Retrospectacle

OK, I admit, I haven't got around to writing up the AGM report yet. The notes I took are still on scraps of paper (cunningly hidden amongst scraps of scrap paper - what could go wrong?) filed in a plastic bag in the living room. That'll be next, I promise.

In the meantime, I'll blart on about the Race Retro show, which I went to the day before the AGM. It's all about classic and historic racing, with lots of clubs and classes represented. Yes, there's a lot of cubic money in them thar cars, but as these guys are mostly still giving them a damn good thrashing in historic classes, I'll let them off. American and street/strip stuff is rather poorly represented, but there were plenty of machines there that I remember from my formative years... like that SD1, above. I remember them being used for rallying, briefly, and for touring car racing, including a few Saturday afternoon pro-celebrity type races on World of Sport with Dickie Davis, a moustache-based presenter who Will Ferrell must have clocked before he came up with Ron Burgundy.

And this, one of the Group B Lancias that I still get a trouser-tent about all these years later, along with the Stratos. I think this may have been a replica, but I don't think I care.

Now that's the car I blame for loving V8s. The TR7 V8. I remember these tonking about with Tony Pond or Simo Lampinen at the wheel, they sounded marvellous. I still have a perverse desire for a TR7 even now.

Blimey, a Bjorn Waldegard Toyota Corolla! I remember these from the Rally Cars Top Trumps!

The Ford RS200, a proper weapon that came along just in time for Group B to be disbanded. I imagine this is worth a few quid, so I didn't bid him on it.

Another car I remember Tony Pond driving, the old 6R4! See, not everything that came out of British Leyland was an unmitigated disaster...

This picture doesn't quite convey the fact that the 6R4 was about twice as bulky as the Mini next to it. It was like someone got a Mini 1275GT, bunged a bicycle pump up its nipsy and pumped until they got a 6R4. Brilliant.

Now this was a wonderful bit of kit. It's a BMC race car transporter, just big enough to take a small-ish saloon car and with the most basic of living spaces up front. You'd really cut a dash in the pits with this! It was in the Silverstone Auctions' Conspicuous Display of Silly Money, where it failed to reach its £60,000 estimate...

Race Retro is a pretty good day out, though I must add that I've been going for a few years now and this year, I'd seen it all and was ready to go home in under four hours. Still, there's generally cock-all else to do in February, so it's any port in a storm...

Right, the AGM, yes, I'll get right on that...

Eugene