Postcard No.2 from Race Retro 2018

What an enjoyable day. When I was looking around at attendee cars adajacent the auction house, I got asked whether I was interested in the newish Porsche Targa GTS that I was looking at, I had to admit that tempting as it was, it was a bit out of my affordability zone (£100,000)  plus I didn’t like the black alloy wheels and that did it for me!

For those of us who enjoy motor sport and especially historic motor sport  what a cracking event Race Retro is. Cars, which in those days tended not to have electronic wizardry and came in all sorts of shapes and noises, plus only had rudimentary suggestions of being any where near a wind tunnel, and hanging the tail out was an expected enjoyment for the day.

I’ve been to the Racing Car show a few times, but I view this event as much better, for a few reasons, it feels more homely somehow, although that may be related to how I remember my race meeting days at the basic clinker walkways around Silverstone.

The event included interviews with some very notable motor sport influencers like John Barnard and Frank Dernie, past and current drivers and riders, like Matt Neal, Brain Redman and Steve Parish, but the event was just about the right size to make you feel  closer to the participants.

Highlight of the event was the outside Live Rally Stage which,  was definitely  aided by the nice sunny weather that we had, albeit very cold and being able to be purchase laps as a passenger in the various rally cars around the tight circuit, looked very tempting, but time was against me.

The event celebrated 40 years of ground effects with the Lotus 79 and 3 other cars from that early F1 era and also on display and being celebrated were cars driven by Dan Gurney and the various past cars produced by Dave Richards Prodrive organisation, so plenty to see with just enough walking room to be comfortable.

Access to the undercover Park Ferme was a treat to see how well theses historic rally cars are being kept and maintained and alongside all of this was the almost  obligatory auction, which this time was undertaken by Silverstone Auctions, which usually produces fascinating cars although they were a little outside of my price bracket.

For those who have never been to this Stoneleigh Park event I thoroughly recommend it and as long as the weather stays dry it becomes a very enjoyable varied day and even the in house caterers produce a decent cup of coffee at a very affordable price, what more can one ask for!