Environment Forum

The greenest car?

On an icy but sunny Sunday morning we drove from Nash Hall, a mediaeval farmhouse near the Welsh town of Presteigne, to Ludlow in a 100-year-old open car. The 20-mile trip through the border country was about as exhilarating as a short car journey can be.

Despite being wrapped up like Edwardian motorists, we were still freezing cold. Our pleasure in the stark winter landscape was tinged with a slight worry about how the old car’s brakes (rear wheels only) would handle an emergency stop at its rather sporting pace of around 45 mph.

At the wheel was Roger “Wilkie” Collings, formerly in charge of the Gilbern sports car company and currently the owner of two sporting Bentleys from the 1920s. Cars like these are worth a fortune and most owners keep them spotless in heated garages. Collings’ cars live in a barn, spattered with mud from their last competition outing.

But for the trip to Ludlow, we were in a Zuest, a car built in Italy by a Swiss engineer and of which only a couple are thought to survive. Collings told me he has owned his for half its life. He took it to Italy once, to the museum where the other Zuest resides, and received a hero’s welcome.