Re: Trax 2003

Went to VW action instead, was worth it for Bernard Newbury's Karmman Ghia. Better get saving if I want to top that. Fantastic car.

no kidding - took me 4 hours back from Donington to Hull (M1 chocka, diverted A38/A1 to find A38 shut and me getting more annoyed by the second)

They were a bit surreal! But nicely chromed up, if you like that sort of thing.

We had a decent trip. Tim (Kemp) rang me to warn us that there was a twenty five mile area of congested motorway, from the services we'd passed about twenty minutes ago (five minutes cruising, fifteen in stop / go traffic). So we pulled off at Trowse, blagged the chap that we were staying at the Travelodge :) and made our way into the great unknown . . .

Unknown? The previous weekend, en route to Ellesmere Port, I'd given my road map to a chap from Belgium who was on his way to Edinburgh and lost. Big lost. So I didn't have a road map, and was hoping we'd end up somewhere I knew! :)

Fortunately, we arrived at the Nottingham outer ring road, and (unusually) I knew _exactly_ where I was! So, A52 to Bingham, then A46 to Newark, A1, home, bosh! Not a bad trip, all up!

Went ans saw some proper cars instead...

Who cares. Drag racing is *far* more interesting. Seeing two 6500bhp cars launch side by side and cross the line 0.01 apart is far more exciting than seeing cars go round in circles. Don't knock it til you've tried it.

Doesn't matter - pretty much any semi-pro / pro circuit car is built as I described. BTCC ? no, very heavily modified. Just about the only thing in common is the name badges on the back. Even down to the engine blocks being changed.

Indeed...

You've fallen into the "I watched it on tv" thing.. its very different standing 20feet from the track watching it. Like I said don't knock it til you've tried it.

Knock, knock. I have. The noise and the smell and the visible acceleration is jolly impressive, but it still gets tedious after a couple of dozen runs. Track racing take much longer to get tedious, IMO.

Andy

Not so much in production class, as Dan said - they use the original engine block, and are only permitted limited modifications to the gearbox/drivetrain and suspension. The raced cars still bear much mechanical similarity to thier road-going counterparts.

Of course it's different, but that's true of both drag-racing AND track racing. You've fallen into the treating subjectives as objectives thing...

I've been filming this kind of stuff (for commercial video) over the summer. Never realised I'd enjoy it until I experienced it. Very thrilling when the top fuel cars go up. The noise makes it hard to concentrate when panning. Especially at the multi-class events where all the slower cars go down. Gets easy. 7 seconds is OK to film. Then the TF dragsters come on and they go so fast you can't zoom out quick enough, and when they pass you by, the noise almost knocks you over. So if you buy the vid, the TF section is most likely buggered. That's not stylistic filming there...

And are slow and uninteresting to watch.

I've been to many motorsports events including GT Championships, BTCC, Formula Ford, Drag Racing , tin tops, etc - in other words every level from clubman to European championships, IMHO the drags, at whatever level are good to watch, (bar 2wd saxos setting 20 sec quarters of course... )

Blimey, was it flooded? I'd have just driven :-)

Bloody AA recommended routes :-( I regularly travel from Bracknell to Slough (work), and in Royal Ascot week I inadvertently got stuck on one of the recommended routes from the M3 to half of the car parks. All I had to do was turn around, and take another route that was no more than an extra 5 minute drive, and it was completely clear. I was expecting at least a few queues (other locals avoiding the traffic), but bugger all. Mind you, it was around midday, not rush hour or anything.

From that, I'd check out the local routes on multimap or whatever whenever going to something like that, print off a load of maps, and avoid the main recommended routes.

Peter

And it isn't. It's a piece of stupid pointless silliness with a great big engine shoved up its arse to make it try and kill someone. Mildly entertaining if you're really bored, but only really exciting when things go wrong.

A racing car does not have to be based on a road going car to be a 'real car...

I was in the wifeymobile and didn't have a map either...

BTCC IIRC is standard shell & chassis, engine can be taken from any engine in the manufacturers ranges (hence the older 5 cyl Volvo S40s) as can suspension. 2l max displacement. Standardised wheels to limit brake sizes. Otherwise interior goes, as does most other bits.

sounds a bit BSMF maybe ? either way its a world away from that POS nova...

That alone shows your total naivety of the sport...

Exactly, and niether does a drag car.

Only if you are so superficially interested that you care simply about absolute speed. Racing at any level is interesting as long as the competition is close. Reliant Robin racing is really quite exciting.

The only bit of that which is pertinent is 'IMHO'.

True. Now't beats the experience of having a rally-prepped car sliding past, popping and banging and spraying mud into your flask of coffee :-)

I live about 30 mins from the Kielder forest, which is nice...

Andy