It's easy to get dazzled by Goodwood's glare. But the Festival Of Speed's northern rival, the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power, is growing in scope and ambition and if it lacks a tad of Goodwood's corporate polish it more than makes up for it with the range of vehicles taking part. With fast, noisy and spectacular hardware able to strut its stuff on track, in the air and on water and a proper competitively timed sprint stage it's got several attractions in its favour over Goodwood. And PHers can even get a discount on tickets, thanks to
theoffer here
Three of the possible winners for CPoP
With preparations for this year's event - taking place June 15-17 - in the final phase PH took a trip up to Cheshire for an opportunity to try out three cars vying for the fastest time on Cholmondeley's technical 1.2-mile sprint course. Last year official honours went to local hero
BAC with its Mono
and a time of 63.03sec, Caterham's SP.300/R actually setting a quicker time at 61.89sec but not classified.
You'll be getting an idea of the kind of car that'll go well here so the opportunity to gather together three of the main contenders at the 2013 Pageant of Power and see how they go on the estate's roads a couple of weeks ahead of the event is too good to miss. So we have an SP.300/R, an Ariel Atom 3.5 and a Radical SV8. And rain. Lots and lots of rain.
Wetter the better?
Regular CPoP attendees will, of course, know that this has been something of a feature of past events. So we'll be getting a representative taste of what the drivers will be facing in a couple of weeks time.
Caterham scored unofficial fastest time last year
Frankly it's pretty damned intimidating too. A sighting 'lap' (the return leg completes the loop, allowing a faster turnaround than Goodwood's hill) with snapper Lawrence in his Integrale reveals the CPoP course to be incredibly tight with 'single track' at best a generous description of the amount of tarmac available. It's bumpy, the cambers not necessarily friendly and the run-off consists of, well, trees. It's also very, very fast with quick cars completing the run with average speeds as fast as 70mph, top speeds well into three figures and most getting airborne over the bridge in the run to the line. No chance of that today though, not least because the return straight is having its pedestrian footbridge installed. And it's raining. We did mention that, didn't we?
Having procrastinated long enough and finally accepted the rain's not going anywhere I suit up and plonk myself into the puddle that's formed in the Caterham's driving seat. The Lola-derived SP might be the current (if unofficial) benchmark but for all the racy environment it's actually the car I'm least intimidated by. The supercharged Duratec engine may have 305hp, the steering lock may be minimal and the vibe full-on race car but both the SP and Seven R600 which uses a version of the same engine have a relatively 'soft' power delivery which will be useful for finding the grip levels.
400hp-plus Radical not as scary as feared
And it is. Conditions, construction work trackside and suchlike limit full-bore opportunities but the SP's wide, progressive power band, proper wet tyres and commendably smooth shifts via the pneumatically operated sequential help the confidence levels. A contrived slither for the camera at the exit of Vicarage shows grip can be overwhelmed but it takes provocation and the Caterham inspires confidence. Though the thought of doing a competitive run does terrify somewhat.
Not as much as the Atom though. Crazy looks aside it may be the most 'normal' car here with a regular H-pattern manual, decent suspension travel and the rest. But the explosive power delivery and track rubber means traction is broken with every throttle application, announced with a rising shriek of piercing, buzz-saw revs as the tyres spin up and heart in mouth corrections even on supposedly straight sections. The Honda engine builds revs so quickly and with it the boost from the supercharger it's a real challenge in these conditions. I can only offer huge respect to Autocar colleague Matt Prior who set eighth fastest time in the supercar class last year with 70 seconds dead in the V8 Atom. Visceral, bonkers and, in the right hands, ludicrously quick, the Atom lacks the aero and other accoutrements of the Caterham and Radical but more than makes up for it in spectacular banzai pace.
Ariel like riding a lit firework and bonkers fast
Somewhat chastened I've left the Radical SR8 until last. This is the car I'm least familiar with and also most intimidated by, signalled by the number of times I stall the engine trying to turn it round. The incongruity of seeing a tax disc and handbrake amid brake balance dials and digital telemetry displays is a little odd but it's all part of the fun. Fresh from the bank holiday's
Crystal Palace Sprint
and still with its timing bar on the front, the SR8 turns out to be less terrifying than I expected. Sure, the V8 revs and revs and revs ... and revs but the power delivery is linear and the sequential shifts effortlessly smooth. I'd expected savagery and on a dry track not lined with staves and plant machinery I'm sure the Radical takes on a much more intimidating air. I'm not hitting speeds where the downforce advantage of the Caterham or Radical will really be playing much of a part but it's telling quite how accommodating both are.
Whether the same can be said at an average speed of over 100mph is another matter. And, frankly, hats should be tipped to anyone seriously going for a competitive run at the CPoP. The fact that, amid the British lightweights, the eighth fastest time overall (including bikes) last year was by Niki Faulkner in a Lamborghini Murcielago and just a second and half off the 63.06 of Duncan Tappy in the BAC Mono goes to show that, unlike many competitive motorsports, success at CPoP is as much down to balls as hardware. So it'll be interesting to see who has the steeliest ones and what weapon of choice they wield, be that a British lightweight or hard-hitting supercar.
For more see the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power website.