Saturday, 23 June 2007

Ladies Rally

If only Stirling Moss had been there in Mercedes 722 with Denis Jenkinson in the navigator's seat, it would have been like the start of the Mille Miglia. As it was, instead of cars "accelerating homicidally along Via Dante" (Douglas Rutherford), we had them accelerating none too cautiously out into the afternoon traffic along the Garden Ring road, which means they were probably doing 70 mp.h. before hitting the underpass below the Arbat. Bemused Militsia-men looked on, and the band played 1930s German jazz of the sort Lord Haw-Haw broadcast during the war. And of course, the champagne never stopped...