The Vintage Sports-Car Club's annual Pomeroy Trophy meet is one of the most intriguing and entertaining events on the historic motor sport calendar.
Running to the arcane formula devised by Laurence Pomeroy – legendary technical editor of The Motor – to find the ideal roadable touring car, it consists of a series of tests (including fitting luggage into the car) and then is calculated against wheelbase and engine size and other factors to determine the winner.
Limited to cars of two litres or more (with smaller blown or turbocharged engines also admitted) the principal elements are the 'wiggle-woggle' slalom, acceleration and braking tests and then the 40 minute time trial with a target number of laps of the Silverstone circuit established for each competitor depending on their car's capacity and other factors.
Often taking place in gruesome winter weather, conditions for 2014 were unusually clement for the 70-plus entrants, but that is all that was different – the amazing spectacle of the competing machinery was as varied as ever.
Cars battling for the prize on 22 February ranged from Simon Diffey's flying Jaguar E-type to a Vauxhall Nova and a Ford Mondeo Estate.
Oldest car in the field was David Biggins' 1923 Crossley Sports, while the youngest was John Collins' Skoda Octavia. Michael Steele had the biggest engine, with his 7-litre Ford Galaxie earning him an unsurmountable 32 laps to complete, though that was still one fewer than Geraint Owen managed to do in his BMW M3.
But, despite the bewildering array of contenders, as has been the case in recent years, the pre-war Frazer Nashes dominated.
Fred Wakeman's 1928 Super Sports took overall victory and the Pomeroy Trophy (despite being docked points for an inadequate hood), while FN rival Charles Gillett, driving Patrick Blakeney-Edwards Owlet saloon, took the Densham Trophy for the next-best-placed pre-war car.
