What a Difference a Weekend Makes

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

This being the road car section of the magazine, I try hard to limit its racing car content even if I do fail sometimes. But what if you’re racing a road car? Good enough for me.

Besides, there’s an interesting point to be made. When Mazda asked me to team up with three other hacks for this year’s Britcar 24-hour race at Silverstone I was a little hesitant. I’d done the race with them twice before, but in RX-8 coupes which had a bit of power. This time it was an MX-5 roadster with a total of 165bhp and very standard save having its interior stripped, safety gear added and some racing suspension, brakes and slicks. Then I saw the entry list full-race Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs and an Aquila, which looked and went like an LMP car. Did I really want to race so badly I was happy to spend most of my stints scanning the mirror and diving out of the way of far faster opposition? Of course I did.

We qualified 49th out of 59 cars, which is 10 places higher than I’d anticipated, and duly set off on the long day’s journey into night and day again.

I’d love to tell you the reason we finished 16th was our heroics at the helm, but in fact all we did was drive as fast as we could without making errors. Yes, 24 hours without even a spin is an achievement of sorts. But the result was down to two factors, neither to do with the drivers.< /p>

First, the way the car was prepped and run. You didn’t need to do more than wander into the pitlane to know that Jota Sport were the best prepared, most professional team at the race and having watched them work for a weekend, it’s hard to see how we could have been in better hands.

But the real relevance is the car itself. I find the fact that you can flog such a car twice round the clock, lose less than seven minutes in unscheduled pit time and find it feeling as good on the last lap as on the first quite thought-provoking.

The car completed 500 laps of the Silverstone GP circuit on a blazing autumn weekend, and it was perfect throughout, save one dodgy wheel bearing. But if you really want to know how understressed the engine is in normal use, consider the fact that it spent a day and a night absolutely on the limit of its ability yet its oil consumption from first to last was undetectable.

I should state also that a properly prepped MX-5 in race trim is genuinely hilarious to drive. It would corner as fast as almost anything out there and proved so stable in the quick corners you’d use the brakes as much to get the car turned in as to slow it down.

This was a great weekend’s giant-killing which started by me being less than sure I wanted to get into the car and ended with me genuinely sorry to get out.