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

Time Attack 2008 Round 4 - Oulton Park

Sorry for the lack of activity recently, but hopefully the recent events I have attended will be uploaded quicker from now on, anyway onto Time Attack
Round 4 of Time Attack and Oulton Park was the venue, where the Pro Class cars had come to hunt down and kill the BTCC lap record of 1.28.8......

The cars swarm around the cameras, ready to attack the lap record

Pro Class

First up to the kill was Phil Bennett in the Autosportif / TEIN Impreza with 1.28.545

Then Steve Gugliemi in the Gugliemi Motorsport Elise did a 1.28.031 to secure 3rd place

Tom Ferrier in the Zen Performance Impreza claims 2nd with 1.27.2

There had to be a winner - and for the 3rd time this year it was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with a quite amazing 1.25.9 lap, faster than both the BTCC race and qualifying lap records

Still the top Skyline GTR in Pro is Ron Kiddell in the RK Tuning R32 GTR with 8th place and a 1.32 lap

Top 'privateer' runner in Pro so far this year is Lee Broadhurst in the NR Autosport/Edgehill Evo 9


Top RWD is the same as 2007 Darren Robinson in the WhifBitz Mazda RX7. The car was very fast at Brands in 2007 so should have a good result there at the next round - Brands Hatch

Club Class

The future? RC Developments had their new R35 GTR running in club class with a top 20 finish, 6 seconds off the pace, which shows how fast the club challenge cars can be!

John Begley in the torrential rain which made the morning sessions interesting

More rain, Marco Haig in the Fiat Coupe, 1 of the more distinctive cars in club

The next round of Time Attack will be at Brands Hatch on August 10th as part of the Autotuner show

Time Attack 2008 Round 3 - Silverstone

Round 3 of Time Attack at Silverstone, grey, overcast but no rain and perfect conditions for some very quick times to be set

Pro Class
The pro class was won by Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with an amazing time of 58.877, nearly 3 seconds faster than the previous lap record on the track and faster than the BTCC lap record!
Second was Steve Guglielmi in the Guglielmi Motorsport Lotus Elise, with 58.911

Third was Tom Ferrier in the ZEN Performance Impreza with a 59.068

Legendary Japanese Time Attack driver Tarzan Yamada came over especially for the event and drove the RK Tuning R32 GTR

Ross Juniper in the Dragon Performance Mazda RX7, still on a development curve, but will be one to watch soon

Back after its Donington crash was Gary Hayward in the APT Evo 7

Reshelled since Round 1 following a crash at Castle Combe was Simon Norris in the Norris Designs Evo 9, Tarzan Yamada also drove this car during the day

Club Class


Kev Horsley once again took Club Class forced induction honours in his ScoobyClinic Impreza with a time of 1.01.689

Jeff Mileham won the club class normally aspirated class with a 1.04.256 lap in his TVR Tuscan
Barrie Rycroft in the DCY Evo 7 digs up the gravel

and to end, another photogenic car, John Begleys R32 GTR in replica STP/Taisan livery from the 1990's Japanese Touring Car Championship

Round 4 of Time Attack takes place at Oulton Park on the 5th of July

Time Attack 2008 Round 2 - Knockhill

I have a love/hate realtionship with Scotland, its a nice place, nice people, but it always rains, but at Time Attack Round 2 at Knockhill it didnt, glorious weather all day with glorious performance to match!

Pro Class

There had to be a winner and finally after over a year of trying it was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with an amazing 52.186, which is faster than a BTCC time around the track..

2nd place was Rory Butcher in the Autosportif / TEIN Impreza with a time of 52.254

3rd was Chris Ward in the RSE Motorsport Evo 7 with 52.565, the top 6 all got into the 52's

A bad day for Guy Harrington in the Auto Ergonomics Evo 8, despite a very commited drive, with terminal engine failure

'Crazy' Jamie Stanley put in another red mist fuelled drive in the RC Developments Evo 6, eventually finishing 5th overall, maybe if the rear wing struts had not collasped, resulting in the loss of a lot of downforce, he would have been faster again

Lee Broadhurst in the Edgehill / NR Autosport Evo 9 leads Andy Harvey in the Scoobyclinic Impreza

Earlier Harvey attacking Duffus Dip

A more sucessful run for the ZEN Impreza with Tom Ferrier driving to 5th place overall with 52.879

Club Class
Kev Horsley again took the F/I win with a 54.073 lap in his Scoobyclinic supported Impreza

And Craig Winstanley took the N/A win in his Chevy V8 powered RX-7 witth a 56.418 lap
Kev Atkins in the MA Developments Evo 6 attacking Duffus Dip

Barrie Rycroft in the DCY Evo 7, a flaming good car


And finally Tim Chandler in the best sounding car on track, Porsche 911 GT3 RS

The next round is at Silverstone, as part of the Japanese Tuning Show, featuring a visitor or two from Japan....