Category: Automotive, Education

I’m Heading to University!!

Posted on Posted in Automotive, Cars, Car Spotting, Blogging, Automotive Journalism, Automotive, EducationTagged , , , , , 1 Comment

That’s right, you read that correctly – I’m heading to university. Now, before I get into details about the course I am due to partake in, let me just preface this by saying I have never been to University before, so everything is completely new to me. If I say something that might not make sense, then that is the reason why. Although this is my first time at University, I have previously participated in higher education, so here is a rundown of my previous experiences.

Back in 2013, I left high school at the age of 16 and decided to head to College to study Light Vehicle Mechanics. I originally did this because, contrary to popular belief, I have an interest in how cars actually work, even if I’m not all that great at actually fixing them. In school, I found it difficult to “fit in” with other students, and I was never able to find people with similar interests to myself. Because of this, I decided to make the decision to leave everyone I knew behind and actually go and do something I actually had an interest in. Meeting people with similar interests to me was also a bonus, but not my main goal in life.

Through different trials and tribulations, I stuck to Mechanics for 4 years and loved every single day of the courses I enrolled in, even if they were physically tiring. Spanning across two different colleges in two completely different areas of Scotland, I was able to comfortably hang on to the courses until 2017, when I decided to leave so I could look after my father, the guy who started my love affair with cars.

Whilst enrolled in my 2nd college, I decided to start up this blog to document what it was like to be in the motor industry at such a grassroots level. Now, yes, some people might not consider College courses as grassroots, but for myself and many people like me, it was a sure-fire way to find out how a car actually worked without the need to spend tons of money on a project car.

At the time of initially starting this blog back in 2016, I was already about 1 year into ownership of my beloved C70 Coupé – the car that is synonymous with this website. Back in the early days, the website and the blogs that were posted were a mixture of my own personal ownership experiences of the car, as well as articles about what I was learning about through college. Soon after starting the blogs, I started to document the adventures I used to take the C70 on, as well as writing about any jobs I was doing to the car.

After a while, the articles started to come in thick and fast, and this led me to go to even more meets, as well as getting up close and personal with some truly epic machinery. Through the years, this website has become something rather special to me and has been a way of expressing my love for cars.

I never intended to be an Automotive Journalist, nor was it something that I ever had an actual interest in, in all honesty. Through the posts and the wonderful people I have met over the years, however, I started to love what I did and decided to do more and more. Unfortunately, while I love writing on here, turning it into a full-time job was becoming increasingly difficult due to financial constraints and location.

Whilst Scotland has a lot to offer and truly is a gem of a country, for many different reasons, there aren’t a lot of opportunities if you want to make it in this sector of the motor industry. Considering the lack of everyday 9-5 jobs in my area, I decided earlier this year, after enrolling in a very demanding, but also rewarding, Social Science college course, to take a massive leap and apply to Coventry University’s Journalism course.

Now I’ll admit, I don’t really want to leave Scotland because I really like it up here and apart from these last few years, I’ve never really run into any issues since moving here in 2003/2004, but with a lack of jobs, a lack of opportunities and barely any ways of pursuing something worthwhile within the motoring industry, I feel like I have to move. I will be sad to leave all my friends behind, but opportunities like this don’t come along often, so I’m seizing them with both hands.

Now, whilst I could potentially do the course up here in Glasgow or Stirling, which would mean I wouldn’t have to move, Cov Uni has many facilities readily available for me to use. Add in the fact that there are numerous motor-related jobs down that way, and if I want to take Journalism seriously, then I need to move back to England.

At the time of writing this, I have already been given a conditional offer for the Automotive Journalism Course I originally applied for, and I have already accepted the offer. A couple of years ago, I went down to Coventry via train by myself to get an idea of how everything is laid out as well as find out more information regarding the course, the accommodation & the funding options, and it is pretty much the perfect place for someone like me to delve into the world of Journalism and Automotive Journalism as a whole.

