Biography
It’s really DAT’s car which he has generously given to me. I have to say I feels like a bit of an existential vehicle- it gives me meaning in life! But this also comes with its share of frustration. It's current teaching to me is to look at it as if I was a Nash man and just get on with taking it apart..... But I struggle with this.
I grew up knowing that Archie Frazer Nash was and is a hero! I don’t know everything about the cars but mine is more of a personal experience. Going to Boulogne when I was 12 . Childhood and teenage weekends travelling the country hanging out with my parents friends and their kids, the Joselands, the the Smiths, the Giles, the Teagues, the Shaws, the Strettons, the Blakeney Edwards. They all felt like cousins , an extended family to me. The VSCC events all very familiar places where we had plenty of fun.
So my psychotherapy pals believe it is a transitional object (like a blanket a child has) so a connection to my parents. The car also feels like a sibling!
I have a sense of proudness of my father (which gets tested at time!!). But the car has been there in the garage throughout my life – and unlike lots of things if it falls apart it survives!
So DAT made the 1969 RAID to Bolzano happen. The car went with dad driving it in 69 and 79. I drove the car in 89 , 99 and 2009. A lot of the work and trips undertaken in this car are with good and faithful JG. JG is an ace driver, companion & car husband.
The car feels so familiar, I recognise the sound of previously experienced dramas- i hope never to hear and feel the clutch disintegrating AGAIN. When the car is going like a train and the only stress is the weather and navigating it’s fantastic but this is rare. So here’s to over preparation.
This blog was started before the 2009 raid .... and we decided to just carry it on.....