No Cupra for old men

I feel I have to take serious issue with the comments of Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths in the Racing Lines pages of your 25 January issue. In particular, his remark that the audience at “normal motorsport events” is “all old men”. How very rude, disrespectful and ageist! And just plain wrong. I’m sure I qualify as one of the old men he seems to think are irrelevant to motoring in 2023, but the last two grands prix I attended (at Silverstone and Monza) were full of twenty- and thirty-somethings, as well as a lot of children.

I am 73, have been driving for 56 years and passed one million miles around the end of 2013. I have been the registered keeper of 53 cars and counting, including no fewer than 12 Alfa Romeos, and have driven hundreds more. I may be among what Matt Prior calls those “at the tail end of a car’s life”, but I consider that I (and thousands of others like me) continue to contribute to the wellbeing of the UK’S second-hand car industry, as well as helping the many very competent independent garages and mechanics to survive and thrive, which in my opinion has a clear knock-on effect higher up the automotive food chain.

I’m no longer in the market for new cars of any kind. But if I was, I wouldn’t be putting my money in Griffiths’ pocket, however good Cupra’s cars may be.

How very dare he!

Richard Hilditch

Brough, East Yorkshire Griffiths was trying to point out that motorsport must ensure it continues to make the next generation fall in love with cars, but yes, he could have been more tactful with his phrasing – KC