Toy Time: Castle Combe Circuit

Bec was away last weekend (and she has promised to blog about it soon!) with Amanda, and Anthony is working in the States, so I was all on my own. So I thought I'd go and have a look at one of the UK's most famous car racing tracks, Castle Combe Circuit, which is only about 15 minutes from our house. It turned out to be a great drive through Wiltshire along twisty rural roads, passing through nice little villages, etc. etc. Check out the website for the village of Castle Combe, "The Prettiest Village In England".

Right, that should have got rid of all the girls. Castle Combe is a 3km circuit that has been a UK racing staple since 1950, only recently losing a round of the British Touring Car Championship due to complaints about noise levels. Bloody villagers! :-) The lap record is under one minute (i.e. averaging 180+ km/h) in a Formula 3 car, so you can probably tell it's a very quick track, in a sort-of mini-Monza, Hokkenheim style - long straights and sweeping corners, with the occasional chicane to keep the speeds down.

Unfortunately there was no motorsport action when I went, just a few people with nice cars lapping. The first was a 2-year old Lamborghini Gallardo, which was either borrowed or had a very nervous owner. He was perhaps touching 100km/h before braking about 3-4 weeks earlier than necessary for the chicanes. Never mind, I'm sure he had fun, and it sounded great.


There was a very angry-sounding Caterham SV track-day car circulating at about Mach 5, he was all opposite lock, flames out of the side-exhausts aggression but I don't like those Caterhams, they look like Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang on steroids, so no pictures for him.

I did like the next car to whip round, a brand-spanking Porsche 911 GT3, being driven with increasing enthusiasm and confidence with every lap. Great to watch.



And no, as tempting as it was, I didn't take Beatrice out for a lap of Castle Combe Circuit.

I don't have a crash helmet ;-)