It happens every year. I make out my Christmas list with a new Jaguar sports car at the top. I get up on Christmas morning and the driveway is empty. Even on those years when I wasn’t too naughty. This year I’m downsizing the list to an F-Type with the V6 (you can’t get a V8 with a proper stick, just an automatic trans) but with 340 HP it should have a tad bit more grunt than my 4 banger MGB. I’m still hoping, but I don’t expect things will change. Last year, knowing that Santa would let me down, Deb found some items for the B. Sure beat the heck out of socks and underwear. I’m sure that you know the tune — “On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me…..”:
12 ounces brake fluid
11 cylinder head nuts
10 hose clamps
9 piece wrench set
8 A-Arm bushings
7 short cylinder head studs
6 greasy lay shafts
5 piston rings
4 Dunlop tires
3 wiper blades
2 radiator hoses
And a turn switch for the steering tree.

Happy Holidays to all. Live long and prosper.

Brooklands
The Birthplace of British Motorsport
DVD European format, 2006, 65 minutes

This DVD includes a history of Brooklands, covering the years 1907 thru 1939. Brooklands was the world’s first purpose built motor racing circuit and one of England’s first airfields. Its high speed banked ‘oval,’ running counter-clockwise pre-dates Nascar and Indy. Itwas the site of the inaugural British Grand Prix and had a rich motor sport history until 1939 when WW2 necessitated its conversion into an airplane factory (Hurricanes of Battle of Britain fame) and test site. After the war the site was bought by Vickers, never to re-open as a race track. Today some of the buildings and grounds are museums of both its racing and aero past. Also included on the DVD are two silent shorts ‘100 Miles in One Hour’ and ‘Napier-Railton.’

~~ Bill Mennell