I’ve often remarked on how classic car magazines can involve you in a life of complete contrasts and this month has been no exception. Having spent five days tearing around Italy following the ’50s cars competing in the modern Mille Miglia in the comfort of a modern automatic Jaguar XF, a few days later I found myself trundling round Peterborough in a ’56 Standard Vanguard, complete with column shift.

It’s a real-life example of Editor-in-Chief Peter Simpson’s Tailgate column this issue on the subject of how ‘traditional’ driving skills are being lost. I’m plenty old enough to remember the manual choke, while double-declutching was often a requirement in the worn gearboxes of all the cars I and my friends started our driving careers with, but the manual column shift is never something I’ve had to live with.

As with anything like this though, a dose of mechanical sympathy and patience sees you through, although I can only apologise to Products Editor Chris, slithering around on the vinyl rear bench trying to hold on to his camera; the Vanguard really isn’t a precision cornering tool... unlike the Jaguar C-Type I had the chance to try very briefly during the Mille Miglia trip.

You can read more about the fascinating event on page 70 and my advice to anyone with even a passing interest in old cars would be to visit the race if you possibly can – and before some obscure EU legislation makes it impossible to stage events like this.

The experience was made all the better for me by being part of the Jaguar Heritage support team: the sleepless nights, mad driving and team camaraderie were a world away from the usual press hospitality and a snatched roadside view of the cars and gave an insight into what it’s really like to make sure a team of 50-year-old cars makes it to the finish of the 1000-mile event. Of course it helps to be able to work a manual choke, too...

Paul Wager, Editor

For all this and much more see the July 2011 issue of Classic Car Mart.

Back issues available here