It was a curious sensation cruising up the avenue to Ballathie House Hotel with my brother in his very pristine and comfortable 1968 Mexico as memories of the Scottish Rally based there 18 years ago flooded back. On that occasion I was in my beloved SM with Andy Heywood and later Peter Bateman, as his Bora expired the following day. The winners of that event, organised by John Bennett, were the Epsztajns in a Ghibli GT if my memory serves me correctly. Little had changed over the years except the colony of red squirrels had sadly gone. The setting was just as spectacular as I remembered, with the main Scottish Baronial styled house sitting in tree lined lawns with spectacular views over the river Tay.
In all there were 36 Maseratis on the rally of which 10 were built pre 1980 as well as the splendid Duggleby Bentley which took up at least two parking spaces and replaced their Ferrari 599, – it’s a long story but there has to be a moral there somewhere. We also had the opportunity of seeing for the first time, well most of us, the new Ghibli which looked very handsome and were sported by the Huttons and Willis’, diesel powered into the bargain. The other change to the runners and riders list was the Merak of Derek Mills on loan to Alex and Tracey Jackson and personally delivered to them in Sheffield by your author; with no power steering it was a bit of a shock to this old fellow.
The first evening saw a very elegant group of Maseratisties congregate in the stylish public rooms of the Hotel for pre-dinner drinks, kindly sponsored by PK Supercars; this was followed by an excellent dinner. The following morning was shrouded in mist and drizzles for the 90 mile drive to Balmoral, with a route over Glen Shee but the Grampian Mountains were sadly totally obscured, even the spectacular Lochnagar. The rain cleared a little at Braemar and Royal Deeside but Balmoral looked majestic as we approached from the drive with special parking for the Classics to the front of the Castle! None of the rooms in the main building were open to the public but for the Ballroom with displays of rather gaudy silver ornaments and trophies, two swagger portraits and lots of Landseer oil studies of generations of family pets; sadly not of the quality of ‘Man Proposes . . . .’; Drummond will be pleased to fill in the full title.
The Courtyards and Stable blocks were much more interesting and did at least attempt to breathe some human personality into the place with storyboards of the Family History. The Coffee Shop was good value and provided an opportunity to acquire further tartan regalia for the following night’s Ceilidh. The return route being the shorter distance proved interesting as our convoy hit the old road with switchbacks and opposite cambers; at that point we backed off in the interests of our stomachs but others didn’t.
At dinner that evening we discovered that our random table colleagues were to be our team members for the Ballathie Highland Games the following day. A visit to nearby Scone Palace after breakfast was in complete contrast to Balmoral. The family home of the Earls of Mansfield had character and elegance with some quite remarkable treasures as well as the Bear of Ballathie, or should I suggest that there are two of them! The Palace had the appearance of being one with the landscape and not set on top of it as with Balmoral. A buffet lunch was then provided at the hotel and the lawn to the front of the House was set up for the very first Maserati Club, Ballathie Highland Games. Our Team was appropriately called Thistle and comprised of the Geddes, the Willis’, the Jackson Twins and Cliff and Rosie Clifton.
The games had eight Teams with eight events comprising of, amongst others, tossing the caber, archery, throwing the welly, hoops, golf putting, haggis and spoon race. The rain had stopped by the time the spirit of the Games had been well and truly established. It was all great fun but with the Scottish Country Dancing to come there were going to be a lot of sore limbs the following week. The natural born Winners were of course ‘Thistle’ but it was the organisers of the games who were the stars, they did a brilliant job.
In no time at all we were dressed for the McGrath drinks reception and Ceilidh thanks to Andy Heywood who sadly could not be there. What a great evening with a great band and dancing. I left quite early to let the youngsters get on with it. The sensation of the evening though was Bob Amato as the best dressed Ceilidh dancer, ‘dressed to kill’, who rendered an outrageous but very comical ditty. The following morning many sore heads checked out for the final events of the weekend.
The first was a visit to The Famous Grouse Experience, sponsored by Autoshield Maserati on route to Gleneagles for lunch. Unfortunately Marios missed hosting this as he had gone to the rescue of a broken Maserati. The tour was fascinating with as much low as high tech aids, the best being projected images giving the sensation of wading through water and floating in air. This was followed by a tasting of all the different blends of various ages and was excellent for those not driving.
Gleneagles was just as impressive as the great Castle and Palace we had visited but was fairly chaotic as it was hosting the start of the Scottish Malts. Parking was a lottery but eventually we were all assembled for lunch in the Glendevon Room with wonderful views over the Perthshire Hills. As the splendid lunch progressed the various prizes were awarded as follows;
Maserati Club Fitness Instructor: Peter Bateman
“Blingiest” car: Bill Dryden
Best dressed Ceilidh dancer: Bob Amato
Special “Florence Nightingale” Awards: Sarah O’Shea & Katrina Geddes
Scottish Cup: Sarah O’Shea
Travelled furthest to event: John Gove
Concours Modern: Patrick Bookey (QPV)
Concours Classic: Derek Mills (Indy)
Jack Levy Trophy: Chas & Sue Stirling
It was a most memorable event superbly organised by Peter & Jane Holmes with a rather different style from other Meetings which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Our thanks to them and to all our sponsors for their generosity and support. We then all departed for homeward journeys and for me the responsibility of returning Derek’s Merak which Alex & Tracey relished all weekend. I hope that Jill and I can match this in some way at next year’s Cameron Millar Meeting in Cornwall. Do come.
Roger & Sarah Lucas 3500 Vignale Spyder 1961
John & Susan Bennett Sebring ll 1966
Andy & Teresa Lerry Sebring 1966
John & Judy Gove Mistral Spyder 1968
John Jackson & Bill Jackson Mexico 1968
Norman & Katrina Geddes Indy 1971
Derek & Chris Mills Indy 1972
Edwin & Pam Faulkner Quattroporte ll 1974
Nick & Deborah Heywood-Waddington Khamsin 1977
Brian Cunningham & Peter Bateman 228 1990
Keith Davies & Dave Smith 222E 1990
Arthur & Pam Ready Ghibli II 1994
Alex & Tracey Jackson Ghibli Cup 1997
Dick & Mary Pole Quattroporte IV Evoluzione 1999
John & Diane Lambden 3200GTA 2000
Brian & Tricia Gardom 3200GT 2000
Stuart Knight & Sarah Cann 4200GT 2002
Richard Colton & June Lyne 4200 2002
John & Jane Duggleby Ferrari 599 2003
Bill Dryden & Jan Parmenter Anniversary Spyder 2005
Nicholas Terry & Marietta DiCiacca Gransport 2005
Peter & Jane Holmes GranSport Spyder 2006
Roger & Helen Epsztajn GranSport Spyder 2007
Michael & Sarah O’Shea GranSport Spyder 2007
Chas & Sue Stirling GranSport 2007
Jim & Deirdre Hunt QPV 2007
Marios Kriticos MC Victory 2007
Scot Crane & Duncan Mitchell GranTurismo S MC 2008
Patrick & Sarah Bookey QPV 2008
Patrick Perry & Gabriele Hoerchner GranTurismo 2008
David & Angie Daw GranTurismo S 2009
Brian & Kay Harris & Jaqueline Poitevin GranTurismo 2010
Pete & Trudi Stewart GranTurismo 2010
Dom & Christine Findlow GranCabrio 2010
Andrew & Alison Hutton Ghibli 2014
Tony & Jane Willis Ghibli 2014