TopGear

It was a tragic story yesterday about Richard Hammond’s accident during filming for TopGear. It’s amazing the amount of public support he has in recovering, and along with it would appear every motorist in the world I wish him a speedy recovery and best wishes to his family.

The sad fact is though, that many people will be using this as an opportunity to get the programme pulled off-air, and to once again inflict greater control over motorists. Transport 2000 has for many years condemned the show as ‘outdated television designed to give comfort to boy racers’ and called for it to be replaced by a programme promoting sensible driving in sensible vehicles. Other transport lobbies have called the show wreckless for its damage to the environment, for promoting speed, being sexist, being xenophobic. They even placed a speed camera on the track whn Dr Ladyman (transport secretary) came to try his hand on the laptimes board.

The situation appears to be this though – Yes it was being filmed for TopGear, but Richard was attempting to break the land-speed record. It’s not some stunt, it was a genuine record attempt by a serious driver. I spent yesterday evening playing the cello on SS Great Britain, overlooked by a figure of its designer Brunel. It’s marked in history as Britain’s first iron-hulled steam-powered ship resting under Brunel’s Clifton Suspension bridge. illustrating what can be done when you push the boundaries. From Sir Randolph Feinnes and Ernest Shackelton going to the Poles, or Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Everest, it’s a natural thing to want to push limits. Afterall, why do we continue to explore space? Surely this has a natural danger to it, and in the grand schemes of 3 score years and 10 has no real benefit.

There are constant calls on motorists to be curbed. Most speed limits have been lowered over the last 5 years (60 to 50, 50-40) on individual cases, but still people are calling for the motorway limit to be reduced to 60. Yesterday the media ran a story in support of 12 months of compulsory lessons for learners. Motorists are being put forward as the murderers of the planet by using our cars – but give us an alternative green-fuel and we’ll use it. Give us an opportunity to excercise our judgement about appropriate speed and we’ll learn from experience and all become better drivers – don’t wait till a a wing-mirror gets broken and put up a speed camera to trap us. We already pay road tax, fuel tax, VAT on the car itself, VAT on all it’s parts and garage costs, insurance tax, the MOT. All this money goes to the government. It pays for hospitals, schools, safety campaigns, and hopefully research into greener alternatives. We’re keeping the country going now so many have given up smoking! Leave us alone.

Keep lecturing us, but don’t try to take away that British spirit to explore, to push the limits of human possibility, to improve things…

I’ve always been a fan of cars. As a boy I collected matchbox toys. I must have read the highway code at least a dozen times by the time I was 12. I would practice manouvres and ettiquette on my bike. I had posters on my wall, top trumps in my pocket and drove driving games on the television. Yes cars are dangerous, but so are so many things. I’ve always been taken by everything to do with cars. I passed my test 11 weeks after my 17th birthday, and I’ve driven pretty much every day since then. It’s a skill, it’s a hobby, and it’s fun. I had been thinking about diong a track day at nearby Castle Coombe and yesterday has just reaffirmed my desire to do one soon, before the HSE start putting a stop to them.