|
| Road Runs 20082008 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 road run.
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
| |
