Category Archives: Historic Racing

Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing

Goodwood 74th Members Meeting – Sun 20th Mar 2016 Part 2

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The Perils of High Speed Circuits.

As Goodwood circuit is not used all year round due to local noise restrictions – it’s easy to forget that it’s is a very high speed circuit and therein lies the risk to race drivers and to spectators.

At the end of the first lap of the first of Sunday’s races a really scary crash  unfolded right in front of me on the start/finish straight when Richard Wilson’s Lotus Cooper Climax T51 collided with Stephen Bond’s Lotus Climax 18.

Instead of both cars coming to rest on the track or in the tyre wall – the collision caused Bond’s Lotus to go into an end-over-end  cartwheel which lifted it over the wall and hedge of an access road before it plummeted down into a pedestrian tunnel right next to the viewing area for wheelchair users.

Possibly because it was early in the day – the pedestrian tunnel was empty so by a miracle spectator injuries were avoided. Stephen Bond also came out of it with broken ribs but was extremely lucky not to come out worse particularly as fuel was pouring from the car as he hung suspended in his seat belts.

It’s horrible to contemplate but with slightly more forward momentum the cartwheeling car could easily have cleared the pedestrian tunnel and landed on the wheelchair spectator viewing area.

Luck was with  a number of people as it looked like the accident could have shaped up to be a 1955 Le Mans type incident.

I was rooted to the spot watching the accident in slow motion but a few yards further along the viewing platform Tim Quinlan captured this remarkable footage of the accident:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=021GVfHJ_YE&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing

Goodwood 74th Members Meeting – Sun 20th Mar 2016 Part 1

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The signs are unmistakeable – Spring has definitely sprung! :-

  • Longer hours of daylight and occasional sightings of a yellow disk in the sky have encouraged the daffodils to bloom and trees to bud,
  • Classic racing cars have been awakened, coughing and spluttering from their winter slumbers and their doting owners have squeezed themselves into their race suits and boots for the 74th Goodwood Members Meeting.

Rejoice – the 2016 racing reason is upon us!!!

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

London Classic Car Show – Sat 20th Feb 2016

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This year’s London Classic Car Show at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London’s Docklands promised to be bigger and better than last year and thankfully – it was!

Spread over two large halls the show was easier to move around, it offered a more balanced mix of dealers, specialists and car club stands and last but not least it allowed for a much bigger open space in which to parade cars representing the great automotive nations.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, my car, Porsche, Uncategorized, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

Decisions, Decisions – 2016?

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Moving on from reflections of 2015 – it’s time to look forward and consider how to indulge my motoring interests in 2016. What events should I attend and what improvements can I make to my ’71 2.2 L 911E? Decisions, decisions!

With a bit of careful planning – it would be easily possible to spend most of my weekends attending one form of motoring activity or another but this would certainly be a fast-track to divorce. Instead I need to carefully select those events that:-

a) Stand-out in terms of their quality, variety and spectacle,

b) Present an opportunity to meet up with old mates,

c) Provide new motoring experiences.

On the car front – my aim is to continue gradual improvement of my 911 with some mechanical and cosmetic upgrades as time, money and availability of parts & services allow.

So here are my thoughts on car events I could attend and car improvements I could make during 2016.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, my car, Porsche, Veteran Cars, Vintage Cars

The Dead Zone – Jan 2016

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The winter months present something of a challenge to British motoring enthusiasts as it’s a motoring Dead Zone as far as races and classic car jaunts are concerned due to the poor weather and lack of daylight.

With precious motors consigned to winter hibernation – it leaves car enthusiasts dangerously prone to the onset of ICDS –  Interesting Car Deficiency Syndrome!

To counter the debilitating effects of this affliction it’s important to reflect on the past year’s motoring highlights and to start planning for petrolicious pleasures in the year to come.

It also allows time to muse over the improvements you’ve managed to make to your classic car over the past year and fantasise over other reassuringly expensive ways of further improving its performance or looks.

