we’ve concentrated on explaining some of the challenges and showing how car makers have started to meet them.” Much more at britishmotormuseum.co.uk.