August | 2016 | Mario the Multipla

Last Sunday was the Goodwood Road Racing Club Open Day at Goodwood House. A perfect summer day. We took Regie the 4cv Renault for two reasons, firstly we could have the roof down and secondly Regie needed a pre-revival (and holiday) test drive, as he has lovely newly restored cream wheels which look good and have solved a wobble a certain speeds. We spent a lovely relaxing day with friends, looking at the displayed cars and enjoying a picnic.

The selected cars to exhibit in front of the house, were the usual mixture of old and new, exotic and everyday. The Saab was lovely and beautifully restored. I really fancy having one of these Volvo P1800’s. Our friend Richard’s 1999 Dare Ginetta G4 and is a modern recreation of the 60’s Ginetta G4 sports. Dare is run by the designer of the original G4. Personally my favourite of the day, this lovely 1967 Autobianchi Biachina Panoramica. Have always wanted the convertible version as driven by Audrey Hepburn in ‘How to steal a million’ but loved this estate version which I hadn’t seen before. Cleo and Robyn from The GRRC had fun trying to sort the votes for the car of the day.The winner was this rather impressive Alfa 6C but I wish we had got everybody to vote for the 3 wheel Reliant Robin, as the winner is going to be displayed in the RAC club in Pall Mall London for a week and I’d love to have seen their faces when the Robin turned up!There were free funfair rides for the kids, including this wonderful Austin J40 car ride. James was especially interested as he’s in the middle of restoring a J40 pedal car for the Setterington Cup at the Revival – he could have done with acquiring a few parts! At Wheels Day earlier in the year James had bought me a lovely vintage individual picnic set to use as a ‘Gin Box’, this was it’s first outing, using the flask for ice and there was enough room for a couple of doubles with garnish. Think this will get well used.

The August Goodwood Breakfast is traditionally a ‘Pre 66’ Revival theme, although rather confusingly called Thoroughbred Sunday. We had applied and received a grid pass, so it meant an earlier than usual start for us – not what we are used to on a Sunday. After what had been a glorious sunny Saturday, we awoke to drizzle and fog. Mario was ready and waiting so off we set through the low clouds hiding Trundel Hill by the racecourse.

Although we were running slightly late and arrived after 8am we were parked nice and centrally on the pit straight. Mario was immediately surrounded by fans and we left him to it, while we had a much needed Bacon and Egg roll and tea!

Personally this is the best Breakfast Club of the year. The tightest theme to get a pass for isn’t always the best attended but everything is period and interesting…

The first unusual car to catch our eye was this Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans – a special coach built body on an Sunbeam Alpine Series II Lovely A40 Roadster, built in conjunction with Jensen, now very rare and there were two in attendance!
Loved this Fiat Abarth 1000 Bertone Prototype And this great Peugeot 402, full of character and took part in the Tour de France Parade at the Revival a few years ago.

By the time we left Goodwood the sun had come out again and In the afternoon on the way to visit friends we popped into The Checkers at Eversely for their carshow. For a pub event there was a great collection of cars including a brilliant Amphicar, Renault Alpine, an immaculate Vauxhall Viva and a rare convertible Jensen Interceptor.