Specials

Among the journals to which I contribute is Rewind, a quarterly based in Singapore. Recently the editor, Eli Solomon, wrote a wonderful piece on Malaysian motor racing specials of the 1950s. Had you seen the pictures alone, you would have been hard-pressed to guess the country of origin, though the lack of big V8s ruled out North America. Eli wondered why, with so much ingenuity, was there not a critical mass, as happened in England.

The Fifties was the Golden Age of special building—in those countries where conditions permitted. Guys returned from military service with skills they might never have acquired in peacetime. They knew how to maintain aircraft, tanks, ships, trucks, loads of stuff.