Well, the day of my belated 40th pressie has finally arrived & now passed (see here for details;
'Track Day' &
'Leicester Bound. Again')
We set off down the M1 yesterday morning after a brief incursion into Wakefield & PC World to purchase an external Hard-Drive for Joanne. (160Gb).
A brief journey out of the city saw us on the M1 southbound, with me selecting a steady 65mph set on the Mondeo cruise-control.
A stop for tea & dinner took place at Tibshelf (home of
Ben Kentzer) services, where there's some
unusual carvings by the buildings entrances.
Then it was a straight run to jct 21 & off at the A46, & into Fosse Way Retail Park, so SWMBO could shop........ :roll:
I won't bore you with the details of the hotel (Holiday Inn, St Nicolas Circle, blah, blah....)
Joanne took me out (well, I drove) to Husbands Bosworth; a wonderful place & onwards to Market Harborough to show me one of her projects, which is the relocation of the
'Market Harborough & District Hospital' on Coventry Road into the grounds of
'St Lukes' on Leicester Road. A surprisingly small site!
The town centre is very nice, with the
Old Grammar School up on its 'stilts'
We side-tracked then to find Bruntingthorpe & it's a bl**dy huge airfield, I guess it was a 'V-Bomber' base??
On our return to Leicester, we did find somewhere quite acceptable to eat in the early evening. We found a pasta/pizza restaraunt on Silver Street, called; 'Ask'.
It was most convivial.
A stroll back took us past St Martins, the beautiful
Guild Hall and
Wygston House on Applegate.
This morning saw an damp drizzly morning as the alarm went at 07:00.
By 08:45 we were signed out & away heading in a southerly direction through Oadby & Wigston on the A5199.
That's nice windmill to the west of the road at Arnesby, by the way.
On arrival at the grounds gate, we were directed.
Sadly upon enquiring
, the AVRoe Vulcan (
XH588) that's kept there is only open for viewing on a Sunday, as it's locked in one of the hangers.
The Super-Guppy, Buccaneer, Lightning & various others can be seen.
There's even one of those tanker artics with the outriggers for drivers roll-training.
On arrival at the 'holding area', I only expected perhaps 20 other frozen souls waiting there turn, but it was packed!!
On investigation it turns out that anyone can turn up & on payment either be driven around, or drive the vehicle itself.
On offer were;
Aston-Martin Vantage(?)
Lotus Elise
Porch 911
Ferrari 355 (& 360)
Subaru Impreza WRX
Lamborghini Gallardo (2 of them)
And my chariot :D
As always, I'm struck by the sheer delicacy of it in comparison to the Italian exotica. It looks so small & 'twee'
The driver came over, shook my hand and gave me the keys :D
We got in, quite an easy ingress in comparison to an Elise, he gave me the safety talk; Emergency exits, etc......
Having set the seat for leg-length & rake it was time to start it.
By Gods!, it's loud inside, if not a little worrying :?
A surprisingly heavy clutch & we were off. I didn't stall it.
Sounding like a Top-Fuel dragster grumbling to itself, we headed towards the track, a barely above tickover it was lunging at about 25mph.
"Right foot down & up through the gears"
It was a bit 'squirmy' on the damp surface, but I couldn't help grinning at the way it got to about 85mph in 3rd in what seemed like no time at all.
I think I only got up to perhaps 100
*mph, but with lunatic instructors in Gallardos passing by, perhaps discretion was the better part....?
The large transmission tunnel does make a handy arm brace on the faster right-hand corners :lol:
Given the very wet tarmac on some corners, I was surprised by the sheer grip available & the power it could put down.
Before I knew it the session was over.
Next stop....
Sagaris, as a passenger :D .
And I thought the Griffith was rapid :(bigshock): :(bigshock):
This car really pushed you back in the seat, it brought to mind all the old stories about Cobra 427's & their ferocity.
On the 2nd lap, he really went for it.
We followed an Impreza & Gallardo into the chicane
Gallardo flew past the Impreza
We drew alongside & with a slight fish-tail at 120-ish, dropped the Gallardo :(bigwicked): :(bigwicked):
I saw about 165mph at one point on the back-straight before braking started, no wonder the journalists raved about its performance on its announcement to the motoring world.
On a performance-per-££, it's got to be a world-beater.
The instructor reckoned it's an easier car to go fast in than the Griffith, as it's more aerodynamically stable & the longer wheel-base helps.
He enjoys TVR's as
you drive the car, there's no electronic nannys in the way
And here's the photo link :D
See the bottom of
Page 2 (& page 3)
The operators of these track-days
Big Thunder Oh & here's a taster photo below :D
*I reckon that the Griff was 'off-tune' as it didn't pick up quite as rapidly as 340bhp & 350Ib/ft ought to in a car that dainty, but it as still rapid :D
Now I'm thinking, stuff the 110CSW, I want a Griffith :(biglove):
