There is one area, though, where Britain doesn’t just lead the world, we absolutely dominate it. I’m talking about motor racing.
Look at a Formula One grid. Most of the cars are British and among the eight that aren’t, you’ll find Minardi and Forti, who usually have trouble qualifying.
Even Ferrari, the pride of Italy, realised that if it wanted to get back in the limelight, it needed British help, so their 1996 cars were designed in Woking by a chap called John Barnard.
Benetton is officially Italian these days but does it make or design its cars there? Nope. They come out of a little factory in Oxfordshire. Sauber is Swiss but the engines are British. And where does Mercedes make the power plants that go in the McLaren — Stuttgart? Er, no. Britain.
Then there’s the British Touring Car Championship. The Volvos are built in the Cotswolds. The Renaults are from Didcot. The BMWs are from Surrey. Every single foreign manufacturer knows that if it wants to win on the track, it must use British talent.
The Americans know it too. You probably think when you look at the cars lining up for an Indycar race that you are witnessing something completely all-American. You are too, except for one thing. Every single car on the grid and most of the engines were designed and built in Britain.
It isn’t exactly a sport but the current World Land Speed record holder is British, as is the faster road car in the world — the McLaren F1. Weird isn’t it that the might of Italy and America, and even Japan, is beaten by a tiny British company?
Weirder still is that such a thing can even exist these days. Outside these shores, they think of Fiat or Chrysler as a small car firm but here, we have not only McLaren but Caterham, Westfield, Morgan, TVR, Bristol, AC, Reliant and countless other tiny bits of fiercely independent cottage industry.
Massively expensive legislation and ever more pricey development costs have failed to dent the enthusiasm of these microscopic car firms which, combined, turn out fewer cars in a year than come from Detroit in five minutes.
These cars are for enthusiasts and that’s one thing you will find by the bucket-load in Britain.
Nearly every car ever made is eligible for one of the thousands of owners clubs. There’s the Bad Car Club, the Club for Unloved Soviet Socialist Rubbish and even ultra specific outfits like the Cortina 1600E register. Got a GT? Well get lost then.
Some say most of the best classic cars ever made are in Britain, being lovingly nurtured by a nation that perhaps sees cars from yesteryear as a reminder of a once great past.
There are even people out there who collect spark plugs. This would not happen in Spain. One chap has created a display of petrol pumps through the ages. There are blokes who spend more on the carpet for their garage than they do on a child’s education.
The government taxes us, snarls us up, admonishes us constantly and then taxes us again. In 1994, they raised enough from Britain’s car owners to pay for 428 brand new 300-bed hospitals!
The environmentalists harangue us. Right-on commentators refer to motorists as though we’re some kind of nasty disease. And morons with multi-coloured hair camp out in trees to prevent a new road from being built.
But when an E-Type Jaguar burbles by, everyone in the country will take a second, sneaky little look. The British don’t have blood in their veins. It’s four star.
The following pieces accompanied the BBC television series
Fly Down to Reno
The P-51 Mustang was America’s answer to the Japanese Zero. Powered by a US-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, it delivered 1500 horsepower and a knockout blow to the flying machines of the Pacific Rim.
However, the P-51 in which I flew was churning out 3000 horsepower and could deliver a knockout blow to my central nervous system — which was very nervous indeed.
You see, if a 1940s’ car breaks down, and let’s face it they do, a lot, you coast to the side of the road and await the AA. But if a 1940s’ plane breaks down it doesn’t so much as coast but plummet.
And that’s a normal plane. But the one in which I went for a ride had been tuned and fettled to turn it from war plane into a 1990s’ racer. The cockpit canopy had been lopped off each of the wings to reduce drag, and the engine had been tweaked to the point where it was a bomb. And the clock was ticking.
In the back, it was noisy and hot and as the thermals rose to buffet our undersides, there were moments of queasiness, though thankfully they stopped short of becoming the spectacular outpourings that occurred in the F- 15.
There wasn’t time to be sick anyhow. You see, an F-15 struts its stuff in the stratosphere, but the Mustang was designed for low-level performance. So I now know what it’s like to do 500 mph 50 feet from the deck.
It’s bloody good fun right up to the moment when the pilot decides to turn. This of course means you stay 50 feet up but one of the wings does not. From where I was sitting, it seemed like the tip was actually pruning the bushes.
The pilots need to be familiar with ultra-low flight because in a race they may need to get among the weeds to overtake. But we weren’t in a race. So there was no need to be down there so pleeeeease Mr Pilot, can we go back up again. Pretty please? With bows on?
The answer was no, and for an hour we charged about in the undergrowth, flicking left and right to avoid small mounds and molehills.
Death, had it come, would have been mercifully swift and I knew the organisers had a standby act to keep the crowd amused while they hosed me down a drain somewhere.
Last year, after a fatal accident, a wing walker was despatched to keep everyone occupied but that went wrong too. As a finale, the pilot flipped his plane upside down so his wing-walking passenger was dangling underneath. However, he misjudged it a bit and took the guy’s head off.
Air racing is under threat in America because its dangerous — and over there, dangerous is a dirtier word than ****.
However, even before the legislators move in, there’s a very real possibility that the supply of old planes will dry up and that will be it.
I’m just glad that I got to have a go before they face the final curtain.
F’in’ Fast
I am fat. I smoke two packets of cigarettes a day and exercise is an unfamiliar word. All things considered, I’m not cut out to be a fighter pilot.
Yet there I was in North Carolina, being measured up for a G-suit, ready for a ride in what most experts agree is the world’s best fighter plane — the F-15 Strike Eagle.
The F-15 was launched in 1972 and this time the Americans got it right. To date it is the most successful fighter of all time, with a kill rate of 99–nil. A couple have been lost to missiles, but none have ever been lost in air combat. Its nickname is ‘The MiG Killer’ because most of that score consists of Russian fighters, shot down by F-15 -toting Israeli Air Force pilots in the war with Syria, or by US pilots in the Gulf.
Now 25 years old, it can still hold its own against any of the new fighters. Pilots love its huge size and strength, which gives it the ability to carry lots of weapons and fly long range. Its got a gun for dogfights, a massive
