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Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:05 pm
by jonclancy
Anyone else?

8-)

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:58 am
by biggles
Hey Jon
How is the salt situation on the roads? Round here the lanes are thick with it due to Bucks County Council's obsession with salt spreading each time we have a frost. As it hasn’t rained properly for at least a month, it's like Bonneville out there...!

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 9:04 pm
by jonclancy
It’s pretty dusty round here, Timbo. More pollen on the cars than salt.

Hoping to get the XI out this week coming.

Anyone else?

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:07 pm
by Splat
Evening All. Bit bloody quiet around here, isn’t it?

Well LAST year, despite frequent lockdowns here in England, and low level psychological warfare from the British government, frightening people into remaining at home, I actually put quite a few miles on the Eleven!

Just as we went into the first lockdown in late March, the rebuild of the engine and gearbox of my 106,000-mile Gallardo was coming to an end at a workshop 35 cross-country miles away. With traffic levels in England at their lowest since 1956 (!!!), the journeys there and back, across white-sign A-roads and local country lanes were fabulous. Sometimes I didn’t encounter a single other vehicle until I arrived at the town in which the workshop is located. Just glorious!!

(If you want to read about why I decided to have the engine rebuilt, and exactly what’s involved in restoring a 5-litre Italian exotic, I wrote a fully-detailed blog, here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 777027&i=0 )

But the Eleven went into the garage for the last time last September and didn’t emerge again until last week. And that was only to give it a thorough wash and then wax, prior to yesterday (Sunday). Because……

Well firstly, a little background. About a decade ago now, someone on the Goodwood team had the bright idea of starting a “Breakfast Club”; an informal, early morning car meet for anyone and everyone, using the paddock and start/finish straight of the historic Goodwood race track. The idea was to generate a little extra income for the Flying Club café and they anticipated maybe one hundred attendees. Tops!

Of course, like all things Goodwood, it snowballed. Initially you simple arrived at the circuit and if the marshals liked the look of your car, you were directed to the paddock or straight. Everyone else parked in the grass car parks opposite the circuit entrance and walked over the road for a bacon butty, a cuppa, and a chat with fellow car bores.

But the numbers soon meant that they had to be limited somehow. Since that first meet, the GRRC (Goodwood Road and Racing Club) staff have run a half-dozen Breakfast Club events each summer. Each has a theme: Supercar Sunday, Soft-top Sunday, Three Wheels or Less, etc. And a few weeks before each event, Joe Public is asked to submit their online applications for cars to be considered for display, picked by the GRRC team. And anybody is free to apply online for free tickets to attend, on a first-come, first-served basis. I’m not sure how many attendees they allow, but there are usually several thousand for each event!

But the last Breakfast Club meeting was in 2019. None took place last year (I think that there was something else going on?). And this year, there will be only one Breakfast Club, and it was yesterday.

A couple of months ago the 5000 members of the GRRC were emailed to ask for applications to be submitted for cars to display, the only “theme” being that they be cars owned by the members. Each driver was then allowed to bring one guest. Once the cars were picked, the rest of the remaining membership were able to apply for general admission tickets. But I didn’t need to do that, because the Eleven was picked for display! Again, numbers were much more limited than the usual, public events. Because….. you know…..?

With the gates due to open at 7am, I made the slight mistake of arriving five minutes early. “Mistake” because the marshals had been directed to fill the paddock sheds first. Had I arrived 30 minutes later then I’d have been directed onto the start/finish straight, and the photos below would have been a little better!

Still…… it was a great morning out. I’m delighted to say that everybody attending behaved….. just…… normally!! Bacon and egg banjos were consumed, tea was slurped, strangers sat with each other and talked rubbish about cars. Just……. total normality!!!

Having driven the 55 miles there using the motorway and dual-carriageways, I decided that the return run would be cross-country. That unexpectedly took us past the workshops of Paul Lanzante, who had TWO McLaren F1s in the front-of-house showroom. One day……….

http://www.westfield-eleven.org/forum/d ... iew&id=925

http://www.westfield-eleven.org/forum/d ... iew&id=928

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:20 pm
by Splat

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:10 am
by alleggerita
Nice thread on Pistonheads. I am a regular reader but I hardly ever read the supercar threads.

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 12:11 am
by biggles
Likewise Splatters, I really enjoyed your PH thread!

Also, I’ve just clocked the number plate on the Lambo to the right of your W11 at the Breakfast Club meet. I love your plate and that 's another great one for a Lambo as, to me, they are a delightfully cheeky brand of automotive lunacy, in a totally good way!

Regards all
Tim

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:31 pm
by Morris
Yes, I also enjoyed your Pistonheads thread. It made me feel much better about the cost of my little A-Series!

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:54 pm
by jonjh1964
160 miles this morning - photo at Dunkery Hill on Exmoor looking towards Minehead/Watchet.

Re: Out of the starting-blocks

Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:38 am
by Morris
That looks nice. I might be in a position to do that also next summer. The scenery and roads in south Hertfordshire are not quite so inviting though...!