Free monthly sports car road runs, free sports car club membership

 

Join Club Helluvit Today!

Club Helluvit members are an eclectic mix of petrolheads, car geeks and Sunday drivers: don't worry, you'll fit in!  We are based in Bournemouth, but we are active along the South Coast and wherever there's a great driver's road.  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 395 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!

2009 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 and on other pages for reviews of past events.

Forthcoming events:

The summer's here!  Time to get back out there?!

Here are the details of our next sports car road run:

To Be Advised.......  but it'll be an evening run, probably on Tuesday 30th June.

Provisional dates for the remainder of our Helluvit Sunday road runs are as follows:

12th July, 2009.
8th - 9th August, 2009 - Brooklands and Mercedes World museum.
6th September, 2009 (approximately) - French escapade.
4th October, 2009.
1st November, 2009.
6th December, 2009.

Destinations and timings to be confirmed.

If you have any suggestions or requests for a road run or special event, please let us know and we will see what we can do to add them to our programme for 2009.

Please telephone David Jones on 07966 578999 or email davidjones@etc-inter.net to confirm your participation in these events.

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!  Please drive carefully!

Other, non-Helluvit events that you may be interested in:

2009 Rockley Park "Quay for my Car" events
Poole Quay is the place to be seen this summer as the "Quay for my Car" events make a welcome return to the "Summertime in the South" events programme.  "Quay for my Car" welcomes a different marque of car every Friday night, on Poole Quay (May – August, from 6pm – 9pm).  Each week, the event is completely free and there are no advance bookings, so it’s first come, first parked!  Open Top Sports Cars nights are on 1st May, 5th June, 3rd July & 7th August.  Poole Quay is a great place to spend a summer evening, with a selection of cafes, bars and restaurants right on the water’s edge.  It’s a great chance for owners to show off their vehicle and enjoy a relaxed evening.  Each week a different judge will select the “Car of the Week” with a weekly prize for the top car.
For more details, have a look at the Poole Tourism website: www.pooletourism.com

Recent events:

Sunday 14th June, 2009 - Road Run to the Empress of Blandings pub, Copythorne (near Southampton).
Our scheduled Helluvit Road Run out to the Empress of Blandings, a great car club friendly pub not far from Southampton with plenty of parking available and really good bar food on offer.

We met at a different location for the 14th June run: ETC International College car park at 22 West Hill Road, Bournemouth.  BH2 5PG.  This is near the Triangle in Bournemouth town centre.  (Don't worry, there are no speed bumps in the area yet!).

The address of the pub for your Sat nav is:
The Empress of Blandings,
Romsey Road, Copythorne.  Hampshire.  SO40 2PB.
Tel: 02380 812321.

If you would like to have a meal at the pub we recommend that you telephone the pub in advance as it is a very popular haunt on Sundays!

 
Left: Helluvit sports car club members assemble in the pub car park to talk about shiny metal things.
Right: Mr M. Schumacher's Lotus Elan and Des Collins's gorgeous (and rare) Renault Sport Spider.

Sunday 7th June, 2009 - Road Run to Goodwood Circuit for the Supercar Sunday Breakfast Club Meeting
This was a drive from Bournemouth out to Goodwood, near Chichester, to enjoy the free display of modern and classic supercars at the famous motor circuit.  Participation was free. 

We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 08.00 hrs for an 08.30 hrs departure to Goodwood.  Luckily (or unluckily!), there were only a few of us this time, because there was very little parking space available - hence the need to move our rendezvous point to somewhere with more guaranteed space next time.

As usual at these events, there was plenty of shiny supercar metal on display, including the usual crowd of Ferraris, Lambos, Astons, etc, but this time also including some new blood: a few Nissan GTRs, Audi R8s and Alfa Romeo 8Cs, to mention just a few of the star cars!

 
Left: Alfa Romeo 8C - undoubtedly one of the stars of this year's Supercar Sunday.
Right: Nissan GTR, looking all broody on the track at Goodwood.

More photos coming soon!

Sunday 17th May, 2009 - Road Run to the Red Lion pub in the New Forest
This was a short drive from Bournemouth out to the Red Lion pub, near Lymington in the New Forest.  Participation was free.  Dating back to around the 15th Century and mentioned in the Domesday Book, the Red Lion is an amalgamation of an old style forest public house, two old cottages and stables.  Offering cosy beamed rooms, gardens for the summer (fingers crossed!), heated patios, well-kept cask ales and a genuinely warm welcome, this is a classic New Forest pub not to be missed.

