Thursday 24th December 2015

PH 2015 - Sunday Service review

16 Sundays, thousands of cars and another great year of Sunday Services!

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With over 4,500 members attending a total of 16 Sunday Services, 2015 has officially been our busiest year ever for Sunday meets! We have visited old friends such as Morgan and Aston Martin, as well as welcoming many new names to the programme.

Opening the 2015 calendar in January was the Vulcan bomber visit where we had an array of cars from from a Nissan GT-R to an Ariel Atom (very brave in that weather!) and lots in between. There were a few dedicated to the Sunday morning car cleaning cause while other other cars were left in their winter state.

In February Aston Martin hosted us; with 300 cars at Gaydon the whole site was buzzing. There was plenty to look at inside too including an amazing 1:3 replica of Bond's DB5 which had approximately 2,000 hours of prototyping and development time spent on it. The car was a real testament to its builders; many people spent hours gawping at it!

A total of 500 members and their cars headed to the home of British motorsport for our first track day of the year at Silverstone in March. It was great to have the National circuit to ourselves with our Fleet Subaru WRX STI having its own battle around the circuit with an Audi S3.

Despite being on the chilly side it was a glorious day in the beautiful Malverns as we headed to Morgan, one of Britain's most iconic sports car manufacturers. Amongst the gorgeous cars in attendance there was everything from a Ferrari 458 Speciale A to an immaculate 1988 Fiesta 1.1 Ghia, a flock of Golf Rs and pretty much everything in between

The weather wasn't as kind in May for our visit to Top Cats; nonetheless there was a fantastically diverse array of cars, from an apparently box-fresh Ford Sierra Laser to an Aston V12 Vantage S Roadster with plenty more besides. Given our hosts' specialism there was, of course, a large TVR contingent as well including Griffiths, Cerberas and the odd Sagaris or two.

Wilton House is the ancestral home of Veyron-owning petrolhead Lord Pembroke and a fabulous backdrop to the first of our June Sunday Services, basked as it was in glorious sunshine. PistonHeads was given its own area adjacent to the house and it was filled with another fabulous array of cars; where else can you see a Dodge Challenger and an M5 Touring at the same meet?

Our only international Sunday Service of the year at Le Mans is always a brilliant event. Held in conjunction with The Classic British Welcome, whose events at Le Mans are now a meeting point for some 9,000 visitors and around 1,000 cars from across Europe, we had our own area for 150 dedicated PHers who were down for the weekend.

Members cars included an F-Type R hot off the factory line, Nobles and a Lamborghini Aventador; however, the surprise appearance of an Aston Martin GT12 and One-77 really made the day.

A new addition to the calendar in August was Honda's HQ in Bracknell, where in addition to the expected red 'H' badges there was with everything from a Corvette Stingray to a Passat W8 and Clio V6 making an appearance. Diversity is always the name of the game at a Sunday Service and it was pleasing to see that continue at Honda.

Our second track day of the year at Silverstone was once again a success. As with all our Sunday Services we saw plenty of Aston Martins, a large contingent of Audi RS4s, and what's a Sunday Service without a glut of M3? As well as that there was a large Honda Type R presence and a very nice CR-X VTEC along for the morning as well. One more great Silverstone Sunday Service!

Another factory tour, this time where the team at Corbeau and Luke Harnesses pulled out all the stops to make this an extremely informative and engaging event. The motorsport theme continued from factory to car park with PHer 'Nad' arriving in his rally spec Evo V and also 'amacuk' in his decalled Celica GT4. In contrast to those two, the 1972 Fiat 500 owned by 'mchristyuk' put a smile on everyone's face and with its retro vibe.

When the fog finally cleared we could fully appreciate the cars on display for our November Sunday Service at Alexandra Palace as part of the Classic & Sports Car show, including an attention grabbing Diablo, a pair of Nobles, and American constituent in the form of an Corvette. However, a gorgeous RS4 whose previous owner was the late rally legend Colin McRae managed to take centre stage.

A small but hugely dedicated cohort of PHers made the trip to North Wales this weekend to join us at our Llandudno Sunday Service, run in tandem with the Great Orme stage of Wales Rally GB. The cars looked fantastic lined up under the brightening skies along the promenade, with highlights including a Ford Escort Mexico and an Audi R8 GT with plenty of variety in amongst those. Attention was drawn from PHers and curious locals alike!

The iconic Goodwood motor circuit played host to our penultimate Sunday Service of 2015 - the starting grid and paddock overflowing with a smorgasbord of cars fit for such a historic location.

Over 600 cars turned out in crisp, dry conditions with many new faces in amongst the regulars. A huge variety of cars was on display with practically no section of the motoring spectrum left unrepresented. From two rare Pipers to an Audi Quattro, from JDM Type Rs to an SRT Viper and from a Mazda B1600 pickup to a Porsche 918 Spyder, there was something for everyone - no matter how specialised their taste.

Our concluding Sunday Service at Ginetta to the year had a religious parity to it as cars came in two by two. A brace of Volvo V60 Polestars (a car close to PH's heart), a pair of Lotus Evora GTEs, Elises, Porsche 911 Turbos and Lamborghini Huracans made their way through the gates. It was great to see a number of Ginettas return to their birthplace. The star of the show for us though was the absolutely flawless Skyline R32 GT-R.

On behalf of PistonHeads I would like to thanks all those companies who have kindly hosted our Sunday Services over the course of the year allowing us to get a behind the scenes look into some fascinating industries.

We are currently finalising the Sunday Services for 2016 but already we have even more planned and we look forward to seeing you at one of these.

Which was the most memorable Sunday Service of 2015 for you? Do you have an entertaining story to share about a SS? Please share with us below. See you for another Sunday Service very soon!

Ollie

 

[smilo996]

Great colours for the Astons.

[DickP]

Do we know when the first one is and where for 2016?

[Matt97]

I'll start with thanking all involved in organising and running the sunday service events this year, the ones i attended were great! The Morgan sunday service was my personal favourite, such an amazing place to look around and a lot of nice cars in attendance. I was also pleasantly surprised to see i got a little mention in the above review.
Hopefully i'll get to even more SS in 2016.

Regards,
Matt

[Craikeybaby]

I'll echo the sentiments above - thank you for putting these events on!

My highlight had to be the track days at Silverstone, my wife joined me on the October one - her first time on track, and really enjoyed it too.

[Buff Mchugelarge]

My favourite has to be Silverstone thanks to some laps with JD in the Revo Golf R, a great day and a fantastic opportunity

The classic and Sports car show was great too ( thanks for the tickets!) , Brands and Goodwood were both awesome too!

My little MX5 certainly covered some miles this year in the name of Sunday Services and all were well worth it,
See you guys in the new year

[Iva Barchetta]

I attended 8 of the 16,Ginetta being very good and also enjoyed spectating at the 2nd Silverstone event

and seeing AlexMac flying around in his 2 GT3RS's.

Morgan
Silverstone
Alexandra Palace
Corbeau
Goodwood
Ginetta
Topcats
Brands Hatch.

[chopper602]

Nice to have my Polestar mentioned in the review ! I'll try to get along to some more this year.