Track Day at Killarney
Sunday 24th August 2003

The Alfa club invited both the Triumph and Subaru clubs to participate in their club’s Killarney race day on 24 August.

The day started out fairly wet, but in the end landed up being quite a nice day for advanced driving / racing. On arrival, all cars participating were subjected to scrutinizing and all participants were briefed about the do’s and don’ts of driving on the circuit. The Alfa club was out in force with about 20 vehicles of all shapes and sizes, including 4 racing cars. The Subaru club was also not to be outdone, arriving with approximately 10 club cars. The Triumph club was represented by 3 cars and 5 members.

Gerhard arrived in his newly converted yellow TR7 V8 (he refers to it as a TR8) and Istvan with his red TR7 V8, both fitted with Rover 3.5 litre engines. Geoff arrived in his TR4A, saw that it was raining and that the TR4A’s roof was leaking, and as quickly as he had arrived, he disappeared.
  

Mike arrived later with the newly completed shiny silver Macao Spitfire on a trailer for its inaugural test run. The replica Macao Spitfire is fitted with a Triumph 2 litre engine that was removed from a Triumph Chicane.
 

Gerhard was having great fun with the additional power supplied by the Rover V8, as was Istvan. After a couple of laps, Gerhard’s car developed an oil leak from the tappet cover. Istvan, having parked his V8, happily stripped his engine and traded parts with Gerhard so that he could continue racing (now that’s what we call club spirit). I was taken for a thrilling ride in Gerhard’s V8, I then realized why so many cars get converted from the standard 2 litre to the V8, the adrenalin rush is just something out of this world.

Mike on the other hand arrived with racing slick tyres fitted to his Macao Spitfire. On the second lap out, the Macao went through an identity crises, thinking that it was a tractor, and went farming. Mike was forced to pull into the pits only to find that one of the racing slick tyres had developed a puncture. All attempts to repair the tyre proved fruitless. Mike then resorted to fitting a treaded spare tyre from a Marina to continue his racing. The inaugural run proved to be quite a test for the immaculately turned out Macau. The car developed a water leak from the water pump and was pushing out oil from the dipstick. Even, with all it problems, Mike was having great fun and was determined to get a few decent laps in, the huge smile on his face said it all. You could even see the relief on Nerina’s face, now that Mike’s new ‘toy’ was nearing completion.

Ashley Ellis arrived without his Triumph, but with his business partner in tow, to view the inaugural Macao run. He even commented on how quick Mike had been lapping on his first run out with the car. My day ended with an even more thrilling ride, as passenger, in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi. The car is a 2 litre turbo charged all wheel drive developing a phenomenal 195KW. We raced down the back straight, reaching a top speed of 200Km/h. The most thrilling part of the whole drive was when the owner of the car put the Subaru into a 4 wheel slide in the last corner. If the inaugural Macau outing was anything to go by, the classic racing crowd are in for a big surprise when Mike eventually gets the car onto the track. Ashley will need to watch his mirrors. Go Mike go!!


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