Making up for lost time
I RECENTLY SPENT a wonderful weekend in Malta as one of the judges at the Valletta Concours d’Elegance. Taking place in the historic St George’s Square at the heart of this architecturally mesmerising limestone city, it meant reuniting with a band of owners, organisers and judges that had last been there in 2019. Many’s the email conversation with these friends in the interim that has concluded with our hopes for once again enjoying a pint of freezing cold Cisk (the local brew) together. When that finally came to pass last month, what was most astonishing was that all the elapsed time simply evaporated.
So embracing was the familiarity that we all repeatedly referred to ‘last year’ when, of course, we meant ‘three years ago’ – yet it was suddenly as if the global disruption of the past two years had never happened. The weather was glorious, the Cisk was perfectly cold and the enthusiasm of the Maltese owners was as infectious as ever. What makes this concours stand out is that, while the winning Cadillac V16 would not be out of place at Pebble Beach, at the other end of the square, Gary Axon and I were judging a pair of restored-to-new Mk1 Escorts and a Renault 4 with the faint whiff of fresh emulsion when you opened the bonnet.
Yet what didn’t change a jot wherever you were in the square was the owners’ passion and emotional investment in the cars. It was great to be back and perhaps the first truly tangible sign for me that things are nearly back to normal. So let’s all get out there and make up for lost time!
JIM CLARK IS MY racing hero, though just one of a disproportionate number of the really gifted drivers that have heralded from north of the border. Dario Franchitti is another, though perhaps rather less well-known at home because he chose to ply his trade predominantly on the ovals of the USA rather than the street circuits of Europe. Four championships and a trio of Indy 500s is not to be sniffed at, however, so it felt like some sort of validation that not only is Dario’s hero also Clark, but that he also shares my devotion to Lotus cars.
His boyish delight at driving his own exClark Lotus Cortina and then Gregor Fisken’s ex-Clark roadgoing Elan (997 NUR, from the famous advert) would make the hardest heart melt. James Page’s account of this once-in-alifetime encounter is not to be missed.