Autosport Show at Birmingham's NEC

Close to heaven. The innards of the Radical SR. That's a motorbike engine. Check any Youtube video. It's the most fun you can have for less than 100K pounds (with your clothes on...on a racetrack). Much less.
I used to have a race car with a bike engine.

The music of 11 000+ RPM, just behind your helmet.

Magic!

Here's one at Cadwell Park:



The new Noble. And Purty too.
The flippin' Merc, from LeMans

An old IMSA Ferrari from the US, 1980s
Ferrari Dino for sale at the Coys auction. They say it's real.
I sh*t you not. The sign stuck on the car says so. Of course, I wouldn't put adhesive tape on a multi-million dollar famous racecar.

A 60s Ferrari sports racer. I think I saw it at Silverstone last summer
Top speed racer, or a loudspeaker on wheels
from the large fat silhouette car, of the Euro Late Model series
to a tiny circle track single seater, with a bike engine
compare it to the pants on the left.
-Cosine67~~~

London Motorsport Show at Brands Hatch

This is what I call a motorsport show. Do it at a race track, friends. You might just get to go for a hell-raising drive. The show goes on over a weekend, every November.
This car (below) is the one I took a passenger ride in. I'll try to upload the MP3 of it, because its raucous and noisy, but here a pic (got a prob with video upload) of the car in the pits.


JP2 sports racer, used by the racing school at Brands, with a 3.5 litre V6 running on natural gas.

There were other cars you could pay to ride in, like BMW coupes, and an MR2 and some others you go out in, if you could blag your way into it. I was about to go out in a Porsche 968, one of my favourites, driven by a driver named Demetriou, who's making a name for himself in club racing (he was mentioned in Autosport, I think) but then the period ended, and I had to get out.
SOON
Anyway, I had already ridden in the best car that was freely available. So, I didn't try anything else.

It was one of the fastest cars of the day, but seemed slower than the Radical sports racers. Watch turn one (below). (Recordings are showing other folks, not me.)

Sports racer on-board camera
Try to imagine the dip after turn 1 (Paddock Hill Bend)! Your stomach sinks. You wonder how the car sticks to the track (watch from 4:40). We used the Indy Circuit (the red track at 0:30), which is different after turn 3. The Indy doesn't give you much time to think.

(watch the slow-mo instructions from 1:37).

full tilt- brake-turn-full gas downhill/uphill-brake-turn-gas downhill-brake-turn left, etc.
not to mention the gear changes.
3 turns in about 15 seconds.

I drove a Renault Megane Sport (like the one below) at Brands, a couple of years ago, to do my ARDS test. Check race videos to see how people take the first right turn, before going into the dip. I scared my tester by driving so far to the left, in the braking zone, that I had part of the left tire off the asphalt (in mid-air essentially). Remember, the cars over here have the tiller on the right, or ass-backwards, by my estimation.
The tester said "maybe you should find a left-hand drive car". This video shows the Renault going through Turn 2 (Druids) down the next hill to Turn 3 (Graham Hill).
SOON
-Cosine67~~~

you can't save the world one Prius at a time

This is how screwed up our world has become: Seasick Steve, the once vagabond and popular solo musician, was on Top Gear to try out a cheap Korean car on their race track. That's what Top Gear does, folks (it's Jay Leno's favourite show). Anyway, SS said he had a 1951 Chevy station wagon, I think, after having about a hundred old jalopies he'd run into the ground. When he was asked if he'd replace the Chevy, he said something (at 3:45) like:

"When the manufacture of a Prius creates less pollution than it does to run my Chevy for its whole life, then, I'll buy a Prius."

The making of the wonderful new hybrid cars is, itself, hyper-wasteful.

Look at every different thing that goes into a car and you realise that every new car requires the sourcing of a supply of about 1000 individual parts. It's a logistical nightmare, even before you consider the cost of testing, designing, development and transportation.

I'd probably recommend a catalytic car, but he's not the first guy to say this, so it must be true. So, as the rappers say 'don't believe the hype'. Consume less.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Exhaust, that is. Keep your car in good working order, and keep some spare parts handy.

Politicians love wrecking old cars, because everybody thinks THAT will save the environment. It's a failure, though, if the previous owner has to buy a new car to replace the classic he had to surrender. Get it?

That's also handy because I think that classic cars should be kept, if they're attractive. It's just a function of time, money and space. There will always be museums and rich boys with their toys. But, until recently, keeping a classic car was something that many workers could also do.

I used to think that the owners of 20-year old shit-box cars were nuts, but now, not only do I think they're wise, but I believe I might just join them.

I'm also against all those cars that are like a house on wheels. They've got video, A/C, reclining seats, fart-catchers, etc. In contrast, I've become a fan of barebones cars, the kind that small garagistes make in the UK. The Ariel Atom springs to mind. It doesn't even have doors, or a roof, for that matter. Best bugs-in-your-teeth gonzo driving from a street-legal car.

Also, check the Fifth Gear story (can't find video) where Presenter X was given a 200-quid Proton 1.5 with an MOT and parts falling off. He felt liberated because he didn't have to hyperventilate every time he thought about his car being scratched (his real car is a fine Beemer). That particular bucket-of-bolts Proton cost less to buy than a replacement tire for his BMW (270 quid).

So, the idea is the car was made to work for us*. If you spend 25 thousand on a new car, every 5 years let's say, and your income is 25 thou, before or after taxes, you're working one whole year in every five, for your car. Once I realised that, I made sure I would never do it myself. Others are taking out loans to pay for their car. It's nuts! Pay cash, if you've got it.

-Cosine67 ~~~

* what few realise is that the desire to have mod cons, like a car, is what took many people off the farm and made them go to the city to earn cold hard cash.... only for them to end up spending it....on stuff they don't need.