Panther with a Tiga's tale

Sir,

Crikey! That’s our old Tiga in the Tiga Economy’ article in your April issue. But for the absence of our sponsors’ stickers (and the addition of a fluorescent jewel thief on its nose) it is just as we raced it at Le Mans in 1990. I can just see the drivers’ names over the door.

We never knew the car as the ‘Pink Panther’, because when Alastair Fenwick acquired it, he believed he was buying a 1988 chassis. It was only when we took the spark box off the bulkhead that we found the real chassis plate bashfully hiding away behind it, with its 1986 date glowing pink with embarrassment!

Ever since I broke prep school rules by listening on my crystal set to the Aston Martin team winning Le Mans in 1959, I’d dreamt of joining the heroes and racing there. It still seems like a dream 14 years after I achieved my ambition.

l am looking at my finisher’s medal as I write this; we just scraped in as the last classified finisher. This was a major miracle because in all the C2 races that we had taken part in before, we never lasted more than 34 minutes before the car died. All three drivers — Fenwick, Craig Simmiss and I — believe that the old girl was merely training us how to keep her going in her last real competitive event.

Mind you, we did our best to break her. Craig crashed at Dunlop in night practice and I bounced off Oscar Larrauri on the way down to Indianapolis. I also gave the barriers at The Esses an almighty clang at midday on Sunday. Team manager Malcolm Swetnam wouldn’t let me back in the car after that!

Thanks for the memories.

Alex Postan, Burford, Oxfordshire