My week in cars

SATURDAY, SUNDAY

Goodwood always breeds nostalgia, and at this year’s Members’ Meeting, the pangs arose for me as race fields of 1960s 1.0-litre Ford-powered Formula 3 cars started screaming past.

At the end of the 1950s, the 105E Ford Anglia’s new short-stroke 997cc Kent engine started beating the ever-available BMC A-series because its big piston area meant hot versions could have bigger valves, breathe better and make more power. This led in amazingly short steps to a fast Ford era that still echoes today. It encouraged firms like Cosworth and Holbay to put bigger, hotter engines into cars like the then new Lotus Seven. Then Ford made a bigger, stiffer version that became the basis of the famous 1588cc Lotus Twin Cam engine and sparked Cosworth’s FVA racing 16-valve – whose technology helped create the 3.0-litre DVF Formula 1 engine of 1967 that eventually won 156 grands prix. It all grew in less than 10 years from the humble Anglia – and I read all about it in pages like these.

MONDAY

The Steering Committee has been driving a fat Mini (aka Countryman), because she liked its looks and reckoned it might suit. This was the same car that we used for last week’s road test; I borrowed it from section editor Matt Saunders, who needed my long-termer for an exploit of his own (see ‘Wednesday’, right).

The Mini was supple, comfortable and well made, my missus decided, with a sweet, strong engine/automatic combo. The steering was good too, but she couldn’t get on with the dinner-plate dash or the weird Experiences switch. Strangest of all was the Forth Bridge scuttle/windscreen frame that dominated everything frontal and could have come from a BMW 7 Series.

Verdict of a 40,000-mile 3dr Cooper S owner? Decent but too big.

TUESDAY

Here’s proof that a sense of enterprise works every time. Seventeen-year-old Rahil Hashmi, an A-level student from Buckinghamshire, recently organised a car show for his schoolmates – and the pupils of another school nearby – to demonstrate what passion can achieve.

Hashmi, already a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers because of contributions to media outlets including Autocar, persuaded the owners of 12 sports and luxury cars to bring them along, opening them for kids to sit in, start engines, blip throttles and enjoy.

Pictured above is a 296 GTB from Ferrari North Europe, which especially liked the plan.