Pro-Drifter Stuart Egdell has been doing the Summer circuit of events and meet ups to do with all things racing both here at home and away. It’s been a tale of mishaps and mayhem and he has only just stopped to take a breath and update us on his exploits.
So Goodwood was a blast, with the car on display for the whole event. I took the trip down there for the Sunday show, meeting drivers, fans and some of my idols.
Goodwood is something else, crazy busy with so much to see and so much walking around involved. It’s so difficult to define in a few words as there is no other event like it!
Straight after Goodwood we took the car down to our good friends at EBC to film some promotional clips for a well-known American YouTube show PowerNation the top automotive technical how-to programme. More on that to follow!
Next stop was USC Santapod. We took out our trusty 350z demo car for 3 days of passenger rides and drift demos. There was some brilliant customer interaction and more importantly some serious fun was had.
We then went into preparation mode to get the car ready for our trip to Germany for the Iron Drift King.
Instant learning is a must at Iron Drift King
Ferropolis, Germany is an old disused mine site with monstrous iron machinery providing an amazing backdrop for what is probably the hardest and wildest event I have ever attended.
It was daunting being run alongside the drift masters but exciting to be among such a huge gathering of drivers, spectators and cars from all over the world.
It proved to be the toughest event for me to date, with extremely limited practice and immoveable concrete walls. Instant learning was vital because if you got it wrong, you got it wrong badly.
Unfortunately, with my second practice lap, I ran slightly wide on entry clipping the rear wheel on the wall. This impact broke the wheel, did a small amount of damage to the rear and destroyed a front bumper. Still, you get used to the wreck a rebuild nature of the game and all of this was fixable so we progressed to our final practice.
After getting only 3 or 4 good practice laps in and finding the boundaries of the track, I went just a little too hard at it sending the car backwards into the wall demolishing the rear end.
The damage sustained, destroyed the radiator, the whole rear crash structure and rippled the boot floor.
After several attempts to repair the radiator and get the car in safe and driveable fashion, we were defeated. The competition was that brutal, many drivers suffered the same fate and we all had to bow out. Not the result we planned but that's just racing!
Silverstone Festival
Straight after Iron Drift King we had 3 days to rebuild the car which involved getting a new radiator made. The Bodyshop worked miracles on the rear, thank you Paint-Tec. A next day delivery from Strom supplied us with a replacement wheel and we had the car looking and working again just in time for the Silverstone Festival.
Silverstone seen in huge crowds, with our demos attracting massive amounts of spectators, the fan interaction was amazing!
I was even lucky enough to take Jodie Kidd out for a quick demo whilst doing some film work for ITV.
