Continuing my ongoing efforts to drive the great race tracks of UK and Europe by Caterham, I was at the Donington Historic Festival followed by a Bookatrack track day at Donington in a Caterham 310 and later in the week, driving the same car at Silverstone.
Donington Historic Festival
It does not have the cachet that Goodwood has but it also does not have the price tag or attitude. Its incredibly relaxed. You can wander the paddock, stick your head into an engine bay and at lunch walk the pit row. The circuit is brilliant for spectators. Just take the tunnel into the center of the circuit and walk the inside. Lots of grassed earthen berms to give elevated views of the track and still allow close up viewing. This is a spectator event definitely worth attending.
http://www.doningtonhistoric.com/the-event/
You know you are in for a special day when you walk outside your hotel and find a gorgeous Mercedes 300SL. The hotel parking lot was packed with tasty cars.
Like moth to flame, I was suckered in by this little Escort. Note names on the side for that famous WRC driver/navigator partnership.
They actually race these Bentleys. No roll cage. Just a gutsy driver throwing a brick shithouse into a corner at high speed. These things are quick in a straight line.
I have a soft spot for French rally cars - I love Alpine A110s. One day...
A lovely Lagonda
No prizes for guess why I was checking this one out. FIA Group 2 BMW CSL.
Old school mechanics rock!
This is a replica of the Broadspeed Jaguar from the 70s driven by Derek Bell, amongst others. Powered by a Jaguar V12. I bet its reliability was challenging...
Not a hint of woodworm in sight - a Morgan
Jaguar E-type semi-lightweight. One of these days....
The Legends lunch tent for which I did not qualify had a revolving display of tasty machinery outside for the whole weekend.
Adjustable shocks, 1930s Bentley style
And the dash from the same car. I want a klaxon button on my car!
This is an historically important car for Volvo. It was their first dip into 1980s touring car racing in the very early 1980s. On the back of that they went in with their 1984 Group A evolution car run by Ruedi Eggenberger.
Shark attack! 3 Group A BMWs. Group A cars are big money these days. In this one pic you are probably looking at US$700,000 plus worth of car. I would love the Garage du Bac car - great period race history on that one.
A Ford Capri. European FIA Group 2 with the Westlake V6 that puts out around 300hp and sounds magnificent. These were largely overrun on the continent in the early 70s by the emergence of the BMW CSL although they hung on competitively in the British Touring Car Championship into the beginning of the 80s.
A D-Type - what more can you say. Yes it is genuine and yes I could touch it. Brilliant event to allow you so close to such historic cars. I saw the owner allow a 10 year old kid to sit in the drivers seat and just imagine. Lifelong motoring passion result from those types of youth experiences.
This car regularly runs at Goodwood with name drivers. This weekend it was misbehaving sadly.
A lovely Aston Martin
The Formula 5000 racing was one of the best to watch.
Have a close look at the driver names on these cars - James Hunt, Mike Hailwood.... They may be historic cars but they are still raced hard.
Naturally I had to check this one out. Its a replica and not a true Group C Bathurst car. I chatted to the owner and could actually tell him the early history. 1983 VH Holden Commodore converted to a race car in the early 1990s for the Commodore Cup and eventually Queensland Touring Cars. Somewhere along that line it was converted to having a 1985 Group A VK grill. The owner bought it and modified it with the Australian Group C body kit from 1982-1984 and put the livery of the Bathurst 1000 winner from 1982 on it. He was going through a lot of frustration dialing it in - it was not stopping well nor turning evenly left or right. It was running a Chev 350 which is cheating a little....lot...
The driver was Abbie Eaton, time setting driver on The Grand Tour. She was delightfully relaxed about her father's car despite it misbehaving at times and even so had it as high as 3rd place in the race.
What can you say?
And the one-off Ferrari 'Breadvan'. Unfortunately it broke during the race but was wonderful to watch while it was going at it.
Turning to the racing, apologies for the poor quality as I was taking these on an iPhone.
One of the touring car races with a BTCC car going through Craner Curves.
An Alfa WTCC car exiting Old Hairpin past Donington Hall.
Entering McLean’s.
A nice view of Craner Curves, Old Hairpin and then Starkeys (closest to camera).
A lovely old Alfa GTV Group A touring car.
An Elva
A BMW 635Csi Group A touring car following a Rover SDI Group A UK touring car
The Ferrari ‘Breadvan’
A FIA Group 2 BTCC Mini following a Group A Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth. The Mini later sheared its right side front stub axle and ended up nestled up against the wall where I was standing.
Bookatrack Caterham
Just at the back of the pits is the headquarters for Bookatrack. A big showroom and adjoining office. In a separate building just behind is the maintenance area where they service the rental cars, build customer cars and support Caterham owners.
Of course I had to visit and pick up an order form…
There is a huge mural in the showroom of a Bookatrack rental Caterham on circuit.
But when you look in close you can see it is made of up lots of small images from their track day photography. I appear on this wall in more than one place – just not sure where!
Donington Park Circuit
A circuit with a lot of history – pre-war GP racing plus more modern Formula 1. It is a wonderful drivers circuit set within a natural valley bowl so lots of entertaining elevation change.
This photo shows the back of the circuit in the bowl with the run down through the sensationally fun Craner Curves then the right into Old Hairpin before the track heads left past the old stone bridge that used to be part of Donington Hall.
Extending the view out further, this shows Craner Curves, Old Hairpin andthen the long run through Starkeys heading back up hill.
If you panned right then you see the run into the righthander McLean’s.
Then a short straight uphill to Coppice which is an early apex and long arcing exit.
For this I had a Caterham 310. This is 152hp Sigma engine car. LSD. 5 speed Mazda box. Ideally I would have had more power but it was the only car available for rental at short notice.
Donington, like most UK circuits, is subject to strict noise controls. For my track day it was 98db. Needless to say this Mustang failed it on the sighting laps behind the pace car!!!
This is a relatively short track. We were running the GP configuration which gives the extra arm off the back of the pits that provided extra length. However, it is quick – indicated by the average speed. In my rent-a-caterham it was a third and fourth gear track for the most part. Only went into second for the two hairpins on the GP extension. It may have been a 5 speed box but 5th is an overdrive and you lost speed if you tried to use it. Luckily 4th was a direct drive and so I survived just reving it out to 7000.
Some on track action
I just overtook him…honest!!!
For video we have two options. The first is the 360 video. You can pan the camera around to look out the back or look down on me driving - click and drag the cursor to pan.
Sorry no decent sound on this as it does not support an external microphone.
For those who are conventional and like sound then this is the alternative video.
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