PAST EVENTS PAGE 151
SILVERSTONE CLASSIC – SATURDAY and SUNDAY 29th
and 30th JULY 2006
Friday evening was spent tidying, hoovering and
polishing the 1985 Mk1a an MR2 which is in my name on the log book, but belongs
to my father financially. I sold this Mr2 to my father so I could go and buy my
first (of 3!) superchargers. My neighbours thought it was a bid sad for a 25
year old to be out cleaning and polishing on a Friday night, especially as I had
been out until past 10pm the previous Friday getting my supercharger ready for
JAE, but I don't really care to be honest!
7.30 am Saturday Morning, early... too early for me! I picked up my father
and we began to make our way up to Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell, which is
only half an hour away from where we live in Herts. We must have been one of the
last Retro Run cars to arrive as the car park at Aston Martin was already very
busy and we were ushered to one the last parking spaces. The Aston Martin
factory was very impressive, it had a fantastic array of cars on display and it
was great to be able to wander up and down viewing all of this expensive
machinery. Three bacon rolls and a cup of tea later we were ready to move, the
Retro Run organisers had set up a route looping around the Northamptonshire
countryside with a coffee stop on the way, the route which has been planned for
us took us through some beautiful unspoilt English villages and along some of
the most beautiful scenic roads I had ever driven before. On the first leg we
spend most of the time behind a 1970's Lambo, which was incredibly noisy. On the
second leg we followed a Triumph TR6 , the chap driving seemed very keen with
his right foot, and although I was keeping up, it was a bit of a challenge none
the less, I was very impressed by the performance of the TR6, and we both over
took a fair few of the slower moving Retro Run cars on this part of the run.
On arrival at Silverstone we parked up with all of the other Retro Run cars,
many of which had come from all over the country. There must have been over a
hundred of us. Soon after we moved the car down to join the Mr2 Mk1 club stand
which was all set up with the club Gazebo and flags etc... we were met by Ken
Salmon who made us both feel very welcome. There were about 10 Mk1s on the
stand, the most noticeable being Jo Walker's bright orange mk1 parked at the
back. As ever the layout of the stand was very good, Doris and Fred were there
(of course!) and I also met a few other Mk1 owners. It was good to discuss all
things MR2 with some of the new Mk1 owners, and the more experienced owners as
well, I learnt a few things which I never knew (for example... did you know that
the engine in the Mk1b was moved forward to incorporate the supercharger unit
due to the American market’s thirst for more power?)
The rest of Saturday was spent watching the track action and walking around
the various trade stands. There were a lot of different races to watch. The
Historic Racing Saloon were amazing, the Lotus Cortinas being my favourite. I
managed to lose my father for half an hour or so as there was an antiques sale
in a large tent, a surprise find for both of us... much to the delight of my
father who is a second hand book and postcard dealer.
We decided to head off at about 5pm as we were getting a bit chilly, and
after spending a few hours watching the track action we both wanted to give our
ears a rest. Seeing as I had done all the driving all day I decided to let my
father drive back... but it was only down the M1 so not the most exciting drive
of the day!
7.30am Sunday Morning, early... far too early for me, especially for the
second day running! My housemate (Dave) was going to be navigator for the day.
After a cup of tea we realised that we were already running late, we would have
to make good time to get to Silverstone for the two parade laps starting at
10am. We managed to make it to Silverstone in good time in the end, as the
journey only took 45 minutes, but we had difficulty entering the circuit as we
didn't have 'car passes'. I had been given a Retro Run plaque which was supposed
to be attached to the front of the car so that the Silverstone staff could just
wave you though, my plaque was stuck in the rear window so they couldn't see it
when I was approaching... I must have been asked ten times where I was going!
We parked up with the few retro run cars which had already turned up and went
to get some breakfast. The Retro Run parade laps were to start at 10.30 am. When
we came back to the car, all of the Retro Run cars had arrived. There must have
been 150 of all sorts of different machines, Lambos, Porsches, Ferraris, MG's ,
Triumphs to name a few makes. I had managed to park my car next to what we think
was probably the most expensive car of the lot a Lamborghini Miura, lots of
people were taking photos of this, with my car parked next to it!
