My Wheels On Walls

Certifiably nuts about cars would be a very accurate description of myself. From a very young age I can remember being fascinated by the automobile. The Grandson of a mechanic and the son of a Jaguar engineer, I basically had no choice, not that I’d want one.

It all started with stories of my Grandfather’s heavily modified Ford Zepher. Many a family member still raves about it, but this was unfortunately before my time. I’d love to get a hold of a particular DeLorean and go back in time and experience it for myself. Then there were the days of my Dad bringing home fire engines, since they were in those days powered by Jaguar engines. The living room of our home was commonly used as a wind tunnel, with lengths of wool, scotch tape and my mother’s hair dryer-Jaguar being a typically run British company at that time with big ideas and no money. I can tell all of you Jaguar fans out there that Browns Lane did not do the quarter scale wind tunnel testing on XJ40. It was, in fact, the living room floor of 15 Sunningdale Drive, Nuneaton, England, my childhood home. Then there were the weekends at Silverstone watching Tom Wilkinshaw’s XJ’S run rings around BMW’s 6 series, the thrill of standing in the garages when the drivers turned over their V12’s with a straight through exhaust, and the fact that our neighbor owned the body shop where Tom had all the race cars painted. I loved every minute of it.

In truth my photography is my own interpretation of what I enjoy about the automobile; I trust you’ll enjoy what I see through the lens of my camera.

Sincerely,

Alister Oliver