54 Chevy 383 Healey 100 - Cartoon Channel

Just outside the walled city, apparently:

Now safely tucked up in organiser's garage.

My car host is going wash it for me.

Have some transporter pictures





Not often I'm stuck behind a TVR

Sorry to read in the papers about the accident with the spectators and Porsche at the Malta event. Hope you were not involved

The Letter from Valetta (because it rhymes)

OK the accident first.

I was down for the Paqpaqli sprints at the airfield on Sunday morning. Paqpaqli is Malta's biggest car show with rides in supercars for charity down the runway. Along with the charity rides there's a bit of wheel to wheel demonstration racing and the RWYB sprints. After only 4 hours sleep in 48 hours I decided to knock it on the head as unwise and took the day off. It was a good decision considering the carnage at the site. You can see the video of the incident below



On one of the charity runs the Porsche 918 dropped a rear wheel on the grass and spun off into the crowd. The organisers, not dreaming of such an eventuality, only had crowd control barriers between the runway and the spectators. When the car went into the crowd the spectators were sandwiched between the Porsche and the static display cars behind them. One guy there told me of a six-year-old girl with both feet nearly severed due to them being trapped under the barrier as the car hit them. The whole country is in shock as nearly all Maltese seem to be related to everybody else. In the end there were 26 casualties, including the driver, with six in intensive care. My thoughts are with all involved and it's thrown a dampener over the Grand Prix even though its not a related event. At a driver briefing this afternoon it was said the the safety at the hillclimb was being reviewed and 'watch this space'.

Porsche in quarantine for the police investigation.



So Malta then.

We had decided to make a bit of a holiday for the girlies so came out early as the programme doesn't really start until Wednesday. The Healey was to be delivered to the hotel Saturday so I could fuel up for Sunday and get a bit of track and hillclimb knowledge in as both are run on closed public roads. As bad luck would have it the Healey was delivered with only fumes left in the tank and until I could find the nearest garage it wasn't going to move, luckily by this time I had already decided not to do the sprints. So we decided to take a taxi into Valetta and I got my first real impressions of Maltese driving.

Please imagine, gentle reader, of a Mini race at Castle Combe with an infinitely sized grid where the speeds are so fast because the back marker's car is blow up after every lap. Think of undertaking, overtaking, reversing into the oncoming traffic, red light jumping and the inevitable Mediterranean horn symphony. Our Mercedes Vito taxi was like the Tardis, smaller on the outside than the inside. Due to traffic conditions we had to take the back streets to Valetta and the driver squeezed it through impossible gaps, tailgated anything in front and went round roundabouts without a care for anyone having a right of way. I asked him about the rules of the road and he said that there are two types of Maltese drivers, the quick and the dead. He had a standard answer for most questions

Indicators?......for pussies
Brakes?......for pussies
Lane keeping?......for pussies
Pedestrian crossings?......advisory only

A spirited discussion in a bar later with an ex-pat also apprised us of the drink driving laws. There is one breathalyzer on the island and the police don't use it. Remember everybody is nearly related to everybody else and they wouldn't want to arrest the wrong person. Our ex-pat acquaintance then got onto his scooter to go home after many beers with the sage advice 'Don't get caught'.

Back at the hotel I went into serious training



Only two cars in the wild in Malta so far



MGB could tell some tales



Roundels affixed



As an aside you might remember the Pete Brock Corvette in the early pictures? Well it caused a bit of a stir as it disappeared from the 'secure' compound in Thurrock. The organisers were extremely worried as it had just done the Revival where a £70k Chevy Bel Air had been stolen and they were worried that a gang were targeting cars from the event. It was discovered in a 7.5 tonner on the way to Bury St. Edmunds with another car shipper due to a paperwork mixup.

Tomorrow we get to meet some more entrants and I go to buy petrol. Pray for me.

You can probably imagine the shock, horror reporting on the Daily Mail site, (OK, I'm ashamed of myself, but I ripping into what they laughably refer to as journalism is the only bit of enjoyment I get these days) and the comments are even worse, rich morons with zero driving skills in stupidly expensive toys - Ought to be a law against it! Half of me would like to see these dipsh*TS get their way, and then have to live in the world that they deserve. The other half of me realises that we would have to live there too, so I'll settle for them all choking on their cornflakes instead. My heart goes out to those who suffered, and I'm really glad that you are not involved. Malta is the one place I've been where I wouldn't consider hiring a car (or using a zebra crossing) but despite that, it is a wonderful place. Enjoy the rest of your visit and keep safe.

Sounded rather awesome!!

In the naughty corner

Well done on the glassware Ian!