luckyseven
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Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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It didn't really start well. I didn't finish work until 2:00 a.m. Saturday... which was of course actually a couple of hours into Sunday. So all things being equal, I felt I'd done quite well to surface at half six. But by the time the kids and waff had been chivvied into motion and squashed into the FD, time had squirted away like that elusive bar of soap in the bath. The queue started at the McDonalds roundabout on the outskirts of Chichester. Not good. I thought I'd do a clever and scooted back up the bypass to the Stane Street turnoff. The queue started at the Lavant turning. curse word sake. One hour later we'd managed to traverse the 1.4 miles to the circuit. So, about half walking speed then. Shoulda known really... the Breakfast Clubs are fantastic for being free admission and attracting a truly spectacular spectrum of motoring glory, but (especially the Supercar Sunday) are in danger of becoming victims of their own success. Once ...finally... in you can't get anywhere near the more interesting of the cars, and half of them have cleared off by ten in the morning while you're still only halfway along the straight. And as for taking any decent, unobstructed photos... forget it. The best you can hope for is the fastest stolen snapshot, or a shot of some obscure detail, often sneaked through a forest of legs or between the iPhones of YouTube slaves. With that in mind, no apologies are offered for the sketchy quality of the picktchers that follow hereon Maybe it's my age (which is now considerable, thanks for mentioning it) but I think a gathering of supercars would tend towards things like this raised as I was on a diet of Magnum PI (though his was a 308GTS rather than GTB, fair enough) and the Daytona in Miami Vice. And errrr... Granadas and MkII Jags in the Sweeney. If you're of an age like me and expect the pack to shuffle all those analogue old metal beasts, then Goodwood Supercar Sunday is not for you. What you actually get is a cornucopia of polymers and composites, electronic everything, fuel injection and hybridisation where a "normal" 458 Italia simply is not speciale enough unless it's a Speciale with several-thousand-dollah stripes and added extra nostrils Free "show" though it may be, there's something slightly distasteful about a row of dealer's brand new Astons, which if you need to ask you're not the clientelle they wish to attract, and which differ only in the lurid colour that the "exclusive" identity package trims the seat piping and wing endplates in. However, positivity is important and if one persisted, one could find some things to love. Actually, quite a few things. In no especial order, here is some things what caught in my glands. Alfa renaissance continues apace, love the preposterous curves and vents of the 4C. Although I'd still take the GT Junior two-litre, thanks Is this a 550? Something like that, Ferrari naming cultures leave me totally baffled. Still, someone clearly decided it wasn't actually possible to make the lost generation of Fez look worse than it left the showroom, and so went full mental on it If Astons were the lingua Franca then McLarens weren't far behind. It's weird, how you can get blase and complacent at walking past endless rows of cars when normally a single example seen out in the wild would stop you in your tracks The rampant sparkly orange of the 570S certainly makes a nice change from the ubiquity of slate-coloured German saloons that British roads seem to suffer from nowadays. But I have to say the white on the 570GT really sets off the mad lines [URL=http://s668.photobucket.com/user/Nik_da_Gr eek/media/Goodwood%20Supercar%20Sunday%2017/570GT%20wht%20r_zpsvfmstohs.jpg.html] [/URL] Unless you'd prefer to not make up your mind and have one of each colour, depending which way up you are? Rather like looking at a modern F1 car, I can't help but think "there must be a reason for all those strakes and vents and scoops and canards and folds and ... oooo, just things... otherwise they wouldn't put them on, but does it really need quite so many of them?" I'm not generally a massive lover of Porsches, and especially not the modern ones, but there are times when you have to just accept they got it right once in a while And again, maybe it's my age, but for me a 911 should look bug-eyed, squat and fat with huge flaps hanging off the rear end. Rather like a frog in a tutu, in fact Speaking of bug-eyed, the Morgan Aeromax