RE: Join the PistonHeads Sporting Tour!

[B'stard Child]

In related to feedback points - Just got an email from the snapper taking pictures of the cars I'm presuming everyone has as well - good pictures but his email reminded me of one I've already suggested to the event team but it doesn't hurt to share it here

Andrew Manston said:

The first spot I photographed was a leafy little lane going north away from Burstallhill. Not sure quite everyone came past me, the one thing about having a car with a noisy engine is that I could hear going off in the wrong direction for miles ! Stayed to the last second here before dashing off to the lunchtime airfield, the journey should have taken 30 minutes but the A12 was unexpectedly at crawling pace and it ended up taking me nearly 45 minutes, which meant I missed the first dozen or so at the tests. Sorry to those. I know the tests weren’t anything special and that some cars weren’t really suited and some drivers were feeling it more than others, but nigh on everyone had a go and that’s what made it good fun to watch. We even got a marriage proposal, clever lad combining the two loves in his life. From there it was back to pretty much where I’d just come, to a lane just west of Burstallhill heading south past Hintlesham Priory. I think I arrived in time to get everyone, the first vehicle that came into sight was a Land Rover Discovery which I watched drive by like a complete numpty before noticing the rally plate on the side and remembering there was one entered. Sorry to them, although if it makes them feel any better I didn’t twig to photograph the Prius even once !

I think to help out both snapper and checkpoint staff a sticker really needs to be in the front windscreen - it would also help out anyone who wanted to complete the event at their own pace to spot if the car in the mirror was an event participant and could then make the choice to pull over if they didn't want to impede anothers progress.

[RRT]

Had a great day, never thought my old Porka would have done so well (21st!). Congratulations to John Clem88 and his fiance, a really lovely couple. The only down side was the blocked lane from the airfield, cost us over 50 minutes, but never mind, finding the solution to the issue was fun enough. Thanks to everyone involved and we had a great time chatting to the other competitors, some of the chasing down the lanes was fabulous. Already looking forward to the next event!

RRT Car 55

Edited by RRT on Monday 15th October 13:41

[JohnClem88]

RRT said:

Had a great day, never thought my old Porka would have done so well (21st!). Congratulations to John Clem88 and his fiance, a really lovely couple. The only down side was the blocked lane from the airfield, cost us over 50 minutes, but never mind, finding the solution to the issue was fun enough. Thanks to everyone involved and we had a great time chatting to the other competitors, some of the chasing down the lanes was fabulous. Already looking forward to the next event!

RRT Car 55

Edited by RRT on Monday 15th October 13:41

Thanks very much mate.

Great to meet you and what a great afternoon chasing each other along the lanes! Felt like a benny hill sketch when we all came across that closed road haha

Look forward to the next one!

Cheers

[B'stard Child]

Oh and before I forget it might be a good plan to mark any crossroad as NROW (No Right Of Way) as at least one of them had completely worn out white lines and no giveway sign that Resulted in a very sharp stop - I approached all crossroads after that with a heck of a lot more caution

[Haltamer]

I heard a few people mentioning that junction!
I spotted it from a little way off and had an inkling; Could only see the remnants of the lines once you were right on top - Was a sharp stop for me too!

[shavermcspud]

Miserablegit said:

I only saw one bit of unsuitable driving and it seems a few of us experienced the same from that vehicle.

Please do elaborate.

[Damp Logs]

B'stard Child said:

Oh and before I forget it might be a good plan to mark any crossroad as NROW (No Right Of Way) as at least one of them had completely worn out white lines and no giveway sign that Resulted in a very sharp stop - I approached all crossroads after that with a heck of a lot more caution

Good idea, although my navigator worked on basis of junctions would be NROW.

I do hope we didn’t cause any issues, as we were quite happy at 40ish mph mostly, and did try to be aware of faster cars behind us.

Anyway, never mind all that, Steve’s wife managed to drop one of the mugs we won!!😱😱😱

And worse than that, I can’t find them in the pistonheads shop😱😱😱😱😬😬😬😬

I thought it was a fantastic day, with relatively minor tweaks required make it exceptional - but again it was pretty much our first, so not a lot to compare

[B'stard Child]

Damp Logs said:

B'stard Child said:

Oh and before I forget it might be a good plan to mark any crossroad as NROW (No Right Of Way) as at least one of them had completely worn out white lines and no giveway sign that Resulted in a very sharp stop - I approached all crossroads after that with a heck of a lot more caution

Good idea, although my navigator worked on basis of junctions would be NROW.

From that junction we did the same - it just caught me out with lack of signage

Damp Logs said:

I thought it was a fantastic day, with relatively minor tweaks required make it exceptional - but again it was pretty much our first, so not a lot to compare

Absolutely agree - for a first event to go as well as it did showed a lot of the preparations had been well done - it's all minor tweaks needed to get to a really polished event IMO and none of the little issues for me detracted from the enjoyment of the day.

With the rally app running I would say 99% of the distances from point to point were spot on the only other one that caught us out was fairly late in the event - it was 0.9 miles from previous rather than book which said 1.0 before a right turn - wouldn't have made the mistake had the sign not been punted into the hedge so you couldn't see it (I'm guessing that someone not connected with the event had overshot the turn coming down the hill and bent the signpost into the hedge) - we joined a whole heap of cars further down the wrong road that did multi point turns - the Mclaren being the one we got to watch with lots of arm twirling (which was fun)

[evo2073]

It was such an amazing experience, far exceeded both my own and my navigator’s expectations. We had perfect weather and fortunately no horse boxes to fight with.
Hats off to the organisers who planned the route. There were a few “Road Closed” signs which we chose to ignore (they were fake, right?) but apart from that the Tulip book was pretty simple to follow. We did get confused at a couple of points, as did others in our convoy, but we backtracked and figured it out.
Out on the road we felt the standard of driving very respectful but not afraid to press on where appropriate. I trust there were no complaints from the police?

