Tuner Fest
Tuner Fest Midlands
Donington Park
Tuner Fest Midlands is a new car show from the people who bring you Modified Live. You can probably work out from the title out they also have a Tuner Fest show down South at Brands Hatch and one up North at Oulton Park.
We went along to the Midlands show at Donington Park. First impressions looking at the website were good, three of us decided to go but as no car club was attending that we were members of, we would we went as individuals. I was a little concerned when I first looked at booking tickets that I might be in the public car park.
I was not to worry as the organizers had an individual car display area. Download a pass, print it, pop your details on it and present it at the gate and you are in.
However, on arrival a few people hadn't worked this one out so were causing delays at the gate as they were directed to the public carpark; no pass, no access.
So why did we pick this show to go to? Well what attracted me, and sets it apart from a load of other shows that were being held over the Bank Holiday weekend, was the track action.
There was the usual public track time which is always entertaining to watch the varying degrees of talent on display. But it was the Time Attack, Group B Rally cars and the Drifting that interested me. That is three very different types of racing at one event.
To be fair the Time Attack series is not racing, it's all about setting that fastest lap. Originating in Japan the British series has 5-7 rounds a year held around the UK.
The last time I watched Time Attack was earlier this year round the rolling hills of Cadwell Park at Modified Live. This was where I first saw the superbly turned out Time Attack Bentley Continental GT3.
Driving the Bentley, it looked to me that Luke Clayton was coming in way too hot to get round Redgate after roaring down the Donington straight, but the brakes on that beast are amazing, slowing him up with no dramas.
I did say to my friends " that Bentley is going too fast", but what do we know? Luke went on to set the Time Attack lap record of the Donington National Circuit of 1:05.593, winning the GT3 and Sportscar class on the day.
There are loads of different classes in Time Attack, from pocket rockets to the "Beyond Tuner Modifications" class. The cars can look nearly standard in the "run what you brung" class to totally bonkers in the higher end classes with their big aerodynamic body kits.
In the Club Class the quickest lap of the day was driven by Bren Simpson in the Hardrace Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T at 1.15.529 lap.
While photographing the cars at Redgate one caught our eye for its stunning livery and quick times. We did discuss what the car was and none of us got it right. The car is a La Lamera, built to compete in the French Lamera Cup championship and the first one I have seen. Judging by the comments at Redgate it was the first time most of the people standing near me had seen it.
Based around the Ford 5 cylinder turbo engine that is widely used in many road going cars these days, its light weight of 910kg gives it a great power to weight ratio. I wanted to get a closer view of this car and was able to during the pit walk that is staged during lunch.
However, it had gained a few extra kilograms after taking a trip off track; that’s a lot of kitty litter the pit crew had to clean out of the Lamera.
Of course, being me, in the short time I was at Redgate there were a few who wanted to develop a new racing line around Redgate. But it was Rob Boston in the RBR Honda Civic Type R who attracted my attention - cars on fire do that!
At lunch time there is a pit walk, which is a great way of meeting the drivers who have just come off track and the crews, if you have any questions about the cars.
Getting up close to the cars in the pits to get those detail shots is so easy during the pit walk and adds to your portfolio of the day. If you want to see more Time Attack the next round is at Mallory Park on the 13th October.
Pit walk done, we went looking for the Group B rally cars who were using the Melbourne loop, which is part of the Grand Prix Circuit. As the Time Attack guys were on the National Circuit this freed up quite a bit of tarmac for these mad rally cars. One of the best areas to view the loop is from just behind the petrol station which is close to the Donington Café.
However, there were a lot of cones out which got in the way of me getting a good shot. A better location would have been at the Foggie Esses but it was a long way and it was very hot, so I passed on that location and went to the café for a much needed drink.
The Café, called Café 39, is located in the centre of Donington and makes a great pit stop if you need a full sit down meal, pint of beer or just a snack and a coffee. The main display area was located next to the café with the Super Cars taking pride of place, Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini they were all there.
They were not just static as they did a few parade laps as well, so the crowd got to hear them in all their glory which made a pleasant change from just seeing them parked up.
On the other side of Redgate there were two drift areas. The first was for Drift taxi rides where you were relieved of your cash and taken out for a few laps with a very enthusiastic drift car driver.
The other area was for the UK Drift Championship cars that were putting on demo runs. It wasn’t just single cars out on the track, they had up to three drifting together. Standing on the raised banking gave me a great view of all of the drift arena.
One thing you need to be doing before setting off to entertain the crowds with your god like drifting skills is to ensure your bonnet pins are in.
Not doing this severely restricts your view of the track. On the up side it did entertain the crowd and it was quite surprising how hard and violently that bonnet hit the windscreen, but probably not as surprised as the driver!
The static show was the usual mixture of modified cars with a very good selection of better than average metal on show. The numbers were not huge, but not bad considering this is a new show and the word has to go round yet.
I for one will be going next year; lots of racing, easy to get to, loads of tarmac to park on and a good selection of cars tick the boxes for me. The weather helped a lot, but this being the UK I don’t expect to see that kind of glorious sunshine at next years' show.
However, with global warming you never know!
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