is both resolutely old-skool, as primeval as a race memory shape and yet evolved like some Jurassic Park Dominus Rex hybrid thing. Good trick to pull off, that And speaking of unevolved... or maybe simply it was "got right" first time... Flying bedstead errrrmm... not sure how this sneaking in. Autin Van. Just becos It's hard enough getting a decent photo amidst the heaving throng of blundering proles without being maliciously phootbombed by your own offspring. Especially when they look as glekkit as this Of course, what I meant to say was this; I'm not convinced this "Cobra" really was a 427... it certainly didn't sound like a big-block. I've certainly nothing against people building replicas and some are superbly-constructed things but to my mind it's little short of blashphemous when a Cobra starts up to the clattering chunter of a crate Chevy small-block. This one needed bumpstarting by tolerant and slightly amuse marshals, too Arguably the Miura was the first real Supercar, with a capital "S" but her younger sister is probably the one which really brought the concept to the masses. And it still looks utterly mad all these years later, even in this company Somehow what came after never quite managed the same levels of shock and awe despite some genuinely outlandish shapes and colours. There's nothing worse than fighting through the hordes of hoi paloi, jostling yourself into position, lining up THE shot, the one that's going to make you a social media celebrity and win you soooooo many likes... and then find all you've got is a super-clear photo of someone's finger. I feel her pain... Look! It's Dennis *ahem*. As I mentioned, there were a lot of Nu Astons, to the point where you almost didn't even see them any more. Weird phenomenon. I did feel motivated to take some pics of DB11s though. It wasn't till I went through the pics later I noticed how profoundly the loop of sliver... stuff.. that goes round the windows and over the roof seems to jar really badly with the rest of the car. And now I can't unsee it Nope, the DB2 MkIII will do for me, thanks. Now, that's an Aston And while we're talking old steel cars, have a couple of the prettiest Ferrari ever. And yes, you're right, it wasn't badged as a Ferrari. But it is the prettiest. It's my thread and I say so, that's why
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Of course, I can't continue the theme of old steel cars with these excellent Esprits... because the only bit that's steel is the bit in the centre that rusts and lets all the plastic bits fall off. The old gent who owned this S3 was a star; despite being rather baffled by the waff's explanations, he was happy to let our daughter have a sit in his car with her beaver That's Ben the Beaver, of course. Why, what were you thinking? Urgh, you're sick. No, it's an actual thing, this is. Ben the Beaver is her Beaver-Scouts mascot and has his own scrapbook (it's what people did before Facebook, ask your dad) and the kids get custody of him for a week to take him somewhere interesting and then write about it and puts pics in the scrapbook. This resulted in some very baffled but largely tolerant car owners listen with growing confusion to the waff's explanation but then graciously letting daughter and beaver into their innermost sanctums. which meant, of course, The Boy wanted to join in through jealousy But before long it became a trail of Spot-the-Beaver and he began popping up in all kinds of unlikely places... look closer... The li'l un even got to put her beaver in Mike Hawthorn's helmet, which if you hadn't read the preamble above would be the sort of phrase that would have most people hurriedly deleting their browsing history But mostly he was content just to swan about in mega-expensive exotic unobtanium and needless to say, Li'l Miss Attention-grabber loved every second Right, enough puerile beaver gags, shall we get on with moar car? Evidently, this is not just any F12 but an F12 TdF. And I only know that because I googled it I like all the funky stuff that goes on inside a modern headlight And rear lights, for that matter There seems to be quite some leeway as to what actually constitutes a supercar. I mean, I like a big fat Datsun as much as the next man, and they're unarguably a very accomplished sporting coupe... but a Supercar? Nahhh. As proved by the fact they were probably the only thing that outnumbered DB9s. And if there's one every ten yards, it's hardly and exclusive pant-wetting experience seeing one, is it? Still, we do like a nice GTR and I shall commemorate this with a funky flippy one Much like