Editorial inconsistencies, July 1999

Sir,

The new MOTOR SPORT has changed me from an infrequent reader into a regular subscriber. However it becomes increasingly obvious that there are many different editorial policies/agenda.

Your explanation in the frontpiece of April’s issue for the use of Gilles/Ferrari was laudable – so how do you justify the use of a pay driver in the BT49 on the cover of the May issue? With free access to the LAT archive surely you could have found a more evocative shot; after all there are over 20 years of Brabhams to choose from.

You made a similarly strange choice choosing a contemporary shot of a clone 917 in the Porsche issue – then you were probably in the driving seat!

On the subject of seats or lack of them – instead of spending so much time writing about how you didn’t fit the BT49 in the track test, couldn’t you have selected a smaller driver? Then more could have been said about the behaviour arid performance of the car.

I am, yours, etc. Mike Fairholm, Grantham, Lincolnshire

(It was me in the 917 and,yes, I could have let someone else drive the BT49; could you have turned them down? – Ed)