Brighton Speed Trials 2008

[Malcolm]

This event is coming up rapidly being on Saturday 13th September and takes place down at Madeira Drive, Brighton, near the pier and aquarium.

The full entry list can be seen at

THE FROSTS BRIGHTON NATIONAL SPEED TRIALS

and not only are the usual 40s there, Nadine and Bjorn are each taking their suprecharged Vipers down, and Andrew is in an MG SV.

Couple of new faces to 40 competition are Chris and Timothy Simpson running their newly built RF40 and Matthew Truelove is sharing my GTD for the first time. That is if it isn't in peices having a new "development" fitted by Southern GT which should speed me up a bit.....

The event is great fun and there is plenty to see. The event can draw 10,000 spectators (if sunny!) and it is especially worth paying to get into the paddock (normally about £10) as you can get really close to a lot of wonderful machinery.

Come and say hi.

 

[Malcolm]

Oooops, missed someone out! And to think we had a good chat at Silverstone the other day....apologies to

Steve Havelock the journalist is running his C5 Corvette as part of the GTD club crowd as well. What with all these V8's and V10's we run we must produce about half the cubic capcity at the whole event!

Let it rumble on......

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Nice one Malc -

A few pictures from last year to get in the mood of the event..

 

[Alan Stamp]

Whats the parking like in Brighton? The multi story is a nightmare (my TVR struggled around there a couple of years ago) I may bring the GTD down if parking is not a problem.

Alan

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Hi Alan -

as I've only ever been in the competitors paddock, I cannot speak from experience, but my wife tells me that parking is a pain in the proverbials!

You can usually find a place, eventually, but it might also leave you with half a mile or more walk to the front (Madeira Drive). To be honest, I believe the earlier you are there the better your chances.

Do drop by to say hello if you make it, we're a friendly bunch and once the initial rush to get scrutineered / practise is out the way there is plenty of time for a chat..

Considering the public parking facilities though you might want to leave the GTD at home though.

 

[Malcolm]

Definately leave the GTD at home if spectating, there is no where to display it in any shape or form. Of course if you enter the car next year and then you get front row parking facilities thrown in......

 

[VCC56]

Really looking forwards to running the Vipers at Brighton, last year we had to retire from the trials......on the M27 on the way there, due to a failure in the fuelling on my car. Cars are now tricked up a bit from last year, so should be intersting and good fun.

Also doing Gurston in the Vipers the day after Brighton, where we're joined by Steve in his gorgeous C5 Vette, Julian in his awesome chevy powered 40 and 007 Martin's silver GTD master piece. Please come'n join us at Gurston, one of the great hill climbs in the UK. Last hill climb of the season for Nadine and myself. Bring on IOM 09!!

 

[James]

Nice one Malc -

A few pictures from last year to get in the mood of the event..

Paul,

There don't appear to be any of me wearing my gimp mask! LOL

See you guys there for a beer, hopefully celebrating my latest aquisition.

James.

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

and would that have 10 cylinders James? :thumbsup:

 

[James]

and would that have 10 cylinders James? :thumbsup:

You already know what it is!

 

[Malcolm]

Very nice JP. Did you get the black interior you wanted?

 

[James]

Its silver with bright dog shit coloured seats. I'll post some pictures once I've actually got it.

 

[James]

Oh, weather looks great for Saturday!

 

[Frank Catt]

We are running 193.5 BHP in a 300 kG car , good power to weight ratio !

 

[Andrew East]

Hi,

Just wishing you guys good luck at Brighton Speed Trials tomorrow.( a bit green eyed!) We Aussies had our own waterfront speed trials that was modelled on Brighton here at my home town of Geelong. The Geelong Speed Trials commenced in 1956, but after 2003 event complaints from a minority of new locals brought the trials to a halt and despite a number attempts to refloat the council has raised the hurdles too high to jump. The Geelong Speed Trials over the years had many famous internationally regarded drivers compete. 1964 it was a young Alan Jones first competition drive along side his father Stan Jones. Not forgetting to mention a number of our forum members running their GT40's

Plenty of photos please so we can savor the event from a distance!

Regards,

Andrew
Off to St Arnaud Quarter Mile for the weekend

 

[Iain]

I have a picture of my Father at the Brighton speed trials circa ? a very very long time ago. I will scan & post on Monday

Iain

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Cool - I look forward to seing the pic Iain.

I popped over to Roy's today, to collect the slicks and a few last minute checks - which was just as well. Reversing out of the garage it was running on 5 cyls....doh!

A fresh set of plugs and a new short HT lead to each of the 8 coils had it firing on seven....Hmmm?

Cyl 3 was still not firing though, good spark but no fuel, (the new plug was bone dry!) which turned out to be either a blocked or stuck injector. Duly removed, reverse flushed and tested/refitted cured the problem - back on all 8 again!

Roll on some dry sunny weather. :thumbsup:

 

[Keith]

I think I've posted this before but nobody noticed. Good luck tomorrow guys....

PS I'm probably the last of the 1/2 milers. Scary stuff believe me.... :smash:

PPS Do you know how incredibly difficult it is to photograph trophies?

I have many more here but the flash seems to wipe out the image...

 

[Malcolm]

I ran the half mile back in 1992 and the last fateful time in 1993, when it was dropped to the quarter mile mid event. The speeds of the big engined single seaters was truly scary, obvious really why they got banned after 93 I guess although it would be nice to be back on the half mile course. I think the road would need resurfacing first as it is really bumpy and at those speeds in any car you are thrown about quite a lot!

Yesterday was my first event with the club for about two years so it was really good to be back in the fold and the excellent social scene. Having a drink at the club house with the boys afterwards was fab. Shame that was the highlight of my day but I guess it is to be expected after zero test miles on a brand new gear shift system although the potential is clearly there. My gearbox mounts need a complete revision to stop the gearbox moving so much under the massive torque (IMHO of course ) and I had to G clamp the gearbox down to give me some chance of finding a gear! There are a few de bugs to do on the set up which were sort of known about before we started the day but I was conveniently turning a blind eye to in the hope it worked straight out the box. Never works but you have to be the optimist.

I think in all my years of attending Brighton, the times set by everyone in 40's were collectively the fastest set of times recorded, (multiple sub 12 second runs), shame I let the team down in that regard but hey ho someone has to come last, my turn this year! And an exciting close finish for the Dave Wilson club trophy with a gnats whisker between Rodger and Julian. I didn't bother to record the times (mine were so depressing) so I will leave it to another to post the full results in due course.