Silverstone Classic

Im not purely interested in tuned cars or Time Attack and Drift events. I was always was and will be a motorsport fan and every now and again the chance arises to take in some proper motorsport, in this case the Silverstone Classic event

The main reason I went was to see the Group C Sportscar racing. Ive been a big fan of Group C since the mid 1980's, and despite having seen many of the cars on display and doing demonstration runs, Id never seen them race, so with 2 races over the weekend, finally I was given the oppurtunity to see them ontrack together

A few more Group C pit photos:
Sauber Mercedes C9, 1989 Le Mans winner, 1989 World Sportscar Championship winner with 5 wins and racing land speed world speed record of 407Km/h (252mph) at Le Mans during the same year,a record that still stands today. Unfortunatley this car was invlved in an accident during the first Group C race of the weekend and would compete no further. Such is racing!

Porsche 962C, 1988 Le Mans Porsche works team. This car was on display and did not race

Nissan RC90-CK, 1993 All Japan Sports Racing Prototype Championship car, 1 of the fastest and most developed Group C cars ever. It finished 3rd in the sprint race, and 4th in the feature race and recorded the fastest lap of the feature

Nissan VRH35Z, twin turbo 3.5 litre V8 with a magnesium block. The car still runs on DOS for its engine management, the maps are switched by changing circuit boards as opposed to flicking a switch on more modern engine management, 800bhp race map or 1200bhp qualifying map. More Group C later...

Got Ferrari? 6 F40's,a F50 and an Enzo, there were over 150 Ferraris grouped together!

A rallying tradition - a sideways Mk2 Escort

Group B Audi Quattro S1 launching.....

and rebounding after landing,

Audi Sport Quattro S1 flaming away



and did I mention the noise of the Audis, 5 cylinder turbo heaven. Certainly not the best Group B car there ever was but the most evil looking and sounding, that means more to some people including myself.

Ford RS200, probably the best looking Group B rallycar
and the Peugeot 205 T16, probably the most sucessful Group B rallycar ever with 2 world titles, 1985 and 1986

Historic F1 cars competing both for the FIA Historic F1 championship and for the James Hunt Memorial trophy. I could easily talk about these cars for a long time, but late 1960's-early 1980's F1 cars are easily the loudest and among the fastest racing cars Ive experianced in my life. Its rare to feel your inner eardrums vibrating!

World Sportscar Masters 1963-1975 Sportscars racing for the Denny Hulme memorial trophy, Lola T210 leads Lola T70 and Ford F3L

Lola T70,Chevron B16 x 3

Going back now to the Group C cars, and the crash that claimed the Sauber, such a shame, but the car will return. This video gives you an idea of how fast these cars are:



An amazing spectacle, one that I had waited a long time to see, a reminder of most of the 1980's and early 90's Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship, for many years Le Mans was a round of the WSC and other racing such as IMSA in America and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. Cars from all 3 series took part in the weekends racing

The sound of the 7 litre V12 engined Silk Cut Jaguars was amazing, the Nissan R90 was quiet but very fast

The Chevrolet V8 powered Spice SE GTP which won the The ACO Plate Trophy race, a 30 min sprint race

The Nissan RC90-CK ontrack, not much of a V8 roar from it, more the whistle off the turbos

For many though, myself included the quintessential Group C car is still the Porsche 962, 2 are seen on the left in the 2nd Group C race, the David Leslie Memorial trophy, in memory of David a well known Group C driver who was tragically killed in an air accident earlier this year

The most distinctive sounding car on the Group C grid, Mazda 757 with N/A 20B triple rotor engine, which generates a lot of flames

Another video

1990 Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-11

and the winner of the David Leslie memorial trophy race, Nissan R90-CK. A shallower photo angle will be used next time! Hopefully I will visit another historic motorsport meeting this year, these are so laid and relaxed back compared to more modern events!

European Drift Championship Round 4 - Santa Pod

Santa Pod was the venue for Round 4 of the European Drift Championship, where Phil Morrison in the Driftworks 2JZ powered S15 Silvia was definatley smoking things up!

This was the second of 2 rounds that Team Orange from Japan attended with their RWD converted Imprezas. After a strong competition it was Nobushige Kumakubo (on the right of the photo) that came 1st, and his friend and team mate, Katzuhiro Tanaka (left) that placed 2nd
But it was not all plain sailing from Team Orange, when Tanaka spun during the final, then again Kumakubo spun on the previous run, it took 6 runs for Kumakubo to win

Not so much luck for Chris 'Paz' Parry in his S2000 powered AE86, suffering this bad crash during qualifying, but the damage is not as bad as it looks and the car will return

Mark 'Sidewaysbuff' Luney takes the Santa Pod R32 GTS-T out for a few demo runs, and gave me a passenger run in 1 of them, Cheers Buff!!

The next day there was a team comp, Team Orange took a well fought victory, practicing with the other drivers, above and below but even though they are regarded as the best in the world they still faced good opposition



Team Green will be more impressive next time round after making a big improvement

Team Driftworks fielded the only 3 car team