DOWN MEMORY LANE

As C&SC hits 500 not out, our most prolific and popular wordsmith turns Jackanory to tell the story of his lifelong link to the magazine

- MARTIN BUCKLEY

Strangely, it's the early issues of Classic and Sportscar (as it was called until November 1996), before I even joined, that stick in the mind best possibly because they were the formative years of exposure to the old cars that really floated my boat. Old cars that in many cases were not really very old at all. May 1982-issue two-was the one that first captured my imagination: not because of the MGA Profile, or even Mike Taylor's story on the Monica, but a 'back-to-back' between the BMW 3.0 CSi and Fiat 130 Coupé (both less than a decade old) by launch editor Matthew Carter.

That four-pager - printed in glorious full monochrome - first inspired me to put pen to paper: my slightly irate teenage missive appeared in the Letters pages in July. More importantly, I was hooked on this new monthly formula, which comprised comparison tests, interviews with collectors and a balance of subjects from each 'classic' era.

Cars to dream about and cars you might actually be able to afford-the latter often given exposure in pithy two-page stories on subjects such as the Sunbeam Rapiers and Austin A35s that were then the meat-and-two-veg of the classic hobby.

I devoured it from back to front, although the regular Track test was not really my thing. Mike McCarthy ghost-wrote it for our tame historic racing god, Willie Green - who, by coincidence, will reappear in these pages next month. Not that you'd ever have known it wasn't the great man himself speaking, although I do recall a story on an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale (February 1983) in which Mike admitted in the copy that the driving impressions were conducted on the end of a tow rope!