THE term ‘gentleman driver’ is usually used for an amateur, but wealthy car fan who has the time and money to indulge a passion for motor racing. At the highest level of motorsport, however, there is one driver who is widely acknowledged as being among the greatest true gentlemen who ever turned a steering wheel —the Belgian star Jacky Ickx.
Although 78 years young and officially retired from professional racing (since 1985), his motoring life remains hectic. Earlier this month, he took to the 8½-mile Le Mans circuit in a variety of fire-breathing cars as a special guest at the centenary of the celebrated 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s oldest endurance race. First run in 1923 to prove the resilience of both car and driver, it became famous for the exploits of the celebrated ‘Bentley Boys’ —a group of affluent British motorists who drove the marque’s cars to victory, keeping Bentley’s reputation alive—notably in 1929, when the marque took the first four places. Soon, the race became synonymous with the heroic exploits of its protagonists (Raymond Sommer drove solo for 20 hours in the 1932 event after team-mate Luigi Chinetti became ill) and the 1950s saw Le Mans become a place of pilgrimage for British motorsport fans, thanks to the successes of Jaguar’s famed C and D Types and Aston Martin’s DBR1.
The 1960s, meanwhile, resulted in a hard-fought rivalry between Ford and Ferrari—inspiring the cult 1971 film Le Mans starring Steve McQueen that majored on the passions, dangers and uniquely changing atmosphere of a race that can run to as much as 3,000 miles as it passes from afternoon to evening, dusk to night and from dawn back to day.
Denne historien er fra June 21, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 21, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
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Mary I: more bruised than bloody
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A love supreme
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Private views
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Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course