Beasty’s Nova

O

n occasion, the little pink Cinquecento was seen on Festival Park late in the night, or early in the morning, with four young chaps onboard. We used to take a drive around just to wind up the boy racers, and the best way to do this was to drive past, honk the horn a few times, and speed away. This usually got one or two to follow, obviously to impress upon a Cinq driver their manhood.

Of course, this is a futile attempt, because a Cinquecento 900 with four burly lads in it has the performance of a milk float, and a Nova SR with two lads in it will be quicker. However, this didn’t stop Beasty, and his loud Nova, from showing off (and drawing a huge crowd of people from Yates, at the top of Trinity Street in Hanley, performing the “He’s A W*nker” song complete with hand motions). One of Beasty’s chums, in a Mini, also followed.

At the top of Trinity Street, we all turned left. After a small straight, the main road turned left, down a hill. On this occasion, I put into use my shortcut: only available to those of us fortunate to have a car with a very small turning circle. I slowed down, gave it full right lock, and whirled the Cinquecento across the road, then accelerated up the road, under the shopping centre bridge, over the roundabout and down the slip road.

Beasty overtook us after we joined the dual carriageway. He knew he’d been beaten!