It’s The Latte Latte Delta Tea Break 2018

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by delta

Crikkee that’s tough . My first London Marathon I used a mates number . We both ran a half week before and he got injured and gave me his number . Did not win so got away with it . Happy days . Guess you can’t do that now .

Think winning with someone else’s number was the problem- Especially as the registered runner was in a much older age category.... My guess is that the organisers initially thought skulduggery was afoot, if that’s not a pun. Sounds like there was no intent, so just a bit embarrassing for all!

Sorry but have to counter the suggestions of increased fuel mileage using Euro fuel. I’ve never noticed any difference. However, most driving on the mainland is relatively traffic free compared with the U.K. and thus it’s usually possible to achieve better mpg while there. Then it gets ****ed when get back to Blighty.... Not saying there isn’t a difference in the fuel, just that it’s never been apparent when I’ve done calculations (which is during every trip- when you’re struggling to achieve 10mpg you keep an eye on such things!).

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by bauble

I know, I thought long and hard before trying to add something serious to the forum knowing it might well ruin my reputation as a complete buffoon, but the desire to show off overcame my instincts.

Love that! But still I think everything had a hidden sense! Consider the air? May be it has to see with the wheel hub cover shape… Isn't the buffoon who makes the King better? or something like that………

[delta]

Wooo hoooo after waiting on the phone for over 30 mins I've finally claimed my state pension.Told Mrs Delta I am spending it all on motor racing.Happy days.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Wooo hoooo after waiting on the phone for over 30 mins I've finally claimed my state pension.Told Mrs Delta I am spending it all on motor racing.Happy days.

"All"?

Have you found a really low cost event in which to race?

[grantp]

I was just checking out the potential for popping along to Donington for a couple of hours on Thursday for the Brit GT media day.

Some nice sounds coming from today's test session (whatever it is) and warmer temperatures prompted the idea.

Then I noticed the announcement of the cancellation of the single location rally even that was supposed to happen last weekend.

Cancelled because there could be no guarantee of spectator H&S because of the potential for there being snow and ice in various parts or the facility.

I remember, and it was not so long ago, when people were left to make up their own minds about such risks as they trudged through Forestry Commission land that offered little more than a possibly well graded track.

To be far the I would not criticise Donington for the decision since no doubt they would be held responsible for any problems as a leisure activity location. The considerations and risk are different to those that the Forestry Commission would have been faced with in the past. And a single location even may be at greater risk of some sort of wide area surface degradation for the spectator areas as well as the competition route in such conditions. Forgetting the H&S angle it may have been commercially unacceptable to try to run the event.

But heck this is a winter rally being run in March so the possibility of snow and ice must surely have been part of the decision making process about taking the business. Presumably that was under previous management.

Skipping over that point the sad thing is that rallying seems to be heading for oblivion in the UK and H&S considerations seem to be softening any resistance to its demise.

One might point to far more dangerous activities - anything muddy on a bicycle for example - that seem to be lauded as positive risks and might be more attractive to younger generations. I suppose they are more affordable at the entry level but likely much more costly to the NHS, Air Ambulance Services and so on.

All just signs of the times I suppose ...

[Lancsbreaker]

One of my friends (with whom I did a round of the MN circuit championship in November at Oulton) was due to do the round of the championship at Donington and wasn't too happy when it was cancelled, especially as he'd bought some snow tyres......

And having trudged through snowy conditions in the past to watch rallying in the forests it does seem a bit pusillanimous to abandon an event because someone might slip - when they'd probably go sledging instead when the event was cancelled, but I guess the corporate liability lawyers win the day......

[andy97]

Originally Posted by grantp

I was just checking out the potential for popping along to Donington for a couple of hours on Thursday for the Brit GT media day.

Some nice sounds coming from today's test session (whatever it is) and warmer temperatures prompted the idea.

Then I noticed the announcement of the cancellation of the single location rally even that was supposed to happen last weekend.

Cancelled because there could be no guarantee of spectator H&S because of the potential for there being snow and ice in various parts or the facility.

I remember, and it was not so long ago, when people were left to make up their own minds about such risks as they trudged through Forestry Commission land that offered little more than a possibly well graded track.

