Something old, something new

Ok, well to say a California is old at 9 months is a bit harsh, but now we have our Rosso version in the collection, I decided to move this one on to make way for our latest friend - the R8 Spyder

Come to the Club Night on June 10 to see this car in the flesh - and for the chance to make a priority booking on it.

Oh, and the chirpy chappy sandwiched between the cars is our new Membership Director, Richard Thomas - formerly from the Supercar Club in Australia - welcome to the team Rich.

Monaco 2010

It's that time of year...Monaco GP.

This year I took our plans to the next level with hospitality on a 90 foot yacht in the harbour - champagne, canapes all day...oh and did I mention there was some motor-racing going on?

The star of the show was probably the hot new Merc SLS - cleverly deployed as the Safety Car - we saw more of that car than anything else really - but what a car! I love it and can't wait for ours to come in September!

My tip of the weekend: On Friday night head down to Baoli night club in Cannes for an excellent dinner and then cruise the Film Festival scene. Thanks Kelvin for the tip and Katrin and Ilke for the modelling!

So you think you can drive?

I spent a day at 888 Race Engineering this week. Absolutely fascinating to see how they prepare 'production' cars for racing - I was already aware that these race teams completely strip out the interiors but I had no idea that they actually drop the body shells in a vat of acid to thin the metal and eat the sealant...to make them even lighter.

Another 888 race tip is that they generally operate Left hand drive cars because most UK circuits have mostly right hand turns so LHD allows them to see into the corner better - talk about attention to detail.

In case you were wondering, the reason for me being there was to plan an 'ultimate' track day for later in the year - on track in real race cars, hot laps in a Caparo, and for those who want a bit of competitive spirit - some timed exercises and a race for those who really want to know how good they are...

Wacky Racers 3

Arrived safely to Copenhagen, no thanks to Sheik Mo from UAE who undertook us on the hard shoulder in his hideous drop top Phantom to gain one place and nearly took out the broken down car parked there...and we still beat him to the check point. We've been in the bar a few hours now (3:15 local time)and cars are still arriving...and there are still Gumballers waiting for their cars to be unloaded from the last transporter (15 in total) at the airbase and have a 3 hour drive to get here. Tomorrow we head to a race track somewhere in Sweden before heading to Stockholm where we spend one night before flying to Boston MA. We're supposed to finish in Times Sq NYC on Fri but can't see them wanting us with the recent terror alert...

Wacky Racers 2

An LP640 SV with a roof box, and a one off 599 that exceeds the forthcoming GTO spec. Only on gumball

Wacky Racers report 1

Two punctures, one set of brake pads and an 'air suspension failure' warning. And this was before we even reached the start line...

When the first range rover heard we were taking it on the Gumball it shat itself...(Overfinch oil pic) so Gumball organisers kindly donated their own Vogue for the purpose of camera/tracking car. Although with the front pads totally shot grinding metal on metal we decided some new pads were in order, along with replacing the spare, which was flat with a screw poking out... Just the thing for doing 3000 hard miles in 6 days I'm sure you'll agree. We finally made it to the start line only an hour late, and saw the crowds laughingly wave us off as the last car...not great for getting shots of the numerous 458s and Veyrons on the rally. We made up lots of time (with one ticket in Belgium)and made it to Amsterdam to the most amazing welcome, I've not slept since Sat night so can't quite articulate it but it was phenomenal. This is the first time I've had a chance to write anything as we're now all sat in a disused airbase somewhere in Denmark waiting for the cars to arrive on transporters. Why? Because the German gov decided to ban all GB cars at the last minute so all the drivers went on coaches...they were not impressed. We decided to risk it and removed some of our decals (namely Gumball ones!) And just made it through safely ourselves and were the first car into the checkpoint! A first in a RR when up against this calibre of vehicles. not so lucky was the gold gallardo we saw getting a police escort back to the border... I just heard he's banned from entering Deutschland for another 24 hours, end of the rally for him.
So we're setting off now for the next 350km to Copenhagen and will hopefully have time to do another update from a proper computer as my thumbs are worn away doing this on a blackberry. Tomorrow Stockholm. Watch this space...