Steve Cropley: Is Bolton Lancashire's answer to Le Mans?

June’s 24-hour race at Le Mans is postponed until September - as is a trip to Bolton (or at least until lockdown ends)

Before lockdown, our man was plotting a drive to the town which has ties to the French city, if not the 24-hour endurance race

In this week's automotive adventures, Steve reveals some unexpected facts about Bolton, and shows off the perfect Jaguar-themed addition to a suit and tie. But first, let him give you the lowdown on an exciting reader competition.

Reckon you can write? Fancy giving it a try? We’re hatching a *‘My First Car’ competition* for you, our loyal readers, aiming to help fill some time you might have on your hands with an interesting challenge and hopefully to bring you some of the absorption and satisfaction that turning a phrase does for us. The rules are simple: tell us about said car in just 300 words (more means disqualification; writing short is a test in itself) and include a couple of happy-snaps of both the machine and, hopefully, yourself. Extra points for style and amusement.

We’ll publish the best work online – where I’ve placed a tale of my own first car. After a few months, if the idea works and once restrictions are lifted, we’ll invite a dozen of the best writers to Autocar HQ for lunch, a chance to meet the team and talk about what makes a good story.

*Monday*

In a life full of uncertainties, one thing we know is that we won’t be at Le Mans this summer for the 24-hour race. True, there’s a revised date already fixed for September, and one extra-good thing is that if we’re free and clear of the Black Death by then, there’ll be so many great car things to do at weekends that we’ll be dizzy from it all. Still, Le Mans in June was such a fixture that life already feels weird without it.

Just before lockdown but after the race was canned, we hatched a plan for a substitute: a trip to Bolton. It’s a little-known fact that this gritty Lancashire town is twinned with Le Mans and even has a fine street at its epicentre called Le Mans Crescent, site of some magnificent civic buildings. I was planning a 450-mile round trip from the Cotswolds to Bolton, returning via Lincoln – which is favoured with a Mulsanne Way in one of its suburbs – but travel restrictions landed before I could pull the Bentley’s selector into Drive. The first line of the story was going to be a hack’s dream: “Can’t do Le Mans this year? Go to Bolton. It’s the next best thing…”

*Tuesday*

Reckon the skids might at last be under our trusty 17-year-old Citroën Berlingo. It’s with The Man right now receiving an extra-oomph battery after a winter of difficult starting, but the question has lingered for a while: how to replace it? The answer, of course, is another Berlingo, that plan informed both by diligent research and the fact that Citroën UK lent me a new model at Christmas. A full-house XTR with metallic paint, nice alloys, an ultra-clean 130bhp 1.5-litre diesel, the extra-grip driving-mode gizmo, an eight-speed auto and lots of supporting extras, plus all the luggage nets, boot liners, fire extinguishers and floor mats you can eat, is about £28k before you haggle. On an expensive car, all those gadgets would cost you half the Blinger’s total price.

*Friday*

For months I’ve been a dedicated Twitter follower of an excellent Irish bloke called Andrew Ryan, one of the best-informed students of the 1970s-to-1990s British motor industry I’ve yet found. His Twitter ‘Car Factoids’ (@andrewryan100) are gems of insight into the car advertising of the times, which was often better than the cars themselves, although definitely ‘of its time’. The other day he published a launch photo of the ‘boggo’ Morris Marina 1300 featuring two comically posed models, asking his audience to guess at the dialogue between them. The photo is published here: I invite you to do the same.

*And another thing...*

Dressing up is hell. But I might do more of it if only someone would buy me a set of these superb Jaguar E-Type cufflinks, made from Jag Series 1 pistons for Classic Motor Cars at Bridgnorth. They’re £169.99; buy at icarusoriginals.com.

*READ MORE*

*Steve Cropley: My Berlingo is beloved, but it's no Bentley *

*Steve Cropley: Small and simple is the formula for driving nirvana *

*Steve Cropley: The last dash before lockdown*