Discussion
To the glorious motoring eccentricities of the British,
we salute the weekend’s ‘Pom’ …
http://www.vscc.co.uk/vsccweb/gallery/default.jsp
we salute the weekend’s ‘Pom’ …
http://www.vscc.co.uk/vsccweb/gallery/default.jsp
Great day out wasn't it? Much warmer than last year! I'll get some of my own photos up this evening. I was helping out Mike Stripe (Alfa 146 Ti) and manoeuvring it through Scrutineering around a score of cars worth 5x more than my house was nerve-wracking. With Race Retro the next day we were truly spoiled last weekend.
Brilliant!
The ‘Pom’ of course, annually produces the said epitome of British comic motoring eccentricities, perhaps in the culture envisaged via the scripts of ‘Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue’, perhaps a commentary by Spike Milligan, maybe Ustinov’s, or seen though the eyes of Don Quixote.
I think the winner’s cake this year for me, must go to the Gentleman Racer, we use the term advisedly, seen out there competing with his Mk 3 Cortina. In the admirably athletic shape of an grossly engorged pumpkin, topped by white flowing hair and unkempt beard of similar magnificent proportion, dressed in matching M&S charity give-away fire-encouraging gear from the 50’s and unwashed since, in this particular instance, our intrepid pilot, obviously with a keen eye on Webbers 2013 seat with RedBall, not only raced the old Ford, he did in fact beat it!
Now this Cortina was something special to behold on the pit lane. Caked in so much mud, the failing mud flaps were indeed scarcely hanging on; windows kept in place with 10 year old ape-tape, screen opaque, and the paint that was left faded, duller and of a lesser hue than the mud mostly obscuring it. It was indeed the tattiest, most beaten up example, scraped and grazed into an adjustable shape over hundreds of thousands of bombed-out city miles, that will grace the Silverstone tarmac this year, maybe ever, by a mile …
It’s crowning glory of visual motoring humour was indeed as you would expect from such genius, found inside the smashed front grill which held, still in it’s last, gloriously stretched and suicidal pose as it bid to avoid the oncoming jaws of hell – was a severely mutilated remains of an obviously extremely irritated squirrel, … ripe from it’s few thousand miles, cooked to perfection from it’s time affixed firmly the boiling hot radiator it must be said…
The humour continued as this Cortina raced (an extremely healthy motor & brakes belie all pretentions of it being a scrapper) indeed howled, around this hallowed track at the most alarming and sickening angles as it bid to out manoeuvre and equally grotesque heavy-as-lead Rover 105 and one of those Volvo bricks, obviously designed in the dark by a Scandinavian … till the frightened Volvo outwitted it’s intrepid driver who fought gallantly to the bitter end, but must have found himself on the passenger floor once the oversteer into Brooklands got beyond him, developed into a monumental tank slapper that all but could have finished in Coventry or Portsmouth …
Did I say ‘Race’? Arrgh well no. It was ‘not’ a race per sae. It was a ‘high speed trial’. God forbid that the RAC, MSA Scrutineers, the Health & Safety Council or anyone else caught a glimpse of the most exciting hand to hand mortal combat using vehicles, since Mad Max exposed us to those highly explicit thighs of Tina Turner. The fact that these chaps got a circuit like this to themselves in glorious winter sunshine was subliminally funny escapism and the most joyous motor sport spectacle imaginable, absolutely no quarter asked or given …
Yep, any moon landed Yanks or Japanese or prospective Silverstone Circuit headline leaser would have been sorely confused …
Yes and not to forget some wonderful driving performances in some of the most beautiful and collectable early vintage sports cars we and some others, ever made.
Bravo the VSCC. Put you prices on the gate up for next year. Renault could learn a thing or two from the show you put on.
The ‘Pom’ of course, annually produces the said epitome of British comic motoring eccentricities, perhaps in the culture envisaged via the scripts of ‘Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue’, perhaps a commentary by Spike Milligan, maybe Ustinov’s, or seen though the eyes of Don Quixote.
I think the winner’s cake this year for me, must go to the Gentleman Racer, we use the term advisedly, seen out there competing with his Mk 3 Cortina. In the admirably athletic shape of an grossly engorged pumpkin, topped by white flowing hair and unkempt beard of similar magnificent proportion, dressed in matching M&S charity give-away fire-encouraging gear from the 50’s and unwashed since, in this particular instance, our intrepid pilot, obviously with a keen eye on Webbers 2013 seat with RedBall, not only raced the old Ford, he did in fact beat it!
