FIA GTs at Silverstone

[IainW]

It's been years since I saw a GT race in person, so myself and my friend went to the FIA GTs at the weekend, as we've getting more into endurance racing these past few years. It was amazing, from GT1 to GT4. Ok the races aren't as frantic as the BTCC races, but the cars that were taking part and the noise! I honestly thought I was going to go deaf in the Woodcote stand as the rolling start for the Tourist Trophy went past! Really want to go and see the Le Mans Series there in September now.

My favourite cars of the weekend were the Morgans and the Jaguar XKR-S in GT3, they sounded like nothing I've ever heard before. Mind you, feeling the ground vibrate when a fleet of GT1 Corvettes pass by is pretty good too. Here's some photos:

The Apex Motorsport Jaguar

The race-winning Saleen of Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp

Vitaphone Maserati suffering a suspension failure

The new Nissan GTR running to 2010 rules, with rear wheel drive and a V8 from a pickup

And finally the podiums

More here.

 

[markoos]

Looking good there Iain,you going to Knockie next month for the British GT?

 

[LEE69]

Nice pics.

 

[ArosaRacer]

Le mans as the Vettes fly past is mental ! the lambo's and spykers sound cool too

 

[IainW]

Looking good there Iain,you going to Knockie next month for the British GT?

No I won't be able to go to that. Shame, as the GT3 cars would be good to see round there.

Le mans as the Vettes fly past is mental ! the lambo's and spykers sound cool too

It would have been nice to get to LM this year to see the final year of the works Vettes in GT1, but we had to drop plans to do that because of the way money is at the moment. I couldn't believe the speed of the GT1 cars through Bridge corner on Sunday, I'd really like to see the LMP1 cars going through there.

 

[gav_FR]

Only just spotted this thread... I was at the Silverstone GT too!

It was brilliant, first time I have been to see the GT and like you say the sound is amazing, I've never heard anything like it. From what I remember the Renault F1 car doing parade laps at the Renault World Series didn't even sound as loud!

My favourite cars of the weekend were the Vitaphone Maseratis and also the GT3 Morgans. The R8 LMS cars look pretty neat too.

You got some great photos there, I will upload some of mine later but they are nowhere near as good as yours. I got a vid on my mobile of the Jag getting stuck trying to get round a corner in the paddock and having to back it up to get round... you'd think they would make the corners wide enough to suit the steering lock on the cars!

I see in your album you got some pics of the cars on display in the paddock too, there were some nice Skylines, Porsches and 'Vettes there.

 

[IainW]

Cheers. I was quite pleased with the photos. We went for a wander when the main race was on, walking the opposite direction to the cars, so that we didn't have to stop and turn around all the time.

The paddock wasn't very organised. They were sending the GT3 cars out towards the assembly area while the autograph session was going on opposite the GT3 awnings.

I heard one old guy getting interviewed by a TV crew, they were doing some sort of vox pop thing I'm guessing. He said "What fascinates me here is that I've never heard of any of the drivers, but people are queuing up for all their autographs".

 

[gav_FR]

Hahaha as if that old bloke said that, he obviously doesn't follow the series then!

Here are a few of the photos I took (more can be found here along with a couple of vids). Going to events like this always make me want a better camera though.

Race winning Saleen S7R

Maserati MC12

Ford GT

Nissan GTR coming into the pits with a puncture:

Corvette Z06

GT2 class 911 GT3-RS

A couple of GT2 F430's

And some GT3 snaps:
Morgan Aero

Gallardo GT3 and R8 LMS

DBRS9

 

[IainW]

Going to events like this always make me want a better camera though.

I'm the same sometimes, but then again I'm really happy with my 6mp point and shoot Fujifilm camera if it can take decent action shots like it does. I really need to get the lads from work with their DSLRs along to one and see what they can come up with.

 

[gav_FR]

Yeah I'm generally happy with the shots I get on my 6MP Kodak, I usually stick it in sports mode or auto and just shoot away. It has 10x optical zoom which comes in handy. The worst thing is when you are sat near someone with a DSLR and you can hear 'click click click click' as they snap away, and I manage to get one shot with half the car cut off!! Most of my pictures are cropped and resized, so the detail isn't too good and they look a bit grainy.

I just need to find better vantage points, most of the GT1/GT2 race shots I took were from Woodcote but zoomed in to Brooklands because the bloomin' safety fence was in the way to get decent close shots. It looks like Luffield is a better spot from your pictures. I would have moved around more but we did that in the earlier races and decided that Woodcote was the best place because we could see the big TV screens and not miss any of the action.

I should learn how to use the manual settings on the camera to get better action shots, sometimes the cars look like they are sat still on the track and there is no motion blur in the background or on the wheels.

 

[IainW]

Yeah the zoom comes in handy. The photos look alright when they're resized for a forum or Facebook, but when they're viewed fullsize, they look too grainy because they've been cropped and zoomed in to the max. I really need to play about with the settings on mine one day. Although to be honest it's so easy just to turn up with it on Auto mode and click the button! Luffield terrace is probably the best unrestricted view on that part of the circuit, as long as you're tall enough to see over the fence! I was surprised how good it was up at Club corner. One of the slowest corners on the track and you stand above the level of the fence because of the banking, so an unrestricted view.

The best part of the National circuit at Silverstone is the back straight. You can get fairly close there and get a good sense of speed. It's a shame the Hangar Straight doesn't have a similar position. But then I suppose you've got to keep crazy Irish priests out somehow.

 

[gav_FR]

Sorry you've lost me with the crazy Irish priests comment

Yeah the first three pics in my post were taken from Club looking to Vale during the morning warm up, it's quite a good spot!

 

[IainW]

British GP 2003 - the Irish priest invaded the track at the Hangar straight.

 

[gav_FR]

Ah right I don't remember that one lol.