Tiff Needell's column

This week Tiff is looking forward to the 'Double Twelve' meeting at the historic Brooklands circuit.

Auto Express Car Reviews

02nd May 2008

If my dad was still alive today, I think one of the things he’d be most proud of is the fact that I’m a trustee of the Brooklands Museum. He’d moved to the nearby town of Weybridge, Surrey, as a young man, and soon became captivated by the sight and sound of huge aero-engined machines hurtling round the daunting banked turns. And now I’m a part of trying to keep that heritage alive. Brooklands was of course the birthplace of British motor racing as we know it today. The world’s first purpose-built race track, it held its centenary celebrations last year, and a couple of weeks ago it celebrated the 100th anniversary of its first motorcycle race.

Next up, on 7 June, it’s the turn of the flying boys to mark their own century, and then it’s back to more four-wheeled fun with a celebration of the famous ‘Double Twelve’ meeting on the weekend of 28-29 June – the launch of which brought me a spine-tingling surprise! I grew up in a rented flat on the wrong side of the railway line in Weybridge, dreaming of one day moving across into the much more exclusive St George’s Hill area to live next door to the likes of The Beatles.

Sadly, it never did quite turn out like that, and my first house was a two-up, two-down semi in the town of Hersham – and my neighbours were punk stars Sham 69! Of course, Brooklands had long been closed. After the Second World War, it was turned into an aircraft factory. So, dad would take us to Goodwood and Brands Hatch to inject that first dose of motor racing addiction. But Brooklands still had its lure.

The ‘Double Twelve’ meeting was a famous event that ran between 1929 and 1932 with Freddy March, grandfather of Goodwood’s Lord March, being one of the winners. As its title suggests, it simply split a 24-hour race into two parts, as non-stop events weren’t permitted at the track.

Of course, with no circuit anymore, this year’s event won’t be a race, but instead a two-part ‘event’ consisting of Concours d’Elegance and Driving Tests on both days for cars in a huge variety of classes. The final results will be the combination of the two days.

With everything from pre-war stuff to mid-Seventies classics, and Stirling Moss to Lewis Hamilton, there should be something for all types of motoring fan. And, if you get tired of the cars, there are always things like a VC10, Harrier Jump Jet and Concorde to climb aboard, not to mention a tour round the impressive Mercedes-Benz World attraction that now lies alongside. The only thing that isn’t ‘Doubled’ is Hamilton, as he will be swapped for McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on one of the days.

For me, though, simply returning to Brooklands and standing in the original Clubhouse, imagining just how much pioneering was going on back then – and how far we’ve come in only three of four generations – always blows me away.

And the press launch for the event brought me even closer to those heady days. The Driving Test will be modelled on the sort of challenges that faced competitors in the ‘Brooklands Rally’ of 1939, and when the museum director asked for a photo that typified the event, the archivist came up with one of a Fiat 1100 negotiating a pylon. On the back of the photo was scrawled the name of the driver: AF Needell. Yes, that was my old man!

I knew he’d done the odd driving test in what was his mother’s car, but here, after all those years, was the proof. Car No 61 squealing around a marker post, with dad’s smiling face leaning out of the window and a giggling blonde in the passenger seat!