Will definitely take part in another event, the Focus RS was an absolute blast, but next time I’ll bring the Integrale

[AMGSee55]

shavermcspud said:

Miserablegit said:

I only saw one bit of unsuitable driving and it seems a few of us experienced the same from that vehicle.

Please do elaborate.

I've a pretty good idea who that's referring to, but this has been such a positive thread up to now, so can we not simply pass any concerns back to the organisers via the questionnaire and let them 'ave a word' with the person concerned??

[B'stard Child]

AMGSee55 said:

shavermcspud said:

Miserablegit said:

I only saw one bit of unsuitable driving and it seems a few of us experienced the same from that vehicle.

Please do elaborate.

I've a pretty good idea who that's referring to, but this has been such a positive thread up to now, so can we not simply pass any concerns back to the organisers via the questionnaire and let them 'ave a word' with the person concerned??

I have to agree with that although I saw nothing I would regard as unacceptable all day so have no feedback on that front.

[smokey12]

Really disappointed that we had to bail out of the tour at the last moment but, unfortunately, we had the full effects of storm Callum to deal with in the South West and the prospect of driving up from Cornwall on semi-slicks dodging fallen trees and everything else that was being thrown at us just didn't appeal still having the [bad] memories of the return journey from the Goodwood Members meeting in the snow earlier this year in my mind! Hopefully, we'll make the next one ………...particularly if it was based further to the West!

[Norbury90]

AMGSee55 said:

shavermcspud said:

Miserablegit said:

I only saw one bit of unsuitable driving and it seems a few of us experienced the same from that vehicle.

Please do elaborate.

I've a pretty good idea who that's referring to, but this has been such a positive thread up to now, so can we not simply pass any concerns back to the organisers via the questionnaire and let them 'ave a word' with the person concerned??

I was at the back of that peloton

[Miserablegit]

B'stard Child said:

I have to agree with that although I saw nothing I would regard as unacceptable all day so have no feedback on that front.

Rest assured I have no intention of naming and shaming them on the forum. I shouldn’t have mentioned it so apologies.
I agree the event went very well - the only thing we could have done with was more puddles!

[Haltamer]

Miserablegit said:

I agree the event went very well - the only thing we could have done with was more puddles!

I did enjoy the two small watersplashes, though the organisers could've added an extra couple of buckets

Also managed to get a (Very small, and as responsibly as possible ) amount of air over one of the humpbacks, which essentially qualifies me as a WRC Driver...

[progers]

Agree with all the comments, very well planned and really enjoyable. To be so accurate on the mileage intervals and road signs must have taken a lot of preparation. Good for me as a local as I discovered some new roads to drive (and a few to avoid). Look forward to the next one.

[JP.Racing]

This is a bit of a random one, somewhat off topic! I seem to have misplaced my jacket at the event, just wondering if anyone saw it and maybe picked it up? I spoke to the hotel team and they don't have it, so thought it was worth an ask on the off chance it might reappear. Mens Superdry jacket in grey with orange trim, very similar to the attached pic.

Cheers all

[progers]

JP.Racing said:

This is a bit of a random one, somewhat off topic! I seem to have misplaced my jacket at the event, just wondering if anyone saw it and maybe picked it up? I spoke to the hotel team and they don't have it, so thought it was worth an ask on the off chance it might reappear. Mens Superdry jacket in grey with orange trim, very similar to the attached pic.

Cheers all

Sorry didn’t see it but I am local and happy to pop up there to have a look - or if you think it may be somewhere else along the route (petrol station etc.)?

[Tony-vv5ge]

Finally got some time to post on the forum!
Thanks for all your kind and encouraging comments about the event.
It was a bit of a trip into the unknown organisationally, being the first event of its type for modern cars in the UK.
I was never quite sure quite which roads to choose, a balance between narrow and not too fast to keep average speeds under control, with some nice open stretches was what I was after. As part of the questionnaire we'll be asking about that aspect.
It was so rewarding to see everyone enjoying the day and particularly the social interaction, it would be good to develop that side more.
Sorry that not everybody got the message about prize giving being brought forward, but there didn't seem much point keeping everybody waiting around for another two hours. You were all too competent using the tulip road book, even the extra 'initiative tests' didn't catch anyone out...... Nearly everyone got back to the hotel really promptly.
The current outline plan is to run 3 sporting tours in 2019, a North, Midlands and South with the tests based at race circuit venues. I would plan for the tests being somewhat longer, but for this first event, something simple and very safe was the best option, I also didn't want to spend a fortune on a venue when we couldn't be sure how many entries we would get.
Details will become available when MSV sort their race calendar out, should be early in 2019.
Tony Clements.
Clerk of the Course.

[Tony-vv5ge]

JP.Racing said:

This is a bit of a random one, somewhat off topic! I seem to have misplaced my jacket at the event, just wondering if anyone saw it and maybe picked it up? I spoke to the hotel team and they don't have it, so thought it was worth an ask on the off chance it might reappear. Mens Superdry jacket in grey with orange trim, very similar to the attached pic.

Cheers all

Your jacket was left at the start and was put in the suite the organisers used during the day. I'm pretty sure it was there around 4pm, suggest you check again with the hotel.