AGE is no barrier to speed, fine driving, and close competition. That's the spirit of the Vintage Sports Car Club members who will do battle at Prescott Speed Hill Climb this weekend.

The meeting has drawn a superb line-up of vintage cars, all of them more than 60 years old and featuring the best of British marques from those classic decades, with just a few foreign makes among the entry.

There's everything from Austin Seven sports cars to a Bentley fitted with a Napier Lion aero engine which, at 24,000cc, is possibly the largest capacity machine to take on the challenge of the original 'short course' at the Bugatti Owners' Club's hill.

The Vintage club first came to Prescott in 1938 and have stayed loyal to the 880-yard track that dates from the hill's earliest days.

Leading a strong line-up of 13 Bugattis is Lucas Huni from Zurich in the unique 4-wheel drive Type 53 car rarely seen at Prescott, while local drivers Mike Marshall (Gloucester) and Julia de Baldanza (Cheltenham) compete with their Type 35B cars in the racing classes.

They will face stiff opposition from four of the charismatic ERA single-seaters.

Other local drivers should include Brian Gay (Tewkes-bury) in his supercharged Hardy Special single-seater who has held the record in his class since 1995, and Richard Scaldwell (Moreton-in-Marsh), who competes in the well-supported section of Edwardian cars in his Sunbeam Indianapolis.

The spirit of the meeting is that the age of the car - and in some cases the driver - is no barrier to high-speed competition.

Prescott is situated off the main A435 Evesham Road, between the villages of Gother-ington and Gretton. Saturday practice starts at 9.30am with the main event the next day from 10am.

Adult admission on Saturday is £8 and Sunday £15. Accom-panied children under 14 are admitted free and car parking is free.