Derek Bell at Chelsea AutoLegends

Cars are the scourge of modern civilization, responsible for everything from suburban sprawl and urban decay to environmental devastation and rampant climate change. But as annoying as all that might be, nothing compares to the frustration caused by thousands of fluorescent jacket-wearing cyclists enjoying a traffic-free event in the nation’s capital.

Eighty-five-thousand of the blighters took to the streets of London yesterday, causing chaos amid the city centre as roads were closed to allow the two-wheeled brigade to trundle around, a situation made worse by a large portion of the Underground being up the spout at the same time.

Thankfully, the aggro caused by Boris Johnson’s lax organisational skills didn’t blight what was otherwise a brilliant day out at the inaugural Chelsea Auto Legends event.

Staged at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, this new automotive festival featured one of the most comprehensive collections of road and track sports cars I have ever seen.

The highlight of this, the opening event, was the large grid showcasing more than 50 iconic race cars from the Le Mans 24 Hours. A comprehensive line-up spanning 80 years of history featured some absolute classics. Cars from pioneering Bentleys of the 1920s, to the state-of-the-art Aston Martin prototypes (and just about everything inbetween) were on show.

Two of the most evocative machines on display though were the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512, stars of the seminal Le Mans movie, whose 40th anniversary was celebrated at Chelsea Auto Legends.

Highlights of every car enthusiast’s favourite film were shown on a big-screen during the day, interspersed with renowned Le Mans drivers recounting their personal experiences of racing in the 24 hours race. Among those sharing their memories with show-goers were five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell MBE, Sir Stirling Moss OBE, who officially opened the show, and Richard Attwood, the man who gave Porsche its first victory 40 years ago in 1970.

Away from the Le Mans cars, the 5,000 visitors were surrounded by hundreds of classic vehicles and modern day performance cars. The broad range of renowned marques, such as Aston Martin, Bugatti, Ferrari and Maserati gave us paupers something to drool over, and one presumes that parking in and along the streets of Mayfair was relatively easy on Sunday...

With a brilliant, wide ranging, collection of cars and a healthy (but not overbearing) number of show-goers, amongst some of the most beautiful surroundings in London, I came away suitably impressed by Chelsea Auto Legends.

Event founder Michael Scott should be congratulated for putting together such an event in just a few months, and for providing the general public with such a rare opportunity to view such a spectacular array of rare cars.

I’m looking forward to next year’s event already. September 4th 2011. Make a note in your diary.

All twaddle, of course. The challenge is still as intense and importantly, the racing remains a thrill to watch, no matter how, no matter where. But those damn naysayers will continue to moan. In which case, I suggest they be forced to watch this year’s highlights package from Duke Video. That should do the trick.

Dakar 2010 has managed to cram this year’s event into a 53-minute DVD, featuring all the action from the cars, bikes and trucks. Of course, condensing a fortnight’s worth of action into less than an hour means that some moments have been left on the cutting room floor, but overall, what has been committed to disc is of significance and tells the story of this year’s adventure very well.

The footage is at times exceptional. With sequences captured on-board the vehicles and by helicopter cameras, the latter having caught one of this year’s pivotal moments during stage 11, when Carlos Sainz’s biggest threat, team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah, took a wrong turn and adopted a more rugged route to hound down the Spaniard. Watching this from a bird’s eye view is nothing short of brilliant.

It’s a shame then that it’s not in high definition as something like the Dakar Rally, which ventures through some spectacular landscapes, would complement the technology rather well. Not a fault of Duke Video’s per se, but fingers-crossed that organisers ASO will capture next year’s event in HD – though I imagine the logistics involved would be nothing short of a nightmare...

The only real issue I have with Dakar 2010 is perhaps with its format. Don’t get me wrong, an hour or so is fine for one sitting. But in that hour, the viewer is never given any background information into the event or its participants. Fine for fans of the Dakar, but for novices, it could put them off as there’s no real glide path into proceedings. It’s literally press play and on to the first stage of the event.

