P2002 - Reporting Back

Monday 8th April 2002

Sun, speed, beer and banter - a superb weekend in France for PistonHeads

If I'm in bed by 10pm on a Sunday night, I'm either very ill or I've had an exhausting weekend of sun, speed and beer. I'm happy to say I suffered from the latter ailment this weekend.

Having gathered together 30 cars for our trip to the Folembray circuit in France we lined up at the docks in Dover ready for the off on Friday evening. A healthy variety of cars was present with everything from bike powered Locosts to Tuscans and Cerberas via Caterham Superlight, Exige and M3. The hordes of French school children streaming off their coaches homed in on the Tuscan at the front of the queue and - after a little goading - crowded round as Andy Moore started it up and gave it a bit of large. The sight of 100 kids cheering on of Blackpool's beauties would have been the envy of many a car manufacturer!

A quick trip across the channel and PistonHeads invaded France again. Clear blue skies hinted at the gorgeous weather to come and we set off in convoy to Arras. It's always fun travelling in convoy, but with empty French dual carriageway and our little queue of exotica it was an absolute blast. The French V8S owner who pulled onto the motorway looked suitably confused at his 'rare' car being passed by a dozen more TVRs! I won't elaborate on the Honda Civic Type R pulling away from the Chimaera 4.5 at an indicated 155mph...

Friday night in Arras was spent sampling strong continental lager and getting to know our fellow travellers. As is usually the case when a load of PHers are together, the first introductions involved revealing real names, but more importantly Gassing names which are the key to recognition in our little virtual world! I don't recall much more about Friday night thanks to my in depth research into Belgian beer...

Most of us were up at 8am on Saturday eager to get started. Breakfast was consumed rapidly and we set off for the track. The first group of ten cars were briefed and we were out on track mid morning. And what a track it is!

Leaving the pit exit and moving out onto the perfect surface you large it up the hill towards a sweeping left hander, the fastest part of the circuit. A gentle right hander leads into a third gear chicane and a slow right hand hairpin at the top. Squeealing around there with the back end twitching you put the power down and head down the hill. Medium right-hander, quick left hander and then a chicane that really tests your bottle. Get your line right and you'll exit at well over 80mph. Get it wrong and you'll have a very nervous time as your unbalanced car teeters on the limit of adhesion.

Out of the chicane and you've got a quick blast down to a longish second gear right hander. Powering through this bend, many of us had our tyres squealing for mercy before flicking it through the final chicane and back up the pit straight.

I'm delighted to say the level of driver courtesy on track was unprecedented. I've never had the joy to be on a track day without at least one knob tailgating or holding up traffic but on Saturday the courtesy and consideration shown to other drivers - whatever their car - was heartwarming! No brand snobbery here!

After the initial 3 sessions we operated an open pit lane all day and although the track closed at 6pm, by 5:30 everyone had enjoyed so much track time they were heading off to the bar!

Saturday night was spent in a superb lakeside hotel. Dinner, prize giving and beer ensued along with a viewing of some of the superb in car footage shot during the day. Luckily the hotel shut the bar at some point in the morning or I think I'd still be there...

A brief stop at the old Reims Grand Prix circuit

Sunday was once again a glorious day (thank god we paid the weather supplement) and a convoy of 25 cars tootled off through the countryside to a Champagne house for an hour's distraction. That was followed by a cruise back to Calais and we were home in time for tea.

A big thank you to Mike Field for organising the trip and thank you to all those who joined us. The people are what make trips like this a pleasure or a pain and fellow PistonHeaders made this a fabulously funny and hassle-free trip. It was also good to see Gassing Station resident 'Thom' who joined us for the day. In true Gassing spirit, everyone kept him very entertained all day with rides in TVRs galore. We look forward to seeing the hundreds of other pictures of the weekend that everyone took.

And in answer to everyone's question - yes we do plan more trips like this!