the Camaro, and just like the heady days of the TransAm epic fights, Ford were not to be outdone when comparing ancient and modern You honestly have no appreciation of how much I suffered for this picture. One simple shot cannot convey the hours... OK, minutes... crouching poised like a hunting Jagular (They shout "Halloo" and when you look up, they drop on you), finger on the shutter bent by sheer willpower against the lactic acid just waiting.. waiting... for the microsecond that the crowds part and ZAP! I can get an uninterrupted pic of a Huyara... Haurya... Huayara... Pagani thing. Alright, that takes a bit of poetic license but it wasn't easy. Appreciate it. Now After that, there was no chance of getting another or a different angle and all I could do was content myself with little detail shots. And with Huarayii... Hayruas... Paganis, it's all about the details. I first saw one of these, a silver one, a few years back at the Festival of Speed and thought it was... well, to be honest, I thought it was goppingly ugly. All the little trinkets and baubles it was festooned with were gorgeous and amazing in isolation, but as a whole the actual car was a pig. well, the componentry is still on another level, both in craftsmanship and attention-to-detail, but in this deep maroon colour the car seems to have grown into its face too. Maybe she's a grower? Anyway, those details... Dashboard still no calmer or easier to read at eleventy zillion leptons that the Zondas. Levitating gearlever is a good trick. Not sure about the bollock-operated controls set into the seat squabs, though whether you love it or loath it, one thing it's hard to deny is that the Huayra (YES!) has the best mirrors ever.
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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As is often the case with Goodwood dos, the car park is as interesting, if not more so, than the actual exhibits. I fell deeply in love with this unassuming little Healey See? not only a proper car made of metal and actual things from the periodic table dug out of the ground, not ones that were invented in a laboratory, but leather too. From an actual animal OK, it's not a real GT40, but then it probably didn't cost several million quid either. Superformance replica just needs a less ladies-compact colourscheme to really rock I know Japanese "English" words are often chosen just because they like the noise they make as for any actual meaning, but am I alone in wondering what the hell a Starlet "Glanza" actually is? It sounds like some vestigial gland found in a body cavity somewhere, maybe alongside the Crypts of Lieberkühn or the Islets of Langerhans. And no, I didn't make those up Oh... errrrm.... *coughs* ... how did that one sneak in? *shuffles feet* Best leave that there then. *Ahem* back to the track... 180mph saloon. Awesome.The ultimate sleeper? One of those cars that if you need to be told why it's so achingly cool then you really wouldn't ever get it I was struck given the plethora of Mclaren 570 and 675s, just how old and slightly weird their original rebirth blitzer now looks. Named after everyone's favourite barcode, the MP4-12C is now bereft of the glow bequeathed it by being the car that relaunched Mclaren from hiatus (oooh, another odd word... the Hiatus is downstream from the Glanza, nearer to the Bifkin) and now just looks... well, odd Normally I'd be kinder on account of it having very nice mirrors, but the Huayra has rather curse word on that particular bonfire However, there was one other Mclaren that rather upstaged all the others, no matter how nicely organic the mirrors were or how many F1-style strakes it boasted or whether it was flip-painted or any of that malarkey. Yeah, not too difficult to guess what those particular nostrils belong to, is it? And much like the Pagani, you're only getting the one full-car shot. Honestly, life's just too damned short Did I mention it was busy? Especially round the more "star" cars? Try and spot the P1 and the Huayra in this pic. They're in there, I promise Supercar? No. Super car, maybe. But not one word, no. Leather though. Leather makes up for a good deal! Assymetric vents. Whatever happened to stuff not having to match up neatly? It’s a 70s thing, I suppose. The Khamsin was one of my daughter’s first ever experiences of how cars could be more than just transport… they could be funny and weird and interesting too. I’ll never forget watching her trying to struggle to reconcile why any car would need a windscreen in the boot. “It must be for the doggies”. Miura. That is all. No superlatives necessary Definitely not a supercar. