Cars

Righto, first things first. If you are not a motoring enthusiast, whats wrong with you?
Oh, you might want to turn the page.

This is part of the racing cars display at the British motoring museum at Gaydon, with the three Monte Carlo minis in the background.
A truly magical place, kind of an Anglo-philes wet dream.
Off in a corner there is a door marked 'Reading Room', I opened it to be confronted by bookshelves full of motoring books. I didn't go in, as I know myself well enough to know that I would probably never get out.
Would have been perfect but for the lack of a toilet and a coffee machine.



While driving along the motorway after leaving Gaydon, I spotted a Warehouse with Prodrive written along the side, we took the next exit and found our way back to the headquarters of one of the world's top rally and race preperation workshops.
For a one pound donation to charity you can go in and look at their collection of important cars, including on the left above, one of Colin McCrae's tarmac cars, and on the right, Richard Burns' Safari car.



On to the three days of Goodwood. Above is a Paris-Dakar truck. Wouldn't need a hoist to do a grease and oil change on that bad boy. A ladder maybe, but no hoist.

One for Garry. If you ever decide on a respray, matt black definately does not suck.

A quartet of genuine works minis ready to hit the forest rally stage on top of the hill. They had everything from current spec WRC and S200 cars, a Paris-Dakar landcruiser, through to a 50's Saab doing timed runs on a 3 kilometre course through the trees, including a jump.

Paddy Hopkirk in one of the above minis, giving it heaps! All the drivers, among them several world champions had a proper go, making the rally stage the most enjoyable to watch.

As with a lot of motoring events, the carpark was as interesting as the action inside, with Ferraris, Lotuses, Maseratis and Morgans just some of the exotics sitting around.

And one Austin campervan.

The Rolls Royce course car. No sense of style these people.

His and hers Veyrons perhaps? The one in the background had a chrome effect paintjob, tackier than metalflake, but I could still have it.

The poor little Renault after three days of Goodwood. Did I thrash it through narrow, winding lanes in the English countryside after all that inspiration? Who, me? Never!

Toodle-pip, Dave.