What right thinking petrol-head doesn't love Goodwood? A fabulously fast circuit, very challenging, and one which will bite if you get it wrong. But your four AMOC contenders were all up for it.
Guy Staudt had brought his beautiful, immaculate white V8 Vantage, with it’s racing seats, and now shod on brand new Michelin Pilot Sports 4S tyres, Motorsport UK having rather un-sportingly decided that his Cup 2s were no longer allowed. Why? Who knows? But Guy is a thorough kind of person and had (also rather un-sportingly in my view) spent the previous Monday at Goodwood on a practice day, with his instructor. And his loyal but somewhat misguided wife Hugette was with him as his Emotional Support Partner in case things did not go all his way.
Also in a Vantage, a stonking V12 in a fetching deep and shiny black, was Tim Price: svelte, eager, sharp and focussed – and that was just the car. No support for Tim, emotional or otherwise. But he did have with him, newly hooked up to his car's diagnostic system and many circulating satellites, a fantastic gadget that allowed him to record the telemetry of his lap in real time and to then play it back later on his phone – revs, positioning on the circuit, braking effort, g-forces. Amazing. Not sure it did him much good, but it was amazing nevertheless.
Peter Watts brought his lovely green DB2/4 Mk ll, which had mis-behaved at Mallory Park, notwithstanding the ministrations of David Reed, (who has been repairing and racing these old bangers for years). But perhaps Peter should have driven it rather than brought it on a trailer, because the old thing was a bit cross and lumpy, and consequently Peter did seem to spend quite a lot of time under the bonnet, tweaking mixtures and distributors and suchlike. All part of the fun, apparently.
Of course, I drove my DB2/4 Mk ll to the meeting (just sayin'), and it performed immaculately. But I had an ace up my sleeve, or so I thought. I had brought another Nigel with me – a spare, if you like. This spare Nigel has been making one 1973 V8 out of three old V8s which had seen better days, doing everything himself, in a lock-up in Crystal Palace, for the last 20 years. Knowledge which I was sure would be transferable to the DB2/4. (It wasn't – Ed.)
We were all much focussed on the weather, as we prepared our cars and kit for the scrutineers' inspection – timing strut (check); oil catch-tank (check); tyres pressures (check); helmets, overalls, and those lovely racing booties that you get to wear (check). Would it rain just after lunch, as predicted? Would we get a couple of dry runs in before the heavens opened? At 8.15, it rained. Just a bit, to keep us on our toes.
Tim had not been to this circuit before, so his first practice was conservative, but still very fast. And he improved from 102.64 on timed run 1 to 97.89 on run 2. On run 3, it absolutely lashed down, so on that one he could only manage 134.08. His best remained run 2.
So Tim was the man to beat. Guy, fully emotionally supported, gritted his teeth, got behind the wheel, and went for it. I am sure he must have scared himself silly, because he ended up setting the fastest time of the Astons at 95.67. And that is quick.
Peter Watts and I meanwhile managed 140.25 and 121.01 on our best runs. I was trying to beat my last year's best time of 118 something, but I just could not pull together a consistent enough lap. Plus I backed off on run 2 because I thought my driver's door wasn't properly shut. I blame the other Nigel for wandering off and not being there to make sure that such things where all ship-shape when I strapped myself in. Not going to bring him again. In defence of our rather unimpressive
times when compared to the moderns, Tim's top speed down the back straight was 145mph. Our old jalopies could only manage 118pm top speed when they were new, and a few of the horses may have shimmied away in the meantime...all in all, not such a bad effort.
So the rain had come as predicted and spoiled our last run. But we had dappled sunshine for most of the rest of the day, and it was fabulous just being there.
And yes, we had Spitfires. Of course we did. It was like a scene out of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. They just can't leave us alone. I wonder if they will stalk us again at Lydden Hill when we go there later in the season?
Hugette's fans will be alarmed to hear that, since her emotional support role was redundant, she ended up reading her book – another one in German - the title of which, when I looked it up, roughly translates as “All the Dead Fly Up: Amerika.” which from the reviews I looked at, is not exactly a cheerful read.
You can see more photographs from the day by clicking this
LINK.
Report by Nigel Grice
Photographs courtesy of Brighton & Hove Motor and Nigel Ellway