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a more blue-collar conception for a vehicle. Mustangs were only ever supposed to be a disposable product, one that you beat like a ginger stepchild, broke heinously and then threw away and bought a new one next year. If Lee Iaccoca could see what they’ve become, he’d be horrified. What, people still keep them fifty years later? But… but… but… they’re meant to chuck them in the bin and buy next years’ model. What’s the point of having a whole Ford dungeon staffed with Shapes and Colours Fairies knocking out a new swage line every other month if people are going to keep the bloody things? Might be a supercar. If you ignore the Mondeo engine? Oh, OK be like that Now, I think there’s little argument that NSXs are on the edge of supercardom… or at least Junior Supercar-dom. Great design, lovely shape, unique engine, superb handling, aluminium monocoque, Ayrton Senna, blah blah. Yeah, let’s agree they’re entitled to be here, yes? But what the blue blazes is this all about. Really mate, you’re doing it wrong. Just stop it. And yes, the white one was actually on a rotating plinth. Look. But do not touch. In capitals, no less. DO NOT TOUCH! Look though. Look at how tragically desperate for attention I am. Look! Please look. LOOK! Look at me! If you don’t look I cease to exist, I need people to look, I validate my very existence through your admiration. But DO NOT TOUCH I bet that fella has a train set… sorry, a model layout… in his loft, too Anyway, NSXs. Lovely Did anyone mention Ayrton Senna? Thought so Jeez, still like an alien ant farm back here then
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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Project 7. Now there’s a name. Like it was thought up by Gerry Anderson. Although Jaguar claim it’s derived from their legendary seven Le Mans wins, we know the truth. It was going to be a spin-off from Terrahawks until it got cancelled Nice to see another Japanese supercar out and about that wasn’t a Datsun (and yes, I’m overwhelmed by my own hubris at including my car in that). Matte white pearl suits the old boat Zeemax XK-R needs to lay off the gymn work I’m surprised not to see more Vettes at these junkets. After all, America may excel at those small-volume niche supercars possessed of an embarrassment of horsepower and plain embarrassing styling, but the good ol reliable Corvette is still the only real mass-market mass-production stalwart. Still crazy since ’53. And no-one say “Viper” And is we’re talking about mad mental crazy plastic bollides, it would be sinful not to commemorate the British equivalent Funny to think that for all the many Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Astons (of which there were many. Did I mention there were a lot of Astons?) et al, they are all sluggards and lollygags compared to one amongst them that was so sprightly, so accelerative and above all, so damned orange that it puts them all in the shade …albeit slightly less practical for popping to the shops for a pint of milk in One phenomenon I noticed is that it’s often not enough in these exalted circles to have the latest model, or the most expensive factory-option stripe package, or the most letters after the model name. No. What you really need is a numberplate. See, this is a perfect example. This is a McLaren Mercedes SLR. But not just any old common-or-boring-garden variety, it’s the limited edition 722 GT version. It had more power, faster acceleration, bigger wheels, better brakes, stiffer sussies,higher top speed etc etc than the “normal”, boring old 600bhp SLR. And it was named, in a wry nod to the cognoscenti, after the famous Mille Miglia-winning original SLR driven by Sir Stirling Moss and Jenks. Which as ane fule no was numbered 722 after its rally starting time of 07:22. Yeah. That’s not cool or rare or interesting enough. Better stick a numberplate on that… They are, by any standard, awesome things. You don’t need telling, do you? Now, this is proper! Not to be confused with your Renault 5 GT Turbo, which could still be used to pick up a pint of milk without ending up either deaf, mad or dead. This is a proper Group B homologation special rear-engined axe murderer and it’ll hurt you if you look at it funny. Don’t make eye contact, it’ll see it as a sign of aggression Zagato. Always the most challenging of the great Italian carrozzerie. And challenging can be a good thing, when it comes to looks. After all, Kate Moss has endured long after more classically mainstream beauties