Dec 2009 - MG Car Club Newcastle

More documents

Recommendations

Info

C L U B T O R Q U E Photos, trophies, model cars & then the real ones, all placed in race eras. The earliest race car was a 1914 Marmon, looking great in yellow & brown and a straight 8 Duesenburg. A 1948 Alfa special looked stunning and a Mercedes W198 sports car looked as nice as any Mercedes built. Side by side in a sports car display were a classic 1960 Maserati Birdcage, AJ Foyts 1964 Hussein Dodge Zerex Special, a 1957 Corvette SS special, a Porsche 935 K3 turbo and a Ferrari LM250. All different, all magnificent sports cars. There were plenty of other classic and controversial cars on display. The 1968 Lotus type 56 racer powered by a Pratt & Whitney turbine. One of those cars that you either loved or hated. A door wedge with wheels…. And then there were the original Indy type roadsters. Those built at home, in a shed by mates, for mates. Others factory racers. Big heavy looking cars, shaped like a cigar, with big 252 cubic inch 4cyl Offenhauser engines. Driven by the likes of AJ Foyt, Roger Ward & Johnnie Parsons, these cars looked at times agricultural, but were great looking machines. So many great cars and memorabilia. So that was in short, the museum. Apparently there are another 50 odd cars available to be on display at any one time. The owners of the museum alternate the cars throughout the year. That was a pretty special place to visit. So on to Sunday and race day beckons. Up at 4, leave at 5, arrive at 6, sleep in the car till 10 then go into the track. The track is about 15 meters from the public roadways. A chain wire fence goes around 75% of the track. The food was ok – well, it almost gourmet compared to what Oran Park serves up. I see most nodding in probable agreement. The water was cold and the US beer is rubbish – more nods. Jase & I had pretty good seats, which saw the exit of the pit area, the end of the main straight, turn 1, the short chute towards turn 2 and the exit of turn 2. The place was packed, as you would expect. But the crowd figures at the Indy 500 are never released to the public. The place holds between 300,000 & 500,000, depending on which website you visit. It does seat 257,000 fans, but with the motor homes, seating on the grassed banking, corporate suites etc, 400,000 is a reasonable estimate. The race itself was not great. The overall experience was brilliant, and something that would never be forgotten. But the race was somewhat pedestrian. The teams & drivers are no doubt world class, but the biggest problem is that with control engines, tyres, chassis, aero packages it all becomes slightly pedestrian with little or no overtaking. I remember 10-15 years ago when Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chev were all engine suppliers at Lola, March and Swift were chassis builders. Racing was great. There was plenty of passing, variables and excitement which is now lacking somewhat in the series. I guess when the series split, and Indy <strong>Car</strong> almost died, something had to be done to unify the series. I guess I’d like to see more variety. But the event itself was great to witness. That can be ticked off the ‘things to do list. Tuesday morning we drove towards Bowling Green in Kentucky where the Chevrolet Corvettes are built. A pre booked tour ($5 US) was arranged, and took a bit over an hour. Page 28
S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 The current model Corvette is the C6. The tour started off where the chassis and drive train are married up on a conveyer, then suspension, wheels & tyres are assembled. Bodywork & electrics are the last bits that make it look like a car. It was a very good tour. Unfortunately no pics were taken. Following the Corvette factory tour, we did a tour of the Corvette museum. The vehicles that are on display are of extremely high standard. There was at least one Corvette model for each year of production, and some very special individual orders and factory race vehicles on display. From the first model – the 1953 C1 Corvette to the latest C6 and everything in between. There were lots of cars that I could have bought home. A 1963 Grand Sport with a 509 big block was by far the best looking car on display. Overall it was a brilliantly set up display. The cars on display were on loan by their owners, with only a few being owned by the actual museum. Even the slow Corvettes (165bhp) from the mid to late 70’s looked OK, and I would have one. Along the way there were the odd gems to be found by the side of the road. An old servo in Bowling Green had about 25 old cars & trucks parked on the sidewalk. An early 1960’s F100, a 1959 El Camino, a ’41 Ford ½ ton truck and a ’51 Plymouth, just sitting there, waiting for someone to save them. All of the vehicles were unlocked – probably couldn’t have been locked, but if you wanted to look over them after hours you did. The prices were a bit over the top for the cars, but they were great to look over. I guess you can tell that this wasn’t your average Church, historical building and sightseeing holiday. It was a boys own dream come true trip that wasn’t half way through. On to Charlotte North <strong>Car</strong>olina. Some here may know that I have some contacts in the V8 Supercar paddock. Well these contacts have contacts with the Nascar fraternity. Namely TRD & Joe Gibbs Racing. These contacts came through with a full guided tour of Joe Gibbs Racing premises. JGR has sponsorship from Home Depot (Joey Logano), M&M’s (Kyle Busch) & Fedex Express (Denny Hamlin) and are constantly running in the top 15 of most Nascar race meets. The tour took in the suspension shop, engineering & chassis shop, paint shop, aerodynamics jigs & the parts of the engine assembly shop. The size of the premises was something else. They have the room for 36 vehicles to be in any state of repair (or disrepair) at any one time. On the day that we toured the shop, three of the transporters – there’s 9 of them, had left for Dover Delaware for the next Nascar race. There’s a full time testing team that test at tracks where the Nascar circus don’t race that year, plus the race team and a spare transporter that’s on the road when the race team is coming back from the previous week. When you look at the V8 Supercar race shops, there’s maybe room for 4 cars all up, unless it’s HRT & they have room for there 4 cars plus 4 spares cars and bits & pieces, the Nascar teams are immeasurably bigger. We also had a look at the JGR office’s upstairs, and the trophies, memorabilia and pictures would be worth a mint. The tour was definitely something to remember. The team owner Joe Gibbs is also known for his coaching of the Washington Redskins NFL team, is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame Page 29
Page 1 and 2: Clubtorque S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 Offi
Page 3 and 4: 2010 COMMITTEE NO PHONE CALLS AFTER
Page 5 and 6: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 FEBRUARY 2010 E
Page 7 and 8: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 MEMBERS WIN STA
Page 9 and 10: C L U B T O R Q U E Purchase of Hil
Page 11 and 12: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 I nominated for
Page 13 and 14: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 SECRETARY’S R
Page 15 and 16: C l u b t o r t q u e SOCIAL NEWS P
Page 17 and 18: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 NOTICE OF SPECI
Page 19 and 20: SPEED EVENTS S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 I
Page 21 and 22: RALLY REPORT S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 I
Page 23 and 24: C L U B T O R Q U E F I N A L E V E
Page 25 and 26: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 the holiday. Tu
Page 27: C L U B T O R Q U E MG CONCOURS - N
Page 31 and 32: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 On the Monday w
Page 33 and 34: J U L Y 2 0 0 9 ! "#$$%!
Page 35 and 36: CONCOURS RESULTS S U M M E R 2 0 0
Page 37 and 38: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 Tyre Torque (co
Page 39 and 40: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 Proposed New Cl
Page 41 and 42: Enjoy the Club’s venue S U M M E
Page 43 and 44: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 I am pleased to
Page 45 and 46: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 MOTORKHANA AND
Page 47 and 48: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 LAND PANEL REPO
Page 49 and 50: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 HE SAID, SHE SA
Page 51 and 52: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 MG SpECIALS - f
Page 53 and 54: CAPTAINS CORNER THE END. . that may
Page 55 and 56: CAPTAIN’S CORNER (continued) JUNI

Dec 2009 - MG Car Club Newcastle

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?