1966 and 2016

Today was memorable. Spent it at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, where the Guild of Motoring Writers was holding its annual general meeting. It was chaired by the Guild's president Nick Mason, once drummer with Pink Floyd, now well known for his car collection and his knowledgeable writing about owning classics and racing them.

The Guild honoured two people with life membership. One was John Haynes, founder of the Haynes Motor Museum, and the other was wonderful Murray Walker, now 90 and as full of boyish enthusiasm as ever.

As a long time member of the Guild and past chairman (the first female and still the youngest ever to hold the office) I was honoured to be made a vice-president. I'm proud to be part of the world's largest motorist writers' organisation, due to celebrate its 70th anniversary later this year.

As well as the AGM we had various activities laid on: a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Motor Museum, a tour of Palace House, and a collection of cars to drive - both new ones and classics, brought to Beaulieu for the day by Toyota. As a special treat over lunch, hosted by Lord Montagu, we had a fascinating briefing by Richard Noble about The Bloodhound Project, the 1,000 mph World Land Speed Record attempt due to happen in 2016.

One of the cars I drove this afternoon was this wonderfully well preserved 1966 Toyota Corona. In its day it sold for £777, and with a 1.5 litre engine it could do 90 mph and 35 mpg. With its huge spindly Bakelite steering wheel, non-servo drum brakes and a toggle switch on the dash to work the wipers, it was quite a trip down memory lane. I couldn't resist photographing it beside the Bloodhound Project transporter. Half a century and 910 mph separates these two rather different cars.