Things that go brrrrmmmmm in the night...

I live on the sort of road full of tight twisty turns and vertiginous hills that, were one designing a Good Road for Driving, one would include and then people would say: "Don't be ridiculous"!

Goodness knows how this road evolved. It's not the sort of road one would happily drove cattle along and only a fool would tackle Rhiw Coch in anything without at least reliable brakes, if not ABS.

It is impassable in snow. We've had days this year in which the road just could not be attempted. It has hill after hill after hill, and I should know because I have have run up and down every single one of them.

So, all in all, it is entirely perfect for the annual night rally run by the Teifi Valley Motor Club. Two weeks ago, amidst four inches of snow and sensibly on a quad bike, one of the organisers delivered the letter informing us of this year's event, a pre-Valentine's treat of night time revving engines.

The skies were clear again, it wasn't snowing and conditions, I should think, were pretty much perfect. The first car passed at 11.30pm or thereabouts, followed by sporadic others and then, at about 1.30am, queues of them, all revving engines and testosterone-charged gear changing.

This year, as an extra-special treat, the bottom of our driveway was the venue for a stop check, so every single rally car paused at the end of our drive before revving away noisily up the hill past our neighbours' farm.

The marshals backed their Audi into the bottom of our driveway and stood (bravely) in a puddle of torchlight in the road waiting for each car. Some drivers slowed in good time, paused quietly, drove away. Others skidded to a halt, revved wildly, roared away.



I ambled around the fields in the dark for about half and hour or so watching the fun. Yes it's noisy, but it's great to see these cars enjoying the bends and turns of the road and there's a certain amount of joy in the fact that, in these days of crazy health and safety rules, events like these can still take place.

These guys weren't hanging about - they were as flat out as they could be. You wouldn't tackle these roads at those speeds without being pretty sure you won't encounter another car coming towards you. I'd love to drive this road - my normal school run - under those conditions (but perhaps without the kids in the back clutching their Baby Annabells!)

It's terrific, noisy, old-fashioned fun. Perhaps there are a few tired souls about today, kept awake by the noisy cars, especially those who live right next to the road. But long may it last. If loud, dangerous, bonkers stuff like this was banned it would be a very dull world.