To be far the I would not criticise Donington for the decision since no doubt they would be held responsible for any problems as a leisure activity location. The considerations and risk are different to those that the Forestry Commission would have been faced with in the past. And a single location even may be at greater risk of some sort of wide area surface degradation for the spectator areas as well as the competition route in such conditions. Forgetting the H&S angle it may have been commercially unacceptable to try to run the event.

But heck this is a winter rally being run in March so the possibility of snow and ice must surely have been part of the decision making process about taking the business. Presumably that was under previous management.

Skipping over that point the sad thing is that rallying seems to be heading for oblivion in the UK and H&S considerations seem to be softening any resistance to its demise.

One might point to far more dangerous activities - anything muddy on a bicycle for example - that seem to be lauded as positive risks and might be more attractive to younger generations. I suppose they are more affordable at the entry level but likely much more costly to the NHS, Air Ambulance Services and so on.

All just signs of the times I suppose ...

We don't live far from each other Grant, so we both know what conditions were like last weekend.

Probably less bad here than in many places but many people still worked from home last week. I think the issue was not quite so much spectator safety but whether a) many competitors and officials/ marshals could actually get there if they were travelling from more than 20 miles or so frorm Donington and b) whether it was safe to set the venue up on Friday and Saturday in the conditions.

The correct decision to cancel I would suggest.

As for the health of rallying, it certainly has its challenges and issues, particularly in multi-venue forest stage rallying but the MN Circuit Rally championship is very strong. It will be interesting to see how popular closed road Tarmac rallying is - I think the first one in England is just a few weeks away in Essex.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by andy97

We don't live far from each other Grant, so we both know what conditions were like last weekend.

Probably less bad here than in many places but many people still worked from home last week. I think the issue was not quite so much spectator safety but whether a) many competitors and officials/ marshals could actually get there if they were travelling from more than 20 miles or so frorm Donington and b) whether it was safe to set the venue up on Friday and Saturday in the conditions.

The correct decision to cancel I would suggest.

As for the health of rallying, it certainly has its challenges and issues, particularly in multi-venue forest stage rallying but the MN Circuit Rally championship is very strong. It will be interesting to see how popular closed road Tarmac rallying is - I think the first one in England is just a few weeks away in Essex.

Hi Andy,

I agree we had far fewer problems and less of a challenge than many places, some of them not too far away.

However my main point was that in times past similar conditions might not have caused cancellation of an event in its entirety. Rather it could have been treated as just an extra challenge to be dealt with. Or possibly not in some cases.

There is probably a case for suggesting that travel to the location might have been too disrupted. But then we seem to have a growing propensity to close roads - especially major roads - for extended periods at the drop of a hat. The weather is a good and likely valid excuse. However some other instances unrelated to weather and the general trend to close things down rather than try to keep them running wherever possible, may not end up as a good policy choice.

Maybe the volume of traffic - no matter what the weather conditions - on our roads makes it impossible to consider anything other than shutting them down for any sort of disruption.

In the same way a single venue event would likely be forced to abandon the entire event if some part of the location was felt to be unfit for the intended purpose. A multi location event might be able to re-plan and still work without having the abandon the whole event.

Whether the trend towards compact single location events that appears to have gathered pace in the past decade is good or bad for the Rally concept in the future remains to be seen. A future with mainly electric vehicles might lead to rallying as we know it becoming a distant memory anyway so perhaps there is no point to being disappointed with loss of the challenges that were presented and overcome in times gone by.

[gary396]

For anyone who may be interested (free entry for spectators apparently):

The VSCC will be hosting Vintage Track Day at Blyton Park (Lincs) on Tuesday 13 March.

https://www.vscc.co.uk/page/events?eventID=1291

[bauble]

Has anyone experience of hiring a simple hospitality unit/tent/gazebo at a circuit, and if the circuits would want to charge if club items were sold. The idea is for a meeting place not a stall.

Thanks,

Bauble.

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by delta

Wooo hoooo after waiting on the phone for over 30 mins I've finally claimed my state pension.Told Mrs Delta I am spending it all on motor racing.Happy days.

