Thursday 18 March 2021

Damon Hill - true gent

Instead of employing an expensive lawyer to try and wriggle out on a technicality, he actually did the adult detention speed awareness course (it would appear more than once).

From The Daily Mail:

When asked what he was convicted for he told the hosts: "You can’t ask people what they were in for.. It was a camera. I was slowing down going into a village, but I was just going a bit too fast. There was another one that I got at about 3am in the middle of nowhere, which I felt was a little bit hard cheese, but you know you are supposed to stick to the rules."

Bonus points for "hard cheese", I haven't heard that in years.

On a separate occasion in 1994, Hill, 60, was fined £30 and banned from the roads for seven days after being caught doing 102 mph on the M40 in Oxfordshire in a Renault Safrane.

He used up his luck on that one. £30 for 102 mph? Those were the days.

16 comments:

A K Haart said...

"Hard cheese" reminds me of Terry Thomas during the tennis match in School for Scoundrels.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, yes, that sort of era. Somehow it's evolved into "tough shit" nowadays.

benj said...

@ A K Haart

Forced my partner to watch it a couple of years ago. "oh, that's where you get it (hard cheese old boy) from"

Also, Graham Hill was a bit Terry Thomas.

Scrobs. said...

Apparently, lots of the people involved with the flick 'Grand Prix' just took the p*** out of Graham Hill, because he was such a gentleman!

I do remember him driving on the old track at Brands Hatch, in an Austin A35, wearing a blue shirt and helmet!

Maybe that's why Damon thought he might try his luck as well?

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, GH looked vaguely similar to TT, but TT plays cads and bounders and it appears that GH was also a true gent (see next comment).

S, DH has answered that question endless times in endless interviews, not need for us to speculate.

Lola said...

You can just here the cop can't you. "So, who do you think you are Graham Hill?" " Well no actually, I'm his..."

Slightly o/t. I've actually been in several races with Stirling Moss.

Never saw him though.... (well, once. But he was in his late 80's by then...)

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, maybe Hill jr was trying to provoke exactly that? Although traditionally the copper asks whether the driver thinks he is Stirling Moss.

Lola said...

MW. If you read Hill's book he was also busted by a motorcycle cop for drifting his Bike around Marble Arch in his m/c courier days...

Scrobs. said...

Can anyone remember the immortal Python short sketch...

'Oi would like to see, John the Baptist's impersonation of Graham Hill', and a severed head on a plate screeched at high speed across the TV screen...

Scrobs. said...

Lola, the 'Lo' was Lotus, wasn't it, what was the 'La'?

I think it had it's first outing at Brands Hatch around 1958, possibly on the old August Bank Holiday event on the old circuit?

Lola said...

Scrobs. My choice of Lola has two roots. One, 'Lola' by the Kinks. And Two this:- https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c8/cd/70/c8cd7006e8254be6d227991a78df6c09.jpg
a Lola T70 MKIII B GT

Scrobs. said...

Aaaah, the Kinks song - marvellous!

This is the car I think I remember...

https://www.supercars.net/blog/1958%E2%86%921961-lola-mk1/

wiggiatlarge said...

Sadly Lola Cars are no more, started in '58 by Eric Broadley they went on to produce race cars for various formulas and were very successful at Indianapolis, the picture in the link combines the best of Lola and GH.
https://www.lola-cars.co.uk/

Now as you can see even the facilities and name are up for sale.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Lola, there you go, you can now own the trademark in your Internet name. Get bidding!

Scrobs. said...

Ooops - getting a bit muddled with the name of the immortal superbike, the 'Dresda Triton' - a Triumph engine in a Norton 'Featherbed' frame...

Lola said...

wiggiatlarge

If I could afford it, I'd be very tempted to buy the remains of Lola. There is an awful lot of money in historic racing and Lola made many many great cars that need looking after, spares and so on. At the right price those assets would be a gold mine for the right savvy owner.

Sort of on/topic. I was once lapped by Stirling Moss in (I think) a white Lola T212 at Snetterton. I moved over to let him by (I was in a 1300 CC GSM Delta) at the Bomb Hole. SM went past, turning in, changing gear and waving thanks all at the same time...