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Club Helluvit members are an eclectic mix of petrolheads, car geeks and Sunday drivers: don't worry, you'll fit in!  Our current members drive everything from Ferraris to MG TFs and from the latest Porsche to the oldest Alfa Romeo!  Membership of Club Helluvit is currently free!  The only entry qualification is that you drive a sports car!  (Sports bikers are also welcome).  We believe that Club Helluvit is the only all-marques sports car club in the area, although we would like to hear from you if you know different.

Total membership is now 364 members!

Please add your email address in the box at the right if you would like us to send you a regular email with details of our sports car club events.

Monthly events - international driving tours - free membership!

2008 Programme of Events
Provisional dates are shown below.  Please watch this space for more details - coming soon!  Events marked in orange are events organised by Club Helluvit or external events to which Club Helluvit will be hoping to lead a cavalcade of cars!  Events marked in normal type are for your information only - Club Helluvit members may be attending these external events.  Look further down the page for reviews of past events.

May: Sponsored Pier to Pier Walk / Run (Bournemouth to Boscombe and back) - 11th May, 2008.
(All proceeds to UNICEF).  Our annual ETC / Helluvit Pier to Pier Walk / Run takes place this Sunday, 11th May.

This is foot race, by the way, so do not even think about trying to do it in your Ferrari or TVR!

Place, date and time: Meet at ETC International College (in the cafe behind the college building), 24 West Hill Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5PG at 11.00 hrs.  Participants will walk down to the start line (Bournemouth Pier) together, in time for the start of the event at 11.45 hrs.

Items required: warm walking / running clothes and comfortable walking books / running shoes.  Make sure that you bring a drink, a change of clothing, a towel and a warm coat, in case the weather is bad.  Do not bring valuables!

Entry fee: £1 per person.  Suggested: £3 per person.  All proceeds will go to UNICEF and the total amount collected will be announced in a future email, in Listed magazine and on the ETC and Helluvit websites.  UNICEF will be asked to provide a receipt to indicate the total collected.  Any larger donations should be in the form of a cheque made payable to UNICEF.

Prizes: there will be a small prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places amongst the runners and another prize for the first walker back to Boscombe Pier.  No cheating please!

This event is open to everyone over the age of 18, including Helluvit members, ETC staff and students, host families, staff and students from other RALSA-member schools, local scout groups, friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, etc.  You should only take part if you are fit and well enough.  If you are not sure, do not enter.  Make sure you warm up properly before the start of the event.  People under the age of 18 may be allowed to enter if they are accompanied by a responsible adult, a parent or guardian - at the discretion of the organisers.

Please join us if you are free and of sound body and mind!  We hope to see you there!

For more information on this event, please call David Jones on 07966 578999.

June: Country Pub Lunch.  Date to be confirmed.
July: Destination to be confirmed.
August: Destination to be confirmed.
September: Destination to be confirmed.
October: Destination to be confirmed.
November: Destination to be confirmed.
December: Destination to be confirmed.

Please telephone David Jones on 07966 578999 or email davidjones@etc-inter.net to confirm your participation in this event.  A great opportunity to get your car back on the road!

Time to get the MX5 back on the road?  Time to polish up the Porsche?  Come and join us: we'd love to meet you!

Please note that all of our sports car tours, trackdays and other motoring events are dependent on the weather and the general driving conditions: please check with the organisers before setting out!

2008 Events Review

January:
Sunday 27th January, 2008 - The New Year Sports Car Road Run: our first run of the year, to Compton Abbas airfield for a coffee, cake and a chat.  We met up at the Orchid Hotel, Bournemouth for a coffee and a chat before driving out to Compton Abbas Airfield along as many winding roads as we could find!  The initial rendezvous turned into an impromptu sports car show as we somehow managed to get the whole of the car park to ourselves!

 

 

We had a great bunch of people and a marvellous selection of cars on this run: Ford GT40, AC Cobra, Lotus 7, Lotus Elise, Porsche 924S, TVR, BMW Z3, MGF.  It was also great to meet Tina at the airfield who hopes to come on some of our other Road Runs in her Triumph TR6.  Website of the airfield, which includes a map: www.abbasair.com  The airfield is a 5-minute drive from Shaftesbury and about 10 minutes from Blandford.  Mike took the most scenic of routes - perhaps introducing him to more greenery than he had expected - but at least we all kept it on the road (just about!).


Thanks to Yurie, my co-driver, for this great shot of the road near Badbury Rings!

February:
Sunday 24th February, 2008 - Sports Car Road Run and Factory Tour.
In spite of the poor weather, we several cars joined us as we drove from the Orchid Hotel, Bournemouth out to Chippenham for a factory tour at the Invicta Cars production facility!  Have a look at the company website if you would like to learn more about Invicta: www.invictacar.com

 
Left: Profile of the Invicta (thanks to Eric Thompson for the photo).
Right: Some of our members arriving at the Invicta factory.

We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at 11.00 hrs for an 11.30 hrs departure.  We managed to meet up with Allan in his Dax Rush near Blandford and then after a few wrong turnings, we finally ended up at the factory, where several more members were waiting patiently for us to arrive.  Michael Bristow, MD and founder of the re-born Invicta showed us around the production facility, explained the genesis of the car (it grew out of little more than a handful of sketches and rough technical drawings!) and described the complicated processes involved in building a carbon fibre supercar.  Thank you very much to Michael for taking the time and trouble to show us around on a dark, drizzly Sunday and for managing to keep us all enthralled!

 
Left: the mighty Invicta and some of the Helluvit Sports Car Club Members who joined us for the Factory Tour.
Right: the Red Lion pub in Lacock.

Finally, we met for a pub lunch at the Red Lion in Lacock (a great little village in the Cotswolds) before blasting home through some pretty torrid weather conditions.  A special mention must go to the guys in the Dax Rush and those in the Caterham Super 7 for braving the rain with barely a grimace!

April:
Sunday 6th April, 2008 - Road Run to Goodwood: we met up for a road run out to Goodwood for the Earl of March's second Breakfast Club meet of the year.  The theme was Modern Sports Cars, so there would probably have been something there to suit everyone's tastes, from TVRs to Lamborghinis.  However, when we met up on the top deck of the Castlepoint shopping centre in Bournemouth at the ludicrously early time of 08.00 hrs, it was snowing so hard that we decided that it would not be wise to drive out to Goodwood.  Discretion proved to be the better part of valour and several of us went for a fry up at Le Cafe on the Sandbanks peninsula.  And then the snow melted!  (Isn't that always the way?!).

 
Thank you to those hardy souls who braved the snow blizzards to come out and meet us!

Would you like to take part in - or sponsor - a future Helluvit event?  You can also sponsor our newsletter, which is sent out to all of our subscribers.  Contact David Jones for more information about sponsorship opportunities.

Remember, there's no charge to members for participation in our monthly road runs: just come along!  But if it's a picnic, remember to bring some food and a frisbee!  Or if it's a Road Run or Rally, bring enough money to buy yourself a coffee and a snack!

 
Left: Yurie Oyama-Jones in Monte Carlo.  Right: David Jones on a recent sportscar tour.

Put yourself in the driving seat!

For more details on all club events, call: + 44 (0) 7966 578999 or send an email to: davidjones@etc-inter.net

Helluvit is sponsored by Red Dragon Motorsport (UK), PRFX Ltd Public Relations and Web Design Company, Battistini's Custom Cycles, Bulldog Martial Arts and ETC International College.

Copyright: Red Dragon Motorsport (UK), 2008