BIRD STRIKE HALTS PROGRESS

Then we found a couple of loose spokes in one wheel, and Turrino supremo Will Tomkins reckoned it wouldn't be a bad thing to respoke all four. A couple of weeks later they were back on the car, looking superb in the correct white with the outer rims polished. In my next blast up the motorway, then crossing the finish line at Shelsley Walsh at 94mph, they performed perfectly, with no vibration.
My season usually ends at Kop, the historic hill near Princes Risborough where an accident in 1925 spelt the end of speed events on the public roads of mainland Britain. But the excellently organised festival run there since 1999 is untimed. It attracts everything from a 1905 16-litre Isotta-Fiat to a McLaren Speedtail, and raises large sums for local charities.
I was on my way on the morning of 25 September when a large pigeon flashed across my field of vision, evidently on a suicide mission. It hit the Stovebolt square on the nose, and sundry feathers, bones and blood were blown into my face. It was just as well the bird hit the car and not me, because it would likely have stunned me and I might have had a big accident.
I couldn't see from the cockpit what happened to the unfortunate bird, and guessed it had landed in the road. I waited for the water temperature to rise, but the gauge stayed steady on 175°F. So I kept going until Kop - wrong call - and then surveyed the damage.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 2023-Ausgabe von Classic & Sports Car.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 9.500 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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SUNBEAM ALPINE
The first Bond car showed that roadsters didn't have to be impractical and uncomfortable, and it's great value today

IN THE TRACKS OF THELMA & LOUISE
It's late summer, 1989, and I'm in Devon, visiting a client in Budleigh Salterton. On reassuringly crunchy gravel by the golf course, sticking out of a garage, is a '60s American car.

The midnight club
The Fast & Furious franchise pulled the favourites of tuner-car culture out of the underground and into the mainstream

FORD MUSTANG GT
Icon returns to remind Europeans of the fiery coupés they once made themselves

MAKING CARS FOR MOVIE STARS
The Action Factory has carved a niche modifying and building special-order vehicles for the film industry

RUSSELL LAW
A passion for the stainless-steel dream machine that's turned into an obsession

Martin BUCKLEY
The late Gene Hackman, with his Brillo-pad combover and hangdog looks, was an unlikely leading man, yet he made his craft look effortless.

PONTIAC FIREBIRD TRANS AM
A car chase almost from start to finish, the simple premise of Smokey and the Bandit is irresistible for fans of all-out, high-octane action in the mode of Vanishing Point and Gone in 60 Seconds.

AUSTIN MINI COOPER 'S'
If the Mini defined the '60s, then The Italian Job defined the Mini.

DOMESTIC STARS SHINE AT ESSEN
The annual Techno-Classica Essen sparked into life in Germany from 9-13 April. Eight halls of vehicles, dealers, parts and automobilia meant that every corner of the classic car world was catered for, as usual with a heavy emphasis on the home-market brands.