What I didn't do in my Merc on Saturday

[Mactech]

Had quite a busy and varied day on Saturday. Left before six to rush down to near Silverstone where I had to pull the engine from our Classic Formula Ford car for tech. inspection. We lead the championship so we must have a 'bent' engine
Then on to the circuit where my choice of transport (2 wheels) and a good knowledge of Silverstone allowed me to park within a few feet of the biggest gathering of Jaguar XJ220's this century.
My charge for the parade laps was Justin Law's own race developed 800bhp road going rocket
With over 600bhp per ton it was even quicker that my bike (just 500bhp/ton).
Best of all, was the power delivery. The 25 years of engine management technology were very evident and this car just appeared to be on the end of a very, (no, massively) strong piece of elastic tied to the horizon instead of the somewhat undignified 1990's turbo kick up the backside.
Met a whole bunch of old friends and colleagues and then a dash back to host a barbecue back home at 5pm.
Of course, it's very difficult to allow either of these vehicles off the lead on road or congested track, but I did get a small insight to the performance potential of both

 

[rf065]

I was behind a XJ220 being driven on a public road a few years ago, could not believe how wide it looked from behind.

Russ

 

[Mactech]

They are actually only about the same width as my current GLE, however the width to height ratio is almost double! They were very wide cars for their time, but seem to shrink around you as you drive