SWPH Monthly - Sunday 14th October

[wessexrfc]

:waytoomuchtimeonyourhands:

Waiting/wanting for someone to pick up the camera and leg it down the road

[lee st]

wessexrfc said:

:waytoomuchtimeonyourhands:

Waiting/wanting for someone to pick up the camera and leg it down the road

didnt let it out my sight yes it is davidstow. cracking bit of concrete (litterally)

[56Lotus]

John Coombs won the 1954 F1 race at Davidstow but he was driving a Lotus Mk8, a sports car as a private entrant. Due to the lack of entries organisers would accept a variety of entrants to make up a good field.

The first Lotus F1 victory, using a F1 car, was a Lotus Mk18 owned by Rob Walker and driven by Stirling Moss at the Monaco GP of 1959.

Team Lotus didn't win a race untill the following year.

Please don't bite my head off and can someone organise a drive on the Devon/Cornwall border with sunshine?

Thanks

Jon Adams

[LordBretSinclair]

Certainly was a cracking day yesterday

I was out with a few Aston chums.

[Stubby Pete]

56Lotus said:

John Coombs won the 1954 F1 race at Davidstow but he was driving a Lotus Mk8, a sports car as a private entrant. Due to the lack of entries organisers would accept a variety of entrants to make up a good field.

The first Lotus F1 victory, using a F1 car, was a Lotus Mk18 owned by Rob Walker and driven by Stirling Moss at the Monaco GP of 1959.

Team Lotus didn't win a race untill the following year.

Please don't bite my head off and can someone organise a drive on the Devon/Cornwall border with sunshine?

Thanks

Jon Adams

:hat off: Your pedantry is most welcome on PH.
I hope that you didn't have to google it though?!?

There's probably a meet on Sunday, come along.

[56Lotus]

Google was used for the Coombs info but I met a chap in Launceston who raced at Davidstow in period. There is actualy a book on the circuit.

Lotus stuff I know as I also have no social life!

This Sunday I'm marshaling at a local hill climb event so praying for no rain but will keep lurking and waiting.

Jon

[Yertis]

LordBretSinclair said:

Certainly was a cracking day yesterday

I was out with a few Aston chums.

Where was that LBS? I saw a bunch of Astons on the higher Blandford road yesterday.

[Benbay001]

I know i keep saying im working, and then i dont. But i now have yet another weekend off work. So im free on the 27th/28th of this month. (This coming weekend) Does anyone fancy a drive somewhere, in the better half of the SW PH area (The East)?

Edit: even the weather looks good! www.bbc.co.uk/weather/dt9

Edited by Benbay001 on Monday 22 October 21:28

[LordBretSinclair]

Yertis said:

Where was that LBS? I saw a bunch of Astons on the higher Blandford road yesterday.

Must have been another bunch, we were along the south Devon coast and stopped at The Smugglers, Dawlish for a cracking lunch

[BuzyG]

LordBretSinclair said:

Certainly was a cracking day yesterday

I was out with a few Aston chums.

Very nice, got me a new screen saver.

[Rollcage]

Is Davidstow Airfield and the access roads somewhere suitable to take my daughter to learn to drive? She's 14 and wants to learn, (and we have trundled around a few places in the past) but it's difficult to find somewhere suitable.

Cheers

[Stubby Pete]

Rollcage said:

Is Davidstow Airfield and the access roads somewhere suitable to take my daughter to learn to drive? She's 14 and wants to learn, (and we have trundled around a few places in the past) but it's difficult to find somewhere suitable.

Cheers

My understanding is, if there's free access like a car park, regardless of it being privately owned then it falls under the definition if a highway. If it's closed access and you have to open a gate for example, it's private land.

[lee st]

Rollcage said:

Is Davidstow Airfield and the access roads somewhere suitable to take my daughter to learn to drive? She's 14 and wants to learn, (and we have trundled around a few places in the past) but it's difficult to find somewhere suitable.

Cheers

Lots of people have learned to drive there. Myself included. Some of the runways and roads are full of potholes though and access can be rutted , sharp and steep so if you plan on taking her there in a sports car with little ground clearance you need to pick your entrance carefully. On the plus side the concrete is wide and open so she won't be able to crash into anything other than sheep and dodging the holes in the road will be great for getting reaction times up for when she passes her test and starts drag racing at the lights it's definitely not as popular a place as it used to be. Lots of learners and illegal raves have ripped the surface to bits and obviously with it now being abondoned moorland there is nobody to do the upkeep. Oh yeah. If you stumble across a half dcent surface you are on the main runway so keep an eye out for micro lights

[Rollcage]

Thanks for the replies. I guess if we stay to the parking aprons then we should be ok.

I'd possibly take a punt on not being too troubled, but your understanding tallies with mine Pete.

[lee st]

There is no parking. It's basically like driving around a field. I would not say it falls within the rules of the road. You wouldn't get small planes landing on the a30. Treat it like your own private testing facility. Everyone else does. Land rovers drive all over the grass and all sorts.

[BuzyG]

Rollcage said:

Is Davidstow Airfield and the access roads somewhere suitable to take my daughter to learn to drive? She's 14 and wants to learn, (and we have trundled around a few places in the past) but it's difficult to find somewhere suitable.

Cheers

I taught both my son & daughter to drive on the old Air field at Davidstow. It's a really good place there are the open runways, for learning the real basics, without much fear of hitting anything. Micro lights and sheep and kite flyers also use these areas, but it’s a pretty large space. There is also the area to the North which has lots of narrow road ways and junctions, in between the old buildings. That was where we spent most of our time.

I can think of two occasions when there was a police car parked up and nothing was said. They never even came over to enquire what we were doing and it was obvious. I think they keep an eye out for people driving like prats, rather than dads trying to give their kids a head start in life. One small caveat it's four years since we were up there, so it may have changed a little. Plus the attitude of the local plod may have evolved.

[lee st]

BuzyG said:

I think they keep an eye out for people driving like prats

[BuzyG]

lee st said:

BuzyG said:

I think they keep an eye out for people driving like prats

LoL, I can't belive any of us would ever do such a thing. (Well maybe if it was covered in snow)