We were let out on track at just before 11am, I was one of the first on
track, as soon as I pulled onto the track a Porsche went flying past me, so much
for the 'parade' laps! The two laps were pretty frantic, with a huge amount of
cars on track it was a case of watching out for any cars coming too close, and
leaving enough room for them to get past, a few of the other cars seemed to be
almost racing and it was great fun slowing down and speeding up with these
faster drivers. I managed to get the car a 'bit' sideways around Luffield, where
a few weeks before I had watched the D1 Drift cars going completely sideways
with tyre smoke! On the second lap I was on full throttle down the start finish
straight when for the first time I noticed the Aston Martin pace car which was
leading us around, a quick check of the speedo showed I was the wrong side of
100mph so I was heavy on the brakes to avoid overtaking the pace car! Wow what
an experience! My adrenalin was really pumping when we slowed down at the end of
the second lap, it was over so quickly, but it was oh so memorable. Dave managed
to get some great video footage of the two laps, which I have watched over many
times over on my laptop.
After the parade laps and after dealing with my smoking brakes (!) we chatted
to the other Mr2 Mk1 club members on the Retrorun, who owned a beautiful blue
model. They had great fun on the track as well, and Dave even managed to get a
great action photo of them just approaching the start of the laps. We again
moved the car down to the club stand and I parked up next 'Tango' and was met by
her owner Jo, a rather frantic Jo as she had misplaced the keys to Tango, her
Mk1. Kev Crane and Jo had spent ages looking for them, and they eventually
turned up in a carrier bag in the club gazebo!
Sunday afternoon was spent much the same as Saturday was, chatting to other
Mr2 owners, and watching the racing.
This really was a great weekend for me, and I would recommend Silverstone
Classic to anyone for next year, it can appeal to anyone, young or old. It would
also be great to see more owners coming to these sort of events, you are always
made to feel welcome.
Thank you so much to the Mr2 Mk1 Club for this opportunity to represent the
club, special thanks to Ken Salmon for co-ordinating the Retrorun weekend. Ken
you are a legend. Thanks.
OLLIE FROST
RETRO RUN
Our start to this great weekend was meeting all the other various cars for the start of
the retro run at the Silverstone Golf Club. After our bacon butties and a cop of
coffee we were ready for the start of our first retro run. ASHLEY GOODFIELD
With Ali at the ready with the route map we left the golf club at approx
0930, following a very nice old MG and an Austin Martin, we were really excited
about the whole event, but made the mistake of following the cars in front and
it wasn’t long before the MG pulled into a lay by to check his route, we kept
going thinking we were still on the right route (wrong) we soon
realised that we were on the wrong road when we were on the M40, bad mistake, we
took the first exit that we came to and pulled in to check the map, after a few
strong words we were of again and after seeing a few other cars pulled into
various lay-bys we didn’t feel so bad as we were not the only ones to get
lost, eventually we were on the right road, feeling pleased with ourselves we
were doing well until we realised we had been past Blenheim Palace a few times,
and yes we were lost again, but by pure skill (ha-ha) we were on the right road
and we arrived at the Merrymouth Inn for our much needed coffee stop where we
had a laugh with the retro run stewards as they were about to pack up to get
back to Silverstone until we said we didn’t think we were the last ones.
After a nice cup of coffee we started back on the final leg of the run, this
time after reading the route map properly, we managed to make up a bit of time
and we cheered when we seen the sign for Silverstone (after a few more mistakes)
but we didn’t cheat and head back to Silverstone (honestly), we kept to the
route map and eventually arrived back to the Silverstone Circuit at about 2
o’clock after doing about 138 miles, we then parked up with all the other cars
from the run and felt really proud with ourselves for being picked by the club
to be at this event and would like to thank
Ken for arranging it for us.