LUNCH WITH DONN ANDERSON
During my recent lunch with Bill Gavin, covered in previous issues, I told Bill that I’d been given a copy of his book The Jim Clark Story for my 10th birthday by my parents. I then recalled that my aunt had given me a subscription to Motorman magazine, meaning that I have been reading the words of Donn Anderson since shortly after I started reading. It was time to sit down with the guy who has seen everything, met all our heroes, and performed road tests on both the best and worst cars ever made.
Donn was typically modest at my suggestion that we meet for lunch. “Who’d be interested?” he asked.
To which I responded, “I am” — and he eventually warmed to the idea.
Bored stiff
On a miserable July day, we lunch at Aubergine in Takapuna, where Donn and his wife Lynne have now lived for many years. I’ve always assumed, incorrectly, as it turns out, that, given Donn’s career path, and the fact that his brother Rodger was such a leading light in small-to-medium-sized saloon cars back in the day, their father must have been a real car enthusiast.
“Dad used to drag us all out to Ardmore. We were there for the first Grand Prix in 1954, and I hated it — a long, hot day; you had to walk for miles and I was bored stiff,” Donn says. This was somewhat in contrast to his brother.
“Rodger is four years older than me and was more enthusiastic. Eventually, that started to rub off on me but, bizarrely, the moment we both started showing genuine interest, Dad immediately became anti motor racing. You know, all