The course starts on the 1st of September, so it’s not long to get everything sorted and ready, but everything is in full swing. By moving down to Coventry, I will be closer to my family, who still live in London. I also have many friends who I know live in the Midlands, so I won’t be alone, either.

As expected, my nerves are all over the place. You have to remember, apart from the current humanities course I’m on, I haven’t been in full-time education since 2017, and I haven’t lived in England since 2003. In my 29 years of life, I have admittedly lived a relatively sheltered life and haven’t really spread my wings, so to speak. Since being diagnosed with Epilepsy back in 2014, I haven’t really travelled by myself, primarily because I’ve always worried about fits occurring, and this has, of course, raised my anxiety to a whole new level. No surprise my nerves are all over the place then, eh?

Even with the nerves being all over the place, I am always up for facing new challenges and seeing how far things can go, and if everything goes well, after everything is done and by with, I will be a fully fledged Auto Journalist – something I never knew I could take seriously.

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When I started this website way back in 2016, I had no idea how far these articles would take me. As a way of simply documenting my life with my C70 has snowballed into what we have today. A website with 80+ articles that has been running for close to 9 years, and is now a massive step into a potential future career in the motoring press/landscape.

So, the only thing I have to say now is thank you. Thank you for reading all the articles I have written over the last 10 years. My writing style has been my own. I’ve never had any experience or training in journalistic writing before, and whilst that might be apparent to some, the amount of love the articles have had over the years has been absolutely fantastic. I’m eager to take this further with the University’s support and any future opportunities that may arise. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Hope You Enjoy!

Alex Jebson

The Story of the Legendary Aston Martin LM4!!!

Posted on Posted in Automotive, Cars, Car Spotting, Blogging, Automotive Journalism, Automotive, EducationTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

Anyone that knows me, knows that while I love cars of any kind, Aston Martin’s have my heart. Whilst I’ve been lucky to get up close and personal with some incredible machinery in my 25-year life, for me, being around an Aston Martin of any age makes me feel all giddy inside. I’ve been lucky to be around some incredible Aston Martins in my life but nothing comes close to what I got to see lately – the 1930 Aston Martin LM4.

LM4 getting manoeuvred around for pictures!

Built in 1930, The LM4 was built purely to go racing. Powered by a 1.5-litre 4-Cylinder engine, the LM4 was Aston Martin’s answer to Riley’s, Bentley’s, Bugatti’s & Frazer-Nashs. Even though a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine is considered small in this day and age, back in the ’30s, that was considered to be a large engine, especially considering that during its racing heyday, it was competing with cars that had anything from a 1100cc engine like seen in the Rileys all the way up to the Bugatti & Bentley brutes that were powered by 2300cc Supercharged & 4½ litre engines respectively. In Its racing days, LM4, piloted by Bert Bertelli, the owner of Aston Martin at the time, competed in the prestigious J.C.C ‘Double Twelve’ held at Brooklands, in June 1930 where it got 4th overall and 2nd in class. A couple months later, It won Its class at the R.I.A.C. Irish Grand Prix and came 7th overall with Sammy Davis behind the wheel.

Brooklands is inscribed on the bottom of the aero screen, as that was the maker of the screen.

Once the 1930 season of racing was over, LM4 was sold to her first owner, Henry Leeson in 1931. Henry owned it for a few months before he sold it to Rolland Cookson. Cookson was an interesting individual, to say the least. Cookson was a young businessman that lived in the North of England who later in life became a wealthy industrialist and local hero in the North East, Cookson was also very charitable as well. . However, when it came to recording the address for the car, he decided to put the address as Belleisle House & Park in Ayr, Scotland. Why he did this remains a history but two theories have come forward as to why he may have done this. The first is that Cookson spent an extended honeymoon at Belleisle House, fell in love with the place and decided to address the car there. The second theory was that he had some business at Belleisle House, loved his time and ultimately addressed the car to the house. What made him put Belleisle House as the address of the car we’ll probably never know but one thing is for sure, after seeing the car revealed there on Tuesday, I can personally see why!

LM4 basking in the sun!

