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
WORDS MARTIN BUCKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN BRADSHAW
Strangely, itʼs 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 Taylorʼs story on the Monica, but a ʻback-to-backʼ 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 ʻclassicʼ 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 youʼd ever have known it wasnʼt 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!
I always enjoyed reading Mike, who – when he wasnʼt eulogising about a 1950s Ferrari – could throw light on cars such as the Cord (he drove author James Leasorʼs car in April 1985) or poke well-meaning fun at oddities such as the Bond Bug (a car scarcely mentioned in classic magazines before his June 1987 story) with equal skill. Mike made even the dreariest cars fun. About a Standard Vanguard he wrote the immortal line: ʻHandling? Yes, it goes around corners…ʼ Lofty names such as John Bolster, Simon Taylor and Doug Nye gave this perfect-bound newcomer gravitas, while the likes of Matthew Carter, Peter Nunn and Mark Gillies seemed to have the keys to the toy cupboard, with a ro