I do believe that the highlights package could have been just a touch longer, interspersed with the occasional interview or feature. If not only to break up the proceedings and introduce some variety, but to also educate the viewer as to the whos, whats and wheres.

There are some extra features available which offer extended coverage of stage 1, 10 and 14, but in truth, these are the same pieces of footage that were seen on Eurosport during the event itself. Nothing particularly wrong with that, it certainly offers some much needed background information (from the time), but given the highlights package is made in hindsight, they do feel a little bit out of place.

But that aside, Dakar 2010 does a thorough job of conveying one of motorsport’s greatest adventures. I expect fans will have bought their copies already, and if they haven’t: what’s stopping you, eh?

Rating: ★★★★

Dakar Rally 2010 is out now, priced £16.99 and is available from leading video outlets or direct from Duke Video: visit www.dukevideo.com online.

Well there is. Most drivers will stumble upon this tiny extra boost at some point in their racing careers, but the problem is that 'it' is largely unexplained.

When a driver (or any sports person for that matter) claims to have reached "the zone", they’re said to be engulfed by a sense of inner peace, were everything comes easy, bordering on invincibility. The effects range from bending time and space to out of body experiences.

Overdrive – Formula 1 in the Zone by Clyde Brolin (a non de plume?) focuses on this phenomenon and attempts to explain how a trip to "the zone" is more than just a cliché that is often spouted post-race by an overjoyed racing driver.

Beginning with Ayrton Senna’s infamous qualifying run for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, Overdrive takes the reader on a journey through the minds of some of the greatest sporting legends that are alive and present today.

A decade in the making, Brolin has managed to conduct a seriously impressive amount of interviews with a vast array of top flight drivers and sports folk who all recount experiences of entering the unfamiliar areas of the neurological and astrophysical. All without any reluctance through fear they may be seen as barking mad.

In practice, this means that every facet of information Brolin gives on the subject is cross-referenced by a quote from someone who has encountered the euphoria from being “in the zone.” As a result, a topic which would normally be seen as mumbo jumbo, becomes truly fascinating and easy to relate to, due in part to well-known drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso recalling their experiences and making it easy to digest.

Overdrive has clearly been a labour of love for the author and his passion for the subject shines through on every page. The full extent of this phenomenon is thoroughly examined, with no stone left unturned, but importantly, nor does it come to any conclusion on how one might be able to enter such territory at any given time.

You could complain that towards the end things become a little repetitive, but that would be missing the point a bit. As Brolin explains: “it hopefully shows this effect is available to everyone,” and you know what? He’s probably right. We as humans are capable of much more than we’re given credit for and we all have access to another level thanks to our subconscious.

Fascinating as it is thought provoking; Overdrive is no ordinary sports book. Such dedication and painstaking research in collating hundreds of descriptions on a topic that is mostly beyond words should be rewarded. So go buy it.

An essential purchase.

Rating:★★★★★

For more information on Overdrive - Formula 1 in the Zone, head on over to the book's official website: www.overdrivef1.com.

No, not one of those wretched scratch card things that cost you a small fortune in phone calls to discover you’ve won a biro, but a pamphlet advertising the inaugural Chelsea Auto Legends event in... Chelsea. Who’d have thought, eh?

Usually, I would bin such things without a moment’s hesitation, but the Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 on the front caught my attention and on further reading, the event looks like something old school racing fans should definitely be making plans for.

Held on Sunday 5th September in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, it features some of the most illustrious sportscars that have ever participated in the Le Mans 24 Hours race. Forty iconic cars that have taken part in the French classic, ranging from 1920s Bentleys to modern day high-tech prototypes, will be on display. Enough to get most sportscar fans salivating, but just in case it doesn't...

Chelsea Auto Legends will also be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Porsche’s first win in the legendary endurance event, as well as focusing on the Le Mans movie starring Steve McQueen, the 'King of Cool’, which just so happens to have been filmed 40 years ago as well. The seminal flick will be shown on a big-screen, with several of the drivers involved in the production of the movie in attendance and sharing their memories.

