Lord Edward Montagu, Ed for friends, died. And we had the privilege to be considered friends. We knew him from the first edition of the Beijing-Paris, September 1997. It had been possible to organize the rally mainly thanks to his oxen offices. He was proud to start with the number 1 that had been assigned to his Vauxhall dated 1915, but the car was the first to leave the rally for a broken radiator. Lord Edward was hosted on the car of another competitor who, shortly after, was also forced to retire. Montagu wanted to remain in the caravan, accommodating and happy. After the last camp in Nepal, I remember him in woolen underwear to queue to the showers, two tubes with ice water coming out from a wall. He joked with another competitor, Idris Shah, who was to become King of Malaysia. Franco Ciriminna, who was participating with a legendary Fiat 1100 convertible, said: "I know, nobody willI believe me. When I will tell to my friends in Palermo that one day, in Nepal I was taking a shower with a Lord and a King ..." Edward had created in 1952, in his boundless held Hampshire (near the Cistercian of 1204), the first English museum of vintage cars. There were millions of visitors, libraries, a personal highway, and a monorail. And the famous Autojumble, a gigantic trade show that attracts in summer crowds of enthusiasts. Bon vivant, lover of jazz and theater. One of the greatest personalities in the world of vintage cars fans dies. But not his dream, not his ideas.