Carfreax

ONE GR8 SUMMER - PART ONE

My summer of speed kicked off at the beginning of July with Goodwood, followed just a week later by Pass Masters (previously reported by Mattijs) that was my first chance to have a proper blast with my new R8.

Yes! I did say MY! R8, admittedly a company car and only for the next 6 months, but still MINE! And Dude! Was I going to use it?

I’d been planning a mega road trip to the U.K. for some time and now I had the right tool for the job!  

Leaving Münich at 6.00a.m one misty Sunday morning in August, I literally flew across Germany, often seeing speeds hovering on the edge of 300 km/h. Rapidly dispatched Holland and France I hit the Channel tunnel only 8 hours later. The fly splattered, hot and ticking R8 deserving a well earned rest on the train ride under the sea.

First pilgrimage in the U.K. was to be the Black Mountains located on the West side of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. The Black Mountain road’s are favorite test routes for the U.K’s Car Magazines and especially the A4069 which has become very popular ever since it featured on BBC’s Top Gear, with Jeremy Clarkson hammering an AMG SLK along it’s route. I quickly discovered why? Long winding roads greeted me, challenging corners, a good mix of fast and tight sections all linked by a good road surface and when you reached the hairpins you were rewarded with views to die for. You just had to beware of the pesky sheep everywhere!

I spent several hours discovering the aural delights of the R8’s responsive engine and the forgiving handling. The R8 is enormously capable, with scary amounts of grip on these tight and twisting roads, but when you lift off the tail will come around and you can drift gently through the turns in beautifully predictable slides.

I was expecting to meet lot’s of other performance cars enjoying these dream roads and conditions, but I hardly saw anybody else during my time up there, this was my playground today! My Driving Nirvana!

The roads in the valleys on the North side weren’t bad either, long straights and fast sweeping bends, many snaking their way through tunnels of over-hanging trees. As the sun began to go down and with the navigation switched off! I just followed the roads where they took me.

Next stop Brooklands and a return to Goodwood, this time not just to look, but to drive!   

 

THE WORLD'S MOST CHALLENGING ROLLER COASTER

If after two paragraphs you think CFX has been taken over by children, that might very well be true because mentally your editor feels 7 years old whilst writing this. Why? I just finished my first Track Day on BrandsHatch in my Vauxhall VX220 Turbo - Stage II.
Having done races and trackdays on Zandvoort, Assen, Zolder and Bedford, I was increasingly confident about my abilities to drive a car on a race track quickly. Luckily Brands Hatch is there to relegate my confidence back to square one! This place brings car control to a whole new level! My apparent (serious) lack of talent means I am constantly fighting to keep the car on track, even the main straight is a challenge…

It all starts at a deceptively nice afternoon: the Brits have introduced a brilliant concept called a Track Evening; you arrive at 16.00 hours, Brief at 16.30 and at 17.00 you are at the wheel until 20.00. Arriving at a Track Day is a bit like a your first ‘House Party’ when you are 11 years old and you have left the comfort of parties that cater for running around the house covered in grass stains; everything around you suddenly looks alien and intimidating.

Brands Hatch is no different; many Caterhams rolling out of closed Brian James Trailers, the Porsche-boys always seem to arrive in droves with the various specifications of 911 GT3 R/RS/RSR etc. Obviously the chaps from Norfolk are well presented in various specifications of the Exige, Elise and (dare I say in this line-up?) the VX220. To sum up we cannot forget the propeller-boys from Munich with their M3’s varying in age from E92 – E36 and modified from roll cage fitted to just slick-tires.
My standard VX220 that was driving me home from the office and delivering the groceries to the missus a mere few hours earlier made me feel I brought a knife to a gunfight … BIG GULP! On trackdays, three sighting laps are mandatory. For most drivers however, this is a bit like foreplay; they have done this game so often they just want to get on and go do the deed. For yours truly on the other side this was a very welcome addition to the program.

Entering the Arena: Blimey! You drive out of pitlane and you fall into an abyss of 10 meters! They call this Paddock Hill Bend …bend is a highly overrated word for this hole! Later I would find out that at speed you accelerate so quickly that you actually bounce off the rev-limiter in second, imagine how sheer the drop. During my sighting laps I cannot help think; if this impresses me whilst I am chasing a Vauxhall Vectra 1.6; how will I survive without the protection of the sighting laps?

OH NOSTALGIA !

Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto the world wide interweb...

...our friends at formfreu.de hit you right in the sensitive parts with their latest blog, the über-nostalgic 'Autostolz' (Car Pride).

Though not too densely populated just yet, this lovely initiative can only grow as it eagerly anticipates any heart warming contribution from folks with the car-heart in the right place.

That's you and me!

So, after indulging in the warm bath that is Autostolz, why don't you go up your attic and dust off that good ole shoebox of yours to dig out some car-piccies that turn smiles on people's faces?

God knows that that is just what today's profit-driven car industry needs: soul.

Great stuff Tom, keep it coming; (nice one with the Kadett!) :)

- G.