There’s a whole host of other things going on during the day, including a large entourage of expensive supercars on display for us paupers to gawp at (courtesy of the PistonHeads mob), but for me, the Le Mans 24 Hours centrepiece is enough to see me part with my cash.

There is of course more information to be gathered on the Chelsea Auto Legends website, so pop along and see just what’s on offer. Let’s hope it delivers on everything it promises - it certainly looks as though it will.

One to make a note of in the diary, I would have thought...

That a ban on racing in Switzerland didn’t preclude a Swiss Grand Prix reflected the bizarre nature of the 1982 season – and then the race was almost cut short...

The season was extraordinary by any standards. Controversy and tragedy combined with new regulations that made for an uncertain championship throughout. Among the 16 races in 1982 was one that had unconventional origins – and would provide the only victory for the eventual world champion.

Switzerland had imposed a ban on motor racing since the 1955 Le Mans disaster, but Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni had helped promote a non-championship Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois in 1975, which he duly won. In 1977, an extended Dijon circuit hosted the French GP for the first time. The race then alternated each year between Dijon and the Circuit Paul Ricard, which took the honour in ’82. So the Dijon organisers got together with the Swiss authorities to organise what would be a one-off grand prix outside the ‘host’ country.

With only three races left to go in the championship, the absent Ferrari driver Didier Pironi was still leading the driver standings, but would never race again after his awful accident two races previously at Hockenheim. Keke Rosberg was second in the drivers’ championship.

The normally aspirated Williams FW08 had just delivered Rosberg second place at the Austrian GP a fortnight before, his fourth of the season. But Pironi, Elio De Angelis, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, John Watson, Riccardo Patrese, Nelson Piquet, Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay had all won races.

Qualifying at Dijon had seen the Renault duo of Prost and Arnoux claim the front row, the French marque hoping for a third successive win at Dijon. Patrese (Brabham) and Lauda (McLaren) were on the second row, with Andrea De Cesaris (Alfa Romeo) and Piquet (Brabham) on row three, ahead of Derek Daly and his Williams team-mate, Rosberg.

For the second time that year, there would be no Ferrari on the grid, after lone driver Patrick Tambay suffered a trapped nerve and went home early. To date, it was the last time a grand prix would start without a Ferrari.

Having crashed in practice, Arnoux took the spare Renault into the lead off the grid, while Rosberg made up two places at the first corner to take sixth. Lauda and Patrese were similarly dispatched by lap six, so that only Prost, Arnoux – now behind his team-mate – and Piquet were ahead of the Finn.

Prost pushed hard early on, setting fastest lap on lap two when he overtook Arnoux, but he had to conserve his tyres, particularly when Roberto Guerrero’s Ensign sprayed the track with oil. Meanwhile, Rosberg was doing the same, but with a curious mix. The Finn had three different compounds of tyre on the car: soft on the right side; a hard left-front; and medium on the left-rear!

When Piquet pitted on lap 40 for fuel and tyres, Rosberg moved up to third place, and his charge was only halted when he came up on De Cesaris for the second time. “Lapping De Cesaris in that race was the biggest nightmare of my Formula One career,” Rosberg stated in a recent interview, “I was alongside him every lap on the main straight, but Alfa’s top speed was superior to ours – I mean, I was lapping!”

The Italian eventually cost him more than 10 seconds, but then Rosberg began to catch Arnoux. Fuel injection problems once again caused the Frenchman problems, and he pitted. Rosberg was soon catching Prost, who was suffering from worn aero skirt. On the 75th lap of 80, Rosberg set his fastest lap. By lap 78, the lead was down to a few car-lengths.

And then came the bizarre twist in the tale.

“The organisers tried to stop the race a lap early,” recalls Rosberg, “I mean, you had to see it to believe it! Peter Collins (Williams team manager) saw it coming, climbed on the podium where the guy with the flag was read to drop it and stopped him from doing so.”

In fact, the field did another two laps, but by lap 80 Rosberg had managed to overhaul Prost and he crossed the line more than four seconds ahead, claiming his first win and taking the championship lead, which he held to the season’s end.

The best driver won. But everything could have been so different...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x9SOPts6DI