Welcome to the club, Iain!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by bauble

Has anyone experience of hiring a simple hospitality unit/tent/gazebo at a circuit, and if the circuits would want to charge if club items were sold. The idea is for a meeting place not a stall. 2

Thanks,

Bauble.

Andy97 might know the answer.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Andy97 might know the answer.

Thank you Peter .................... and Number 97?????

[gary396]

I hope it's wrong but starting to see some sad reports that Henry Hope-Frost has tragically died this evening in a motorbike accident after leaving Goodwood. Reported by David Brabham, Andrew Jordan and others. Very sad if so.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by gary396

I hope it's wrong but starting to see some sad reports that Henry Hope-Frost has tragically died this evening in a motorbike accident after leaving Goodwood. Reported by David Brabham, Andrew Jordan and others. Very sad if so.

True I'm afraid !

[delta]

Just on my way to Goodwood now . Mortified with this very sad news

[Peter Mallett]

Bit I only saw him yesterday. Tragic news.

[Mike Bell]

I see a tribute thread has been started for anyone wishing to share memories and add their respects. He will be sadly missed.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by bauble

Has anyone experience of hiring a simple hospitality unit/tent/gazebo at a circuit, and if the circuits would want to charge if club items were sold. The idea is for a meeting place not a stall.

Thanks,

Bauble.

Apologies for the late arrival, I haven't been on tenths for a few days.

I'm afraid I don't have experience of this, why not just phone the circuit office?

[bauble]

Originally Posted by andy97

Apologies for the late arrival, I haven't been on tenths for a few days.

I'm afraid I don't have experience of this, why not just phone the circuit office?

Fat lot of help your are (). But thanks for your reply Andy, I am mainly interested in the 'hire' aspect, as opposed to purchasing and having to transport one's own equipment. As you suggest the circuits would advise on the other aspects.

Example; A covered unit for a meeting at Snetterton, how difficult would it be to arrange with a 'local' company to access the circuit erect the structure, and collect at the end of the day, without to much hassle with MSV?
Would the cost and paperwork outweigh the transport/cost of purchasing one's own unit, especially for a limited number of outings?

At this stage it is just an idea which, is why I hoped someone might have tried something similar, possibly on a 'one-off' basis.

I live in hope.

[VIVA GT]

OK Baub, for once I will take pity on you and try to help (not that my experience is really relevant to your idea). Hopefully however it will give you an idea on costs.
My wife has a home-baking business and we sell her wares at local shows, fetes and craft fairs etc. A couple of years ago we bought a reasonably good pop up gazebo with full sides which is 2.4 metres square and cost £40.00. We also bought a pretty sturdy folding 8 ft table (far better than a flimsy wallpaper table) for about £80.00. These (and boxes of cakes & pastries etc,) all fit into my Volvo V50 estate car and I'm sure could be squeezed into an Astra.
There are marquee hire companies dotted around (you should be able to find these on the interweb) who could tell you their costs, plus then you would have to ask the circuits what they would want to take off you for the priviledge...

[bauble]

Thank (I suppose) for your input Viv, it is food (for give the pun) for thought.

My enquiries are not for myself but for a Club awash with riches.

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by bauble

Thank (I suppose) for your input Viv, it is food (for give the pun) for thought.

My enquiries are not for myself but for a Club awash with riches.

Have you thought of looking in somewhere like the Autosport Directory (does it still exist?) or even the back pages of Autosport? Or even the ads in your local free papers?

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

While you're all watching the steam trains I'll rattle on about trucks a bit more. One of my first trucks was a very secondhand Volvo F88, the 250GTO of old trucks in terms of values these days. It was so worn out that you couldn't see what any of the switches and levers were supposed to be for. One of the switches brought on a yellow light on the dash so on the basis that it was probably better to be on rather than off I drove it around for a couple of weeks until I took the side out of a parked car because it wouldn't go round corners. Yep, diff lock. They built them tough back then!

Just remembered I had this picture somewhere, should bring back memories for you Colin.

[Colin McKay]

Originally Posted by Tim Falce

Just remembered I had this picture somewhere, should bring back memories for you Colin.

Certainly does Tim. King of the road with 240hp!