by Charles Armstrong-Wilson

Having seen the hill that the organizers of the Border Bogie intended to use for the event, I badly wanted to take part. But not having the time to build my own bogie, I called in a favour and rather cheekily turned up with MIRA’s Lindley Special. It was originally built for the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s gravity challenge where it competed successfully in 2001 and 2002. It was now sitting in a shed gathering dust at the company’s Warwickshire HQ and they were keen to see it used. Thankfully it was well received at Denholm and everyone, very sportingly, seemed happy to see it run.

The original cost of building the car caused some interest with the estimates overheard in the crowd ranging from £30,000 to £85,000. In fact, the total cost of parts was around £500. However, the cost of designing it would have been much higher if the trainees who built the car didn’t have the MIRA’s resources available for free.

Predictably the car was very competitive and after putting up the fastest time on the first run, I was keen to improve, particularly as I felt I had been a bit conservative, braking twice. Unfortunately, two corners from the finish on the second descent the car swapped ends, clobbered the bank on the left of the track and went backwards into the bales on the right. The looks on the faces of the girls sitting behind that particular straw bale were a picture.