Article written by Bob Yarwood
I grew up with cars. Aged 14 I landed a part-time job working at a local Triumph dealer; his garage was at the end of my parents’ road so it was a very easy commute. When I was 23 my wife Jess and I started a car personalisation business. We took mundane models of popular cars and transformed them into extra-special examples. One thing led to another, and I was lucky enough to start competing in cars, with hill climbs and sprints eventually moving on to racing in production saloons.
We had an extremely successful car business in Cheshire. However, in 1980 we decided to up sticks, sell everything and move to the west coast of the USA: San Luis Obispo, California to be exact. We opened a British car facility there, things went well and of course the English accent helped (a lot).
Twenty-six years on… Jess was importing European antiques into the US and frequently visited the UK with American antique dealers, and the more she came back the more she wanted to stay. So, at the end of ‘05 we sold all our US properties and three 40-foot containers later we were back in Blighty.
However, we still wanted to have the opportunity to travel and discover new places, ideally while also enjoying some wonderful accommodation. Being in the USA all that time we had never seen any of Europe, but now we’ve been to most of the European destinations. Rocha Brava in the Algarve is our favourite. However, we went down to Dijon in France for a race last October and stayed at Le Mont de St Siméon on the way.
Racing old cars is something I have done for 45 years. I still have a few racing cars and have just rebuilt an old stable on our property in South Lanarkshire to house them. One by one they will get rebuilt, restored and possibly raced again; in fact, I raced the red Crossle 9s (pictured at top of page) in Belgium in June, at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the finest circuits in the world.
But when we want to take a break Jess and I get to have our pick from dozens of lovely holidays. Back in early March we were at Rocha Brava: 16°C and sunny; with snow back home in our tiny Scottish village. We’re also looking forward to visiting a few more of the British sites. We’ve been to Henllys and Tigh Mor Trossachs, but would like to sample some of the English properties.
"I think staying active is key to happiness and fulfilment. My wife and I have worked all our lives at a speed that matches my fastest car but maybe now we can change down a gear or two, slow down just a bit but still keep in touch with the leaders! And of course, spend a bit more time sampling some locations that we have not had the pleasure to visit as yet."
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