Speed, Greed and the M25
James May uncovers the secret history of the M25 Road Race.
Go to the Radio 4 Webpage and click on this to Listen Again. Nice bit of proper James May.
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I was a bit concerned that he would be glorifying racing on public roads, but he didn't. It was pretty good IMO, and a nice bit of social history, taking me back to the 80's, yuppies, bankers, and easy money. (No easy money for me sadly.) Both May and Clarkson can be very good journalists when they put their minds to it. The extracts from May's new book in the Saturday Torygraph were remarkably good too. Anyone read his book?
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Here's my bit.
Back in 1983/1984 I was working in advertising and we did a commercial for British Telecom Mobile Phones. It was all about getting stuck in yet another traffic jam and being completely helpless. When the traffic ground to a halt, everyone around our hapless prat of a driver straight away got onto the phone. We filmed the jam we created on the as yet unopened stretch of M25 under J10 (M25/A3). Very tempting to go for an unrestricted blast down to Leatherhead, but the feds were patrolling the empty motorway. A few weeks later they used the same stretch of M25 to film part of some movie starring Mel Smith involving a spaceship landing on the M25.
Those were the days.
HJ
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Can someone tell me if I remember this properly?
At one time, South Mimms was the only services on the M25. I vaguely recall that there was a sign shortly after leaving SM saying, "Services xxx miles" (can't remember the number) - which was actually for South Mimms again, going all the way round the M25!
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James sort of mentions that
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M25 trivia - it was the first motorway to ring a city but only because of political manoeuvring - the final piece of M42, ringing Birmingham with M5 and M6 was constructed first but delayed in it's opening to allow construction and opening of M25 sections.
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