In the club
ONE OF my regular photographic assignments is to shoot the amazing automobiles that go on display in the rotunda of the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. There I have photographed vehicles ranging from Le Manswinning Audis to vintage Bentleys, and I often watch the cars entering the clubhouse at 5am.
A team, under the supervision of Tony Worsfold, have to remove the revolving doors and use a vast aluminium ramp up the staircase.
A while back I let the motoring committee secretary know that in the future, if they had a cancellation, I would be pleased to show my Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII. It’s been in Goddard family ownership for 29 years and has been featured in many magazine articles, starting with an epic 2500-mile, nine-day road trip in the August 1989 Supercar Classics.
The call came for my car to be displayed from 17 July. The logistics were a little tricky as the car lives on the Isle of Thanet, which meant a 2.30am departure for the 75 miles up the M2 to London to arrive in Pall Mall for 5am. I navigated a route along the Old Kent Road, across Westminster Bridge as the sun rose over the Thames, and up Whitehall to Pall Mall, where I was met by Tony outside the Club.
As I planned to photograph the ascent of the Healey up the ramp, I handed the keys to one of the team to drive my car in. The Healey is small compared with some of the previous cars, such as Ford Galaxie 500 or the Fittipaldi F7, which had to be winched up in reverse to protect its spoilers. Each owner provides a list of dimensions that the crew uses to configure the ramp, and sometimes tyres have to be deflated to slip the vehicle under the front door.
The Healey drove up with no problem. My last duty was to disable the battery kill switch, and slide drip trays under the car to protect that unique carpet…