Santa Pod 3, April 2001

Santa Pod 3 8 April 2001

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You can download some MOVIES and MP3 files from this event!

Please right-click the following links and choose "Save Target As".

You may need the DivX ;) codec to watch these movies, download it from here if you don't have it.

Martin While beats Stewart Mutch (this run is Martin's best! Only .2s off Stu's fastest). Movie, 1.5Mb
Martin While's FTO passing an observer. Very nice noise :) MP3 file - 0.5Mb
Twisted Steel (the one involved in the crash). This is his first run. Movie. 1.7Mb
We nicknamed this "The Stilt Car" - this thing is MAD! Movie. 1.8Mb
Honda CRX. Movie. 1.9Mb
A pair of motorbikes. Later on these things were pulling sub-10 seconds! Movie. 1.4Mb
A VW Golf getting absolutely trounced by the opposition. Movie. 1.8Mb
A Sierra Cosworth v an AC Cobra! Movie. 2Mb
A Mitubishi EVO Extreme! Quick car, serene launch. Movie. 2.3Mb

The day after Santa Pod! April 2001(please right-click and choose "Save Target As").
The story is that we all took a day off work and happened to have a video camera ... download these movies!

Dave Hughes driving my car - quickly! Movie. 1.1Mb
Me driving Martin's car past the camera. Movie. 1.7Mb
Me getting Martin's car dirty :) Movie. 1.3Mb
Dave Hughes and Martin While in formation. Movie. 1.2Mb
Martin driving past the entrance to Prodrive! Movie. 1.7Mb
Me driving past the entrance to Prodrive! Movie. 1.3Mb
Dave Hughes over the crest of a bridge. Movie. 1.5M

I set off nice and early intending to stay overnight. I met up with Stu Mutch near Knutsford and he took me over the Derbyshire back roads. Two manul GPX's snaking through the countryside, pedal to the metal, like people possessed. Great driving.

Anyway, on to Santa Pod!

Some VERY nice machines were present, here a guy adjusts the electronic control on a motorbike. These things were doing sub-10 second quarter miles!

Nice metal!

This is what it was all about - FTO's on the famous quarter mile!

Stewart Mutch (Black) and Martin While (Red)

Another reason for going was to try to beat the Honda boys. They did well!

This American muscle car was roaring up and down the strip all day

This thing was awesome...

...it actually lifted the front wheels off the deck!

Nuff' respect to the girlfriends and wives, they sat through the event when the boys played with their toys!

MUCH respect to this lady - VERY impressive! You should have seen her go - blink and you'd miss it!

Results (taken from Richard Batty's site)

Manual	Auto
John Harle 15.264 GR Stu Mutch 15.337 GPX Dave Wilson 15.436 GPX Martin While 15.464 GPX Ian Mould 15.759 GPX Chris Smith 16.099 GPX Mark Glanville 16.186 GR Kevin Cheung 17.178 GP Version R	Lee Hollyer 16.057 GPX Rob Baldwin 16.162 GR Nathan Placke 16.177 GPX Mark Nash 16.186 GPX Steve Hemming 16.267 GPX Rob Upham 16.347 GPX Tony Banton 16.532 GR Darren Cross 16.612 GR Richard Batty 16.661 GPX Facelift Patt Torr 16.723 GP Version R Dawn Woodward 16.742 GPX Simon Khan 16.873 GPX Micky Lamb 16.921 GPX

The crash!

This beautiful piece of work is how it looked intact.

He makes a mistake by keeping the power on too long and hard. The car slewed sideways tipping up on two wheels, smacking the barrier on the right then the otherside.

Thankfully the driver was unscathed. Shaken but unscathed.

Ironically named!

It took over an hour to clean up.

Visit the Links section and look for the FTO Owners Club Resource to see some more rally photos