Inside the Paddock

July 7, 2014

Racing car transporters at work
by David Cross with Bjorn Kjer

Big split in the ofice over this: some who just don’t get it, and the rest of us who fought over it. If you’re in camp B, prepare for a luscious van-fest of the trailers, trucks, coaches and haulers of every size and shape that have carted racing cars around between Brooklands and Bahrain.

Cross doesn’t waste much time on today’s featureless breeze-blocks, and who would when there’s the Cunningham Fageol, the glorious Pegaso and BRM’s kneeling Land-Rover to drool over.

Inevitably information is sparse on some, but others such as the Lotus ‘HMS Hethel’ or Tyrrell’s wreck-salvaged Cuban coach boast the full story. At the back are a selection of paddock scenes and an index of manufacturers and coachbuilders. Not cheap, perhaps, but nicely presented, unique and fascinating. GC

Published by Dalton Watson Fine Books, ISBN 978 1 85443 254 4, £59

Gordon Cruickshank

Deputy editor

Bravely ignoring his degree in industrial design after discovering night rallies in a Renault 8, GC joined Motor Sport by accident, in the Teesdale days around 1982 when Jenks and WB were office regulars and Mr Tee ruled with a rod of cardboard. He took part in some of the early historic rallies, winning one of the Pirelli Marathons, and regularly runs his Mk2 Jaguar in road events.

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