Before the access to RAF Leeming was re-designed when the station flew the F-3, the only (legal) way in was via Gatenby Lane.
Now the farmers of Yorkshire aren't that well known for their generosity, but when it came to bovine ...'slurry', the farmer of Gatenby Grange was generous to a fault and the double bend at the end of the mile long straight from the A1 to Gatenby was often well lubricated with the stuff. To add even more excitement, the bend had significant adverse camber....
One night after a few ales in the OM, a chum offered to take 2 of us with him to find some fish and chips in a nearby village - so off we went in his Cortina estate with no problems. Fish and chips duly scoffed, back we came. However, my other colleague then announced "I hear the Gatenby Lane record has been broken again!".....
This was like a red rag to a bull, or rather to 'Weasel', the driver. Thrashing the old Cortina up to an alarming speed, he approached 'Cow$hit Corner' with little sign of braking. We swept round the first bend at an angle of about 60 degreees to the road, whereupon I decided to lie on the floor. He'd just about regained control when we came to the second bend....and he did the same thing again! Somehow we made it back to the OM, but in rather frosty silence. Did he break the record? I've no idea...
Still, he did lend me the Cortina to drive back from Valley to collect all my belongings from Cranwell a few weeks later (they wouldn't fit in my MG Midget). But it was a wretchedly awful vehicle!