Giro Storico Tour

A full day in the Cotswolds driving other people’s classic cars, which is a rather better proposition than driving your own. The fleet spans the 1950s to the 1990s and includes a Jaguar E-Type Roadster, an AC Cobra and a Porsche 911, and the cars are swapped round regularly so nobody spends the day in just one.

That is the whole idea. Most classic car events assume you arrive in something; this one supplies the lot and rotates you through them, so a single day gives you seat time in several machines you would otherwise only read about. The route runs out of Watlington through the villages and back lanes of the Cotswolds, which is the right sort of road for cars of this age: unhurried, well surfaced and consistently pretty.

Lunch is at the Tavern by James Martin at The Lygon Arms in Broadway, roughly halfway, before the return run through the countryside to Watlington. Fuel and insurance for the day are covered, which on a fleet like this is not a small thing.

Giro Storico is run by Cliff Gray, a classic and historic motorsport competitor and collector, in partnership with a UK charity. Accommodation, dinner and travel to the start are not included, since this is a single day rather than a tour, and the price is quoted on request. For anyone who has wondered what an E-Type and a Cobra actually feel like, back to back, on roads they were built for, this is the shortest and most direct way to find out.