Brooklands Autumn Motorsport Day 2022

[Spacenut]

This was one of the last major automotive events on my calendar for this year, so I paid my £1.40 (Premium Event surcharge) and set off at around 8am on Sunday the 9th October. The forecast was promising, with lots of sunshine on offer, but just 4 miles into my journey a sudden temperature change misted up the windscreen and necessitated some rapid adjustments to the demisters! Fortunately all was clear by the time I reached the Hindhead tunnel, but I kept the hot water valve open, just in case.
I arrived at Brooklands 45 minutes later, and entering the site via the Campbell Gate I was immediately directed to the “Motoring Village”. No surprise there, this is where all the undefinable, unimportant, unclassifyable, non-competition cars are sent… it’s not so bad.
What was a surprise was to be stopped at the entrance to the “Nuvolari Paddock”, an area set up by the guys at Auto Italia (co-sponsors for this event) for all the historic, interesting, and famous cars. What? You want me to park in there? Are you sure? “Yes”, was the reply, “it’s all about interesting cars today”. I can’t argue with that!
Wow. What an honour. I parked amongst an eclectic and steadily-growing selection of vehicles – E-type Jags, an ex-BTCC Volvo estate, a forlorn-looking F355 Fezza… I propped the louvre panel open and had a wonder around…



This ex-Mille-Miglia Lancia Aurelia turned up…

...And Alex Jupe brought along his well-used Alfetta GTV6 circuit racer (nice wheels)…


...Towed by this spectacular Fiat 130 saloon…


Wow. So much lovely chrome, I love it. Yum. OK, moving on…

You might remember this Alfa Montreal from my coverage of the Auto Italia event earlier this year…

...but I have not seen this Datsun 240Z on the show circuit before. Japanese racing cars used a copy of the English Minilite magnesium wheels manufactured by RS Watanabe. Still available today…
Now, this has to be one of the prettiest cars here – a Simca Abarth...

Even the rear three-quarter view looks good…

...but at the back it is all-business

Love the trombone exhaust. Yum. OK, where next…?



Apparently some sort of Land Speed Record recreation. Yes, that is two sets of 8 exhaust stubs, in-line. I’m guessing a couple of straight-8 engines running in tandem. I’m sure there is plenty of information on the Internet, but my guess is probably 2 x Mercedes 300SL engines? How did I do?

This is the paddock for the cars heading out to the Mercedes-Benz World test track next door to the main site. In spite of its Turin number plate, the Alitalia livery Stratos is also a replica. The Ultima Spider is also a familiar sight on the show scene. Skyline is the real deal, a proper Godzilla (GTR32). Accept no substitute. And as for the Fezza…


A French entry to the Le Mans 24 hour race. Road-registered no less. Check out the side exhausts and those Cromadoras…

Flanked by the course cars (a Ferrari SF90 Spider-thing and a Porker) was this neat little Fiat 124. The Vernasca Silver Flag hillclimb event stickers caught my attention (more on that later)…

I think that will do for the moment – more to follow in Part 2…
Lauren

[Spacenut]

Back in the paddock area, another regular attendee, the Maserati Khamsin…

...and a rare on-the-move shot that actually worked for a change!

OK, let’s lower the tone a bit...

This car caused some confusion. I kept looking at, and somehow it just didn’t seem right. My immediate thought was “kit car”, but it wasn’t until I had a chat to the owner that the convoluted history came out. Apparently started as a project at an engineering college, the sort-of 911 Targa shell (a fibreglass replica) was equipped with a Ford Pinto engine, in the front, driving the rear wheels, and Capri front struts were installed, but the geometry was all wrong, making driving impossible. Just think, those students could be servicing your car right now! I hope they learned something from the exercise. Anyway, abandoned by the engineering college, the car was picked up by the current owner, who very sensibly removed the shell and plonked it onto a Beetle floorpan, which I suspect was the original intent of the manufacturer. Now road-legal, it rolls on replica Fuchs on the front, but the rears are banded steels with Fuchs hub caps!
I think the original shell is from a Pulsar, a 911 Targa replica marketed in the 1980s by Lemazone. OK, what’s next?
For me, the highlight of the show...

