Here's last months Webclips from Straight Six....

I have another great selection for you this month starting out with a bit of a mad one, not sure how I found this, or indeed why this chap thought that a repeating slingshot firing steel balls is necessary: http://tinyurl.com/3sgr7l4

Here’s a link that John Castle sent me, it’s the story of a CSL racing car restoration with a link to over 300 photos! http://tinyurl.com/3nh4e67. You can never see too many on car Nurburgring videos so how about this one that Chris Harris recommended: http://tinyurl.com/3m2drsr it’s Jurgen Alzen motorsport, not sure who the driver is or what the car is but together they are very fast.

We’ve probably now all seen the Ken Block videos, you remember, the “gymkhana” series? How about seeing a multiple Pikes Peak victor drifting a “semi” truck….. http://tinyurl.com/3c62yzo

Here’s a funny one that Michal Johnson sent to me, the “Milwaukee” drill companies heavy duty drill http://tinyurl.com/4xccjwb

This is a favourite of mine, if you ever wondered how those guys manage to get their cars looking so fantastic for the concours competitions then wonder no more, this was a real eye opener for me, read it carefully and learn all the tricks http://tinyurl.com/65q7rps

This is scary, someone is innocently driving down the road when a piece of 2x4 comes through the windscreen http://tinyurl.com/6d62r75

Last one for this month, either these guys are VERY talented or they spent hours and hours and hours putting this together, it’s not car related…… http://tinyurl.com/3punrvn

Semi truck drifting, go on, watch the video....

MINI John Cooper Works WRC ride in store for one lucky fan

The largest motoring garden party in the world, set in the heart of the British countryside, will be the idyllic setting for an outing of the MINI John Cooper Works WRC. This will be at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on the 1st - 3rd July and here a member of the public will get the once in a life time chance to be a passenger in one of these iconic cars while it is being driven at speed.

The lucky person, who will sit beside works rally driver, Kris Meeke (GB), on Sunday morning while the car goes through the 1.67 mile loose-surface forest rally stage, will be the winner of a raffle to be held at the annual glittering ball on the Saturday night. Dr Kay Segler, Senior Vice President Brand Management MINI, commented: “When we were invited to be part of this event, which has a worldwide reputation for being one of the biggest on the motorsport calendar, we were delighted. The affection felt for MINI as a brand is amazing, and I am confident the fans at Goodwood will give it as enthusiastic a welcome as I watched it have on its World Rally Championship debut in Sardinia. We wanted to make it even more special, so we felt giving a prize that money could not buy would be a great start.”

Meeke will be driving the car on both the rally stage and up the 1.16 mile hillclimb on all three days. This event, which was founded in 1993 by the owner of Goodwood House, the Earl of March, has become a magnet for fans who come from far and wide to celebrate motorsport and all things automotive at their finest. The hillclimb, which is the main attraction, is very technical and challenging and rises over 300 feet from start to finish.

This year’s theme is ‘Racing Revolutions – Quantum leaps that shaped motorsport’. Priceless machinery from around the world representing two and four wheeled motorsport will be on display for the 150,000 sell-out crowd to see at close quarters.

The MINI WRC Team has been busy testing ahead of its next WRC outing on Rally Finland on 28th - 30th July. This is the second of six WRC events in 2011 that Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle (IR) and Dani Sordo and co-driver Carlos del Barrio (ES) will take part in ahead of a full assault on the WRC in 2012. 

Fathers day at Harewood House with the BMW Car Club

Ever had a go at a concours event? Showed your car? Why not have a go and take part in a great day out at Harewood House this Sunday (19th, Fathers day in case you had forgotten!) where the BMW Car Club will be present as part of Vintage and Classic Vehicle Rally.  The event will be the venue for the 2011 BMW Car Club North East Region 'Concours of the North'. 

The club has a massive 150 car stand and would like to invite you all to come along and join us. You don't have to be showing your car in the concours to come and park your BMW on our stand..it's also much cheaper way of enjoying the show - tickets are £5 per car, payable on the day to one of clubs reps, Andy M or Nick W - they have 50 show field and grounds passes and will give them out on the day, on a first come first served basis. 

the club's stand is on the same plot as last year with it's own 'all day' access via Church Lane which runs from the main A61 all the way down the back of the show field directly to the club stand. There is no need to pre pay or pre book and don't go paying on the gate like all the other visitors. Use our dedicated entrance and buy your ticket on the BMW Car Club stand.

This is a fantastic day out and one not to be missed, so pack up that picnic hamper and come to Harewood House near Leeds on Fathers Day and see some of the finest BMW's in the land battling it out for the silverware.

