Simon Kidston, Classic Car Guru
Classic car expert Simon Kidston looks forward to driving a childhood favourite road again soon.
“We are very lucky being in the centre of Europe, but I spend a lot of time in Dubai as well. And I've discovered some great roads there up in the mountains which actually go up to about 2000 metres which is not what you would normally associate with Dubai. We took a Porsche Carrera GT and a 918 up the Jebel Hafeet road and had a brilliant time.
But we have been discussing what we are going to do when the corona virus lockdown ends and the plan is to drive two Alfa Romeos which are being restored in Milan back to our office in Geneva over the Great St Bernard Pass, which is where they filmed The Italian Job opening scenes.
We’ll make our way down to Milan, in some kind of a modern car, combine it with a trip to see various cars being restored in the Modena area and then pick up two Alfa Romeos from the workshop of Carlo and Giuliano Facetti. One is a police car, a 1965 Giulia Super polizia stradale in military green and the other is a red 1966 TZ2. And then we’ll take a day to head back to Switzerland over the St Bernard Pass
When I was a boy we lived in Italy and when I was going back to boarding school that was the way my dad would drive me. Going to school is not normally a trip that you particularly relished, but I have strong memories of it in my dad’s gold BMW 3.0Si with a grey velour interior and a very fancy Blaupunkt stereo.
You often get beautiful sunny days with spectacular views. Nice, clear, clean, crisp, air, a little bit of snow on the mountain peaks. There is also the fact that the road itself and the surrounding scenery have barely changed, if at all in some cases, since the 1960s when these cars would have been current, so you can transport yourself back to that moment and place in time.
We always say that cars are meant to be driven and cars that don't get driven don't really come to life. Besides, if all cars were confined to museums you would never see one on the road, see it in the in the context that it was originally intended when it was designed.”