Bruntingthorpe Max Power Photoshoot (pics and report)

[jimma]

Finally got around to uploading them. Only a few here and obviously the ones in Max Power will look much better.

Bruntingthorpe is where Autocar do their 0-100-0 tests, it has a race track and a 2 mile long straight for testing.

If you don't know the score, Max Power are doing a 6 page article about what car to buy from £3k-5k. They needed several different types of standard car, and so I went along to represent the club. I dislike Max Power and all it stands for but it meant I could plug a few people and the club to thousands of readers, along with spreading the word of the GT.

We had exterior photos taken, interior photos taken, photos of each owner with their respective car, and then moving shots and shots of the group of cars.

Cars that were there were:

Punto GT
Astra with Calibra turbo lump
Peugeot 106 gti with wild cams and head work
RS Turbo Escort with apparently 200 bhp
Saxo VTR
Corsa 16v Sport
Mk3 Golf Gti
Clio 16v
Clio 172 with throttle bodies (friends with the 16v chap and wasn't included in the shoot, just there for the flat out run)

For a standard car photo shoot, the 16v Clio and my GT were the only ones even remotely standard, but there.

I think both Julie and I represented PSC quite well, I managed to give the Max Power chap 3 A5 pages on basic mods for the GT, what to buy, what to look for and so on, plus Mook's number and the website along with some other plugs.

After doing some static shots, we proceeded with moving shots at 40 mph with all cars driving down the 2 mile strip. Naturally the guy in the RS Turbo leaned out the window and made wanker signs at the camera when provoked, which I suppose will appeal to the Max Power target audience.

With the exception of the two clios and myself ever other driver felt the need to rev the nuts off their engines every 5 mins, I suppose to indicate the size of their penises. Those poor turbo engines being bounced off the rev limiters whilst cold, oh well.

After all the shoots and so on we had an hour's worth of track time left. So we were all allowed to race around the track for a bit. I think the Max Power guys got more than they bargained for because after 5 or 6 laps everyone stopped racing except myself, the 16v clio and the 172 with throttle bodies (200+ bhp apparently). I'd overtaken pretty much everything apart from these two anyway, and yes that included the RS Turbo (under braking if I remember correctly, and it limped home with an oil leak anyway) and the Astra Turbo (which was driven by a **** and I overtook on the 120 mph corner giving him plenty of space). On top of which the Saxo driver lost control at the end of what I was doing 138 mph straight and rear ended into the crash water butts. He was okay, but the back of the car wasn't great, how embarassing.

There were loads of pictures taken of myself and the clio 16v racing, I was just about beating him (16 psi constant at that point, was scared to run more on standard ic and mapping) on the straights but he was good around the corners and I kept up with him effectively overtaking him after 6 laps or so. Some cracking photos were taken, which I'll post up when the Max Power guys have written the article, of me racing really closely with the 16v clio on three wheels around a corner.

The punto held up really well and I was chuffed, temps never went above just over half way, oil pressure never dropped below 1.75 bar all day and that was on a hot day when i was consistently accelerating to 6500 rpm (wouldn't do more, was wary of having to drive it home) and back down hard under brakes. My red dot discs and pads did me proud, although the fluid wants bleeding and changing now, very spongy after that.

Made me realise that with decent suspension and the right tyres the GT would not be such a bad driving car. The pull out of each corner was lovely, if somewhat understeering on the slower corners, I was able to feel confident cornering at 120 and then braking hard to 40 for the next corner, felt remarkably stable for what is supposedly a "bad handling car".

Oh, and there are some pics of a hover ped or whatever it's called, secret testing or something or other.

Anyway, I've bored you enough. The magazine is out on June 18th and will hopefully have pictures of the racing we did toward the end, I kept the Punto GT end up, as Julie will agree.



























































There we go, sorry to 56.6k peops, but hopefully everyone will be able to see these.

Thanks

James

[slider]

wicked report mate try to look a bit happier in future yeah

[baby]

what cool pics

[jimma]

wicked report mate try to look a bit happier in future yeah

lol sorry, but thank you. I do things properly

[GarvGT]

=D>

Good report mate. What happened to the Dinner suit?

[jimma]

thanks mark, I had the dinner suit out and ready but julie wouldn't let me!

I didn't look too burberry though

[baby]

i wasnt allowed to wear what i was going to wear.... so james couldnt wear the dinner suit

[y0z2a]

brilliant pictures and great report - there is one discrepancy however...

you overtook me?



As I said, a pleasure meeting you both, and we'll have to catch up at pod or around another track, I was impressed with the GT tho' I was pushing the valver quite hard, but I would have gone quicker, as I told you, I sold it that morning, so was a little concerned about being silly in it.

:-)

See you soon.

/y0z

[Zeus]

the 360 silver dish looks like the best thing there.

[y0z2a]

oh Jimma, the fellow with the saxo was a nice chap. I spoke to him several times throughout the day, am going to see if i can find him on SSC forums.

It was his first time on track and we were giving it some, so... i felt for him.

/y0z