Posted on September 11, 2014.
by Peter Everingham
I am very, very sad to report that my old chum and Ferrari Owners’ Club friend, Nick Brimblecombe, died on the 21st August, succumbing to sudden heart failure. He was aboard an English narrow boat with his wife Sally and good friends Steve and Wendy, sailing on his beloved Charente River near his home in France, of a certainty having had a splendid lunch, with excellent wines and with a glass of Pineau des Charente in his hand; fitting as this is how I will always see and remember him, a ‘bon vivant’ with a love of family and friends, good food, wine, classic cars and with a lust for life.
Nick and I met and joined forces in the late 1990’s when he was still running his motor tour company, the Grand Touring Club (GTC) and the Ferrari Owners’ Club was looking for an organisation to run the occasional French Tour and reinstate our Club Ferrari Factory Tours. We gelled immediately; I loved his style, his humour, his passion for interesting cars, his knowledge of food and wine, his terrific cooking and even, on occasion, his ability to read a map. We became great friends!
Together and with many Club Members we embarked on a series of French Tours, journeys to unlikely places like the First World War battlefield of Verdun, the banked oval of Montlhéry race track, Angoulême in the early days and the beaches of Normandy. We had our ups and downs, as all good couples do, but we never failed to have fun and those who travelled with us shared in those moments too.
Perhaps the greatest and most lasting success was the revival of the FOC’s Ferrari Factory Tours. Our aim was to soak our Club Members in the best of Emilia Romagna, the Ferrari Factory, the food, the cars, the bars, the wines, the parmigiano reggiano and balsamic vinegar! Nick ran the show having devised the programme, which he polished and changed subtly over the years, his knowledge of the area and his contacts there led us to places and car collections that hitherto had been closed to all. Boy we had some fun and Nick and I got to enjoy each other’s company and that of hundreds of our Club members. Even Ferrari liked us and let us do anything up to six visits a year, compared to most other Ferrari Clubs who were allowed one!
Nick eventually sold the GTC and went on, with his wife Sally, to establish le Logis du Paradis, a wonderful establishment in La Magdeleine, in the Charente region of France. Of course we remained close friends and Nick continued to run our Factory Tours, his last one in October last year. We had other plans too, to open up a couple of the old 1960’s Cognac Rallye Hillclimbs in the region and those plans were just coming to fruition. He also got himself involved in a twinning between La Magdeleine and our next door village here in Norfolk, of Heacham. Suzanne and I ended up being involved in all of the fun that created. Nick has certainly left his mark both here and in France, so much to live for!
Like most of us Nick survived the good and bad that life can throw at us, he has raised lovely children and given a vast number of people joy and happy times through his endeavours, he will be hugely missed, a man whose company I really loved, a good, good friend and I will remember that lunch in Rimini, that dinner in Lucca, that picnic on the Charente, that moment at the Le Mans Classic, that day in the Ferrari Factory, that time we checked the parmigiano, what larks, I could go on for a long time!
To Nick’s wife Sally, son Thomas and the rest of his Family we send our sincere condolences.
