The Black Tub

The assembly bay of a racing car factory in Surrey on a late spring evening, bright white light from overhead panels, a spotless pale grey floor, on two padded steel trestles the bare carbon-fibre monocoque of a racing car, a long narrow tub of olive-brown and black woven carbon fabric with the weave pattern glinting in the side light, every panel bare unpainted carbon weave from nose to rear, rows of drilled holes and mounting openings in the front bulkhead, at the rear a tall upright bulkhead, the open cockpit bare inside, a hand in a thin white glove running along its upper edge, every surface plain and unmarked.