""Nowadays it's all Ford Fuckarses on track days and rolling Japanese drifters.""

Speaking of drifting, as I said, my mechanic partner went on to work with Rod Chapman's team on the Twincam Escort he used in rallycross, and it was Rod who perfected the art of drifting years ahead of its time.

He customarily took the bend at the top of Hairy Hill (Lydden Hill Track) in third, full throttle, 90 degrees to the direction of travel and came off it like a slingshot. That won him many races and at least four trophies.

Another regular, Nick Whiting, tried to imitate him and performed four sequential 360s on the downhill, missing the right turn onto the dirt and winding up with his front end buried in tyres.

Don T.