Wednesday 25th July 2007

TVR versus the world on Wattisham runway

Fighting Torque day ready to go

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Cerbera takes on all-comers

The idea for Fighting Torque originally came from Captain Windsor Bailey (Longbow), a serving officer in the REME at Wattisham Airfield. His office overlooks the main runway. To an enthusiastic TVR owner this is something akin to water torture. What an ideal venue for comparing the performance of past and present supercars to that of his beloved TVRs in a drag race over a greater distance than the standard quarter mile...

In an unguarded moment he told the PH TVR community about his fantasy, only to be amazed that over 120 PHers shared the same dream. However, as he had no experience of organising this sort of activity, the MOD, Insurers and permitting organisations were obviously very reluctant to issue Longbow with the required permissions.

So he contacted Colin Jebson at Javelin Trackdays for help. Colin said "This is the first event I have ever organised by working from the middle. Longbow already had an impressive list of prospective entrants, cars, a superb venue and even sponsors but very little in between". 

The Fighting Torque event has now come to life and is taking place at Wattisham Airfield nr Bury St Edmunds on Sunday 12th August.

Entrants will get a minimum of five runs down the 3/4 mile, two lane strip and the £89 entry fee includes entry in the Javelin MX5 Challenge (see the website for details). Entrants should be able to nominate who they wish to race against in their first three runs.

The Army will also have an Apache attack helicopter on static display. Two Apache pilots will be on hand to give a guided tour, and also marshal cars for photo shoots which should make for an interesting souvenir. Toyo Tyres will also be up for grabs.

Longbow says "It’s fantastic. I am like a PHer with 2 pies. We have over 60 entries already confirmed. There is still room for owners of Top Marque machines to become a part of the spectacle".

Sadly this will be a ‘no spectator’ event. The only way to be there is to take part – something you can do by calling the Fighting Torque office on 01469 560574 or visiting the website below:

www.fightingtorque.org

Javelin Trackdays

[PascalBuyens]

Damn... Tuscan still won't be ready by then...

[Work-Shy-Wanabe]

Im pretty sure you dont have any room for anymore TVR Cerbera's like mine.

So if anybody is going from the Chester/North Wales/Wrexham/Shrewsbury genral area can I come as a passenger?

[loboil]

hey pascal - the joys of running a TVR in Belgium!!

[jon-]

So the winner of this event will have the biggest e-penis in the gassing station?

[senna007]

No spectators well i hope someone will try filming some of the runs so those of us who are not fortunate enough to own and high performance car worthy of taking can enjoy a taste of the event.

[FUBAR]

jon- said:

So the winner of this event will have the biggest e-penis in the gassing station?

Obviously

[FUBAR]

senna007 said:

No spectators well i hope someone will try filming some of the runs so those of us who are not fortunate enough to own and high performance car worthy of taking can enjoy a taste of the event.

I believe someone will be filming. And one of the car mags will be in attendance (Autocar?)

The 'no spectators' is not at the request of the runners. IIRC it was something to do with H&S and the MOD.

Would be great to have spectators, but this is a working Army base, so they have to be very strict as to who they let in I guess?

[grahamn]

jon- said:

So the winner of this event will have the biggest e-penis in the gassing station?

It won't be a Fezza or Lambo or Porker though they seem to have pulled out

[FUBAR]

My money's on an Ultima

[SXS]

Pesky Porscha owners and Fezza/Lambo owners, its time you put your tyres where your mouths are! On black-top and going all out down a 3/4 mile!

Come on! chickens? turkeys? mice?

It'll be a fun day and properly monitored so all timings are ledgit! 80 odd quid on a private runway all day is gotta be worth it if you're truly a petrolhead!

[FUBAR]

That should do it Ash

[belleair302]

A Radical if one shows up will walk away with the honours or maybe a highly modified Japanese suicide sled!

[chrisbr68]

Sounds awesome, shame I will be on holiday

[firesafetydave]

This is going to be a fantastic day - cant wait. A load of TVR's a hanful of AMG's (thats me ) a couple of GT3's a couple of vipers and some more fantastic cars - but hey hang on a minute - no italian super cars - and i thought those bulls had balls.

[Torque07]

Hold on a second guys, there is a Lamborghini Gallardo signed up. So we are just waiting on the Ferrari and Porsche Turbo guys to sign up.

[chrisbr68]

Could be interesting to get a car from each forum to come along... you know, the crazy modified cars to see how they fare against each other and your more typical supercars.

Will keep an eye on this

[SimonMaidenhead]

FUBAR said:

My money's on an Ultima

Thanks for the vote of confidence, shouldn't be too much trouble now the so called Italian super cars have all pulled out (maybe they can't stand the shame of being beaten my a British made car?).

[Mille]

loboil said:

hey pascal - the joys of running a TVR in Belgium!!

If only you knew what you were talking about ... Pascal had the brilliant idea of sending his engine to the UK ... where it's been for nearly two months. I knew the Italians were slow, but this ... ?
Anyway, I'm afraid it's not going to be a TVR that's going to beat the rest of the pack ! Where are the Tuscan racers ?
Still, should be an event to be enjoyed by all - hope the weather's going to be fine !
Regards
Dirk

[longbow]

The event is not really aimed at monster tuned cars - you've got TOTB for those. This is about factory standard supercars. 90% of the TVRs running are standard, and so its only fair to pitch them against similar standard cars. As TVR owners we see Porsche 911s, Lotus Esprits, Ferrari's, Lambo's, Vipers, Vette's, Nobles, Ultimas (cough!), AMGs, M series BMWs, Audi RSs etc as fair game. Modified Supras/Skylines etc are undoubtedly very fast, but doesn't prove much really.

[chrisbr68]

Still interesting nonetheless. Nice garage btw