Celebrating the life of legendary speed record holders at a classic car hill climb

I’m in the passenger seat of a Jaguar E-Type Series 1, deafened by the sound of multiple classic car engines idling around me.

Having completed the German sports car’s complicated starting procedure, Don Wales looks over and politely makes the same offer to us.

My comment makes Wales smile, as he comes back with some classic British self-deprecation: “I don’t know what I’m doing – I can only drive in straight lines!”

In the film, Hopkins drove an E-Type, which had been given a coat of blue paint over its original green colour to make it look like the car that Campbell actually owned.

It was shortly after this that my uncle spotted the Jag sitting outside a building in Birmingham. It was love at first sight, so he approached the company and bought the car.

He went about respraying the blue E-Type in its original Jaguar factory-spec green paint. He then enjoyed the car for the rest of the 1990s, until he sadly lost his life to cancer.

As part of this, there was going to be a parade of cars with links to the Campbells, and Constanduros wanted us to bring the E-Type because of its film history.

We were greeted by an incredible selection of cars that would also be taking part in the Campbell parade. Talking with the owners of some of these vehicles, I heard wonderful stories of how they came to be at the event.

Among the vast array of activities taking place over the two days, our minds were focused on the Campbell car parades that would be happening twice a day. Although none of the cars in this event were expected to break any speed records, my father was still quite worried about driving up a world-famous hill climb, in front of a large crowd of people, in a car with a very tricky gearbox.

The matter of who would go first was quickly settled as the marshal gestured at Wales to line the Porsche up on the start line, with us following in the Jag. We followed his instructions and set off slowly at the bottom of the hill, but as we approached the first corner, Kennel Bend, my father made a smooth shift into second gear and floored the accelerator.

Atalanta Motors was founded in 1936 as a sports car manufacturer and used technology that was very advanced at the time. World War Two caused production to be ended after only 22 cars had left the factory though, and the company was recently resurrected to produce vintage-style cars, with the Bluebird its latest offering.

“I’m always asked, ‘What is Bluebird blue?’” he said. “I was given a colour chart and, just by chance, I picked out the colour I thought was the best blue and it was Pantone Blue 301. My grandfather was the first person to do 301mph, which was his land speed record, so we’re using that on the Atalanta.

“I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be a great car and I can’t wait for it to be released later in the autumn.”

“It’s staggering how so many people are connected in some way to the family, and for us to be at events like this to continue the family name and chat to people really is very humbling.”

Written by Tristan Shale-Hester