We have turned over into a New Year and the new SP250 calendar adorns the wall, depicting a broad spectrum of past SP happenings from around the globe. There seems a slight trend appearing with ‘our first SPs’ as has not only Mathew Waterhouse bought back his first SP, but also Elizabeth Mason who sold her ‘first’ back in 1970. It’s most extraordinarily that Elizabeth bought it back from the person to whom she sold it! Elizabeth latest acquisition will share garage space with UGS 5 the ex- Quentin Willson SP that she kindly showcased on our stand at the Classic Car Show last November.
Within 48 hours over the Christmas period 2 more unknown SPs have crawled out of their long hibernation, and what is most astonishing both were here in the UK! Just how many are still out there awaiting their handsome Prince to awaken them from their slumbers, I wonder? When we first decided to log unknown knows our target was to attain the magical figure of 2000 – we creep very slower to that figure with 1769 UKKs out of 2654, which figure includes the 6 prototypes and the 2 Ogles being close to 67% of those manufactured, we still believe that many more UKKs especially in the USA are out there, so please keep searching.
At this time of the year we turn out attention to the Spa Classic 23-25 May https://www.spa-francorchamps.be/en/ with Alan Mason (soaring.ace@btinternet.com) at an advance stage of planning our annual trip. So if you wish to join with or without your SP as there are a couple of spare seats currently, do contact Alan. It’s the numbers that are needed to book the advance tickets which cost about €35 for the 3 day pass – excellent value. We do have our own parking in-field by the famous Eau Rouge (river) bend and a most interesting route into the circuit using part of the old pre-war race track. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_Spa-Francorchamps – a most interesting read.
Glyn Overy is currently in the mind set of Vin Diesel i.e he is ‘Fast & Furious’ as he plans this year’s SP 250 day in late July. This is around the celebratory activities of the Bromyard Motoring Festival https://bromyardspeedfestival.co.uk/. As time passes you will kept informed by the newsletter or by articles in the Driving Member.
And if you are going out to Classic Le Mans this year, 3-6 July SP owner Neil Horton (Kent) has a race entry with his Peerless GT coupe, he, I’m sure would welcome an encouraging support while he is in the paddock.
If social media is your ‘thing’ then this clip https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/614741417896446582/ will keep you busy to see if your car is depicted. I gave up in trying to identify all.
Which one is the ‘New’ Jaguar Concept Car? Answers on post card!
Or was this BRG concept ‘car’ they are trying to emulate 
And speaking of design, have you seen what the once mighty Ford have brought to the market in the shape of the ‘new’ Capri and Mustang, talk about ugly, strange in that it was at the 1959 New York Show that the SP250 was deemed the ugliest car of the show? At least we seemed to be in good company now with modern concept designers, albeit it they are 65 years too late to the table!
It appears as we pursue this ill-conceived and futile attempt to achieve a target of net-zero, the manufacturing of motor vehicles will cease in Europe. Ford is first to the drawing board as they are expected to cease production in Germany later this year, whilst many other major manufactures have cut back production on a massive scale. This in its wake will make hundreds of 1000s of people redundant, as in turn the only manufacturing left will be the subsidised vehicles from China, with the consequence the tax payer will pick up the burden as always. It is not just the manufacturing as the industry employ many downstream in its supportive infrastructure. All I can say is buy shares in tyre companies as they will win out with the heavy EV usage.
In Japan common-sense has prevailed to help safeguard their own future with Honda and Nissan amalgamating to create a cost saving infrastructure in an attempt to hold back the flood of imported cars.
Whilst here new car buyers continue to shun the EV and also now the new car (petrol & diesel) market in droves, buying instead low mileage vehicles, as it is perceived so much supplementary money is added to the final price to subsidise their quota of EVs. Added to this many who have unwisely bought an EV have in many cases after a few weeks tried to ‘reject’ the car as ‘not fit for purpose’ – many are struggling as the manufacturers do not want the junk back as no second hand buyers are in sight. Also a major problem is brewing as no one will take in scrap EVs with their spent batteries so will the ocean floor be the answer?
Mind you given all this nightmare, hopefully we still have our SP to enjoy, however, no doubt we will be tax on their usage in some way. In the meantime let’s get out and about. Dates to see SPs enjoying themselves are:- Silverstone 22-24 September, The Goodwood Revival 12-14 September. If you live in the West Country do keep an eye at https://castlecombecircuit.co.uk/all-events/ as Castle Coombe has a wide variety of racing activity
I’m fed up with comments from Laurence ridiculing EVs. He doesn’t know what he is talking about. Personally, I drive two top of the range EVs, a Jaguar and a Porsche. Their acceleration and handling is fantastic. They look brilliant and they’re really cheap to run. They need hardly any maintenance and haven’t depreciated since I bought them. Literally the only criticism I could make is sometimes, if I really push them into a corner, they can fly off the track and get stuck under the sofa……..
And finally………….
Well it is environmentally friendly, a flatbed back to base saving fuel! Do remember the Tesco slogan ‘every little helps’
Thought for the day:
“He didn’t know the right people”. That’s all a police record means!
