If anyone's Twittering from the event, e.g. via Twitpic.com, add a #hashtag to your message to help people find tweets in Twitter search that are related to the event. #brooklands would be the obvious one, but no tweets up there with that tag at the moment. #scalextric is of course ideal but both of these use a valuable 11 characters out of your 140. There's also an established hashtag for #jamesmay which saves a couple of characters and could be helpful. Have been setting up my phone this morning for mobile tweets so hopefully I will get a chance to send some.

 

have arrived, M25 busy as usual, going for walk round museum

 

just got back from a quick look round.

the rally track is up, but the timing wasn't working: plenty of time.

the race track was being built (kept away from that though)

hill climb: VERY big, very daunting.

Banking is awesome, but i guess the James May challenge will be on the flat on the inside: i still can't really get my head round the immensity of this.

Make sure you look atConcorde (even if you don't take the tour): it's just as pretty close up.

See you all tomorrow!

 

Hi folks

Was at Brooklands from late morning to 5pm. Drag-strip is built, and working I believe, beneath the Concorde exhibit, finish is under the nose wheel...! The feature race track from Pinewood and the race management system is working (thanks Paul Charlton and team). The Scorpius digital track is wired and working....looks good.

As Pitstop Pansy has said, the test hill is awesome....track will be built tomorrow. As for the "Big One", the 2.3 mile track, that's all happening tomorrow....it's one hell of a challenge to do it in a day....the best of luck to all involved.

James May popped into Chequered Flag Room, where the Brooklands race, Scorpius track, plus book-signing will take place, up the wooden steps above the cafeteria. Seemed suitably impressed.

Had a wander round and a look at some of the exhibits dotted around.....highlight for me was Cobb's Napier Railton. Some nice period bikes as well.

Well, I had to take a walk on the banking and I must say, photos don't do it justice. It is far, far, steeper than it first appears when you stand on it: if you do nothing else apart from watch the slot cars you must do this. It gives you a sense of the achievements in the 20's and 30's by the intrepid competitors on 2, 3 and 4 wheels.

And some of the trade stands are taking shape too.

Cheers
Dave

 

I did host a small SF gathering at Savage raceway on the Saturday afternoon, Ian (Bleep), his son Lee, Kev (Zipp), Col (Rikorocket) and his daughter Isla present and trying out the track.
I didn't take any pics as I was busy having fun and trying to remember to be a good host.
Which is why I have to beg forgivness of Bleep, who bought me a very useful present, and I don't think I thanked him properly.
So here is a public, Thanks very Much Ian

Hopefully The other guys will have some pics and maybe a video to show of the small meet.

Brooklands was a great day out, and hopefully will be repeated next year, plenty of things to see and do and I got some nice bargains on the trade stands, I could have spent much more but I already was pushing it

Thanks to all involved in organising it

Apologies for those I did not notice with a SF sticker, and to the Pendles crew who I hoped to say hello too, but with a 3 year old wanting to sit in every aircraft, and play with everything that could be played with, (and another concern I can't yet reveal

) I was kept pretty busy !

I did have the pleasure of meeting Doug at least

, and admiring the BLST track in action, unfortunately the chips hadnt arrived in time so the full capabilities were not able to be demonstrated.
Despite that, it looked a great system and with the volts turned down, even my 3 year old managed a few laps with no deslots

A handfull of quick snaps I managed to take:

 

Here's a slideshow of some of the cars in the feature race. click on the image below.



Cheers

John

 

I would just like to say I had a great day at Brooklands, spent most of it on the Get Slotted Dragstrip. My thanks go to Sean, Nick and the other guys from Pendle/Get Slotted for the use of the drag strip. Our morning session went very well, getting 4 elimination series in before the track was opened to the public. Judging by the constant stream of people wanting a go on the strip, I believe we had a very successful day.

Also like to say thank you to Jon and Sarah, Nic, Ric, Tel, Jamie, Tony and Gary from MrC, and Robin and Rob from 4 Lane Blacktop for turning up and competing. Cheers guys (and gal).

See you again soon.

 

A big thanks from me to Sean and everyone from Pendle and to Pinewood for a really great event. Brooklands is really the perfect venue for a slot car meet. Theres just something about the place that ticks all the right boxes. By the way if anyone has lost a wheel and tyre with a w/w insert, painted green let me know as I found one when clearing up, cheers steve

 

Had a great day, spent shedloads of money, found things I really wanted, didn`t have enough time to go all over the museum, managed a pint in the members bar.

Queued for 40minutes to get on the hillclimb, failed dismally with a 46k motor in my Toyota GT1 with a pathetic 23.something seconds, but watched as a guy coaxed two (black and green in original boxes) Scaly Bentleys up the hlillclimb gave him a round of applause, later saw him drive off in a 1:1 scale Bentley of the same type!!!

Met and chatted with faces from Slot Forum had a couple of entries for our Slotrally in November, marshalled a couple of heats in the Chequered flag room.