After Cookson owned & raced the car for a little while, he decided to sell it and ultimately moved his interest to Bugatti’s. LM4 went through 6 owners throughout her life. The current owners have only had her for a year but since ownership, they have taken her to Goodwood for the ‘Festival of Speed 2022’, and Silverstone for ‘Silverstone Classic’ but plan to take her to other racing events during ownership. There is also a book that will be written about the car in the forthcoming future that will piece all the history & story together.

LM4 thundering up Goodwood Hill at ‘FOS 2022’

During the late ’90s, LM4 was restored to an extremely high standard, with all the unique factory-lightened castings retained. The car went through quite a lot of bodywork in that time but has maintained its originality whilst also remaining practical. LM4’s restoration left no stone unturned and you can really see that when looking around it. The engine was rebuilt to its full racing specification by Ecurie Bertelli. the original engine has been kept with the car, making it possible to rebuild if possible. In 2021/2022, the car went under a recommissioning overhaul by Ecurie Bertelli and the body was repainted in its correct shade of green by Aston Martin Works down in Newport Pagnell.

After restoration, LM4 went back to racing with its previous owner & has enjoyed outings at Le Mans Classic back in 2002, 2004 & 2006. in 2006, it was driven by-then CEO of Aston Martin, Dr Ulrich Bez, mirroring Bert Bertelli back in 1930. LM4 is also capable of racing at Monaco Classic, Goodwood Revival, Le Mans Classic, Silverstone Classic & potentially the Mille Miglia as well.

LM4 herself is very rare, but not for the reasons you might think. See, in the thirties, it was somewhat common practice to have a “Touring Body” put onto an already existing racing chassis and this was done to make it that bit more practical for everyday use. LM4 however, still has her original type of body that was used when it was raced. LM4 is known to be the best-looking pre-war Aston Martin ever made and that’s because of features like its cut-away doors, its exhaust that exits under the car making the bodywork look sleeker and its signature racing green paint. As already mentioned, LM4 is powered by a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine that is capable of speeds of approximately 90mph which might not sound like much in this day and age but when you consider that its 92 years old, doesn’t have any drivers aids whatsoever and it sits on very thin tyres and huge drum brakes, 90 mph sounds scarier than normal. The drivers in the period that were able to pilot LM4 were something else indeed!

Another thing to mention about LM4 is her overall size. While she isn’t exactly tiny, she isn’t overly huge either. The other thing to note is her weight too. Being a race car, LM4 is quite light and when you add that peppy little 4-cylinder engine into the equation, it was no surprise that in her heyday she took class wins and placed in the top ten both at Brooklands & the R.I.A.C Irish Grand Prix. LM4 isn’t incredibly wide, in fact, at Tuesday’s event where she was bought up to Belleisle House to potentially bring back some memories for some people, she was easily piloted down a footpath towards the Greenhouse where more pictures could be taken. try doing that in a modern race car and you’ll definitely struggle.

LM4 Being piloted down a footpath!

It also shows how easy it is to drive as well. even though it doesn’t have any kind of driver’s aids and is very much of the period, it drives really well in the modern day. One of the guys who was helping with the event had the pleasure of manoeuvring the car around and whilst chatting to him about the car, he was sure to tell me that driving LM4 around the House & Park was one of the easiest vehicles he’d ever piloted. This is also shown in any of the Youtube videos about it. LM4 is more in line with a classic Aston Martin Hill Climb car than a Grand Prix car.

LM4 suits her surroundings!

Before I wrap this piece up, I would just like to thank Steve Waddingham and his crew for setting the event up on Tuesday. I’d also like to extend my thanks to the staff at Belleisle House & Park for their incredible hospitality too. Everyone that I spoke to was genuinely lovely to speak to and was super respectful to any stupid question I may have asked them. I truly & honestly believe that I’ll never get to experience a car like LM4 ever again unless I’m super lucky so for that reason alone, I have to thank everyone who set the event up for creating something that’ll stick with me for years to come!

Hope You Enjoy!

Alex Jebson