Music to your ears

Music to your ears

Sir,

Who can forget the ground shaking on the inside of Paddock Bend at Brands Hatch and the vertical wall of black smoke coming off the back of the turbo cars on a qualifying run? So it was not so much the noise itself as the whole spectacle of these cars that was impressive.

Today, we are living in a world of processed cheese when we used to have the luxury of Roquefort. Once upon a time you could close your eyes on the pitwall of a sports car race and guess the cars coming past. A big-block V8, a V12, a water-cooled flat-six turbo, a fivecylinder turbo, a twin-turbo V6, a 3.5 or 3.9 V8 (yes, one could tell the difference), a fourcylinder turbo, a rotary — the list is long. Today I would need a PhD sitting next to me to explain the difference between a Renault, Mercedes or Ferrari engine. Quel appauvrissement! Costas Los, Monaco