F1 TESTING

[Stu]

Went to silverstone f1 testing day today the weather made for a great top down run there and back too
Kovalainen in mclaren quickest,although trulli in toyota went surprisingly well.I have to say though i have been 4 or 5 times over the last 10 yrs and this is the first time i have had to pay and the lewis hamilton effect is obvious as it was packed and normally you can wonder all the way round.
Still got to be better than stumping up £100 for race day though

[Guest]

Great stuff. Kathryn and I are off to Silverstone in the morning as I have been given two passes by my friend at Williams. We've got passes to go where we want, and a special treat is that we will be allowed in the Williams garage! I'm really looking forward to it.

[Dark Knight]

lucky you! you'll hve to fill in the detials when you get back! You allowed to take pictures?

[uk kiwis]

Funny how you can go off people..HA hA...Seriously, what a scoop. Having friends with a Yacht, Ferrari, beach house etc is so much better than owning one...Oh yes siree.

[Guest]

Wow, what an amazing day.... Kathryn and I were able to walk about wherever we wanted, and was great to be so up close to the cars. But, the real treat was beyond what the VIP's got in terms of looking through a viewing area of the garage, but actually being allowed to go around the whole of the behind the scenes. Inside the trucks, the back parts of the garages, etc.

The guys took the top off one of the engines, and I mean the top, revealing the injectors on the V8 engine, and I never realised how much carbon was actually used inside the actual engine. We watched the telemetry, picked up and felt just about every component of the car, and I played around with the knobs and buttons on one of the steering wheels!!! The weight of things is unbeleivable, most of the car is made of paper thin carbon fibre, and they just weigh nothing. Picked up a wheel & tyre, and couldn't believe how light it was. Far less than the weight of just a regular road tyre on it's own without the wheel!

I got myself some of the graphics used on the cars, and these will soon be on my MGF! Including a 'Senna' logo sticker signed by Kazuki Nakajima, and even better, a number 8 also signed by Kazuki (that's his number!).

So much happened today, that I just can't list it all. kathryn and I really had an amazing time, and an experience that you'd only get if you worked in the team. No VIP can even get this.

I have lots of clips of videos and pictures (including lots of pictures of half a car and just tarmac as it's so hard to take a picture of a car doing 180mph using a camera phone!), and will get these online shortly. However, sadly no pictures from behind the scenes, as was totally banned!

Here's a taster for you....

[uk kiwis]

Sounds like a truly special day....

F1 now so much more exciting with the lead changing each race and the old procession type racing a thing of the past. Have not missed seeing any of them, sadly only on TV though. Good one Stewart.

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