Ascari Visit ------ Prodrive Visit
Peter Marsland's Banbury Report
In November 2006 John Brennand received an invitation from Motoring Adventures to attend the R.A.C. Club, in Pall Mall, London, to a Motor Sport dinner where David Richards , the founder of Prodrive, was to be the guest speaker. When the dinner and formalities were over John's was in to the bar where he met David and his wife, Carol, and had a very convivial time together chatting and drinking Champaign. It was suggested that members of a Jaguar club would very much like to make a visit to the ProDrive facility in Banbury and David said to contact him and he would arrange it. On Friday, 24 th March 2007 , the great day of the visit dawned and we were scheduled to arrive at 4.30pm .
To maximise the time available to us John Brennand negotiated with Jason Cairns, the Financial Controller, of Ascari sports cars, also based in Banbury, for a visit to their works on the same as day ProDrive visit starting at 1.30pm, also found was Cherwell Edge Golf Club just 5 minutes from Banbury as an ideal place to enjoy lunch.
It was agreed that the 17 lucky members taking part would make their own arrangements for travel and meet up at the Golf Club for a noon lunch. We planned an early start; somehow we managed to avoid any hold-ups and Juan Pablo Birchall had us at the Golf Club in record time. We lingered over coffee and when the rest of the party assembled, lunch was ordered and everyone enjoyed good food and drink at very reasonable prices.
We arrived on time to a very warm welcome at Ascari, the brainchild of Dutchman Klaas Zwart who is engaged in making an exclusive motor car which can be used in G.T. competition or as a road-going super-car. Not only that, Klaus is developing the unique concept of a motor sport leisure facility in southern Spain, RaceResortAscari, where clients can use their own cars or hire all types of circuit racers to use on the beautiful course that has been built just to the north east of Ronda.
Our superb host Jason left us to drool for a while over three cars on display in the foyer of their state of the art building. There was a huge ex American Le Mans series sports car, a very new KZ1 and an original and quite beautiful Ecosse, one of the company's earliest products. We were treated to a video presentation seated around the carbon fibre boardroom table and then split into two groups to tour this superb facility.
Cleanliness and tidiness are obviously now a technicians priority but the impact made by these two good habits was suddenly blown away when we entered the main workshop hall to see no fewer than 5 ex formula one cars together with 2 or 3 KZ1-R GT3 racers under preparation for the coming season. There were 3 complete Ferrari F1 racers as used by the likes of Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi and 2 Arrows F1 cars which were being converted into two-seaters for use at the Spanish facility.
We lingered long and looked hard, any questions were willingly answered, nothing was too much trouble, quite a wonderful reception. One member was moved to ask about the quality of Ferrari construction, I suppose we can't ignore the failings of some Italian manufactured vehicles. The answer came back loud and strong, quality is absolutely top notch, and these icons of the sport are certainly in good hands with Ascari such an evocative motor sport name, echoing back through son and father to the early years of competition.
Our time was soon coming to a close and after thanking our guides Jason and Brian, it was time to move on to Prodrive.
Those of you who follow Motor Sport will know all about David Richards and his Prodrive organisation. For those who don't, then the contents of the small museum, where we were welcomed with tea coffee and biscuits, would serve as a potted history.
To your far right on entry an ex Jenson Button F1 car, next Alain Menu's BTCC Ford Mondeo, then the Prodrive P2 prototype followed by a James Thompson championship winning Honda Accord and in the corner Richard Burns's Safari car. Facing were a metro 6R4 and a Porsche 911 Rally car from the insane turbo era. There was a Subaru Legacy Rally car, which is where the whole Subaru thing started, then 3 series B.M.W. Rally car and Race car. This display gives some idea of the wild success enjoyed by Prodrive clients and is by no means complete, as it takes no account of many activities including the Ford Performance Vehicles project in Australia, the current Aston Martin racing activities in the GT series and of course the confirmed Prodrive entry for the 2008 Formula 1 series. On top of this Prodrive are involved in highly technical projects such as variable stroke engines, improvements to traction control systems, new thinking on E.C.U's , strange leaning quadricycles and of course every type of braking and suspension improvement.
On its own this display had stretched my mind but P.R. Manager Dan and senior receptionist Jackie were now going to show us round the facility where all these modern miracles have been produced.
We saw specialised wiring looms in construction to minimum weight and maximum performance. New engines built to the latest 2007 Subaru Rally Car spec. then Dan gave us a very lucid explanation of the workings of the Subaru Rally gearbox which seems sequential when we see it operated by Solberg and Atkinson but their movements are actually converted to “ H” pattern within the box which of course contains the centre differential and the front diff. In this workshop there was even a V8 Ferrari 550 engine on the dyno not just for our entertainment but perhaps typical of the work that Prodrive will undertake for clients.
On then to panel shops and casting and machine shops where they seem to be able to produce absolutely anything that could be needed for a hi tech project. This ability to produce parts is of course essential when we consider that a world class road based competition car is generally composed of 20% original components and 80% specially made parts that often resemble the original but are undoubtedly lighter or stronger or merely just a whole lot better, as they need to be if success is to be achieved.
If this display of expertise was not enough we then moved on to the Aston Martin race preparation facility. Now I had some difficulty getting to grips with the various GT1 and GT3 specifications but these are certainly mean looking racers and there seemed lots of them in different states, but when the season starts I'm sure they will all do well with the skill and expertise of Prodrive showing the way home.
Finally we came to the Subaru Rally car hall and as with everything else we were able to have a hands-on inspection of the several cars being prepared. These seemed to include two of last years WRC cars as this year's version had just appeared on the last Rally I had seen on the TV. Then as a final treat Petter Solberg's new car, used on the most recent WRC round returned from a test run, as if specially produced for Area 18 to inspect. Inspect it we did and the engine of this car was the only thing we were asked not to photograph, which I thought was a marvellously open policy to adopt with visitors.
We returned to the ‘museum' hall to say our farewells and once again great thanks are due to Dan and Jackie for their patience with our questions and the warms and friendly way they dealt with our party of visitors.
What a wonderful day it had been, surprisingly tiring but totally fascinating for any motor sport enthusiast.
Peter Marsland
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