The Krauts are invading!

 Today was German Car day at Brooklands. Sadly, the apathy of the Porksters group continues and I could only persuade one other person from the group to come along. I padded it out with another from the Boxa forum and another from the PPCC club for a grand total of 4 - oh well...

I suppose one advantage of this small group was the superb location we were allocated, right outside the famous clubhouse, opposite the beautiful Napier Railton barn:

 

The Napier is in that green building in the background but my camera wasn't good enough to sort out the contrast.

The rest of the meet was very good, although surprisingly few Porsches - I counted only about 5 other Boxsters and a similar number of 911s; quite strange. There were a huge number of beemers, Audis and Mercs, as expected (apologies for the lack of pictures), including the huge group of C63s my son is a member of - or should I say, was!

Yup, after 18 months of ownership (a record for him), the thunderous C63 is sold and it all happened within 12 hours; my son told me on Saturday morning that he had decided to sell, partly because of the cost of the thing but also because the Nurburgring has given him a taste for the track and the C63 can't get on any tracks because of the noise. So, he spent Saturday searching, found what he wanted, drove to Bournemouth (2 hours away) and did the deal! He doesn't hang about, my son...

So what's he got, I hear you say? A sensible-sounding BMW M4, completely stock, 425bhp. I thought, "OK, that's better than the mental, C63", right? Nope...

The C63 has a rep as an animal because of its headline 6.3 litre engine and it is - but it's NA, so all the power comes in high up the rev range - 0-60 is 4.3s which is obviously quick BUT the M4 is 3.8s. It has 2 turbos, a small one for low revs, a bigger one at higher revs, no turbo lag at all and has more torque and less weight than the C63. Because of those turbos, all that torque is available at 1k revs - the thing spins it's wheels in the first 3 gears in the dry! It is absolutely nuts and scary as hell as a passenger as it crabs sideways up the road - far worse than the C63 ever was. I now understand all those YT videos of people crashing in a straight line. My son, however, seems to have it under perfect control after less than a day with the thing and is ecstatic...hopefully, he won't wrap it round a tree.

It has occurred to me that my recent wobbles with Barry is because of the new brake pads because thats when it started - are the fronts now much better than the rear (although same EBC pads) and the weight transfer is unsettling the car? Because it's worst as I brake hard for corners....hmm...maybe in combination with the new rear tyres?

American Iron

 New tyres fitted - made no difference at all. On a run at the weekend, my traction control light came on far more than normal and the waywardness remains. Now, the roads were wet and the tyres are new, so maybe not scrubbed in? I turned off the traction control and didn't have any issues ie. driving into a hedge, so not really sure what is going on. I'd say maybe the shocks are losing it but then I'd expect the ride to soften, which is not happening. Maybe it is just the colder, damper weather?

The run I mentioned was a short country route to Pine Ridge golf course in Bagley (I think?), which holds a monthly classic car and hotrod meet. It was pretty small and seemed to consist mostly of 60s-80s American muscle cars, with only 1 or 2 hot rods but it was a fun run and, as always, a great bacon and egg roll:

The nicest wooden wheel I've ever seen (they are normally too spindly for me - this was pretty chunky):

A Morris Minor with supercharger - probably upped power to 60bhp?

This was the star of the show - the guy bought it like this and it was last painted 25 years ago in California, which is an amazing job:

A mere 7L engine:

Haynes Meanz Cars

 I had a choice of a long (250 mile round trip) journey to the Haynes museum for a special car meet they were having or save it and do a long weekend in Wales next week. Deciding it was unfair to leave my wife a week before my daughter leaves us to go to university, Somerset it was...

The Haynes Museum is a very nice car museum - I last went over 5 years ago, so it was due another visit and they were having a big meet this Sunday. The weather was great when I left home at 8am and my TomTom satnav gave me a really good route to the museum, using the A30 which I much prefer over the soulless A303.

About half way there, the weather turned and the heavens opened - fortunately, it stopped just before I arrived at the museum and stayed dry for the rest of the day, although the car park was a muddy hell and Barry badly needs a clean now.

The actual meet was very good - all the usual suspects (Astons, Ferraris, Porsches, 80s Fords, old Brits etc), with some extra weirdness as well - my highlight was this 1924 Rolls, which spent most of it's life in Africa, hence the ivory tusk on the bonnet and the rifles on the passenger wing:

It's still used regularly, driving 5k miles last year and has never been restored - amazing.

Quite a few other interesting things - a 90s MG ZRX (or something), with a 4L V8. I remember when these came and they were generally laughed at but they've aged well, I think:

Dunno what this was but looked mean:

Beautifully built Volvo Amazon Estate:

Nice Dino:

A slammed Jaaag:

A Fiat 130 (I think?) - you can see the Ferrari heritage from the Mondial etc:

A HUGE Buick:

One of those classics I'd love to own if I could afford it:

Inside, the museum had changed a bit since I last saw it - the Red Room (my name, not sure if they call it that) was awesome, with a 986 Boxster in the middle:

This is an Alfa Romeo - stunning:

Curves and angles - which is better? It's a tricky one:

The V16 engine from a 1930s Cadillac:

An absolutely stunning 30s Duesenberg:

An immaculately restored '65 Mustang:

If I ever repaint Barry, this might be the scheme I'd use:

And finally, a very rare (1 of only 3 in the UK) Scirocco Cabriolet - damn ugly but pretty special:

All in all, a good, if not rather long, day out and I had a fun hoon on the way home. 

Barry is feeling a bit 'loose' sometimes - I'm not sure if this just me finally getting used to his intricacies, the shocks due replacement or the almost bald rear tyres. Tyres are due to be replaced this week - see if that changes anything...

BTW, forgot to mention that Barry broke the big 100K mile barrier on day 1 of our Alps trip and has now just ticked over 103k miles - a few more years left in the old guy yet...