Brighton Speed Trials 2010 pics

[Nik da Greek]

Wotcher all Thought I would put some pics up from the rather soggy Sussex coast today! Proving that if you\'re hardcore, you can run a drag racing event in the ....ing rain.....although I guess to be pedantic it\'s timed trials rather than drag racing.

Anyhooo, there\'s always a great mix of machinery at the Trials, and this year was no exception, although there definitely seemed a smaller field of runners than years previous. I guess the awful weather combined with the recession might have put some off. Still plenty of cool things to take pics of, so have a look and (hopefully) enjoy!

Just to set the scene...everything was grey; the sea was grey, the sky was grey, the air was grey and full of rain, just everything was damp and drizzly. But did that stop it being a top day out?


No, it didn\'t! Wouldn\'t have wanted to be in one of the rides on the end of the pier in weather like this


Right, that\'s enough local colour, some cool vehicles then...these Vincents seem to turn up every year just for the craic, never seen them run. These two are the single rather than the proper Black Shadow twin...


...but still lovely nonetheless


Proper Black Shadow and sidecar combination. Scary on the world\'s first 150mph bike!


Lovely details wherever you look, from days when people cared enough to cast their company logo into pushrod cover nuts


even the rear light is a work of art


The original motorcycle muscle car (eh?) Yamaha\'s V-Max...terrifying in corners, but on the straight, wow! For those who don\'t know, it\'s a V4 that when it reaches a certain rev level, a valve cycles so that "V-Boost" comes in and each cylinder was basically being fed by two carbs...and you better have it upright and be holding on when it did!


This ones got some nice touches, love the Yamaha crossed tuning fork logos in the carb unions


...and the transparent clutch cover


D\'you think the owner of this MGBGT makes his own canards and splitters?


TVR Sagaris fluting on the wings; utterly pointless yet fascinating and lovely all at the same time


Dodge Coupe looks like something Al Capone popped to the shops for a pinta milk in


Cool early Dodge Ram emblem


well sorted 240Z straight six


Likewise this TR-7 V8 (ask yer dad)


Some properly nice engineering going on in here. Odd for a British car that pretty much helped nail the lid of Leyland\'s coffin shut. Ooooh, the irony!


Proper Dagenham streetfighter looking Escort RS


Japan\'s first supercar, apparently. Very nice....for a Hahhhhhndaa

[Nik da Greek]

Errr, sorry!


how much d\'you think the owner of this immaculate (otherwise) E-Type drophead wanted to sob and scream when he did this!?


New gullwing Merc SLS thing managed to look really quite anonymous in black


...which isn\'t to say there aren\'t some interested features to it


....and a bit of willy waving!


There were nowhere near as many supercars as previous years, which is a real shame. A few braved the weather though


The Ferrari


pretty much the only one that really matters as far as I\'m concerned, everything since has been pretty tinsel for bragging rights to rich tosssers. This.....


...is a tool.


It seems to be made mostly of holes held together with carbon fibre and unobtanium


Ooooh, I might have come over a bit unessecary now


*CUT* that\'s enough F40 arty stuff now (editor)


Still looks perfect after like fifty years or whatever


I gather this weird looking thing is a Skelta Spider...


never heard of them, but by all that\'s unholy it\'s a fugly funny looking thing


....although I did rather covet its carbon diffuser!

[Nik da Greek]

Another big ol\' fat Datsun


...though not devoid of nice design features itself, to be fair


Though the R33 lights are still the best \'cos they\'re the same size!


Didn\'t realise they runon 20\'s as stock.....GTR rollin on Dubs yo!


My stepdad, who\'s a bit of an old character whos owned loads of weird stuff over the years, including Morgans and MGs and stuff, once had a troublesome problem with an Allard in that it kept leaking. When he telephoned the factory (because you couldn\'t get spares anywhere else) to ask about a replacement head gasket, he was politely told "Oh, no sir, we do not use gaskets for such things, we simply machine the components to the corrrect tolerance in the first place. Your leak must be from elsewhere". Probably explains why so many still compete...


This FD looked very nice, but the funny gearstick gave the game away, don\'t let the natty exterior....


....and cool components fool you...


....inside beats the heart of Satan! Hahaha, to be fair to the kiddie, he\'s done a really good conversion job, looks factoryand runs really well, so fair play. Just a shame there were no rotary errrr...rotaries to uphold the honour, ehh, Andy?


Ford GT40 replicas never fail to give me a tumscence like a rounders bat, especially ones as well finished as this


Looks beautiful from any angle


Imagine the sound of these bellmouths sucking in 7 litres of air per second revolution just inches from your ear!


This is a proper cold air intake feed

[Nik da Greek]

and this is a proper use of a V8


Heavy metal rhapsody


Audi R8 V10 wheels look like they\'re having an epilectic fit


Some bike stuff again....BEAUTIFUL Spondon Suzuki GSXR streetfighter turbo


This bike is quality everywhere you look


Guess this is why Yoshimura feel they can charge 700 quid for one silencer...even the decibel insert has Yoshi logos milled into it!


