Why are car parks so damned interesting? The tax exempt car park at the Goodwood Revival may have elevated matters to new heights, but for years Prescott's orchard car park at VSCC events has been a goldmine for the obscure, extravagant, rare (and occasionally technically non-existent), exotic and bonkers.
I now find I can't go anywhere without nosing around the car park. Even the recent media day for the forthcoming Silverstone Classic meeting (22-24 July). When all the formalities were done – press conference with celebs (one of whom I had to Google to find out who he was, a dancer apparently – track time with hotshoes in fabulous machinery, watching the colour slowly return to the face of photographer Linzi Smart after Silverstone Classic boss Nick Wigley took her for a spin around the new circuit in Tony Bianchi's wild and wonderful Farrelac, I could be found ferreting around, Nikon in hand, snapping a bunch of cars in the car park.
Some were beautiful classics, others interesting Youngtimers, but it was nice that my Elan was sharing space with those cars whose owners also thought it would be a shame to turn up in a shopping car even though their motors were little more than a short-lived sideshow for the probably certifiable likes of me.
Here is just a selection:
