Ignition!

Ready, steady, go! The transition from adolescence to adulthood, albeit late teenage years, is often accompanied by the freedom afforded by owning your first motor vehicle, whether two wheels or four. The heady feeling of freedom, knowing you were no longer reliant on the good auspices of parents or the vagaries of public transport, was a joyful experience. I look back and remember mine vividly. From my first motorcycle, BSA Bantam D14/4 courtesy of Budgie Powell, to my first car, Mini 850cc, bought with the help and coercion of Fred Tilby ( for the princely sum of £23 and a second engine from Rob Payne for £10) almost every car or motorcycle since has left a memory. Some good, some bad, but, just like music and records, all have associations which often come to the fore.

The reason for today’s musings? Well, once a month here in Sturminster Newton we have a Saturday morning meeting of local motoring enthusiasts. Drivers and riders bring their machines into town to swap stories, experiences, facts and figures over cups of coffee and bacon rolls courtesy of a local restaurateur and very popular they are too! Today’s been no exception, and, together with the added bonus of a sunny morning, a hardy bunch of enthusiasts attended with their vehicles. Ranging from an early Austin Seven, through the years to a very grand Jaguar saloon once belonging to the American Embassy fleet, a Riley Elf ( posh mini with a fancy bonnet), an early model Land-rover and a resplendent MG sports tourer to more modern fare, two Porsche’s and a little Italian pocket rocket, a Fiat Arbarth ‘ Black’, a very limited edition ‘ licence loser’ as it’s proud owner described it. That said, despite the vast range of technological advances between the various models they were all bound together by that one inescapable fact of rural motoring…… mud! Still, if you live in the countryside it’s as familiar as a farmyard fragrance, it seems that rural motoring and mud go hand in hand.