Fifty Not Out

Bugatti Owner’s Club’s Prescott Fiftieth Anniversary Celebrations on May 21-22 (supported by Christie’s) were a thorough success. The weather behaved, the queues to the hill were the longest ever, and a great many of those who have known Prescott from its opening in 1938 either drove up the full course in appropriate cars or were driven up — as I was in Dudley Gahagan’s T37. There was a large number of Bugattis to be admired and the classic car meeting alongside the Golden Jubilee included many vintage cars, and Edwardians such as Clutton’s 1908 Itala, Harrison’s Renault and the Th-Schneider were present.

To list all the older members who attended would be impossible (no doubt Bugantics will carry a full report) but among them were John Dugdale from New York, Rivers Fletcher demonstrating Mayman’s ERA R4D until its blower seized, George Abecassis, David Marsh, Leslie Ballamy, Guy Griffiths in the Itala, Mr and Mrs Mountford, President Jack Lemon Burton, Lindsay Eccles riding with Hamish Moffatt in a T57 whose coachwork he designed, Sonia Rolt in her late husband’s 12/50 Alvis tourer with Peter Hull (who, not to be outdone by Shelsley Walsh, has written up Prescott’s story) as back-seat passenger, Tony Rippon in an Aprilia (reminding me of my first Prescott entry), Tom Delaney in deerstalker and his smart Hyper Lea-Francis, and so many, many others, with BOC Chairman Barrie Price and his lady greeting the luncheon guests. It was a truly memorable day for the Club which owns its own hill-climb course. WB