have wilted and faded away. So Kate Moss challenging is a good thing. John Merrick less so. And Zagato… mehhhhh…. They’ve got as many elephant men in their history as they have Helen of Troys. Or Calibos to Andromeda to not mix metaphors quite so haplessly. I’m not sure which side of the equation the Vanquish V12 falls, but I do know it has the coolest rear lights since electric bar fires went out of fashion in the late 1970s Regular readers will know well that when it somes to supercars I have an almost unhealthy predeliction for one particular flavour. A peerless mix of Italian craftsmanship, American grunt… umm, err, Dutch styling and errrm… Argentinian shady dealing. I’ve probably gushed every conceivable superlative out on the subject in the past, so I’ll just shut up and post the pics Hhhhnnnnhhhh, a GTS, too. OOOOf And that’s pretty much that. We’re at the end, beautiful friend. The end. Yes we are, just deal with it. Yes, there were thousands of cars there but I didn’t take photos of all of them. However, there was a prominent group of a certain model that deserves preserving in pixels at every opportunity. A model that even though I’m pretty certain I’ve photographed from every possible angle over the years, I still can’t resist trying for just one more unique perspective or detail shot A car that genuinely redefined what was possible in its day, which created a whole new genre of car, which was the final model signed off by one of the greatest visionaries the automotive world ever saw And yes, to see one F40 is still a pretty special event. To see ten of them, including two LMs? Well, days like these do not come around often and when they do you realise that all the niggles that spoiled the day, the queues, the terrifyingly expensive bacon rolls, the teeming hordes, all these tiny irritations pale into the insignificance they are. Because I’ve seen and heard a whole phalanx of Ferrari F40s all in one place and that makes life a pretty good place to be After all, look at these two old gimmers. Don’t they look for all the world like two little boys seeing something genuinely amazing for the first time? The first time you saw that Athena poster of the Countach, the first time you heard an unsilenced race engine popping and banging on the overrun into Stowe, the first time a Tuscan came past you on the M1 like a starship coming in to land and it felt like you’d just dropped out of gear… these are the moments that a truly fantastic car burns into our collective psyche and that is why we need such glorious, flawed, irrelevant, essential eccentricities in our life. Because the mundane is for every day and life is not an inexhaustible supply, we need those all too short moments of visceral beautiful madness to carry us through. And so with the place emptying we folded ourselves like some surreal meat origami back into the eminently practical family transport in which we’d arrived And headed off home. And we got about 15 miles per gallon, and were far too hot and cramped and ended up smelling of two-stroke and gasoline. Just like proper supercar journeys should be like. And on the way we went far too fast and made %@#!*ing huge flames out of the exhaust. And many of the people we past in their identikit surface-styled modern safety cell satnav-anesthetised econoboxes no doubt tutted at our irresponsibility and thought “tosser”. And that’s fine. But some of them, just maybe, thought “cool” and the world is just that much a better place. Besides, you and me don’t care, do we? We know better. We’ve seen the future and it’s the past. As always, thanks for reading. Now go away
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Last Edit: May 11, 2017 0:16:57 GMT by luckyseven: somehow confused the swear filter, sorry
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Fantastic read and pics. Thanks for taking the time.
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,961
Club RR Member Number: 29
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As a Lego and F40 fan love this! But did the Beaver get to pose with a F40?
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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heathrobinson
Part of things
Broken everything
Posts: 848
Club RR Member Number: 111
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Stunning pics, and a really good read. I hope you "accidentally" knocked that man's rotating NSX off with you camera bag, or let the beaver get involved. Funny how that's just not on, but a lego F40 is ineffably cool. Especially if it's sitting in the screen of a real one.
