Tag: #petrolicious

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This is something we really want to do with Nancy in spring 2020

#brittanyferries #telegraph #classiccar

Start your holiday by having Brittany Ferries land you in the heart of this historic region

It’s important to pack elasticated shorts and voluminous kaftans when travelling to the Basque country. When the ship docks at Bilbao, it’ll be mere moments before you’re feasting on garlicky gambas (prawns) and bacalao (salt cod) with pil-pil sauce, accompanied by a glass of chilled albariño in the city’s numerous pintxo bars (similar to tapas).

To get under the skin of the Basque country, ship your car over to the continent with Brittany Ferries and load up on the region’s fine cheese, jamón and wine. With frequent sailings to Bilbao from Portsmouth, it’s never been easier to explore this delicious corner of Spain and France.

Pintxo bar and restaurant in Bilbao
Spanish feast: a traditional pintxo bar and restaurant in Bilbao CREDIT: ALAMY

Before whizzing off to gorge on the delights of San Sebastián, it’s worth spending a day or so soaking up Bilbao’s many sights. Potter around Casco Viejo, the old town’s atmospheric 15th-century streets crammed with boutiques, cosy wine bars and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Spend an hour or three marvelling at the contemporary works by Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol et al at the Guggenheim Bilbao, the city’s titanium landmark edifice designed by Frank Gehry, which transformed the port city two decades ago. While fans of the classics will find plenty of El Grecos and Goyas to sate them at Museo de Bellas Artes.

From Bilbao, it’s a scenic hour’s drive east to San Sebastián, a charming seaside city famed for its sandy beaches, vibrant pintxosscene and a world-class culinary reputation with no fewer than 16 Michelin stars. The main beach gets packed in the warmer months, so follow the locals over to Isla Santa Clara, a tiny island just 437 yards wide with a quiet crescent beach, a natural seawater pool and a tiny beach bar.

Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Beautiful setting: the small fishing town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz CREDIT: GETTY

From San Sebastián, it’s a short hop across the French border to Biarritz, a glamorous belle époque resort which found fame when Napoleon III took a shine to it in the mid-19th century. Park up at Hotel Escale Oceana, which is a short walk from the Old Town, where Bar Jean, one of Biarritz’s oldest hostelries has been serving up flamenco and tapas since the 1930s. Blow out the subsequent cobwebs with a potter along the Port des Pêcheurs, the old harbourfront staggered with crampottes, tiny fishermen’s cottages which back onto the cliffs.

Just east of Biarritz is Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a small fishing town with quaint, whitewashed bistros lining its narrow cobbled streets. Here you can while away the afternoon with the locals over a cloudy pastis and a bubbling crock of bonito marmitako (tuna stew) before heading over to Bayonne, the capital of the Basque country. A charismatic medieval city – all rugged ramparts, half-timbered buildings and tempting riverside restaurants – it’s like walking through a French impressionist’s painting and is regarded as one of the prettiest cities in Europe.

Bergerac vineyard
Wine country: explore the beautiful sun-drenched winelands of Bergerac CREDIT: GETTY

Work off the bountiful Basque cuisine by driving 90 minutes north to Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park, where you’ll find numerous hiking trails and lakes to explore on foot or by canoe, as well as the Contemporary Art Forest, a walking trail which combines art and nature.

Now in the lush heart of Aquitaine, resplendent in corduroy-neat vineyards of some of the world’s greatest wineries, it’s time to book into a 17th-century manor house and spend a few days exploring the beautiful sun-drenched winelands of Bergerac and Saint Émilion. After that third glass of Margaux and a fine entrecôte bordelaise, you’ll be delighted you packed those comfy clothes.

Find out more at brittanyferries.com/telegraph

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Longbridge Factory drawing office

Austin Design Office


THE new BMC. Drawing Office Building at Longbridge, will enable the main design forces of the group to be concentrated under one roof for the first time. Another big step forward in realizing the aims for which the BMC. was formed. It will be completed in June. 

At the moment the various design departments are scattered throughout the Corporation’s factories, making co-ordination difficult. The new building will help BMC. to pursue still more vigorously the policy of standardization and ‘commonization’ of components to achieve the greatest economies in production. 

A striking feature of the handsome new building, designed by the BMC. architects, Harry W. Weedon, FRIBA. & Partners, is the excellence of the working conditions. 

Design staff will enjoy an exceptional amount of natural light at their drawing-boards, as well as abundant fresh-air ventilation, with-out draughts. 

This vast general drawing office cost £550,000 and is nearly 60,000 sq.ft. in area as big as many a factory. (It is, incidentally, twice the area of the BMC. Joy Car Factory at Bargoed, where 350 people are employed.) 

It will receive a high degree of available daylight through six ‘monitors’-glass-sided raised portions in the roof. And on sunny days there need be no fears of the atmosphere getting uncomfortably hot; an efficient extraction system takes care of that. The air flow can be increased by 50 per cent. in warm weather. 

Artificial general lighting is provided by recessed fluorescent fittings with directional reflectors. The main entrance, with executive offices and conference room, faces one end of the lawn in front of the Administration Block-to which the Drawing Office is connected by a bridge with lifts at each end. Among other features are print rooms, and a special drawing office of 7,840 sq. ft. above the main executive offices. 

Mr. Geoffrey Eyre, BMC. Building Projects Engineer, told BMC. World: ‘The object of the exercise is to give the maximum daylight when it is there, and as much fresh air as we can possibly put in without draughts. ‘The lighting has been very carefully designed.’

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Breaking 200mph

On arriving at the Bonneville Salts Flats they found out that part of the normal track was breaking up. So it was necessary to move the measured mile closer to one end of the timing stretch, thereby reducing the length of the run-in in this direction. Donald Healey drove the car on the straight-away runs and raised the International Class D for 5 kilometres to 182.2 mph and for 10 miles to 181 mph The car was timed over the kilometre at 192.6mph, thereby breaking an American National record. various other runs were completed and one such run broke the magic 200 mph barrier.

Then Carrol Shelby, the Texan driver who competed in many European events during the 1954 season, took over and attacked the International Class D record for the hour, which was duly obtained at a speed of 156.7m.p.h. For this run, a 10-mile circle was used, a course which seemed almost one long straight when seen from behind the wheel of a normal saloon but which seemed more like a rather difficult fast bend from the Streamliner’s cockpit. The car proved very stable, which was indeed fortunate, for conditions were by no means ideal, gusts of up to 30 mph. sweeping across the Salt Flats. Moreover, owing to the complete absence of trees or any other vegetation, the driver received no advance warning of a gust before it struck the car. This is where the tail fin proved to be of real value in such circumstances.

Austin-Healey at speed on the 22 August 1954 on the Bonneville salts USA this modified Austin Healey “100” was timed by the American Automobile association officials over a measured mile at a mean speed of 192.6 MPH. At the same time a number of Class D international records were broken. It is on such occasions that research and development are put to the severest test which motoring have so far devised – record-breaking.