Luton's legacy

A century after the introduction of Britain's first true 100mph production car, five key OE-type Vauxhall 30-98s return home

- SIMON HUCKNALL

"See if you can hit 3600 in third." If that gauntlet had been laid in the car park earlier, I wouldn't have flinched, but this Vauxhall 30-98's tachometer is only showing '28' and it already feels as if we should be triggering DEFCON 1. The exhaust noise is savage, only just drowning out that of the gears, and, gripping the gently flexing wheel rim for all I'm worth, our speed is building unabated. There's a bend fast approaching, and I just manage to clip '36' on the Jaeger dial - which must be 70mph before lifting. But it's a close thing and, of all 30-98s, this is not the one I'd want to bend.

As a prelude to driving the other four, visually contrasting 'Thirsties' with us today at Luton Hoo hotel, it takes some beating. We have gathered them because all are OE-type models, which started production barely a mile from here a century ago in 1923. There's another reason why we're at this particular venue, too: in the late 1940s the Vintage Sports-Car Club ran a series of speed trials on the Hoo's access roads (see panel), and, because the 30-98 was linked closely with the VSCC's founding, it seems only fitting that we should reunite model with location today.