“Farewell, my friends, I am off to glory!”

Said Isadora Duncan as she set off for a test drive with a young motor mechanic who sold Bugattis, in a car very similar to the blue one in my pic, maybe a 35 or 37? She was about fifty at the time. Some say the car was an Amilcar but "this is certainly false, since Isadora Duncan’s ardour was reserved for a single brand of car: Bugatti." She was wearing a long red silk scarf and this became entangled in a wheel and her neck was broken.

MrQ and I took the TR4 on the Layer Marney Cup run today. It was a re-run of a meeting of the Southend and District Automobile Club which took place on 10th June 1914 to test petrol consumption on a route from Southend to Layer Marney Tower. We used the Tulip system for navigation which took us along Essex country roads that we had never travelled before. I did all the driving so missed lots of photo ops. It was wonderful bowling along Southend seafront with the sunlight glinting off the high tide in such eclectic automotive company. We loved driving through Maldon Promenade Park with everybody waving at us.


My pic is taken at Stow Maries Great War aerodrome where we stopped for lunch. I fell for that Type 59 Bugatti in a big way. Just eight were built and of those only five have survived. (I believe this might not be one of the five but actually a "built-up" car constructed to the "highest engineering standards and cosmetically far superior to a genuine Molsheim Bugatti.") I adore how a lot of the mechanical controls are on the outside of the body panels. My second favourite car of the day was the Austin Seven Chummy, also in my pic, driven by a learner driver with her mother as navigator. She was given the car as an eighteenth birthday present.


On arrival at Layer Marney Tower we had tea and cake in the long gallery. MrQ and I then climbed the the tallest Tudor Gatehouse in the country. We've had a very enjoyable, different and interesting day in lovely company.