March 2010 Renotes Low Quality.pdf - Renault Owners Club Forum

M o t o r s p o rtThe fault was traced to the coil which wasnot giving out a spark. I went to the localfactors and got a new one but it didn’twork as it needed a ballast resistor. I gotanother one which also didn’t work. Irang Lifestyle Renault who said theycould get a proper Renault one – in threedays, Zut alors!The magazine shoot had to go ahead and Ididn’t want to let them down so havingchecked that they could cope with a staticcar arranged with a friend to have my cardelivered to Brand hatch the next day on acar transporter.Being the proud owner of one ofthe last surviving original 5Gordinis, I was asked if I wouldmake my car available for aphotoshoot for “Classics MonthlyMagazine”.The brief was to compare three 80s hothatches and the writer had chosen to usesome of the rarer models available andignore the obvious such as the VW GTI.Accordingly, my 5G, a Ford FiestaSupersport and a Vauxhall Nova Sportwere all summoned to Brands Hatch racecircuit in Kent on a cold Novembermorning.The results of the day were published inthe February 2010 edition, out on January13th, and a very nice feature it was,however, all was not as plain sailing as itlookedThe week before the shoot had beenterrible with rain and more rain. I hadintended to get the car out of the garagethe day before to give it a good clean andpolish. Imagine my horror then when itwouldn’t start, having been used almostdaily for the past few months.I was the first to arrive and unloaded thecar in the car park. The Fiesta arrivedshortly afterwards looking immaculate inthe morning sunshine. The Nova was lastto arrive, also on a low loader but this wasbecause it was in even better condition –the underneath was cleaner than most carsare when they are new. It had apparentlynot been driven on a wet road for years. Isthat what cars are for? Not mine (whenit’s running).My car was placed in position with a bitof help from the other owners and theythen moved everything around it. Theshoot took a couple of hours as whatseemed like hundreds of photos weretaken from all sorts of angles with andwithout flash guns and sun shades.There was a BMW track day going on aswell and it was funny to see theseexpensive and very powerful cars slowdown and stop to look at three old carswith probably fewer horsepower betweenthem.26 r e N o t e s M A G A Z i N eR E N O T E S M A G A Z I N E