A cough. A splutter. A jet of flame for good measure and the Merlin is prised from its slumbers and into rambunctious life. Many of you, perhaps even most, will have heard one of these engines, at Goo

DESPITE BEING largely derided by the US Army Air Corps and rejected as unsuitable by the RAF, the P-39 ended World War Two with the highest enemy kill tally of any US fighter. In February 1937, recogn

Brake hard, drop to second, wipe the wheel as you thrust forwards again and gather the second apex, run wide on exit and then gun this Riley Brooklands down the very short straight accompanied by what

THE HANDBRAKE FULCRUM. IT’S A SMALL, INCONSEQUENTIAL piece of metal, one you’d never see unless you pulled the gaiter off and dismantled the mechanism, but somehow this ordinary component has been mad

A 60-YEAR-OLD car with just over 20,000 miles on the clock, no matter what the marque, is a rare beast. That it had remained in the same ownership all its life is unusual, and that it should survive u

Until just after 10pm, it was a normal Saturday night at The Spaniard’s Inn on Hampstead Heath. Glasses clinking, the background radiation of chatter and high spirits, staff dashing to and fro because