Silverstone Classic 2013 Gallery 1

Silverstone Classic 2013

Car, Automobile, Vintage, Race

Starts: 07/26/2013

Ends: 2013-07-28

Silverstone Circuit

Northamptonshire

GALLERY 2 - Media Day

Images© and story by Tim Nott Photography Contact For Information on this Event

Silverstone Classic 'World's Biggest Classic Motor Racing Festival'

EPIC. That is the best word I can think of to describe this year's Silverstone Classic event. It was huge with over 1000 cars competing on the race track and maybe 3 times that on show around the circuit. The organisers had made a fantastic job of setting the scene and really playing on the classic theme with genius touches such as London Routemaster buses ferrying people around the circuit, Spitfire air display, straw bale seating and tribute bands (reports of the Guns n' Roses Experience leading a conga around the double decker bar in the torrential rain are yet to be confirmed).

BMW provided a 40m wheel for people to enjoy panoramic views of the event as well as huge hospitality suite for BMW owners. It was a bumper year for anniversaries being the 50th for Aston Martin, Porsche 911, Lamborghini, Lotus Cortina, the 60th for Chevrolet Corvette and the 10th for the Jaguar XK8/XKR Enthusiast Club.

The weather forecast was not good for the weekend itself but as it turned out it was mostly sunny with only Saturday evening suffering from a huge and sustained downpour.

So everywhere you looked there were rare and beautiful cars including the sea of 911s next to Luffield and on Sunday they set a new world record for the most collected into one place by completely filling the full Silverstone circuit four abreast. I lucked in a little bit by being in the right place at the right time and got some great shots of them all lined up ready to go and watched in amazement as they just managed to shoehorn the tailenders onto the circuit as the leading pack emerged under the bridge. Something over 1200 was the final number.

The others all had track parades as well and I particularly enjoyed some of the exquisite Astons. There were also innumerous car clubs attending. Lancia Deltas, Marcos, Lotus galore, TVR, Mercedes, Panthers, Maseratis, Jaguars, Abarth, Austin Healey, Fiat X1/9, Stag, GT40 and many more.

All this and we haven't even started on the racing! We had 3 eras of Grand Prix cars giving it the beans on the circuit: FIA Masters Historic Formula one with all those brutish cars that thrill and petrify at the same time. The sound of 30 of these monsters starting the race in the amphitheater that is created on the start finish straight by the Wing is something else. The Froilen Gonzalez Trophy for HGPCA Pre '61 Grand Prix cars was a display of some of the most iconic and sought after motorpsports cars of all time with the Ferraris, Aston Martins, Lister Jaguar, Maseratis, Cooper, Bugatti, Lotus and more. Trully an awesome collection of cars. As well as these the Jim Clark Trophy for HGPCA Pre '66 Grand Prix cars with Lotus and Brabhams dominating the grid and compared with the Pre '61 era you really notice the rear-engined efficient style that was the revolution at the time.

Along with the GP cars we had Historic Sports, Historic Formula Ford, Historic Formula Juniors, 2litre Touring Cars, Pre '61 Sports, F2 v F5000, Group C Endurance (ear splittingly loud), Pre '56 Sports, Super Touring and Pre '63 GT. Although the wheel to wheel racing with these rare and extremely expensive cars is certainly very gentlemanly they still are giving it 100% in terms of speed and it is such a great spectacle to see what many would class as 'proper' racing cars pounding around the track.

So it really was a record breaking year as along with the 911 achievement the event itself set a new record for the biggest race meeting ever staged anywhere on the globe. The final number of race entries was 1113. There was the largest Formula Ford grid ever seen and Nic Minassian nailed the Classic lap record in the awesome Jaguar XJR14.

On top of all this there was a record attendance of nearly 90,000 and I am sure most of those will be back next year. I know I will.