Full image gallery of the trip can be found here / Click here for video Clips

With several cars coming from across the UK, we decided to meet up at a Travel inn at Ashford on the Friday night. This is always a good idea as it gives people a first chance to chat at the bar and over a steak and generally get to know each other. This trip seemed to be predominately Cerberas, with AJPs, a SP6 and a tweaked one in the pack, so it would be interesting to see how we al faired.

An early start saw us at the port picking up the Blower Chimp driven by Marc Hockin and with Bomber Denton in tow. Things were going OK, but by our first tyre track in France, we had one MIL light up on a Cerby and one Alarm malfunction on the Chim. Fortunately the Dulford guys sorted all and we were off with Phil speeding into the line up as we hit Belgium. So, Roll Call then. David in his silver Cerb, Marc in the Blower Chim, Phil James in his stand-by Cerb (the Boss being left in favour of trying out his Jools modded Cerb) Nick and Lisa in their blue Cerb and Grant who had put his Tuscan Racer on the road for the trip down…road legal ofcourse!

The usual Motorway playing generated some Police attention, but only to indicate how much cash it would cost us if he did actually “do” us. Top guy! And so it went on all the way to the ‘Ring where we pulled up for some pics before checking into the Hotel for a beer or two. The hotel overlooks there old “Nordschleife” and has a historic Motorsport bar (the Pistenklaus) so the guys all goy into the Vibe. They were here…the Nurburgring! Here we also picked up a late arrival. Paul and his mrs Carol in his black….yes, another Cerbera! Paul lives in Luxembourg and this is his second “Monster International” having broken his Duck at Spa / Hockenheim earlier in the year.

The two days at the ‘Ring were wonderful as always. As you can see from the pictures, the weather was outstanding. Barely a cloud in the sky and the temperature up around 70 degrees. This did bring all the locals out, but the guys did get the full ‘Ring experience. A fairly busy car park, loaded with Porsches, Ferraris, Scoobies, Beamers…Bikes! And fortunately Sabine was also there testing a new VW Golf and running the “Ring Taxi” too. The Full Monty as it were.

The second day was more of the same. It started off easier as the ‘Ring opened after lunch, so we headed of to the Motorsport Museum and then the Go-Karts (where I was LAPPED by Marc! All down to weight ofcourse! Back to the ‘ring now. This was a better day for the guys. Being a Monday, it was much quieter, the weather was still great and now some of the “fear” had subsided. More laps, and everyone was really in the swing of things, heading off for some sightseeing at the viewing points round the track, sharing cars, rides, experiences and generally car/people watching. It really is a one off.

6pm and we headed off to our Spa hotel as we were on track the next day. The two hour night run from the ‘Ring to Spa is a bit of a favourite with those in the “know” with 130miles of back roads and Motorways across two countries being a good excuse for some action. You can see some footage of this in the galleries, including the last section where I lost my Griffs roof at 150mph. It sailed of into the Belgium countryside, where it still lays. Either that or there’s a tractor with a seriously cool roof, or a cow with an unusual “rug”.

Anyway, after some beers in the village and the obligatory trips in the “Spa Taxi” (you’ll know if you’ve been there!) it was off to Spa bright and early for the main event. Unfortunately Steve Guglielmi couldn’t make it at the last minute, but we were fortunate in being able to secure the services of Mike Wilds as our Driving Coach. Mike has driven everything from Tuscans to Thundersports, Britcars to F5000 and even a spell in F1 with several races under his belt…we were very lucky to get him. And on top of that he was a really nice guy! (For info here, my personal best at Spa is 2:52 and the tvr record is 2:27. Mike has a Class lap record of 2:20…in a 2L!!!)

Anyway, Spa is a wonderful track. Drivers favourite and a power track where tvrs can really stretch their legs. There are not many tracks (and none in the UK) where we can get to 150 actual mph! Check out the vid clips and you’ll see that we all had a blast. The weather stayed with us again, and the track was ours all day, from 9am to 6pm! Fantastic! The usual jumping from car to car meant everyone got to experience each other cars and we all did a lap with an F1 legend. It doesn’t get much better. The guys from Dulford autos and tvrcarparts kept the cars running sweetly, taking care of any minor issues and with everyone behaving themselves the whole trip was classed a resounding success. We were also joined by David Yu form Auto Journals. David has one of the new Corvettes, which I have to say was very quick and looked fantastic with an all steel LS7 block producing over 500bhp. It surprised a few Porsches!

All that remained now was the final Dinner of the trip, so another “Spa Taxi” (now with a monster logo) and a nice steak, several beers and the handing out of the “Tour Shirts” a great evening was had. And as it turned out, it was also Lisa’s birthday too. Another good excuse for a drink, though we did excuse Lisa the bumps! Dragging everyone out of bed (it was a late night in the bar for some) and we headed back to the port for the final leg home. Phil didn’t make it (being woken up by me as we loaded the cars) he was 60km behind but still managed to catch us up by France. He must have been really cracking on safe in the knowledge that I would ring him anytime a cop was about.

So, thanks again guys. It really is a pleasure getting all those tvrs out there where they can be seen and enjoyed. The whole purpose of these trips, is to show the tvr owning public, what great “Tourers” they are in the great tradition of the Intercontinental GTs. Swathed in leather and air-conditioned, we drove across three countries to drive the best tracks in the world. What a blast. And for some of it I had a roof!  See you next year for Le Mans!