1 April 2016

Following the principle of ‘Any fool can be uncomfortable’, I try to avoid driving in the rain. I don’t mind the car getting wet, but I prefer to stay dry. However, as I very rarely have the top up, I do get caught out occasionally. One would think that driving fast enough would cause the rain to fly over one’s head, but two factors mitigate against this. One is that there are too many cars on our roads and progress is often stop/start and the other is that the aerodynamics of most 40-50s are akin to those of a brick out-house.

     I would love to see my car in a wind-tunnel. I did once attach bits of knitting wool  to the bonnet just in front of the windscreen and at speed two of these tell-tales were pointing frontwards!  The result is that the raindrops do dive into the cockpit and straight into one’s eyes and/or onto one’s glasses. Mine are not fitted with wipers, so I have to wear some form of headgear with a peak. Perhaps this was why chauffeurs wore those peaked caps. Now I don’t want to be snobbish, but I do not want to look as if I am driving the car for someone else.  So, in spite of my advanced age, I resort to a baseball cap. The brim is long enough to keep the rain out of my eyes, but also long enough to catch the wind - I am now on my third cap!

   Another solution would be the Colin Crabbe method. On the 1993 Alpine he drove around in the rain with a golfing umbrella held aloft by his navigator Ian Fraser. Wonderfully eccentric but surely illegal and even more difficult to control than a baseball cap!

    Yes of course I could put up the top, but for many of us open air motoring is the thing - the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair (those who still have some). Naturally the rules change when Memsahib is travelling. Wind in the hair is not quite so popular and rain is definitely a no-no.

Á bientôt