The Brooklands Podcast

The tale of Crusader, the jet-powered boat of 1952, appears to be a simple one about the ambition of John Cobb and Reid Railton, two unassuming but deeply gifted men, to break the water speed record on Loch Ness only for their efforts to end in tragedy. In fact the story behind that fateful outcome — Cobb’s death on his first high-speed run — is a complex web of clever design and inspirational endeavour mixed with personality clashes and errors of judgement. After many years of research, including access to a wealth of original documentation, Steve Holter unravels the entire saga of the ill-fated Crusader and presents a compelling detective story.

This is no ordinary memoir. Moving back and forth through time, two stories with fascinating parallels gradually unfold. One is of a Second World War Spitfire ace whose flying career came to a premature end when he was shot down and lost an eye, the other is about his progeny, a second generation fighter pilot who rose to the rank of air marshal. There were times when the lives of both father and son, Robbie and Black Robertson, hung in the balance occasions when survival was simply a matter of luck. The narrative is unique in its use of two separate and distinct voices. The author s own reminiscences are interwoven with those of his father recorded more than thirty years ago. Intensely personal and revealing, controversial too at times, this memoir is above all about people. There is a final irony though. The son spent a lifetime training for the ultimate examination one that despite strictly limited preparation his father passed with flying colours. To Black Robertson s eternal regret he was never able to put his own training to the test. His father was awarded the DFC and retired as a flight lieutenant after five years or so. He himself served for nearly thirty-six years, earned a Queen s Commendation, an OBE and CBE and served as an ADC to HM The Queen. But after reaching almost the top of the RAF tree, in one important sense he retired unfulfilled; his mettle was never tested under fire. Anyone interested to know more about flying, about the RAF, about leadership, about character even, need look no further than this beautifully crafted delivery.

Episode 12 features the event season finally getting under way with the team visiting the Brooklands Classic Car show & Jumble and the Motorcycle show including interviews with author and adventuress Zoe Cano and TV personality Sarah Crabtree from Bangers & Cash. Plus a look at the new McLaren: Driven by Design exhibition. The music is provided b Gentleman Tim & his Contenders performing live at the Classic Car Show.

John Watson talks with Simon Taylor about his life in Formula One and Worlds Sportscar Championship and Le Mans. A very entertaining and insightful interview!

This instalment in Evro’s decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams is devoted to a period when some normality seemed to return after the ground-effect and turbo excesses of the 1980s, except for one terrible weekend in the spring of 1994. The tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna led to immense change with new emphasis on safety, including measures to slow down the cars and improve their structural strength, and numerous changes to circuits. In many ways Formula 1 became more as we recognise it today, especially as the decade’s dominant teams, McLaren and Williams, remain familiar. Besides the winning cars, there is always much fascination for fans in unsuccessful and obscure efforts, such as Andrea Moda and Venturi, and this authoritative and comprehensively illustrated book covers them all.

This track features a recent MGCC gathering at Brooklands and the re-opening of the London Bus Museum.

In this episode we hear from Sophia Dady about her writing the music and lyrics about Donald Campbell with an exclusive play of a brand new song. We also visit the Byfleet Fire Station Fun Day where we catch up with Julian Temple to tell us all about the desire to save it.

Derek talks with Maurice Hamilton and Harry Sherrard about life as an F1 driver, and his time in motorsport. An engaging and oft humorous tete-a-tete!

'Glorious...gripping and sometimes tragic' Robbie Coltrane

The inspirational story of the Bentley Boys and Le Mans – the race they made their own.

Le Mans, 1927. W.O. Bentley peered into the dusk. His three cars, which had led from the start, were missing. Two years running he had failed to finish. Once again he was staring into a void. Racing, his shareholders told him, was a waste of money. This race looked like being his last.

W.O’s engineering skills had been forged on the Great Northern railway and in the skies of the First World War, where Bentley-powered Sopwith Camels took the fight to Germany’s Red Baron. Determined to build and race his own cars, he assembled a crack team from all strata of 1920s Britain, from East End boys Leslie Pennal and Wally Hassan to multi-millionaires Woolf Barnato and Tim Birkin, men in search of adventures to blaze their way out of the dark past.

They dedicated themselves to building the perfect road and racing car. In the hayloft above their workshop, the first Bentley was born and soon it was the car of choice for the fast-living upper classes. They raced at the fashionable Brooklands circuit and then set their sights on the fledgling 24 Hours Le Mans race. An audacious goal for a British car, yet the Bentley Boys rose to the challenge. But on that night in 1927, after the biggest crash in racing history claimed their cars, could they still pull it off and put British motor racing on the map?

In the 1920s, Bentley Motors burned brightly but all too briefly; yet its tale, filled with drama, tragedy, determination and glory still shines a century on.

Peter Grimsdale is a bestselling writer, TV producer and former commissioning editor whose credits stretch from Big Brother to Panorama, from The Adam & Joe Show to Finest Hour and Dispatches on Deepwater Horizon and Tony Blair's millions. His first motoring book was the critically acclaimed High Performance: When Britain Ruled the Roads. Racing in the Dark is his second book with Simon & Schuster. Cover image by Cliff Bolton

The author Sam Smith talks with Steve Clarke about the evolution of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, motorsport's fastest growing discipline. A fascinating insight into this action-packed racing series.