On the 11th of January the Forum gathered for its first meeting after the Christmas break. Members stood for a moments silence in memory of member Gordon Wilson who died during the break.
The guest speaker was Graham Read, a professional motorsport and motoring writer, whose talk was titled Magical Monaco subtitled From the Royal Family to the Grand Prix.
He began with a short history of the Principality which was established in 1297 when Francois Grimaldi led a conquest of the area. The famous casino was established in 1861 when Monaco took the form we recognise today. After a mention of the Monte Carlo Rally Graham devoted the rest of his talk to the Monaco Grand Prix which dates back to a race established in 1929 although it was not included in the Formula 1 World Championship until 1955.
Graham featured many well-known names such as Ayrton Senna and Graham Hill and described some of the incidents and accidents from across the years. He completed his talk with a video of a circuit of the course taken by an on-car camera.
Mike Earle thanked Graham Read for a very enjoyable talk.