Things are hotting up in our festival of speed for solicitors. This was kick-started when Obiter profiled employment lawyer Harry Sherrard and his array of vehicles, which he uses to enter motorsport events around the country and abroad (see [2006] Gazette, 23 November, 9). The spotlight has since shone on tax associate Kate Featherstone, who has won numerous grass-racing championships, and Chris Christofi, who broke 28 bones when departing from his bike at Brands Hatch in 2004 at a recorded 141mph (see [2006] Gazette, 7 December, 9). Now, Mike Crehan has contacted us to say that 'impressive though the efforts of Sherrard, Christofi and Featherstone might be, they really are doing things the easy way.'


Mr Crehan, a sole practitioner, says that, having raced modern cars and motorbikes for more than 20 years, he has taken to racing vintage vehicles. It's at 'similar speeds to many modern classes but completely lacking in what the modern driver would recognise as handling, braking and driver aids', he points out.



He has competed in a 1922 Fiat 501S, a 1923 Amilcar CS Petit Sport and on a 1926 Norton 500 motorbike - all of which are part of his collection. His pride and joy, though, is his Vauxhall Viper, a 1913 A Type which (for the benefit of techno buffs) is fitted with a 12,000cc Hispano Suiza engine from an SE5A World War One fighter plane. The Viper is capable of 110mph, does between two and four miles per gallon (not one for the environmentalists, then), and has brakes only on the rear wheels. Can you beat that? Email gazette-editorial@lawsociety.org.uk.