Now this Cortina was something special to behold on the pit lane. Caked in so much mud, the failing mud flaps were indeed scarcely hanging on; windows kept in place with 10 year old ape-tape, screen opaque, and the paint that was left faded, duller and of a lesser hue than the mud mostly obscuring it. It was indeed the tattiest, most beaten up example, scraped and grazed into an adjustable shape over hundreds of thousands of bombed-out city miles, that will grace the Silverstone tarmac this year, maybe ever, by a mile …
It’s crowning glory of visual motoring humour was indeed as you would expect from such genius, found inside the smashed front grill which held, still in it’s last, gloriously stretched and suicidal pose as it bid to avoid the oncoming jaws of hell – was a severely mutilated remains of an obviously extremely irritated squirrel, … ripe from it’s few thousand miles, cooked to perfection from it’s time affixed firmly the boiling hot radiator it must be said…
The humour continued as this Cortina raced (an extremely healthy motor & brakes belie all pretentions of it being a scrapper) indeed howled, around this hallowed track at the most alarming and sickening angles as it bid to out manoeuvre and equally grotesque heavy-as-lead Rover 105 and one of those Volvo bricks, obviously designed in the dark by a Scandinavian … till the frightened Volvo outwitted it’s intrepid driver who fought gallantly to the bitter end, but must have found himself on the passenger floor once the oversteer into Brooklands got beyond him, developed into a monumental tank slapper that all but could have finished in Coventry or Portsmouth …
Did I say ‘Race’? Arrgh well no. It was ‘not’ a race per sae. It was a ‘high speed trial’. God forbid that the RAC, MSA Scrutineers, the Health & Safety Council or anyone else caught a glimpse of the most exciting hand to hand mortal combat using vehicles, since Mad Max exposed us to those highly explicit thighs of Tina Turner. The fact that these chaps got a circuit like this to themselves in glorious winter sunshine was subliminally funny escapism and the most joyous motor sport spectacle imaginable, absolutely no quarter asked or given …
Yep, any moon landed Yanks or Japanese or prospective Silverstone Circuit headline leaser would have been sorely confused …
Yes and not to forget some wonderful driving performances in some of the most beautiful and collectable early vintage sports cars we and some others, ever made.
Bravo the VSCC. Put you prices on the gate up for next year. Renault could learn a thing or two from the show you put on.
Short piece and photos I've done for Race Tech mag here about the Pom: http://www.racetechmag.com/blog/details.php?id=107
ChrisJ. said:
Life Saab Itch said:
I must enter this one day.
I have a Morris Minor that is crying out to be used in this.
The annoying thing is that it's race licence holders only.I have a Morris Minor that is crying out to be used in this.
You'll need to be a VSCC member too, no doubt.
Interesting report Chevron - it is a great event.
The Nova is mine and was on loan for the day - the amazing part of that story is that driver is eighty years old and still handled 200hp+ 680kg machine well enough to bring it home to an award.
I have to tell you the event is actually taken very seriously in some quarters. The Nash brigade were promising a top ten result lockout prior to the event and Mike Smith bringing home the Escort in top spot and other cars including my own Ford in all the first four places is great to see.
The Nova is mine and was on loan for the day - the amazing part of that story is that driver is eighty years old and still handled 200hp+ 680kg machine well enough to bring it home to an award.
I have to tell you the event is actually taken very seriously in some quarters. The Nash brigade were promising a top ten result lockout prior to the event and Mike Smith bringing home the Escort in top spot and other cars including my own Ford in all the first four places is great to see.
None at all - whilst that car is a great machine (and a regular award winner at Pom) if you walked around his extensive stable of toys you would be bemused that he always asks to borrow 'Little Bertha' each year. As it happens the full part of the deal is that I borrow his 35B for Prescott.....
BAM141 would have won it with a perfect score but for a failed brake test so the Nash brigade have it for the taking - Mike did very well
BAM141 would have won it with a perfect score but for a failed brake test so the Nash brigade have it for the taking - Mike did very well
ChrisJ. said:
chevronb37 said:
Yes to both of the above. Annoyingly for those of us who are neither.
I really like the event though, with its bonkers mix of cars. I've travelled from Yorkshire on four or five occasions just to spectate.
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