On leaving the site watched the antics of the volunteers at the Tesco banking urging the cars around the track, Scaly had left one team with a few corner pieces so they bypassed a weed and put a horseshoe shaped bend in the straight - nice one! Watched a slickly performed road crossing with lots of enthusiastic volunteers having a great time as they plunged off into the woods.

Trundled home for a glass of red thoroughly entertained!

Sean and all the organising crew thanks for a great day out that was not highjacked by the James May lot and thats the main thing.

Oh and with everything else you had to do on the weekend Sean, thanks for remembering my tyres.
Cheers - Phil B.

 

We had a great day out at the main show / museum area although disappointed not to get a go on the test hill as the queues were too long and we had to get back on the M3. Missed the WR attempt, way too late for us. It was unusually hot for an English August Sunday and it affected the track connections on the test hill as well as on the main circuit. Had never been to Brooklands before and the museum was very interesting, and of course all the trade stands as well, a great effort by all concerned.

 

Mixed views from me.

We arrived there around 11.30. We being girlfriend & 4 kids. Managed to see everything after a couple of hours & then we all got bored & left around 3.30.

We thought James May was stuck up & from our point of view he spent most of the day pretty much out of the way from the people there. My girlfriends kids tried their hardest to get him to sign their tickets with no joy which i thought was sad for them. After all he was a big attraction for the whole event. Poor show James May.

We did however enjoy most of the other events. The area with Pendles & Slot forum was very good & the swap meet area was also very good. Enjoyed talking to people & viewing their cars. Brought a couple of cars & a nice resin Ford Zodiac.

Was so pleased we took our own food as the ques for food was long all day & after spending £9.00 on 6 Fab lollies was enough for me.

Kept my eyes open for other S/F members but didn't see any. That was probably just down to not looking hard enough. All in all a pretty good day but thought there could have been more. James May was a big let down for the kids.

Will post up some pics asap.

Regards, Rod.

 

I don't think we hold the record for having travelled the farthest to get to the event but I'm pretty sure we spent the most to get there. North Antrim to Belfast £10 petrol, Belfast Airport £10 parking, Heathrow via Aer Lingus £120.00, Taxi from Heathrow £30 each way.

We had a great day out. Picked up a few nice cars, enjoyed all the side shows and had a ball.

What a great community this forum is. So many genuinely enthusiastic and really nice people.

Thanks to everybody who put so much into this to make it a really special day.

p.s that Nic Picot is a lot older than I thought he was...

 

QUOTE On leaving the site watched the antics of the volunteers at the Tesco banking urging the cars around the track, Scaly had left one team with a few corner pieces so they bypassed a weed and put a horseshoe shaped bend in the straight - nice one! Watched a slickly performed road crossing with lots of enthusiastic volunteers having a great time as they plunged off into the woods.

Aye, that was our section. We ran out of straights initially, and only had bends, so it seemed wise to navigate the weed, and one man took the initiative and did so.

The organisation of the strip opposite Tesco's I thought could have been a little better as we - the volunteers - were left in limbo for long parts, including over a 90 minute wait for the track to arrive without a briefing. I'd have liked to have tested the track there too, but was told we could go. We were back for 15:45 to "test the track and build the bridge" - the cars didn't come around 'til gone 18:00 I think it was! It's probably unfair criticism, and I underestimate the magnitude of building a 2.8 mile track with so many volunteers. It must be very hard, from a communication perspective.

We had major problems with the weather too - the heat really got to the track, and it expanded, causing ripples in the track. Once it cooled down, we had lots of breaks in the circuit where the connection wouldn't reach! On the whole though, the day was fantastic. Kudos to everyone involved!

 

Here's some pics.

 

Hi all

After getting up at 5am, a 2.5 hr drive from Norwich to Brooklands, back at 11pm, was it worth it?

On arrival, I was in the Feature Race practice but we heard a bit of James May waffle to the camera. After this we went to the swapmeet, where I picked up a nice Fly Porshce 917K (the Curcuiteas con historia #24 and a few others). We also met a few other SF members, so it was nice to put names to faces. At about 10pm, we started doing the track on the Byfleet Banking, connecting the batteries and testing it all. At about 11am, James May and the team came upto the bridge, and did a bit to the camera about the track over the bridge.

When I came back at 3pm, we had got it running on our end pretty much all well. It took at least 1 hour to setup, meaning most of the people on the Byfleet bridge, and by the gate went. James May had to go to a derelicte room about 5 times for a ***, which was opposite our track position, so we had a nice chin wag with him. The race started, and the 20 minute lap turned into a 2 hour lap, until the cars came around again. Luckily, I was doing the hand controller for the very last section, upto the finish line with JM and the chequered flag. For some reason,I was given a maroon t shirt, meaning I was driving the local residents car (dunno why!). After this, a big cheer, the world record plaque was presented, and then they did some interviews with girls, local residents and Mrs Francis, whos husband invented Scalextric. After this Tiff Needel came up and did some autographs with JM.

Right at the end, we walked up the test hill, with the sun setting on a brilliant day!

I will post some pictures tommorow.

