We have just returned home after a great Brooklands experience. You even managed to keep the worst of the rain away for the day.
It was great to have the opportunity to drive up the test hill, and it was a welcome surprise to find out in the briefing that we could have more than 1 go at it as well.
Despite my best intentions of keeping my wallet in my pocket, we still came home £££’s lighter and the boot fuller than when we arrived. Oh well, it kept the merchandise team busy I suppose…
Thanks for all your hard work, and for the help and support of the committee and numerous volunteers, without whom none of this would have been possible.
It was the first time my wife has attended an event of this type with me ( only my second event after Blyton last year but I’ve done loads of Vespa events in my past life).
The history and atmosphere of the venue made the day and our 3 runs up Test Hill were brilliant fun.
Now my wife is looking forward to coming to Blyton with me later in the year as she finally ‘gets it’.
Yes indeed, many thanks from here too. That was my first big event and it was really great to see so many 5`s in one place. Fantastic venue, a real atmospheric part of the World, and you even managed to sort the weather as well.
Very memorable day, Well done for all the hard work behind the scenes. FANTASTIC ! Thank You very much.
Thanks to everyone who came and visited Brooklands today from near and far, the turn out was tremendous given the weather forecast. However, the weather god must have been on our side because all we had was a few spits and spots early on. We were just all on our way out at 5:15pm when the rain came down; couldn’t have timed it better!
We hope that you all enjoyed your day and got to see everything that Brooklands has to offer and you had a safe journey home.
Finally, the biggest thank you has to go to all the volunteers, we couldn’t have managed without them. We thought they’d be finished by lunchtime once everyone was parked up, but because of the test hill events going on meant they didn’t stop all day, and then they helped to pack up at the end. So, thank you to everyone who helped out.
… and thanks to all the Hill Climbers who ‘behaved’ impeccably. It was much appreciated and enabled us to get some of you through as many as four times!
We also had a great time and thought it was a great venue. (Ian thanks for sorting my tickets out)
It was great to have various attractions to visit and thought the Concorde experience was great as well as the other collectors cars exhibited in that area.
Well done OC it’s not easy organising these events it’s very much appreciated.
Thanks to everyone for putting in so much hard work to make today a great success, fantastic value and so much fun, had four goes up the hill which was a hoot.
It seems that quite a few new members joined today and the merchandise we were going to purchase was all gone at the end of the morning hill briefing, the team that mans that stall need a special mention for all their efforts.
Here’s looking forward to the national.
Thumbs up from him and thumbs up from me! Thanks to Val for taking my photograph in the morning, hope the afternoon made up for missing out then.
Loved the lady on the first run i think, that lost it at the top of the climb & sped off in the wrong direction through the coned section and nearly crashed turns out she was used to a auto & was driving a manual & mistook the accelerator for the brake, nearly crashed… well saved though.
She got a round of applause though when she came back
A grand day out, starting with a convoy down the M1/M25 together with our friends from Milton Keynes Area, then fabulous fun on The Hill and meeting old and new friends at the Rally. Finally a spirited drive home across country with half a dozen cars from Northamptonshire Area. Many thanks to all involved in making this a very successful event.
Just wanted to express our thanks in organising yesterday, it was our first Spring rally and we’re really happy we made the 300 mile round trip and 4am alarm clock for it. We got there early as we had entered our car into the competition.
I think we were the 3rd MX5 on site (well, outside the gate) and although it hammered down on the M25 about half hour from Brooklands the weather stayed mostly dry for the rest of the day.
Another one of the motoring mecca’s I’ve wanted to visit has been ticked off the list. The hill climb was good to watch, especially those who “went for it”. We managed to walk/climb about 2/3rds of the way up the banking of the old track before personal safety got the better of us. The museum made you feel like you had gone 70 years back in time. I really couldn’t believe it when I saw Parry Thomas’s land speed record car “Babs” was there, he is one of my motoring heroes who’s life was cut short in that car doing what he loved. They really had larger “gentlemans vegetables” in those days.
Also want to thank the competition judges and staff. It was the second car competition we entered and was definitely better this time. Well done to all those who were involved and thank you.
It was one of the first outings for our Mk1 after a winter of giving it a make over and got a rosette, really didn’t expect that!!
All in all a great day and am looking forward to Gaydon in September.
It was also my first big MX5 event and I dived straight in at the deep end by volunteering to help getting all the cars parked. Once the gates opened it just seemed like a never ending line of 5’s - a truly impressive sight.
The only brief sour note for me was overhearing a couple in the cafe complaining about the marshals and saying they had no idea how to park the cars. I’m openly biased but I think a tremendous job was done by everyone involved. After all, this wasn’t just one big flat field. Marshalling 800+ cars through a busy open air museum and getting them parked on the banking and in between buildings was no mean feat. We got everyone in and then everyone back out at the end of the day with no major incidents, apart from one car I heard about that started sliding down the embankment despite being left in gear and with the handbrake on!
I’ve been to a lot of events over the years but this was by far the best organised and attended. If this is a taster for the National Rally later in the year then I’ll definitely be going!
This was probably THE best ever event of this type that I’ve attended, and I’ve done a few though not all MX5 OC do’s.
The venue helps of course (probably the best MX5 OC venue yet) and the whole place had a real buzz about it, loved the saxophonist too bashing out the tunes from aloft in regal splendour.
Congratulations to ALL the members that put their time before hand with the seriously tedious side of organising the event, to all the marshals, those who ran the shop, park us all up etc., etc. - without you all there would be no event whatsoever for the rest of us lazy buggers who just turned up on the day.
p.s. I had no problems with the car parking - indeed a very nice lady found me a superb spot adjacent to the MX5 Parts Stand, in full goggling view of the admiring punters. Couldn’t have been better, should’ve polished it a bit more :>)
We would like to echo all of the positive comments about the organising and marshaling on the event, Harco in particular should get a medal.
With regards to the saxophone chap, well he did seem to be playing tunes to a different backing track at times but it made us smile a few times.
Hill run was exceptionally well marshalled apart from the start flag guy who commented just before out fourth run please, less wheel-spinning off the line - we have had the place for 100 years and dont want to wear it out in one day- I bet he says that to all thetryers` lol!
turns out she was used to a auto & was driving a manual & mistook the accelerator for the brake, nearly crashed… well saved though.