On arrival there were a quite a few motorcycles ranging from classic to turbo powered modern Japanese machines, one standard road car and two vehicles from Severn Valley Motorsport (SVM). These cars, well one of them, was what I had come to see, more on those later.  

As this is an automotive photography site let's take a look at what Elvington offers the spectator photographer. Elvington is a bit bleak, with a tree line as the only background. You are not going to get those great photos that you would do at other high speed and drag venues like Santa Pod, it's not that sort of track. This is grass roots racing for the working man (or woman in this picture) who is a speed junkie and likes to keep their addiction off the queen's highway.

During the drivers brief the handful of photographers that had turned up were also briefed on where they could and could not take photos from. If you have public liability insurance you can sign on and move to the edge of the track. For those who don’t have PLI you are limited to the paddock area. 

This is not a problem, the machines will pass you as they go through the timing lights located to your left, so with a super zoom and a steady hand you can get some nice panning shots. Around the paddock a standard walk round lens will do the job.

Light is not an issue as the runway is orientated east / west so the sun will be to your back all day. As always, take an exposure reading from the grey areas of the track and adjust if required. The darkish tree line can fool the metering on your camera.

Around the paddock there are plenty of opportunities to grab some arty pictures, and the riders and mechanics are more than happy to chat and move kit around if you ask. 

I could spend all day chatting to like minded motorsports enthusiasts about bikes and cars. The engineering that has gone into some of these machines is extraordinary. It's not every day you see a turbo on a street bike that is big enough to suck small creatures from the hedgerow as it passes. 

The bikes held my interest for a while, but the main attraction for me on the day was the green R35 GTR lurking at the back of the paddock - the Hulk. This car is well known to speed freaks and has been doing the rounds for a while. Starting life as a standard Titanium Silver "Black edition" 487bhp Stock car, it has been modified somewhat to go fast, very very fast, in a straight line.

Driven by Mike Little and supported by Jack Burns, Carl Williams, Darren Jones and Josh Kemp, the Hulk was taken out of its trailer and prepared for the day's high speed runs down the runway. If you have been around GTRs the start-up was under whelming. There are a lot of mad GTRs out there that have been mapped for pops and bangs. A low rumble was all that announced the Hulk was alive, making a few heads turn from the assembled bikers.

Back in 2012 on the runway at RAF Marham the Hulk became the fastest GTR in the World over the measured mile, where it ran a world's best of 218mph. Over the years the development has continued and the power has increased a lot. For today's run it would be using all of its incredible 2500bhp. Let's just take that in for a second, 2500bhp. My classic GTR is running around 400bhp and is not a slow car, this machine has over 2000bhp more!

To archive those numbers the Hulk has a few mods, a full Billet Ally Block with a 4.0l capacity contains Ally rods, 12x 2000cc injector fitted into a Carbon Ally inlet manifold. Turbos are AMS Alpha 22'S monsters and some of the largest that can be found fitted to an R35 in the Stock Location. Fuel pumps are mechanical and supply methanol for the vast amount of air produced at 3.5bar boost pressure. Forged gear sets, billet clutch carriers with no less than 20 clutch plates distribute the power to modified diffs to get the power down.

Most of us can't comprehend what it's like to drive a 2500bhp car so I caught up with Kevan Kemp the proprietor at SVM to get the low down on what it's like taking the Hulk on one of it's top speed runs and how they prepare for a record breaking attempt. 

As you saw, there were lots of pre-test runs to make sure the Hulk was safe. No one has data we can draw off for such events; it is a learn as you go. Safety is paramount and the reason for all the slower build up runs. Once we knew the 4wd system was communicating and the traction control was working as best it could with Michelin road tyres and 2500bhp, we were ready run and test the parachutes.

The parachutes deployed successfully on the penultimate run recording 247mph, not enough! We wanted the World Record recorded at 255mph. Power had to be pushed and to do this we had to raise the boost pressure to 3.4bar in 5th gear and 6th gears. Weather can be a big factor conditions on whether or not we would get close to the world record. On the day they were not favourable, we were being told 10-15mph headwinds. We had come to run so decided to go for it, the candles were turned up.

I appreciate other drag GTRs have travelled shorter distances at immense speeds; they are incredibly fast cars. We have do not have that initial traction, we didn’t have a prepared track at Elvington, our mission was for a full weight 1850kg GTR to travel as fast as it could on road legal tyres. Elvington provided the venue and the Hulk was here to do a job, so we got on with it.

I asked Mike Little, the driver "When you are on the start line what is going through your mind and as you are traveling down the runway at 259mph? Can you describe what its like behind the wheel?"

Mike said " While sitting on the start line my first thoughts are is everything tight and have the techs worked their magic? I start to think about traction, how much of that 2500bhp will I be able to use? When can I give it full throttle? In my mind I see 260mph, I need 260mph, I need 260mph. 

The World Record run was impressive to see from my side of the runway. Looking through my lens at a small green dot kicking up some dust in the distance, my first thought was he is not going for it this time. How wrong was I! That green dot got very big, very quickly and was incredibly loud. As it screamed past, the assembled bikers let out a few comments that I can't repeat here, it being a family friendly site and all that, needless to say I think they were impressed. 

I would like to thank SVM for putting up with me sticking my lens where it shouldn't be and asking dumb questions. Also Straightliners Events Crew for a well run hassle free event.