Weekend catch up part 3

Time to cover some of the highlights of the Gold Cup weekend. One of my favourite things about the Gold Cup is the support from local classic car clubs who bring all manner of interesting machinery. I failed to photograph a very tidy chrome-bumper Alfa Romeo Alfasud but whoever owns it deserves a medal for keeping it in such great condition.

To start with, the Rolls-Royce enthusiasts club gathered some lovely cars, including a good many series-1 Silver Shadows but my heart was more taken by this Corniche.



If you prefer older cars there was this lovely Thrupp and Maberley 20/25 saloon.



It looked imposing although I noticed a distinct lack of rear-seat leg room. This is certainly not a R-R in which to be chauffeured. Even more interesting was this Silver Cloud.



According to the notice in the window this was a development vehicle and had been fitted with an experimental V8 engine (although I believe it now has the production V8).

It wasn’t just Rolls-Royces, Bentleys were well represented too. I think this is an S-series Bentley Flying Spur Continental but I’ve never seen one with suicide rear doors before.



My favourite Bentley was this one.



Not sure what model it is but I love the lines of this two-door coupé. I’m not sure I have captured its best angle but the cars were so tightly packed it was difficult to get back far enough to line up the photos – especially as I didn’t want to risk scratching someone’s pride and joy.

Lots of Jaguars turned up including plenty of XKs:











The last car was parked in the paddock rather than on open display. Whenever you go to a historic race meeting it is always worth having a look at the cars being prepared for racing, not only do you see interesting machinery like the Jaguar above but on the whole it is a friendly and relaxed place to be. Just remember not to get in the way of anyone working hard to prepare a car for racing.

Jaguars were also present on the track, including Peter Lanfranchi’s standard-looking Series-1 E-type and Steve Tandy’s Lightweight E.



The lightweight E-types did very well in their race but smaller, lighter TVRs with big, American Ford V8 engines seemed to go faster.



In fact plenty of almost prosaic machinery was giving the expensive stuff a run for its money. MGBs, for example, can go far faster than you’d think possible.



I hope this hasn’t been a pictorial overload; I’d like to finish with a personal favourite sighting. It is a Bristol 400 in very tidy condition but looking like a car that is used and enjoyed as it should be.