Silverstone Classic

Silverstone

30th July - 1st Aug 2021

Visiting and Photographing the Silverstone Classic has been difficult and complicated on my previous visits. It's not the photography I’m talking about but the logistics of getting to and staying at the Classic.

As an avid motorsports fan and automotive addict I go to a lot of car and bike shows to display my vehicles as well as taking the odd snap and this is the main problem I have, balancing the two, all be it a pleasant problem. 

Displaying a car at a show means you have to arrive early and can’t leave when you might want to so you are on a strict timetable.

However, on the upside you get to park in the middle of the action and have a base to return to throughout the day.

This year I was on the GT-R Owner’s Club (GTROC) stand. The last time the classic was held I was on the GT-R Driver’s Club stand and prior to that back with the GTROC.

All great fun to be part of a club at the biggest gathering of car clubs in the U.K. But there is a small problem, accommodation.

All of the available bed spaces around Towcester get snapped up quickly and soar in price when the Classic is held, but to be fair they do the same when any major event is held Silverstone. 

I’m not complaining about it as supply and demand powers the world economy, I just wish it didn’t power so many pounds out of my pocket.

In previous years I have driven daily, not a great idea in a car that had woeful fuel economy when it was first designed and has been made worse by its present owner's need for speed. 

Trying a slightly cheaper option a few years ago, I camped at the Woodlands campground just outside Silverstone, which was not a great experience.

Arriving late on a rainy Thursday night I was greeted by the sight of one billion tents already pitched so had to head to the very back of an already muddy field in what was an immaculately turned out Datsun.

A fifteen minute walk in the rain to the nearest toilet at two in the morning further convinced me never to do that again. 

So for this year's three day automotive feast I stayed in in a budget hotel in Northampton which was only a 20 minute drive to the show.

I wasn’t the only one with this plan - the hotel car park was like a mini car show, with multiple Triumph Stags, Porsches, and Ford Mustangs already parked up when we arrived. 

The benefits of staying a few miles away from the event kept a few pounds in my pocket which kept me happy, but it was the early morning run into Silverstone that put a big smile on my face.

Just about every car you can think of was powering down the A43 with us. The sound of a pair of Ferraris and an Aston Martin flooring it out of a roundabout made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

But enough of my first world problems, what was our experience of the 2021 Silverstone Classic? Well let's break it down into three areas - track, pits and clubs stands.

Club Stands

With over 120 different car clubs attending you would be hard pushed not to spot the car of your dreams. There were  bedroom poster cars everywhere.

As a consequence of so many clubs in one location there were bound to be a few anniversary events. One of the big ones was the delayed from last years cancelled Classic, the 50th anniversary of the Triumph Stag.

Over 370 made the journey to Silverstone according to the official track commentator and 360 took to the track for a parade lap.

That number paled into insignificance compared to the number of Porsches on show. Para-phrasing the words of an iconic film "Porsches, thousands of them" they were lined up in huge numbers on the wet grass around Brooklands.

As all the Porsches kind of looked the same here is a lovely Alfa GTV, with some Porsches in the background.

Considering the very inclement weather over the weekend, some stunning, rare, and very expensive cars had made the journey - Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40s and discounting anything made in Japan as I'm obviously biased, my favourite, the Ford GT40.   

The weather was bad over the weekend and had taken its toll on my car. As it was on the GTROC stand I wanted it to look as good as possible but by Sunday it had quite a lot of grime and mud on it.

It got so bad where we were parked that part of the grassed area had to be roped off as it was more mud than grass.

However, we still really enjoyed the experience despite the rain and it gave us the opportunity to get our arty pics and meet a lot of Skyline fans.

The rain drop picture was taken bouncing off the GTROC Chairman’s R32 GT-R and kind of sums up the weekends weather.

Paddock and Pits

It’s not unusual to be given access to the paddock areas during racing, but the pits are usually restricted for most of the time.

It was kind of the same at the Classic, however, most of the pits were open with only a few barriers out so you could still see what was going on and not be in the way.

Standing in the National pits next to Tiff Needell and watching Martin Brundle doing a fast driver change in the 60th Anniversary E-Type challenge race was something you don’t get to do every weekend.

With the rain still falling and the E-types arriving thick and fast I got busy with my camera. I picked the f2.8 70-200mm zoom which was ideal for this environment.

The wide aperture allowed me to get well exposed shots inside the garage and using the zoom to fill the frame with the fast moving cars and a slow shutter speed added a bit of creativity to the shots.

Over on the other side of Silverstone the International pits were also open. As it’s quite a hike we jumped on one of the classic buses that were transporting spectators around the show.

Here we found the Classic touring cars, Endurance racers and Classic F1 amongst others, so plenty of interesting subjects to shoot. 

Track

Silverstone is the premier track in the UK, hosting the pinnacle of two and four wheel motorsports, MotoGP and F1. The performance of these top flight race vehicles has demanded the very best in safety for the racers and the crowds.

What this translates into is a lot of heavy duty safety fencing, which is not great for the spectator photographer.

However, you can shoot through it with some acceptable results and there is no way round it unless you want to go down the official route and get on the other side of the wire wearing a fluorescent bib.

There are a few locations where you can shoot over the wire which are shown on our guide to taking photos at Silverstone, but they do limit you to the same shot, so it’s better to move up and down the fence line.

At PistonClick HQ we pride ourselves in getting great shots from the spectator areas. It’s challenging and at times frustrating, but when you pull it off it’s such a buzz.

I’ve shot from the other side of the wire at Silverstone and it’s so easy, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel so I really enjoy getting good pictures from the spectator side.

All of the pictures except the final four of the classic F1 cars were taken through the wire at Luffield, Brooklands and Club.

As some of the grandstands were open we took the opportunity to take a seat for a few laps and take cover from the intermittent horrendous down pours.

At Club opposite the Silverstone Wing you can get some nice shots from the stands and you don’t need a huge lens.

200 - 250mm will give you good results and you can shoot over the wire.

Our final shoot of the weekend was back at Luffield, and quite a historic one. Damon Hill was out in his 3.0l V10 Williams - Renault FW18. He took eight race wins in this car and won the F1 championship in it 25 years ago.

Damon, sporting his distinctive helmet that has the same design as his father Graham Hill used, did a few laps for the crowd. Hearing that V10 screaming as he hit the straight was a great finale to end our three days at the Classic.

We will be back next year, rain or shine, we don’t care, we will be there.

Thanks go out to RPW Photography and David Harbey for the additional images in this report. You can see more of Davids Silverstone Classic pictures by following the link to Flicker below.