Away from the F1 trail

Someone who has spent his working life in the design and operation of exotic race cars, it surprises some that I have low interest in the cars I drive on the road. Due to the much greater number of cars on the road since I started driving in 1963, journey times are difficult to predict and I avoid driving if I can. I also have a propensity to attract speed camera attention, gaffing caught out when I am probably thinking about other things, usually just over the limit and often on my scooters!

I travel to work by train, from London to Grove in Oxfordshire. Brunel’s Great Western Railway is hugely convenient for me, and despite old infrastructure and rolling stock is usually reliable. At each end I use a BMW C1, sadly no longer made but excellent protection even in winter and I am never held up by traffic.

Mostly parked outside my house in London is my company Golf TDI. I cover less than 5000 miles a year and the fact that my last one, changed after three years, still had the original front tyres shows I am no longer a sporty driver something for which I had pretensions when younger. I am very impressed with modern common rail diesel engines, the Golf pulls like a train from low revs and is very frugal, so gas station visits are minimised.

I have a car which resides mostly in the garage, a Beacham 3.8 Mk2 Jaguar which is an amalgam of an XJR and an original Mk2 but goes, steers and stops much better than the original. They are built in New Zealand by Dr Greg Beacham, and despite hardly any variation from the original in looks, under the skin there are a lot of changes including an XJR 4-litre supercharged V8 and independent rear end. Air conditioning and electric seats plus most modern electrical gizmos are included. It would give a good account of itself against an M3, but with all those speed cameras…

As mentioned in a previous article, my father raced Jaguars quite successfully in the 1950s, and after he stopped he had a Jaguar competition department-modified Mk2 that I remember fondly. When I tried one I was disappointed in all but its looks, but the Beacham puts that right.

At university I had a motorbike, a Triumph Tiger Cub, because I couldn’t afford a car, but then stopped biking until I was in my forties. Frank Williams) was friendly with the Castigliano brothers, who owned Ducati and other Italian makes, and they generously gave me a Paso 750 in the late ’80s a good-looking bike, not very quick, but it makes a wonderful noise. I still have it.

I started riding with friends to at least one European GP a year, most often Magny-Cours, and have bought other bikes, although since 2002 I have used a BMW R1100S a good all-round bike.

Last September I spent two weeks in India in Himachal Pradesh, the northern state mostly on the Himalayan slopes. I joined a party of about 30 other bikers looking for adventure on a yearly event called Enduro Himalayas (above). It is well organised, uses Indianmade bikes, but the design is the Royal Enfield. They faithfully encapsulate all the characteristics that resulted in the British motorbike industry being overcome by the Japanese in the ’60s. The bikes are pretty idiosyncratic but are remarkably well suited to the conditions. We started from Shimla, covering 2000kms (1250 miles) along the Tibetan border, looping back around to Shimla on roads which varied greatly, some Tarmac but mostly dirt, with no barrier and often a vertical drop of hundreds of feet. Our highest point was 5000 metres at which I was pretty breathless, let alone the Bullet! I found it challenging physically but very rewarding.

Another ‘gig’ since becoming less ‘on-line’ with our F1 activities was the 2005 ARC, sailing across the Atlantic with friends. We had to return to the start in Las Palmas on the first night with a blown out sail, eventually leaving three days late after repairs. We took 16 days for our crossing, started last of 240 competitors, and came in 62nd overall on elapsed time, but saw only five other boats on the crossing. It was a reminder of just how big the oceans are.

Patrick Head