Jon

 

We had a really busy day. I was helping to run the Mhsc rally track, inside the small pressroom. From 9am onwards, it was just constant people wanting to have a go right up until 5pm. I sneeked out, every now and then to take pictures,and buy the odd car. All in all, i really enjoyed it. And judging by all the smilley faces(of all ages) had a great time. Next year,anyone? Out.

 

Ey Up,

mixed reports indeed, though it is early.

However, I received hot news from Lee B that Mark had won the race event, using my proxy entry ERA.

I am very very chuffed, as one might say, but haven't had that confirmed as yet. Nice one Mark indeed.

Understand there were probs with the circuit track, but heck what could you expect, quite an undertaking for one day !!.

Sounds that it was a success overall, so no worries. Well done everybody involved.

VBR Chris A.

 

Hi Guys.

Well we turned up at about 9.35. We being my Wife and I. Not a member of the volunteers, just first time visitors to Brooklands and my first Slot meet/swapmeet. My intitial thoughts are based on my other hobbies.

I am an avid wargamer and modeller and attend a number of shows per year. These are much bigger than todays show was with one or two of them having well over 100 trade stands on top of the usual club stands and comepetition tables. As a result I found that the organisation was a bit slap dash in places, but not by the Pendle racing guys and swapmeet stands. Also the feature races hill climb and dragstrip were all very well thought out and ran. So a big thank you to all those guys.

My main gripe was with the Hornby participation. One of the major draws for todays show must have been the fact that James May and a tv crew were there to film a world record attempt. I though this was so poorly done with hardly any input from Hornby themselves that it deserves mention.

It wasnt so much the fact that it took ages to get it started 17.10 or so, lets face it, it was a massive undertaking so patience was a must. But, the fact that Hornby were largely anonymous from the show was a minor disgrace. They showed an almost total disregard to the people who paid and came to support the event. Loads of people on the banking running around like headless chickens and all seemed to have to wait for this self important, corporate dollybird with gucci sunglass denim skirt and high heels to turn up and then calling for two execs from Hornby or something. They were trying to give these 2 bloke the hurry up and they just sauntered in at the last minute, again with no regard for the length of time Joe Public had been waiting. Totally arrogant and ignorant in my opinion.

Also by the time the lap started around half the people had gone because there was no one telling us what the delay was. They just took us for granted,Bad show Hornby, you've just lost yourself a customer as I had a much better reception from the guys at Carrera Scx.

Rant over and all in all a great day out, perfect venue and hope it is there next year but without the honrby gimmicks Also a big thanks to all the guys from the forum who took the time to say Hi to a newbie

 

Just want to say a big thanks to Sean and the Pendle guys, Pinewood, Slot forum and every one else who helped to organise the event you did a great job.

It was a shame the hot weather affected the track around Brooklands and it would appear from comments made Hornby let you down.

I still think it was one hell of a job to organise and you all did just great.

Mike. (Presto Park)

 

Hi Chris

I sent a picture message yesterday from my mobile and have I message this morning saying it failed which seems to happen 50% I sent a picture message. Modern technology for you or more likely Vodafone!!!

Just want to say a big thank you for entrusting the ERA with me for the weekend.

She went faultlessly all day.

TQ by 2.5 laps I think and the Under 2 litre final by a few feet after a reasonable (read quite large) roll on from Dick Smith.

Enjoying a well earned break in the Sunny South!!

ERA her trophy will be back up North soon

I hope you don't mind as I added a Brooklands exhaust on Saturday from my friend Phil Upton's plastic tubing tin and a more hurried windscreen for scrutineering

cheers MK

 

The trophies were champion

 

At 4am I picked up JonnnyNobbler, 4.30am picked up GRN, then we ( JP, GRN, Oli and I set off ) a good run with no traffic on the roads, we arrived at approx. 7.15am

The breifing was later than scheduled at about 9.30 ish.

Our section of track (led by Bleeb) was laid in a very short time.

The day went well, a good opportunity to meet people and forge new contacts. Some of the events were a little disappointing, like the hill climb for example, one lane didn't work and they didn't have nearly enough power boosters in the track which was evident as most cars kept stopping mid way up.

An extemely hot day which caused the track to expand in the morning and as the day went on contract as it got cooler, this turned out to be a real problem as gaps in the track broken connectivity. When the camera cars when around at about 17:30 they kept stopping every 20 or so metres due to gaps in the track.

Brooklands actually rang out of soft drinks at about 15:30 with Beer and Ginger Ale on sale, the fridges were quickly restocked...

Overall we had a really good day, weather was excellent and plenty to see, glad I met Doug and Bleep had time for a quick chat....We left at 18:30 at that time the cars were at section 7 of 14....it wasn't showing any signs of finishing soon, so we headed back and arrived back in Norwich at 10:30...a lot more traffic on the roads

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1iyIxFvPEI...feature=related

A few more videos on there already

 

If you think we had probems with the WR track, think about the next James May event - They are laying 10 MILES of 00 Track between two towns who lost their railway due to the beeching act!

Did anyone get a thankyou gift from one of the marshalls? I was given a Silver Ferrari F430 and a piece of the WR track which could not be returned to the box as we had pulled the pins out to isolate our section just on the other side of the river!

 

We didn't get anything!