On my personal blog, Gone Away, I posted an article recently on motor racing in Zimbabwe in the 1960s. That brought back memories of a car that visited from Europe and impressed me so much that I can still see and hear it in my mind: the saloon car racing version of the 1963 Ford Galaxie 500. It’s an unlikely choice as an exotic car, I know, but you had to be there to understand what an impact it made upon us. Here is the relevant extract from my post:

“There is one moment that stands out in my memory, however; the time the Ford Galaxies came to show off on our little track. They were monsters powered by 7 liter engines and had succeeded in overpowering the opposition in European saloon car races. It was a phenomenal sight to watch them unleash the power as they accelerated up the hill, passing all the local Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas as they did so. That thundering V8 sound at full throttle was truly marvellous and the acceleration unbelievable.

“It was the corner after the pits that nearly embarrassed them, however. They were achieving such high speeds that they would have to start braking halfway along the pits straight and the locals would come streaming past, braking at the last second and then hurling themselves through the corner faster than the Galaxies could dream of. And then would be repeated the chase and pass manouver up the hill.

“They won in the end but only just. Honour was satisfied on both sides, I think, for the locals could console themselves with the fact that their engines were less than half the size of the American cars’. And the crowd had witnessed a sight that would not be repeated in our forgotten backwater.”

Ah, the memories. Say what you like, that thundering old Ford was a classic!