Introducing the Fiat 8V spider by Vignale, the only example ever made…

I had read about the 8V, Fiat’s attempt to produce a V8 sports coupe for the lucrative US market, but naturally I gravitated to the dramatic Ghia 8V “Supersonic”, the most spectacular styling effort, from Carrozeria Ghia. But I hadn’t realised how diminuative these cars were – the Tipo 104 engine displaces just 2 litres – and the car is tiny!

...But as drophead sports cars from the early 1950s go, I think you will agree this example is gorgeous! Driven to the event, it arrived with an equally rare Cisitalia racing car (ex-Nuvolari Mille-Miglia car I was told), which promptly overheated and spewed coolant everywhere. Not an auspicious start to the day, but it was able to drive away under its own steam(!) later…
OK, another loop around the paddock…

Less common, but no less interesting Skyline coupe, this time an R30, which featured lots of great Japanese technology, as Skylines of this period are wont to do, but this time powered by a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. Sorry about the picture, it was a difficult shot with half the car in bright sunlight and the other half in deep shadow…

Fortunately this Fiat 128 3P (tre porte, or 3-door, unlike the earlier coupe with a boot) was almost completely in shadow so photographed better. I have always liked these little cars, like a mini Lancia Beta HPE, not surprising I suppose as the latter was developed after the Fiat takeover of Lancia in the early 1970s…
OK, back to the track cars…




Another failed attempt at an interesting composition. Alfa 33 racer framed by the NASCAR bonnet was supposed to be in-focus, damn this digital technology!

Here you go – a Formula Vee single seater, running the mandated swing-axle transmission with reversed CWP and featuring every trick in the book to tame that unruly behaviour – ultra-long trailing arms, coilovers (AVO dampers, good choice) and a Z-bar linking the two swing axles to control bump and droop.
And speaking of droop, the aftermarket Vitaloni mirror on this Fulvia looks more functional than it does pretty…

And a Lotus Europa rounds things off...

By mid-afternoon it was quite warm, so I sat in the shade of a petrol kiosk at the end of the paddock…


Back at the car, the Fiat 124 had parked up next door, so I asked the owner about the Silver Flag hillclimb event, but it turns out that the organiser is a friend of the magazine and sends over commemorative stickers every year – the 124 has never been to Silver Flag! Apparently if it did go to Italy it would be crushed as a result of punative legislation against modified road cars, which have to be road-registered in order to compete.
And so it was time for the Test Hill event, which saw several cars monstering the steep gradient, including the Le Mans Daytona, but alas, my camera inevitably focused on the bald pate of the guy standing in front of me, so no action shots I’m afraid

And so it was back to the car, and a steady cruise home on reserve fuel. The good news is that that this, the longest run since the American Car day last month, saw no repetition of the “A34 Problem”, which would appear to have been solved. Total distance covered was 72.4 miles, at an average of 38.2 MPG (slightly down on previous runs, perhaps due to less fuel starvation!), average speed was 39.9 MPH and total journey time was 1 hour and 48 minutes door-to-door.
Lauren

[Kegsti66]

As always, a great selection of cars and info from you Lauren.
I share your love for the little Simca, and they are small. Remember looking at a few in a show at Race retro one year when Abarth had a stall. A "new" Fiat 500 looked massive next to them.
The Fiat 8v looks stunning, and what a colour.
Good to see the Daytona still about, for someone not keen on "Fezzas" you took a few photos of it I did some repairs on that twenty odd years ago, it has a long history.
Also really like the presence of the 130 saloon, lovely big cruiser.
Glad you had a good trip without any problems. I took my car up to the Mitcar meet (160 mile round trip) but not a massive turn out of cars. I think two previous cancelations put people off as it was 80-85% Alfa.
Cheers.

[Spacenut]

Thanks Keith - I spoke to several people at the event who had decided not to go to MITCAR due to it being cancelled twice previously (I wasn't even aware that it had been cancelled a second time), even though there were good reasons for each postponement. Perhaps 2023 will be better (I hope so, I might even go next year, I always enjoyed MITCAR).

Yes, when I look back I did commit quite a few pixels to the Daytona, didn't I? I do have some fave Fezzas, just not that many - 250 Lusso, 365P Tre Posti, Dino 206 Competitione Speciale, P2 racer, P5 concept...

There was just something very authentic about the Daytona, and it made mincemeat of the Test Hill, even a bit of sideways like the glory days at Auto Italia with the Pantera GTS5 and ISO Rivolta

Lauren