A famous chef, a well known dancer, a Radio 2 DJ and 20 Raci

[autofocus]

Hi there,

I headed off to Silverstone today for the media launch of the 2011 Silverstone Classic event.
I have attended the Silverstone Classic for the last 5 years, and in my opinion this years event promises to be even better than the Goodwood Festival of Speed and possibly even the revival

The day started with a press conference hosted by Louise Goodman, guests were shown a highlights video of the 2010 event before event director Nick Wigley to the stage. Nick ran through some of the key attractions at the 2011 Silverstone Classic.

• For the first time the Silverstone Classic will use the new F1 Arena circuit
• There will be 800 cars competing over the three days of the festival with 1000 drivers taking part
• There will be a infield display of 7000 classic cars expected from over 120 car clubs
• The event will use both the pits of new 'Wing' building, and the current pit garage due to the sheer number of cars taking part
• Saturdays highlight will be the Group C race which will last for 1 hour and have a dusk finish, the grid for this is expected to be 40 cars inc a rare Lancia LC2
• There will be races covering three different eras of Formula 1, these races will include a newly liveried McLaren MP4 'Marlboro', and ex Phil Hill Ferrari Dino 246, and a Scarab which is being raced for the first time in 50 years.
• The celebrity race will be run for the second year with Morgan replacing Abarth as the partner company for this race. The celebrities taking part will race various classic Morgans in two races over the weekend.

On top of this the event has been chosen as the official event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the E Type. At the time of the media launch today there were over 700 cars registered to be displayed over the weekend, with the organisers hoping to get to 1000 cars come the weekend of the event. This anniversary will be marked by a special E Type race which will feature a spectacular grid of 58 cars.

Other notable anniversaries being celebrate at the event are 75 years of the BMW 328, and 50 years of Porsche Club GB with over 1000 club members expected to bring their cars along to the festival.

The fesitval is very much family themed with music concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with headline acts such as Suzi Quattro and 10cc taking to the stage. Ladies are catered for at the event with a huge retail village and a kids will be kept happy with a huge funfair and traction engine rally.

The celebrities present today were Heston Blumenthal, Brendan Cole, Charlie Boreman, Rick Parfitt Jr, Paul O'Duffy and Neil Primrose. The organisers will reveal more of the celeb racers names over the weeks leading up to the festival. Heston and Brendan both seemed excited at the chance to race classic Morgans as opposed to the little Abarth 500's they duelled in last year.

Here are some pics from the event: -

Celebs at the press conference, Charlie Boreman was on top form today with loads of gags about his brush with cancer. The event raises money for the Bobby Moore Foundation and Charlie was only to happy to tell the assembled guests and media that he now only has one testicle.



The assembled celebs with Bob Harris (Radio 2 DJ), and Stephanie Moore (Bobby Moore's Widow). Pictured in front of one of the cars they will be racing



Time for a shot of Charlie seated in the car



and three of the drivers with the car



The morning was also valuable testing time for some of the competitors



The Lancia LC2 that will take part in the Group C race



A valuable ex James Hunt Hesketh that will be auctioned at the event



Key event sponsors Morgan put on a good display with two examples of the re-released three wheeler. God I want one of these.







Simply mind blowing Ferrari 250 LM





Finally the E Type celebrations were still impressive for the media launch

Static road cars in the paddock





and 18 racing E Types on the grid



and the drivers



lead car



Bloody BMW drivers never move over to let people past



only kidding, just getting the tracking shots for the events website



Hope you like the pics and the waffle.

Will post loads of track shots tomorrow when I have worked through them.

Regards

Tim

[Moley RUFC]

Brilliant pics mate. Really fancy a run down to this. I'm sure my dad mentioned an invite to the Austin club he is in.

[Boba Fret]

That LM.......

Is that the ex Ecurie Francorchamps car that Count whatsit smacked up at the revival shortly after his purchase??????

[hardcorehobbit]

autofocus said:

Is that the actual 9600 HP.... from the E Type launch?