We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 10.00 hrs for a 10.30 hrs departure to the pub.  We had a cool, leisurely drive and then a great wide-ranging chat about all things motor-related.  People present included John in his Porsche, Leigh, Leigh's father and Karen in their Jaguar S Type R, Marcus in his Ferrari Scuderia M16 (great noise Marcus!), Bernard and Jacqui in their TVR Griffith (great noise Bernard!).

The address of the Red Lion pub for your sat nav is:
The Red Lion, Boldre, Lymington. 
Hampshire. 
SO41 8NE.
Tel: 01590 673177.

 
Left: Marcus's Ferrari Scuderia M16. 
Right: A very mixed bag of sports cars in the car park at the Red Lion in Boldre!

Sunday 12th April, 2009 - Road Run to the Haynes International Motor Museum, Sparkford, Yeovil.
We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 10.00 hrs for a 10.45 hrs departure to the museum.  What a great set of cars and motorbikes!  Why isn't this museum as well-known as Beaulieu?!  Photos to follow soon.

Sunday 22nd March, 2009 - Road Run to Goodwood Flying Club
Numbers were restricted on this event, so it was first come, first served!  We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 10.00 hrs for a 10.45 hrs departure to the flying club.  Just two cars (John and David in John's Porsche 924S plus Pat and Bob in their Mazda MX5 Mark 1) set off from Bournemouth, but we met up with Carolyn in Midhurst and then blasted down to Goodwood (following in the wake of her awesome Lamborghini!).  Time for a bite to eat with one eye out for the light aircraft constantly taking off and landing just a few hundred yards from the club house!

 
Left: following in the wake of Carolyn's Lamborghini Murcielago.
Right: Lambo, Porsche and Mazda at Goodwood with their crews.

 
Left: Carolyn's Lamborghini lures its next victim.
Right: Driving through the Meon Valley.

Sunday 15th March, 2009 - Road Run to the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum
This was a short drive from Bournemouth out to the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum, Bashley Cross Road, New Milton.  BH25 5SZ.  Entry fee was 5.90 GBP per person.  We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 10.00 hrs for a 10.45 hrs departure to the museum.  This gave us time to have a quick coffee and a chat before we set off.  The run to the museum was enlivened by David's MGF expiring in a gush of steam as its head gasket blew!  (At least it happened on a lovely day and in a picturesque spot!).  Several people met us directly at the museum and enjoyed an excellent tour of some of the golden greats from the heyday of British motorbikes.  There were so many bikes that we hadn't even heard of, but also a lot of names that still elicit nostalgia for the glory days!  Over teas and coffees (and probably more cake than is really wise), we had time for a good natter about cars, bikes, electric bikes and photography before the rescue service turned up to tow away David's MGF!

22nd February, 2009 - Social meet and Road Run to the Sir Walter Tyrell pub
We met at 11am at the Orchid Hotel on Bournemouth's East Cliff (near Bournemouth and Poole College) for a coffee and a chat.  David didn't expect to see anyone, because it hadn't been possible to send out an e-newsletter with details of the planned road run, but amazingly, 7 other people were waiting, cars polished and raring to go.  After some preliminary car talk over coffees and teas in the Orchid Hotel, we headed out to the Sir Walter Tyrell pub in the New Forest for some more petrolhead banter and to discuss ideas for future road runs.  Well done and thank you to those people that made it in spite of the IT breakdown!  Incidentally, a special mention should go to little Kai James - at 16 months old, the club's youngest member - for turning out resplendent in his best racing car T shirt!  The Sir Walter Tyrell (website: www.sirwaltertyrell.co.uk ) is located in the heart of the New Forest, just off the A31 Southampton to Bournemouth road.  The famous Rufus Stone is just about 200 yards south of the pub.  The address of the pub is:
Sir Walter Tyrell,
Brook,
Lyndhurst,
Hampshire.  SO43 7HD.
Telephone: 023 8081 3170.

 
Left: the Sir Walter Tyrell Pub - destination for our February 2009 sports car road run.
Right: The Helluvit Sports Car Club's youngest member on his first road run!

Sunday 25th January, 2009 - Sports Car Road Run to Compton Abbas Airfield.  This was a short drive from Bournemouth out to this small but busy airfield (near Guy Ritchie-land) for a coffee and a chat.  There was quite a good showing, in spite of the weather and it was great to see some new faces too.  The planes were grounded, unfortunately, because the runway was waterlogged (that doesn't happen at Heathrow, thank goodness!), but there was still a buzz to the place as a good few people had arrived for their Sunday lunches, including the local Triumph owners club.  We met at the Orchid Hotel, 34 Gervis Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3DH at about 11.30 hrs before setting off on the drive to Compton Abbas at about 12.00 hrs.  This gave us enough time to have a quick coffee and a chat before we set off.

