LMC Cotswold Economy Drive 19th August 2007
Dave Williamson who, together with wife Joan, once again kindly compiled and generously sponsored the Route Notes for the ninth edition of the event, reports on the Cotswold Economy Drive.

In order to provide some route variation for this ninth running of the Economy Drive, organisers Peter & Lin Hon Baker constructed a route running substantially north-east of the usual territory. To facilitate this, the start was moved to the Fire Service College at Moreton-in-Marsh where the 31 entries started gathering on the Saturday afternoon for the routine formalities and a group dinner. The Fire Service College is based on the former RAF bomber airfield and, as such, all facilities were very spread out. Although perfectly comfortable and efficient as regards accommodation and catering, the college was somewhat lacking in character compared with the usual base at the Cotswold Conference Centre. Nevertheless, it served its purpose well enough for both competitors and the usual experienced organising team.

Not surprisingly, now that the event runs under the auspices of the Lancia Motor Club, this marque provided over half the entry and a very desirable collection from Aurelia, Appia and Fulvia to the more recent Integrales. As befits such a sociable event, a number of the cars were multi-crewed – presumably this was taken into account in predicting fuel consumption over the route of approximately 108 miles?

Tanks were sealed before the 10.00am Sunday start and crews launched into the route defined by a comprehensive tulip road book and a colour printed booklet of route notes giving a guide to the many interesting features to be seen during the day – pubs, churches, battlefields and even a haunted tower were drawn to the crews’ attention.

The route traversed pretty country lanes via Great Wolford, Weston Park, Sibford Gower, Cropredy and Priors Marston where, unusually, there is a public road with five gates in quick succession. Prior cooperation with a local farmer ensured that no great delay ensued. Then on via Willoughby and Yelvertoft to Stanford Hall which was the lunch halt. The organisers had negotiated with Auto Italia to ensure that the Economy Drive crews became part of the Italian car extravaganza with dedicated parking for an extended two-hour lunch break. Here entrants took in the array of Ferraris, Maseratis and – oh yes – Lancias gracing the grounds of this beautiful stately home. Then back to the route which turned south to cross and re-cross the Fosse Way ultimately to the H.J. Taylor time-warp garage at Willersey for supervised filling of petrol tanks and thence to the familiar Cotswold Conference Centre for a special afternoon tea, results and prize giving.

As usual, fuel consumption varied widely, the David Bridges Ferrari Daytona proving that it can pass anything except for a filling station! The “lead foot” for the worst prediction went to Peter Collins and Gary Holman who were out by 37.87%. They need to go some in order to catch up with winners Tony Huggett and Rita Wilson who recorded an error of only 1.02%! Sorry Lancia owners – they were driving a Sunbeam Rapier IV!

The tenth running of the Cotswold Economy Drive will be held over the weekend of 16th/17th August 2008.