Hello Gang,
This note is a trip report regarding a week in Portugal with Rui and Ana
Gigante, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ferrari Listmember friends and some
family holiday time in Scotland. I have broken the words into topical bits so
parse as desired. I know that some of you enjoy road-trip stories and similar.
The others of you know how to use the delete key.
Portugal
Portugal is fantastic. It is to Europe what New Zealand is to the
British Empire. That is, it is an unspoiled reflection of the history of
yesterday's Europe. That does not mean that it is backwards or low-tech.
Rather, it is a country that respects its origins and doesn't try to hide
them. Mobile phones are everywhere, like anywhere else in the world, but used
discretely. The options available on the phones are staggering and well
beyond the average 'cell phone' capabilities used here in the States. Modern
shopping complexes are found inside of centuries-old buildings whose lines
meld quietly with the stone and tile motif of their surroundings.
Everything except cars is inexpensive in Portugal, by European standards. A
night's stay in a nice 'business hotel' is under US$70. Food is incredibly
good, especially if one enjoys seafood, and it is also inexpensive. US$12
buys a great seafood dinner with fish, crab and prawns.
The Portuguese taxes on automobiles are linked to engine
displacement as they are in other countries in Europe resulting in many small
displacement varieties of the cars that we enjoy. BMW and VW offer a variety
of small-engined cars as well as do the car makes that we don't get here in
the States like Lancia, Fiat and Rover. In the 70's, Ferrari addressed this
very issue for it's home market with the two-liter turbo 208 line of V8 cars.
The new MGF is also popular as are Land Rovers. In particular, the Land Rover
Defender, a top dollar drawing SUV here in the States, is an affordable
alternative in Portugal, much as a Jeep Wrangler is here. Of course, it is
not the leather-and-luxury candy-coated car that is gray-marketed here in the
States. Portuguese taxes for a Ferrari, even a 308 based car, approach 100%
of the already inflated prices!
On the personal side, Ferrari Listmember Rui Gigante and his family
are wonderful hosts. We spent a week with them in their home in Porto and
really enjoyed the camaraderie. He is as intensely interested in all things
automotive as is Lashdeep Singh or Francis Newman. We enjoyed the French
Formula 1 Grand Prix at Rui's house alternately switching from the French
channel to the Italian channel to avoid commercials. I of course, could not
understand the commentators on either channel but the picture was from the
'world feed', so channel selection for me was a moot point.
I accompanied Rui to a session of a classic automobile restoration
course that Rui is taking but as I understand all but no Portuguese, I spent
my time wandering through the automobile museum as he studied. There were no
guards or obnoxious warning signs. Rather, it was just the century-old
irreplaceable roots of our incredible hobbies and I; One setting proudly and
the other wandering quietly in deep admiration.
Goodwood Festival of Speed
From Portugal, the Lindsay and Gigante families traveled to southern
England to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed. We arrived at London's
Heathrow Airport on Thursday afternoon and navigated our way in hire cars, to
the classically British seaside resort of Bogner Regis. Antony Shine,
although not having stayed in Bogner before, researched the area and found
excellent accommodations for us on the sea. Fawlty Towers it was not but the
setting was identical!
At 6am Friday morning, Rui, the kids and I set off on the 12-mile
trip to Goodwood while Nancy and Ana slept-in in anticipation of touring the
historic seacoast towns. As we had been told, Friday at the Festival is
'enthusiast's day' and we were not misled. Friday is the day that the really
hard-core motorsport fans come out to be with their beloved motorcars. The
smell of fuel and exhaust was in the air mingling with the enticing aroma of
impossibly strong coffee and crisp 'bacon toasties'. We were in
motorsport-heaven. The time was quiet as not many people were there yet. The
silence was broken by the sounds of Nikon shutters and the occasional sound of
an antique racecar rumbling to life in some distant paddock. The motorsport
spectacle was slowly awakening.
Shortly after 10am, Francis Newman joined us. Francis immediately
reported that the event was already many times larger than it was even the
previous year. We munched the remainder of our mid-morning snack (The cool
morning air had left us a little peckish.) and headed off to drool over
classics.
By mid day, 70-year-old Mercedes Silver Arrows were making practice
runs 'up the hill' while the modern teams nursed their high-tech weapons to
life. The older, long stroke, large displacement cars produced a satisfying
rumble while the newer high revving cars screamed. As we walked by the Le
Mans winning Audis and '99s Le Mans winning BMW, all still carrying the dirt
and grime on their paintwork from the races, we heard none too far away, the
first of the Formula 1 cars burst to life. Our stroll-vector was immediately
altered.
In the Formula one paddock were Minardi, Williams, Benneton, BAR and
of course, Ferrari displaying a rank of F1 Ferraris spanning 50 years. As we
walked by the Minardi area, I heard the air compressor running and realized
that they were pressurizing the holding tanks for the car's pneumatic valve
train. That, in conjunction with the fact that the team was wearing ear
protection, could mean only one thing: They were about to start the car. We
postured ourselves on the corner of the work area, in front of the team and
guarded our flanks. Rui started his camcorder. Actually, I don't think he
turned it off all day! Sure enough, the engineers started the car and ran
through a number of tests. Every engineer studied his own laptop while one
guy blipped the throttle for about a minute. Then it was over as fast as it
started. I love Formula 1 - even Minardi!
Back at the hotel Friday evening we were joined by Antony and Suzie
Shine and their sweetheart daughter Abby. Suzan is pregnant and was a little
concerned about the amount of walking we reported from Friday's day at the
estate. This later turned out to be a manageable situation. We were too
enthralled with everything to walk anywhere too fast! After a dip in the
hotel pool and a nice dinner, we hit the sack early to facilitate an early
Saturday morning start.
Saturday was easily twice as populated with fans as was Friday but
the number of cars had grown as well! Whole paddocks were populated with
classics that were just empty space the day before. After a morning of ogling
the new displays (and buying t-shirts) the timed hill climbs began. The day
was fine and the speeds on the hill were much faster than on Friday's
off-and-on drizzly practices. I could go on with the descriptions but suffice
to say, Saturday was just a more intense, if less personal, continuation of
Friday's excitement. Unfortunately, we had to leave by mid afternoon to
connect with an evening flight to Glasgow. Antony and Francis also departed
but Rui and Ana, bless their motorsport souls, went right back in for more as
we said our goodbyes!
Scotland
We toured familiar areas of Scotland and areas that we had not
previously visited starting from Glasgow, up Loch Ness to Inverness, a day out
in the Orkney Islands, then over to Aberdeen and down to Edinburgh.
I won't burden you further with details of this part of our holiday
as it is of no car interest save one exciting moment in Edinburgh when we
witnessed what might be classified as a street race between an E36 M3 and a
beautiful Aston Martin DB7! We later read that both cars were allegedly
stolen by joy riders. The M3 made wonderful 'machine noises' as only BMWs can
do and the roar of the DB7 in full song was simply orgasmic. They drove them,
well, like they stole them!
A final note...
Please allow me to conclude with a heart felt 'thank you' to Rui and
Ana, Antony, Suzie and Abby and of course my fine and knowledgable friend
Francis.
Thanks for the read Gang.
Best regards,
Rick
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