Thanks very much to Graham for suggesting this and rounding us up to meet. I do enough herding cats at home these days so haven’t been to a meet for years; looking back at old photos it’s over 9 years since I took a photo at the car park at East Ilsley. I would have gone to that one from my old house in Warwickshire but yesterday I was able to convoy with Jimmy from Cheltenham/Gloucester; oddly not a lot quicker to get there from home.
Jimmy and I in our diesel barges decided to meet on the overbridge on the A417 where police camera vans often sit. I thought we looked like unmarked cars; it was Jimmy’s suggestion to mark ourselves as police on Waze
Uncannily, as I pulled down the slip road to join Jimmy he was being followed by a camera van, clearly on its way to set up for the day. Still a nice easy trip down the A417/419 and M4 to the car park, and we were by a very short margin the first forum members to arrive. Not the first people in the car park by a long way, though; I did fear we’d have a day of traffic and frustration.
It became apparent that this was the most technologically advanced Evo meet I’ve ever been on, Will demonstrating this from the off by texting us that he’d be slightly late because he was charging his Tesla. At Heathrow, as it turned out - probably the nearest supercharger. A late start didn’t matter anyway; after so many years it was good to meet up and chat, and ogle Dan’s handiwork in Duncs’ car, and Graham’s shiny 911. And Will’s Tesla which seemed far higher quality in the flesh than I’d expected; even the vegan leather seemed pretty close in quality to proper nappa (autocorrect suggested kappa for that - should probably have left it
).
The next technological advance was using sat nav rather than a map. I have found a map I produced for a very similar route in 2011 - posted below for a bit of nostalgia. When we’d gone down the B4494 to Newbury and stopped, Will suggested sharing our locations on WhatsApp which was a bit of a game changer. The nav also took Graham down a different route to the one I’d intended, via a lane through Speen, which was a rather fun twisty surprise and is worth doing again. If we hadn’t put Wickham as a waypoint in the nav I think continuing all the way up this to Great Shefford could have been good too - worth exploring at some point.
While the nav unwittingly gave us a better route to avoid the A4 and B4000, it also diverted Graham off the A338 down a little lane, then tried to send him up two different routes simultaneously at the next junction. So we missed the top part of the A338 leading to Wantage and ended up going the opposite way up the B4494 - past the disconcerting man with camera from
https://www.bikerpics.co.uk/galleries who may have some photos of us in his galleries when they’re uploaded. With the benefit of hindsight I don’t think missing the top part of the A338 was a great loss; a lot of it is 50 limit now due to bikers hooning up and down it, so it’s a nice road but it is open and flowing so really suits a higher speed than is prudent with traffic, police, cameras etc on a sunny Saturday.
Despite the best efforts of a Land Rover Discovery 2 to split up our group and slow us down, I think everyone found the B4507 from Wantage to Ashbury the most interesting road of the day. It goes past the Uffington white horse (did anyone actually see that as we passed it? I didn’t even look) so there’s potential for slow tourist traffic but Jon and I had a lovely clear road to catch up with the rest of the group after the Disco turned off and that was my first real test of the S6. It’s very nice to drive but hadn’t exactly raised my pulse up to this point. I managed to get what felt like a bit of air over one sharp crest and didn’t feel like it was the right car for the road, but it managed pretty impressively and didn’t go to pieces at all on a road which is, frankly, a couple of sizes too small for it.
We turned left at Ashbury and headed down the lovely B road past Ashdown House to Lambourn and lunch. The host at the pub we found (the George) was both welcoming and weirdly unwelcoming; he didn’t sound like he wanted to serve us food while still finding us a table straight away. His resistance to splitting the bill between us while telling us to go Dutch was just as weird when we were leaving. Most bizarre, but the car park had plenty of space - not that we found it until we’d sat down! - and the food was nice enough.
Will didn’t stay for lunch because he had to get back and had already burnt through most of his battery (60% to 25% in what Google Maps says is 56.6 miles). Duncs headed home after we’d eaten, so the remaining four us went up the B4001 to Childrey which is the road I’ve seen on a few YouTube channels in the last few years. I gave the S6 some stick up here and it suited the car pretty well; it’s more open and could deal with the sometimes lumpy surface. It was the first road where I was in 4th/5th rather than 3rd/4th in manual mode. The triangle of roads between Childrey, Ashbury and Lambourn really is great and provides plenty of variety.
At Childrey the four of us who were left said our goodbyes and headed home. A far cry from the days of driving to the other side of Wales and back, and no less fun for it; much more chance to chat. But we had been surprisingly fortunate with traffic so it is still possible to get out there and have fun. Probably 6 cars is as many as you’d want in this sort of area though.
So what about the cars?
Well it was an interesting split; two silver/grey, two black, two blue. Two diesel barges, two proper sports cars, two more everyday cars (bit of a stretch there - the Tesla is probably more like the diesels in weight and performance than Jon’s Swift). Nobody got left behind though Will was thwarted by traffic lights in Wantage and still caught up perfectly well; dropping back and catching up is often the fun part of a meet anyway.
I love the 911. I’d definitely have a 991.2 for driving to work if I could justify it - I am not as worried about having the last N/A 911 so the turbo engine would suit me better. I had no idea the C4 didn’t really lose any boot space to the C2 in 991 (and presumably 992) form so I’d have a C4. I’d also have the most relaxed suspension; Graham mentioned his was a bit stiffer than ideal on the B4001 but since he does have PASM and PDCC I guess dropping to 19” wheels might be required. It’s a great looking and sounding thing, lovely interior and only other drivers making gestures would be any sort of downer.
The one my heart really wants is Duncs’ Elise though. It sounds amazing and looks just right with the Honda in it. However, I know I’d really like air-con and CarPlay so it’s still a current shape MX5 that I’m test driving on Tuesday.
Jimmy’s 535d seemed little if any slower than my car - you’d need to be on a drag strip to notice a difference. And that meant he and I were able to keep up pretty well with Graham and Duncs. However, Jon’s Swift didn’t drop noticeably behind except on the uphill drag out of Ashbury; but then I remember passengering in his i10 down the same roads a decade or so ago and he didn’t get properly dropped then so perhaps it’s just a more racy nut behind the wheel
Jon’s often been at a meet in an underdog car and seems to love it, but I reckon he needs a successor to the stripped AMG CLK…
Will’s Tesla was always there - he elected to go at the back so I didn’t really get to see how it looked round the corners. I do think the rather hefty battery usage makes it less suitable for meets than an ICE car. How did it feel round the twister bits, Will?
And my S6 is heading towards 9000 miles since I got it in April, the majority of which have been on motorways, so this was really the first proper chance to have a play in it. I think it would probably enjoy sweeping continental roads at three figure speeds ideally; I got home nice and relaxed at the end of the day but I do remember getting back home in my Elise after a meet and being fairly frazzled and don't miss that. Turning on the exhaust noise didn’t seem to arouse any comment next to the 911 and Elise and I turned it off again before we headed home. I didn’t even put the suspension in its stiffest setting and I don’t think you’d need to; it felt really well damped over the crests on the twisty bits. It didn’t understeer and didn’t cook its brakes (I am not king of the late brakers, though). I’ve learned some more about it and might actually take it for a spin round Wales at some point just for the fun of it. I’m really quite pleased. It might not raise the pulse much even driving quite quickly but it isn’t characterless.
Cheers all, it was a good fun day. Oh, and I forgot - noisiest car was the Elise, followed by the 911, followed by Will’s Tesla making fart noises.
@Jimmy Choo was flying in that Beamer. Feels like the fun driving was over too quick, we should start earlier next time!