Showcars - no need to book, just try and make sure you are on site and set up for 9.30 am

BMW, MSV and the BMW Car Club novice track evenings

There are still a few places available at next weeks novice track evening at Snetterton (22nd June), these evenings are designed as an introduction to BMW drivers (that's BMW and Mini) to track days. They are very cheap at just £49, and a great introduction to track day driving. You'll have a briefing followed by some "ducks and drakes" laps behind an instructor at relatively low speed in order to see what the correct lines are. There will also be instructors available to sit in with you and provide instruction and guidance on the lines, braking points and general technique.


Visit the MSV web page here for more information and if you enjoy the evening perhaps you would be interested in attending one the clubs own in-house track days, the next one is at Croft in North Yorkshire. For more details about this event please click here.

What the opposite sex really thinks about your Classic Car.

I am a regular reader of the CCFS (Classic Cars for Sale) newsletter and really like the way that Phil Cooper writes, I have reproduced here, with his permission, a recent blog entry about what the opposite sex thinks about your classic car. The original can be found here

Yesterday I was sent to a seminar to understand how Google works! I can only assume this was the result of some drunken strategy meeting by the senior management of CCFS. Several times I tried explaining that I would much rather have spent the day driving someone else’s E-Type or a Healey 3000 but my plea fell on deaf ears. 

Apparently, as I work on a website it is deemed important that I have a vague understanding of how the internet functions. As a result of this I have not found enough time to do a proper road test this week. (My friend took me out in his ‘immaculate Capri’ but it was dodgy even for a Capri - and I’m not willing to write about it Steve you massive charlatan).

But Steve was refreshingly honest when I asked him why he had bought one of the worst Ford Capris in the history of shoddy workmanship. His ‘women like them don’t they?’ answer got me thinking. 

It transpires my friend had bought a Ford Capri with the expectation of using it to pick up women. Rather interestingly he is still single. If however, Steve had tried harder at university and got a proper job, then rather than buying a really rusty Ford Capri he may have purchased something that women actually do like. 

This conversation came up again a couple of nights ago when I had a few friends round to my flat and we all vaguely agreed that a consideration when buying our cars had been what women think of them. 

One of these guys has been married for 20 years but he still believes that his Lotus Elan is one of the things his wife likes about him. And this works both ways, one of my female friends believes that men look at her differently because she drives a Eunos Roadster. 

How many times have you finished cleaning your car and gone into the house and looked at your; wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc and announced that your freshly polished beauty is ready for inspection? Every time I expect you get the same response to this, ‘yes it looks very nice dear but did you mow the lawn?’ – I guarantee though that in your mind this is not what you hear. I usually hear, ‘Wow Phil, that may be the most amazing car I’ve ever seen, you’re quite a guy, I’m the luckiest girl in the world.’ 

Deep down when we look at the situation logically, we know that our partners are probably not with us because of the car we own. But that should not stop anyone from probing further into this fascinating anthropological study.

I decided that in order to investigate this matter further I should conduct a scientific survey. As roughly 20% of our readers are female it was suggested to me I should write a balanced survey of both men and women. However as it is yet to be proven I am capable of being balanced in anything I do, I decided not to do this. Instead I just e-mailed my survey with pictures of the cars mentioned to 5 of my female friends aged between 25 and 40.

Q1. This is a Ferrari 250 GTO. It’s worth millions. Are you so shallow that if a guy owned one of these you’d be more likely to date him?

Answer. Three said yes- two lied.

Q2. This is my Mini. A common view of the Mini is cute and troublesome much like my good self. Would you agree?

Answer. One agreed, reluctantly. My favourite comment from those that didn’t was, ‘Ah, now I understand why we’re doing this survey. Size does matter Phil’.

Q3. The Jaguar E-type has been voted the most beautiful car of all time on more than one occasion. Would you be worried if you dated someone that owned one, that their car would be more attractive than you?

Answer. All five said no. But four of them should be worried.

Q4. A man tells you he has a classic car because using a recycled car is good for the environment. Do you believe this quite obvious lie and find him sensitive and thoughtful?

Answer. One said yes. Two of those who said no pointed out that I’d tried that line on them. 

Q5. Do you think there is something romantic about classic and vintage vehicles?

Four said yes. Result.

I’m reasonably certain that as a result of this survey I have yet again failed to really achieve anything. But then that’s not really unusual for my blog, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

Next week I’m going to decide what to write about either by consulting a Ouija board or opening Yellow Pages on a random page and somehow connecting classic cars to whatever I land on. 

Until then have a great week.
Phil

philcooper@classiccarsforsale.co.uk

Wessex region concours d'elegance

The clubs Wessex region hold their annual concours d'elegance on father day this year (Sunday 19th June)  at Athelhampton House and Gardens, the event was a great success last year and so the team are back! 

Athelhampton is a stunning 15th century house and gardens for all to enjoy. Situated near Dorchester in Dorset. Contact purebmw@btinternet.com for more information.