 
Left: Andrew Marchington's Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Right: Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Volante joins the line-up!

 
Left: Mike's Mercedes SLK AMG. 
Right: Some members of the local Triumph Owners' Club members were also at Compton Abbas.

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!

May:
Sponsored Pier to Pier Run - 11th May, 2008.
(All proceeds to UNICEF).  Our annual ETC / Helluvit Pier to Pier Sponsored Run took place on Sunday, 11th May and involved 22 people taking part in a foot race from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier and back again.  We raised £205 for UNICEF.  Thank you to all those people who took part!

June:
Open House Weekend at Battistinis Custom Cycles, 28th June, 2008.  New and used bikes for sale, custom bike show, S100 Bike Wash, Refreshments, Live Music.  As usual at these affairs, there was a great selection of heavy metal on display and a whole bunch of slightly scary looking bikers parked up in the local pub car park.  Great atmosphere too.

 
Just some of the sparkling chrome, alloy and stainless on display at the Battistinis Custom Cycles open day in June.

Country Pub Lunch.  29th June, 2008.  This was a drive out to the Crown at Marnhull, near Sturminster Newtown, for a great pub lunch and some petrolhead chit-chat.  We met at the Orchid Hotel in Bournemouth (on the East Cliff) at 11.00 hrs, before driving out to Marnhull.  Great weather and great company: that's what it's all about!

 
Left to right: David Jones's MGF, John Dugdale's Smart Roadster and Dave Read's Lotus 7.

July:
Goodwood Breakfast Club meeting, Sunday 6th July, 2008 at Goodwood, near Chichester.  Several members blasted over to Goodwood, in spite of the poor weather (for July) and the sorry state of the roads!  It was an early start, but we needed to get there in good time to beat the crowds!  The theme this time was "Soft-top Sunday - a taste of the British summer".  In spite of the weather, there was still quite a good display of shiny motors and crowds of petrolheads.  Let's hope we get some decent weather next time, so we can all take our tops off!  Snigger, snigger!

 
Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari Testarossa at Goodwood.

August:
Goodwood Breakfast Club meeting, Sunday 3rd August, 2008 at Goodwood, near Chichester.  Several members braved the rain to drive over to Goodwood for the latest in this year's series of themed breakfast club meetings.  The theme this time was  "Thoroughbred Sunday - the quintessential pre-1980 sports car", so there were plenty of classic machines from the good old days on display!

Guest Fabio Ceccolini, representing all things Ferrari, joined David, Eric and Eve for a pootle over to Sandbanks for a more leisurely coffee and chat in Cafe Shore.

Brownie points go to John Dugdale in his Porsche, Dave Read in his Caterham Super 7 and a certain Lotus Elise driver for making the extra effort to get over to Goodwood.

September:
Saturday 26th September: Ariel Motor Company Ltd Factory Tour.  By invitation only.  (We only had 12 places available, unfortunately).  Needless to say, we didn't have any trouble filling the places!

 
Left: John Dugdale with his Smart Roadster and Ed Mitton with his BMW Z4.
Right: Helluvit Sports Car Club Members at the Ariel Atom factory in Crewkerne.

 
Left: Ariel Atom factory - internal view. 
Right: Ariel Atom surrounded by Helluvit Sports Car Club members.

October:
Thruxton trip, Friday 24th October: Some circuit training of the automotive variety at Thruxton!

 
David Jones on track at Thruxton in a Porsche Cayman and an Aston Martin V8 Vantage convertible.  No, he didn't bend anything!

November:
Breakfast banter / Goodwood Breakfast Club meeting, Sunday 2nd November, 2008  Lots of car talk over breakfast at Le Cafe on the Sandbanks Peninsula in Poole.  These early morning meets are too tough for most people!

Simultaneously, other members went on a drive over to Goodwood for their Breakfast Club meeting - the latest in this popular series of automotive events was "Sushi Sunday - a celebration of Japanese motoring culture".  Needless to say, there were plenty of noisy Japanese GT and rally cars on site - you should have brought your ear plugs! 

Would you like to take part in - or sponsor - a future Helluvit event?  You can also sponsor our newsletter from £75 per issue, 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).

Copyright: Red Dragon Motorsport (UK), 2008