Members might like to look out for the forthcoming article in Modern Classics Magazine, described below, which will star our member Chris Pearce and his lovely red Barchetta.

Thanks Chris for stepping forward, so glad you enjoyed it

Martin Garrad

(Membership Secretary)

June 2017

When Martin Garrad circulated the request, at short notice, from Modern Classics Magazine for a member willing to avail him or herself, plus their car, for a road test and photo-shoot in Wales I had no idea that it would turn out to be a mad couple of days; and then there was the weather!  

As you know, the original theme was an article based around a selection of affordable ‘rag tops’ under £3k. Unfortunately, John-Joe Vollans was let down by so many of his promised owners that first, they scrapped the project, then had a re-think and amended the concept to a comparison between two cars in three price bands – budget, mid range and luxury. This turned out to be : Barchetta and Toyota MR2 Mk3 (nice it wasn’t the ubiquitous Mazda MX5); Nissan 350Z and Lotus Elise; BMW Z4 ‘M’ Sport and Porsche 911 – an eclectic and interesting bunch. We duly met up on Sunday morning in Criccieth in North Wales and went off in search of locations in the mountains nearby selected by the photographer Dean Smith. 

Fortunately, the weather cooperated (there were some interesting sun tans – pure air and altitude I guess) – with all cars doing a mixture of ‘action’ and ‘static’ poses demanded by the ‘snapper’ who was very thorough and great fun and I think will have produced some great results. ‘J-J’ drove all the cars to experience them for his editorial and was very complimentary about the Barchetta, all agreed it was probably the prettiest car there. Monday dawned with rain of biblical proportions, but Dean was determined to obtain his final shots and worked in appalling conditions – we all felt sorry for him, but he’s a very committed individual. We all then ‘squelched’ off in our respective directions. The magazine staff were all brilliant, fun and with infectious enthusiasm. I’ve had an email from ‘J-J’ to say he’s seen the pictures, which he says are ‘remarkable’, so we’ll see . It’s the cover story for the August issue, comes out early July. Not sure we’ll have it for the Devon meet, which would be nice, but I’ll ask the question. 

Thanks for the opportunity, it was fascinating and great fun (and very,very wet !) – the ‘Little Boat’ could not be better named.

See you in Devon.

Chris Pearce

June 2017