Loud? Hmmmm


The brand new V-Max, ridiculously overpriced at 21 grand but the guy did say it was just as lively and organ-rearrangingly quick as the old one


and to be fair, it looks a quality item, but far too much money


Still one of the best shapes on two wheels there will ever be


even the wheels are gorgeous


l-o-o-o-n-g Kwak Z1000 turbo


now, this is a bit seriously bloody rare, a Suzuki XN85, one of only four production turbo models. Suzuki only imported 100 of them, and this guy owns four! This is the first one I\'ve ever seen in the flesh


It\'s an 80\'s thing, which is why it had to have a decal screaming "OBRUT" (think about it!) across the front fairing


Just looks hopelessly outdated and feeeble now, just look at the finger-thin downpipes! Mind you, even the fork anti-dive still worked, the guy had certainly put some work in


Look! It\'s me!


Quality componentry abounds..Ohlins vs Vance and Hines mega


\'nuff said

[Nik da Greek]

This is why sidecar racers are all certifiably insane....it takes a special kind of mindset to lie across the top of a red-hot oil-cooled engine with your nuts inches from open bellmouths whilst kneeling on two bits of foam camping mattress an inch off the road with a nitrous bottle the size of a fire extinguisher crushing your left leg and an open exhaust frying your right!


sound advice


\'Tasteful\' airbrushing on this outfit


Oh, go on then, just one more


the Extrac Gould Racing Puma, fastest car three years already and unless I\'m much mistaken, it will be this year too


random arty kid and graffiti pic


The weather had turned propely .... by the time racing recommenced after lunch, even the seagulls were starting to look a bit glum


dismal, innit? To be fair to the petrolheads, only the slick-shod drag bikes were stopped from running, and even most of them changed to treaded tyres


Longest-running motorsport event in Britain apparently. Maybe even the World..


arbitrary Datsun launching pic


This is one of our own, guys, take a bow Andy (papercup) who conspicuously failed to fly the RX-7 flag this year and was out playing on his (admittedly extremely funky) KTM


glad to see you got the puncture sorted dude


...and this is why we love two-strokes...most excellent Spondon beam-framed Yamaha TZR takes down the ozone layer


This is different...an 1899 Panhard. You probably will never pull up next to one of these at the lights...


Headlights you have to errrr, light


not much in the way of controls (or instruments!) to master though

[Nik da Greek]

wet...


wet...


wet!


New Viper was funky with snakeskin motif...you decide if it\'s naff. OK, it\'s naff, but also slightly cool. Numberplate "F4NGS" too


Insane attack Imp


ooooh, look, feel my mighty artyness


probably the last time Porsche built anything not ....


...did I mention it was wet?


....wet....



...we....ahhhh, you get the idea. Here\'s an only slightly damp Sagaris to break it up a bit


and some more local scenery to close.

[Nik da Greek]

some vids can be found \'ere if you care

F40 running
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8sMr6jQSs

Ford Gt40 replica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxsznMYerAk

the V8 RX-7 FD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRLSTM8F-1k

Viper antics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej4gZzvlkok

Puma decimates all (not every day you can say that!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-1sYPhhBk8

Lovely Spondon Gixer turbo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYuKsyjYiTY

[Steve-A]

Once again Nik it looks like you\'d have picked out exactly the same vehicles that I would have as the special ones!

Nice pictures and looks like a good event, I\'ll have to go down one day.

[jetpilot]

Great pics buddy!

[Ada7]

Great pictures dude. Shame about the weather but looks like you had fun anyway.
Nice of the guy to stand in front of you for the Puma\'s run video :o

Adam

[Nik da Greek]

Nice of the guy to stand in front of you for the Puma\'s run video :o

Yeah, he did that on a lot of them, unfortunately, the ....! :mad: Henley\'s...need I say more? :Hammer

[Brett]

Thanks for the pictures Nik

[Hi RX7]

Nice photo\'s Nick and nice to see the V-Max why would anyone buy a new one when you can get a secondhand full power one for £4K they are just so much better than a Harley ( I used to take mine down the Long Marsden drag strip which is the only thing to do with a Harley) Owned a Comet for a while but just didn\'t like the fact it was half a Vincent

[1990_fc3s_t2]

Great read and top pictures there should be a "nik da greek photo appreciation thread" as always top notch :Thumbs-up

[Nik da Greek]

Cheers for the kind words, guys. I\'m just glad that I got away without anyone noticing the deliberate mistake....that the alleged "MGBGT" is of course an A.C. :Hammer :o Phew, suck that blooper under the radar....oh, damn

Good job Jinx obviously hasn\'t been on yet, he wouldn\'t have let me get away with it :rollin Still, teach me to look at what the hell I\'m wittering on about, won\'t it