Jack The Lad

The recent publicity concerning F1 cars driving around the West End reminded me of how I came to be overtaken in the City by Jack Brabham. In the early ’60s, the Lord Mayor’s Show featured the motor industry and had various F1 cars on the backs of lorries. Before the parade, however, these cars were allowed to circulate around the official route under their own power.

I’d driven down from Derbyshire to my parents’ home in Beckenham and had come up on the Saturday morning in my AC Ace to see the show. I was having difficulty finding somewhere to park and kept getting waved on with the result that I found myself on the Lord Mayor’s Show route and being cheered and waved

 all the time. Eventually I spotted what looked like an escape route only to be overtaken by Jack Brabham (I think) in a Cooper and someone else.

A kindly policeman asked if I was part of the event and, on being told that was not the case, allowed me to park in among the F1 cars.

My only regret was that I then found that I had left my camera at my parents’ home.

In the June issue you featured the Fiat 500, which is very much alive in the Umbria region of Italy, with many in immaculate condition. Some even look to be driven by their original owners and are ideal for the extremely narrow streets in those lovely hill-top towns. Robert Walker Belper, Derbyshire.