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Post by Heinicke on Jun 20, 2007 20:56:23 GMT
Anyway Heinicke, if you're in the Leicestershire area Mallory must be fairly close to you as well... About 20 miles, drove a Mallock round there on a test day, nothing spectacular, went there to spectate a few times when I was at Coventry Uni, I am the world's worst spectator! I try to go to as much racing as possible down here but I do realise my lovely fiancee doesn't like racing as much as I do, she is only really interested in me racing!
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Post by brakedisc on Jun 27, 2007 21:15:46 GMT
Anyone interested in the motorsport industry might like to read this report which is downloadable from here...
Apart from Richard it appears very few.
I am very interested because it has been my hobby designing and building cars for years. A long time ago I took the decision that it would always remain a hobby because I wished to stay in Scotland and not live in motorsport valley. I sadly devote hundreds of hours on the hobby and although it is great fun it has no future. Why has it no future? Simple we have little in the way of facilities to help people get started. Grants are a nightmare to get hold of and past "motoring" projects have soured future investment. For a people who once were leaders in the world of engineering, the lack of a motoring industry means talented people who have worked hard to try and gain automotive qualifications can only go south or to Germany where they might be lucky and be appreciated. As for Motorsport and low volume production cars, we are a backwater with nowhere to test new products (recently quoted £2200 plus vat for two hours at our only circuit) or develop anything. I also call into question leading our youngsters down the garden path by offering courses in Motorsport skills with no prospects of getting a post at the end of it. Until we can get our pretend parliament to stop bickering and invest in facilities like another couple of race circuits, we will go nowhere. Everyday I meet people who would love to become involved in the sport but where do you point them other than south of the border. Who wants to invest in a race car/track car to race it half a dozen times a year at the same circuit. Now if we had 3 circuits and costs were kept in check we might bring in more people and there would be opportunities for more people to make a living.
Until then I will continue to potter away having fun making things on a shoestring budget.
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Post by awsponsor on Jun 27, 2007 23:45:44 GMT
I was chatting to a bloke from TUV NEL on Monday and he said they can make their rolling road and other test facilities available and a large part of the costs can be covered by Scottish Enterprise. It's a step in the right direction but I agree that there is no general appetite amongst the funding agencies or private sector funders to help grow any form of automotive engineering sector. Ironic when you think that the Royal Bank stomps up an alledged £50m to sponsor Williams and F1 generally but if you asked them to help on developing a new vehicle in Scotland they'd almost certainly tell you to s*d off.. I'd like to build a small engined sports car.. I have a 1995 Suzuki Cappuccino which has a 3 cyl, 12 valve, twin ohc turbocharged engine in it that will give well over 40mpg.. It's great fun and I strongly believe that this sort of small engined, fuel efficient car is the way forward. They get raced as well ...... www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-7b_ib9Lzgwww.youtube.com/watch?v=c8qxloZDSu8Some owners have modded theirs and are getting anything between 100bhp and 130bhp out of this engine which incidentally will do a terrifying 8,000 RPM! But it's a design that needs updating with a more modern engine and other improvements. I then think it would sell like hot cakes! As to having more tracks then I agree in principle but I can't see this happening until demand increases.
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