Friday 27th July 2012

Pic of the Week: Spa 24 on public roads

Racers hit the road for a spectacular convoy

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Generally when we publish pictures of racing cars as POTW the idea is that they are hanging everything out, right at the limit of grip.

Today's pic of the week selection could not be more different. This weekend Spa-Francorchamps circuit will hold the Total 24 hours of Spa and earlier this week the entire field of 67 racers took to the public roads to parade into the centre of Francorchamps, 13km from the racetrack itself.

Judging by these pics, we reckon it must have been a pretty spectacular sight, with 12 different marques represented, including Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, McLaren, Audi, BMW and Lamborghini.

On the road
Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (smartphone etc)

In town
Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (smartphone etc)

[tommy vercetti]

That 458 looks so mean.

[Dr Boxcat]

those Mclarens look the nuts

[Sivraj]

tommy vercetti said:

That 458 looks so mean.

Agreed,
Love the cut out in the front bumper/ wheel arch so you can see the tyres!..

[ZX10Ben]

Love those McLarens in that GT trim, and the Gulf colours looking great too!

[zebedee]

Sivraj said:

Agreed,
Love the cut out in the front bumper/ wheel arch so you can see the tyres!..

That isn't the tyres, it is some carbon fibre louvres.

[ecs0set]

Pistonheads said:

the entire field of 67 racers took to the public roads to parade into the centre of Francorchamps, 13km from the racetrack itself

Err, hold on. Francorchamps is 13km from the racetrack now? Did they move it? It used to be within walking distance. The town of Spa used to be further away.

I know the locals were complaining about the noise but moving the entire circuit is surely a bit of an overreaction?

Either that or many pints of Duval have eroded my memory.

Edited by ecs0set on Saturday 28th July 13:47

[Alicatt1]

Lots of exotic cars running around in the Spa area this morning, even seen an MG SVR heading out of Stavelot as we were taking the grand kids to Plopsa Coo.

[Bahnstormer]

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5f3NmgwQA&fea...

[FWDRacer]

My race series many moons ago had the pleasure of driving into Spa town for a quick tour round for the locals. The journey back to the circuit (balls out up the hill with mechanics holding onto the roll cages) have passed into club folklore. Good to seeing it happening again - albeit with a calming influence on the convoy!

[Alicatt1]

Bahnstormer said:

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5f3NmgwQA&fea...

Where the cars were going to the camera's right, we turned off left.
I would have much rather gone to Spa than Coo ...

I'm going to the F1 at Spa and I hope they have the road works sorted out before then, it wasn't that busy but there were long tail-backs just before the turn off to Francorchamps.

[destexhe]

ecs0set said:

Err, hold on. Francorchamps is 13km from the racetrack now? Did they move it? It used to be within walking distance. The town of Spa used to be further away.

I know the locals were complaining about the noise but moving the entire circuit is surely a bit of an overreaction?

Either that or many pints of Duval have eroded my memory.

Edited by ecs0set on Saturday 28th July 13:47

Well spotted, there must be a typo the sentence should have read "... 67 racers took to the public roads to parade into the centre of Spa, 13km from the racetrack itself."

Francorchamps village centre is indeed less then 1 mile from the track entrance whereas Spa town centre is around 10 miles away.

Also the picture labelled as 'in town' is taken in Spa centre right in front of the Spa casino

OK a bit late but I just got back from holidays