Petrolhead Heaven

[Fat Albert]

*Warning:Limited 944 content*

Had a great day out at www.caringforcars.co.uk yesterday, travelling down in quite a special car, it came 11th at Le Mans in 1996:

One of the other Dads at the kids school is a collector and invited me to travel the 160 miles down there, so 320 miles in a 650 BHP car that's so loud you have to wear headsets to reduce the noise and to be able to speak to each other! The car is mind-alteringly fast/quick and re-calibrates your whole definition of a fast car!
I will link to the video when it has uploaded
There were some other lovely cars there:

Finally some Pork:

 

[simdel1]

Jealous!

What a lovely selection of cars. That Bugatti racer is my favorite from those photos. I'd love to drive a proper pre-war racer one day...

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Wonders whether to delete it, possibly breaches this forum rule:

Do not post material, or provide links to material, that may be considered pornographic,

[][][]

That must have been some drive, and the Aston Zagato is beautiful.[8D]

 

[Fat Albert]

There was a lot of Porn there!
Agree on the little Bugatti (type 51?) it was no Garage Queen, but stunning with that patina!

anyway, some more porn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v"‹=icMvjWK0CiA

Forgot to mention that the F1 owner needed his station car collecting when we got back, so I drove his DB9 down there and his BMW M Coupe (Bread Van) back, I then hopped in my 944 for the drive home...the V12 of the DB9 was divine, but mine did not feel too slow after the Bread Van which was pleasing! (it felt dog slow after the F1 though!)

 

[DivineE]

Wow! Just wow[:-]

 

[TTM]

Nice pics... Traveling in the F1 must have been something... [8D]

According to the width of the radiator, I would say the blue Bug was a standard 35...?

 

[Suffolk944]

Phwoar ![8D]

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: Fat Albert

*Warning:Limited 944 content*

Sorry, that's wrong. "No 944 content whatsoever" would be nearer the truth.

Mods, between that and the 'Pornographic' comment, I think this thread needs a-closin'.

>StompsOffGrumpilyInAJealousHuff-ThatBugattiIsBl00dyLovely< []


Oli.

 

[944Turbo]

Ill be off to buy an F1 when I win the euromillions - very jealous!

 

[Neil Haughey]

ORIGINAL: Fat Albert

anyway, some more porn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v"‹=icMvjWK0CiA

Uber jealous, every day would be like Le Mans relieved in that thing. Well now you now what I Le Mans car feels and sounds like. Wasn't this very same car on Fifth gear a few years back? and isn't that LM bodywork rather than the standard body work?

 

[Fat Albert]

Thanks Chaps, yes it was a huge privilege, not just to have a ride, but such a long one, but I was surprised how comfortable the car was, I spent over 5 hours in it and didn't feel achey at all. The headsets really damped out the noise, I lifted the cans away from ears in the cruise and it was deafening, lots of transmission whine mixed in the resonance of the engine. Overall we managed 13MPG on the trip!! Better than a Range Rover V8 or a Cayenne Turbo!!

Felt very odd parking up at Michaelwood services and just leaving a multi-million pound car in the car park! One of the car's characteristics is that it sends a very low frequency vibe straight into your bladder!
The owner is not precious about the car and when we returned to the car at the services a small crowd had gathered and he invited a couple of kids to have a sit in it whilst he answered a barrage of questions.

One of the strange things on the road is people's reactions to it, most people obviously moved out of the way but quite a few people would pull up alongside and try and photograph it with their phones....which does induce some stress as they are weaving a couple of feet away...also the rear visibility is negligible so we had a few surprises as people came flying past - a motorbike shot up our inside at ton+ as we were about to change lane which could have ended much differently if his timing had been a few seconds different!

The car is a short-tail GTR built for the BMW-backed Bigazzi team for the 1996 Le Mans and raced in the Fina Colours as number 38 driven by Jaques Laffitte, Steve Soper and Marc Duez, Nelson Piquet was amongst the drivers for it's team-mate, here's more detail (including 5th gear review):
http://www.dkeng.co.uk/Vehicle_Archive/25/McLaren_F1_GTR.html
some more photos:

At Michaelwood Services:

 

[944Turbo]

There are pics of it on pistonheads, taken from a car who was in convoy with you on the way back!

 

[Fat Albert]

Which section? I can't find it, there were lots of people taking photos!

Found it in General gassing under spotted

 

[944Turbo]

Think this is where I saw it!

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=375461&i=7000&mid=18958&nmt=Flemke+-+Is+this+your+McLaren%3F+%28Vol+4%29+

 

[Hilux]

I went to the worlds best known Bugatti restorers a couple of weeks ago

Photos can be loaded up if anyone is interested

 

[Fat Albert]

Yes Please Hilux!
My son is an avid Bugatti fan