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Eurotripping

some fat bloke in a race suit in the Spa F1 pits

If there's one place we've been itching to get the Juno to, it's been Spa. It has become our pilgrimage, once a year we just have to go to Spa. It is my favourite circuit, its single only failing being that it's not in Yorkshire. Anyhow, the trip makes it more of an event and also allows me to stock up on Belgian chocolate.

The plan was a double header with two days at Spa followed by a day in Holland at Zandvoort, a new track to us. Spa was as Spa is, awesome. The weather was excellent with only a brief stint in the wet at the beginning of the event. We even got to try the passenger seat for the first time, confirming that it's really only for compact people.

nooo, of course I don't ride the kerbs...

Otherwise it was pretty plain sailing with the only problem being an exhaust clip letting go. A bit of welding from Stuart of Fauldsport saw the loop fixed and a bit of a bodge with some wire got it all back together again. We're going to have to get some new springs for that.

Roll on to Zandvoort. Twisty, tight and lots of gradient. Situated on the coast in the sand dunes in what I can only describe as a Dutch sea side resort. Still a cracking track. It took me a little while to gel with it, but it's top fun and I'd definitely go there again as part of another double header.

unsheathing the beastie at Zandvoort

Problems here involved the backend of the car going a bit loose. At the time we thought it was the tyres going off. It actually has turned out to be the front ARB breaking, another thing on the list of things to do. Adding to the occasionally dragging clutch issue previously mentioned. All of this should be sorted before its next outing in November.

Otherwise the car was once again awesome. We get a massive amount of interest in it, generally all positive. We even had a gathering of marshals at one point at Zandvoort fascinated with it. But it's certainly unusual to be around the car and not have someone come up to you and ask about it.

Also I feel I must add that the Dutch are genuinely the nicest and friendliest people I've ever met. They remind me of people from Yorkshire, but with better English.

Some vids from the days. Usual excuses apply... There are a couple of me from Spa showing a cleanish lap and a very busy couple of laps in traffic. The traffic lap is mainly to show that with a bit of patience on our part and observance all round, bringing race machinery to a track day shouldn't cause anyone any problems. It's only when owners of race cars get aggressive that we get a bad press and the last thing I want is for the sports prototypes to go the way of the single seaters.

Finally one of Colin at Zandvoort with Jo in the passenger seat.
This will also give you an idea of just how much faster Colin is than me.

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