MG Car Club International Festival (22-24, June, 2007)

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Just why he took fastest lap by that margin is a complete mystery,I think he must have been asleep for most of the race!!!

I take it that you'll be taking the matter up with him, then!

[terence]

The,err,subject has been raised!!

[John Turner]

Peter Horsman had to endure a strong challenge from Chris Acklam before easing away to victory by just under 5 seconds. They were both in Plus 8s:-


John Clarke in his Plus 4 SS opted to finish in the same position as his competition no, 18th!:-


Showing damage to the nearside rear, Andrew Thompson finished 21st in his roadster. I think that the damage may have been incurred during a coming together with Stefan Scieska's Roadster which retired at Abbey with Offside front damage!:-


Charles Neale's 4/4 (63) in what was surely the oldest car in the race was 16th, whilst Mark Gilbert-Smith (33) came 17th in his Plus 4 SS. David James (11) dropped back to finish 22nd in his Plus 4, but that was because he ran wide onto the gravel on the exit to Abbey and then spun on the grass when trying to regain the track:-

[GBRM]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this; why were there so many none MG built cars but just because they had MG engines allowed to take part when it was obvious they'd be better/quicker?
For some reason I thought this was an MG meeting; it must be great for the MG fans to watch TVRs beat their cars in reality!!

[John Turner]

Gregor, I'm assuming that you are referring to Race 14 (Race 4 on Saturday, as well). Although an MGCC meeting this is a race which forms part of a championship for, and I quote from the programme, 'FIA Appendix K historic sports and GT cars with limited in-period modifications'. It's split into 6 classes, but time constraints mean that I rarely go into the class victories and simply give overall placings. All the results are available in the MST site anyway for those who wish to study them in greater detail!

[MGDavid]

MG folk are not particularly purist, as long as there's somebody to dice with we'll give anyone a race...

[johnh875]

Originally Posted by terence bower

It s not a Hard Top,it is a coupe,such a shame there was only one built,no international history/no HTP Papers.Would have made a brilliant Enduro Racer with it,s Ally Body !!!!!

I wasn't referring to the WSM car as a hardtop by any means! I was making an observation against the cars I have seen, there are some that are a lot more than just the simple hardtop as worn by many of the cars pictured, but still "added to" the basic MG body not terribly dissimilar to a Sunbeam Alpine Harrington. The silver #99 Belgian car is closer to what I was thinking of, but that has a lot more extensive body modifications at the rear.

[terence]

Thats because the Main Bodywork is built in Fibre Glass, Bonded/Rivetted to the monoqoe . Doors,Bonnet &Front Wings are in original materials.There were 55 built and they actually have international race history,MG took notice that they had missed the boat and as Peter say,s ,they then did the GT.

[Peter Mallett]

Not totally off topic but the MGC GTS RMO 699F and its twin (Sebring 1968)were built in a similar way by boding/rivetting the alloy panels to the basic MGB/C shell.

[John Turner]

The last race of this event, and I found myself alone at Abbey (not that there had ever been more than about 6 spectators there!). It included the Jigsaw TR/TSCC Championship, and saw a right old mix of ancient and modern and I soon lost touch of what was going on! Although this was ostensibly for two drivers, it was only the pitstops which were compulsory, some drivers having elected to drive the whole event solo. The top places were the preserve of the 'moderns' with 3 ZRs, those of Wood/Humphrey, Malcolm Gammons and Ben Jacques taking the first 3 places, in that order. The 4th place BMW M3 (Day/Phips) and 5th place MG ZT520 were good fun. The latter, a big V8 saloon, in particular, driven by Paul Luti and Warwick Banks provided loads of opposite lock entertainment through Abbey with only the marshals and Turner to enjoy it.

Well into the race and the track could still get busy. Here, we see Pat Fenn's MGB (22 - 16th), the 3rd place ZR (79), John Thompson's Spitfire (77 - 15th), The MGF Cup Car of Davies/Davies (55 - 23rd) and the Atwood/Blanchett Austin Healey Sprite (64 - DNF):-


Best place of the 'oldies' was the Wheeler/Wheeler MGB which took 8th overall:-


The Woodbridge/Collinson Mg Midget failed to finish and the Triumph GT6 of Christopher Gordon was classified last of the 31 finishers (there were 7 retirees) partly due to a spin at Abbey:-


They have discussed their encounter here folks, so here we have Peter Mallet opposite locking his Capri to 19th place, and Andy Vowell who, unfortunately retired after completing 7 laps:-


Right that finally puts that one to bed. Onward and upward!

[Peter Mallett]

Coo,

I remember that, it got a bit greasey after drying slightly. Don't think I could put more lock on if I tried!

[terence]

So it was understeering at the rear Peter.?

[johnh875]

Come on Peter I'm sure you could - but the middle of a race is perhaps not the time to play around like that!

Re hardtops I didn't realise, but am not surprised, that was done in fibreglass. The type I was thinking of is like the Heron one - image - but not exactly the same, perhaps a local copy. As I originally said, a long way from the WSM car!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by terence bower

So it was understeering at the rear Peter.?

Off topic comment alert I have to type this or my brain will explode! It's fair to say that in the dry a Capri with my set up is one of the most balanced historic/classic saloon cars you can race, as proved at silverstone in May. I'm even getting it to go quicker as I get more time in it, but in the wet? Its really a dog. It snaps out of line even on the straights! Thanks for reading, you've been a wonderful audience. Don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress. We now return you to the topic

In this race I risked running with a low but not completely soft setting on the rear dampers (sort of Rose rather than Brut) but on every lap there were patches of rain at various points on the circuit and you really couldn't predict what the car would do at each corner. On the occaision in the picture I think I'd applied the brakes as late as possible and the fronts locked up leaving me with no choice but to throw the wheel over and stamp on the throttle. I was actually going sideways when the picture was taken!

I've got much more grunt than the Spitfire but you can see that Andy had better grip than me, which made for interesting racing.

Even running with a tank filled to the brim (60 litres) to hold the back down and in those conditions my fastest lap was 2 secs slower than last year's dry time which suggests it would have been much quicker this year in a dry race.

Ireland bend was a bit entertaining too. I think I got all four wheels off the track at least three times and I know I dug a trench there. The car just would not turn in without snap oversteer.

[midgetman]

>>>>>why were there so many none MG built cars

The need to fill grids and pay the BRDC for Bernie's Palace is paramount. There are only so many MGs racing.........

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by johnh875

The type I was thinking of is like the Heron one - image -

I owned one of those back in the 1970's; only ever saw one other and the was over 30 years ago; I wonder how many were made. Where are you now 850 WHW?