Ace memories

I WAS PERHAPS about nine or ten years old and we had spent the day at Frensham Pond in Surrey with our neighbours, my father's Vauxhall 14 following our neighbour's Standard Vanguard (in two-tone blue and yellow - how cool was that?), when my father's car broke down right outside The Ace Cafe that you featured in Octane 270.

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Café Racers seemed to be everywhere, ridden by young guys in leather jackets and accompanied by young ladies who were also all leathered up and looked like film stars. I've never seen so many BSAs, Nortons, Ariels, Matchlesses and many other makes. As for the ROARRR - I can still hear it.

Then, as we walked into The Ace to use the phone, Elvis Presley was singing All Shook Up on the jukebox. It was simply amazing.

It turns out that a family friend's son used to own The Ace after the dark days of the past. Lots of hard work brought it back to its present glory.

Now to read the rest of the glorious Octane 270!

George Wilkinson, St Albans, Hertfordshire

Genuine Grand Tourer

In Octane 270, Massimo Delbò describes driving a Bugatti Type 57S Atalante across the USA to Pebble Beach. My father used to own a Type 57S Atalante, UK registered as 'EXK 5', for some six years from 1954 to 1960, which happened to span the years I was learning to drive.

My father, John Virr, used the car for everyday driving including going to work. At weekends we often drove to race meetings such as the Easter meeting at Goodwood as well as Silverstone and Prescott. The photo [below left] shows him at Prescott, where for many years he sat on the Bugatti Owners Club competition committee.

At one race meeting at Goodwood he had a dice with Peter Collins, a friend who lived near us at Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire. Peter was driving a new works Jaguar XK120 but the Bugatti managed to beat him in the wet. Peter complained that his drum brakes faded, which was quite possible in those days. The Bugatti's large drum brakes held, despite being cable operated.

On 19 November 1959, the car climbed Prescott in 56.14sec, quite a respectable time today. I still have the certificate.