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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I think the NSX thing is just trying too hard, whereas the Lego F40 was a) nonchalant and b) Lego and thus uber-cool without trying. Fickle world, innit? We were going to beaver-bomb an F40 but they were so rammed all day that when the owners turned up it was just a job for them to get in and go without punching anyone or running them over that it just didn't seem fair. The Boy got to sit in one before, at the Speed Trials, much to the annoyance of my mate for whom the F40 is his all-time dream car but who couldn't fit his freakish 6'4" frame into it It's one of the best features of events like this, the more chilled-out amongst owners letting kids get involved and being patient with them. After all, kids now are the next generation of car enthusiasts and they should be encouraged to show an interest. As long as they're polite and listen. I don't expect that Rotating-NSX-Man allows that sort of thing on his watch, though
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May 11, 2017 10:15:57 GMT
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Fantastic shots
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g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
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May 11, 2017 10:21:58 GMT
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Nice collection of pics, especially the close ups. Enjoyable read too!
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May 11, 2017 10:27:05 GMT
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Excellent thread, lovely stuff! Incidentally, the three NSXs (pop-up, facelift and new) were brought along by Honda, they're press cars. Which may go some way to explaining the model display
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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May 11, 2017 12:51:25 GMT
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Excellent thread, lovely stuff! Incidentally, the three NSXs (pop-up, facelift and new) were brought along by Honda, they're press cars. Which may go some way to explaining the model display Might be forgivable then I thought the red one looked familiar because it was on a G-plate. I seem to remember it was pre-registered, almost a prototype, before they went on sale in the mass-market and is now a demonstrator for Honda
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May 11, 2017 13:11:19 GMT
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Excellent stuff as ever
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b3nson
Part of things
Posts: 886
Club RR Member Number: 22
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May 11, 2017 16:22:52 GMT
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Great thread, was hoping to make it along but sadly ran out of time. If I won the lottery tomorrow I'd definitely by a McLaren 570. I'd also take the NSX, Tuscan and your RX7 please.
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'99 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo '08 Panda 100HP
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jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 656
Club RR Member Number: 18
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May 11, 2017 21:32:44 GMT
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That was one of the few cars that made me stop and have a good look. The interior switch gear alone is a joy in these. The Austin Van and the 5 Turbo also caught the eye, but I have to say i cant get excited by the modern 'Hypercars' but each to his own and all that. I must of been lucky as did the backroads into Lavant at about 8.30ish and didn't get much of a queue, but the car parks were almost full then, the car park attendants were trying (unsuccessfully) to herd cows to make more room in the overflow areas. You did well to get shots that are as crowd free as you did. TBH i gave up about 10 and pootled to Emsworth to get a Coffee and a Bacon sarnie on the seafront without a 100m queue...
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Last Edit: May 11, 2017 21:35:36 GMT by jpr1977
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thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,646
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May 11, 2017 22:18:07 GMT
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Fabulous, thanks for sharing.
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May 11, 2017 22:27:25 GMT
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Always the best show reports and photos, thank you.
F40, NSX or early 911 for me, thanks.
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May 11, 2017 22:39:14 GMT
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Nice thread. Must admit, the supercar Sunday event is my least favourite breakfast club. So busy, so many halo cars that leave me pretty cold, so I don't bother going but appreciate many of your comments, and there are still many great sights.
The '550' towards the start isn't a Ferrari at all. I thought the glasshouse looked Jaguar and a quick DVLA check confirms, it's an XKR. A little weird!
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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May 12, 2017 19:07:08 GMT
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Nice thread. Must admit, the supercar Sunday event is my least favourite breakfast club. So busy, so many halo cars that leave me pretty cold, so I don't bother going but appreciate many of your comments, and there are still many great sights. The '550' towards the start isn't a Ferrari at all. I thought the glasshouse looked Jaguar and a quick DVLA check confirms, it's an XKR. A little weird! Thanks! I knew that "550" didn't look right... it was both the headlights and the rear window line up from the quarter that upset me... but for the life of me I couldn't think what was actually wrong with it. I have to be honest, XKR would have been a loooooooong way down my list of guesses
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May 12, 2017 21:49:46 GMT
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luckyseven - I know I've said it before but seriously, get a job with a motoring magazine. I think all car enthusiasts would pay good money to read your beautiful prose.
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