NB: The featured image shows my Dad (on the left) and his colleague in the late 1940s just after they’d dug their way through a truck-high snow drift on their daily round to collect milk churns from remote farms around Appleby, Cumbria.

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing

Historic Sports Car Club – Silverstone Sat 17th Oct 2015

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Having just been at Silverstone the previous Saturday for an AMOC meeting – the prospect of exposing myself to acute hypothermia two  weeks running wasn’t massively appealing. The Qataris could really learn a thing or two  from Silverstone about refrigerated sports venues for the 2022 World Cup!

Despite the Autumnal chill the packed program of HSCC championship finals drew a big crowd of hardy enthusiasts but their resilience was tested to the limit as various delays and incidents  led to the last item on the programme becoming a night race with all drivers being shown the “LIGHTS ON” board by the marshals as they rolled onto the track in the gathering dusk!

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A-Z, Car Designers, Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing

A-Z Of Car Stuff: H is for Hybrids (the Euro/US Variety)!

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A-Z of Car Stuff

This is one in a series of posts on cars, drivers, designers etc. that have interested me over the years. I’ve bored my family and friends with this stuff for years – now it’s your turn!

See A-Z of Car Stuff page for more posts in this series.

So, what’s so special about Hybrids?

To my mind – there are hybrids and hybrids!

On the one hand – there are the modern internal combustion engine/battery powered vehicles built to save the planet and/or salve the collective consciences of automotive eco-warriors (isn’t that an oxymoron?).

On the other hand there are Euro/US Hybrids – sleek and elegant European styled cars with stonking great American V8s shoe-horned into their delicate chassis. These cars have a simple purpose in life – to tear-up roads and circuits at the fastest possible speed but in the best possible style and taste!

1) The special thing about petrol/electric hybrids is they’re NOT new. They were designed and driven donkey’s years ago thanks to Ferdinand Porsche.

2) The special thing about Euro/American hybrids is that they combine the best of European styling with the rugged power of American V8 engines. A number of specialist manufacturers have created beautiful and innovative sports cars, GTs and saloons that have graced the roads and race circuits of the world for years. Long may this Euro/US Hybrid cross-breeding programme continue.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing

Silverstone Classic – Sat 25th & Sun 26th Jul 2015

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Fried On Saturday, Frozen On Sunday

Craig David lyric? Noooo – just a meteorological description of my two days at Silverstone Classic.

High Summer weather in the frozen tundra of rural Northamptonshire ebbed & flowed from cold & extremely wet on Friday, warm and sunny on Saturday and back again to cold and wet on Sunday.

It was a real shame for the competitors who struggled to have any meaningful practice/qualifying runs on Friday, then had to switch to dry set-up on Saturday and back to decidedly-soggy set-up on Sunday. Less than ideal conditions but not bad enough to deter stoic participants and spectators!

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Vintage Cars

Prescott “La Vie En Bleu” – Sun 24th May 2015

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The particular theme for the Prescott Hill Climb event on Sun 24th May 2015 was “La vie en bleu” – a celebration of all things French.

This provided a welcome focus on French car marques with representatives from Alpine Renault, Amilcar, Berliet, Citroen, Darracq, De Dion Bouton, Delage, Delahaye, Hotchkiss, Lorraine Dietrich, Matra, Renault and a whole range of other famous and some less famous French marques. The turn out of vintage French cars was particularly spectacular with some that I’d never heard of before.

Mixing the French contingent of cars amongst other cars competing on the day – made for a great spectacle.

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Veteran Cars

Prescott Hill Climb – Sun 24th May 2015

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Disaster! I started the late May Bank Holiday weekend with no plans, a 911 needing exercise and a burning urge to scratch my “interesting-car-itch”!

Solution! Enter “May Classic Car Events” into Safari and “Hey-Presto” – up pops Prescott.

This venerable hill climb venue had been on my list of must-visit-events for donkey’s years but for some perverse reason I’d never got around to going so I thought why not? Armed with my usual UK Summer car event kit of thermals and waterproofs – I set off from London at the crack of dawn not knowing quite what to expect.

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