SKCC Horsham Blat

Rendez-vous Point

An invite to the Sunrise Sevens to attend dropped into my inbox the other night from the Southern Kit Car Club, and the car hadn't seen daylight since I pushed her into the garage two weeks earlier after the Rallye des Jonquilles (see earlier post) 


I awoke at 5am, like some sort of over-excited child on Christmas morning,  and decided to just strap in and go !. A quick coffee later and I was blasting through empty B-roads, birds lifting off just ahead of the car as the road dropped in and out of the mist rolling off the fields, on my way to the rendez-vous point, some 50 miles away.


I had set my SatNav to take me to our meeting point. Unfortunately the destination from the SatNav's point-of-view was just an empty road junction - Which way to go ?? - several blind alleys later, and just as I was giving up on finding anyone,  the BP station loomed into view, complete with a merry band including Caterhams, Sylvas, Westfields and MK's , lead by our blat-leader for the day, MarkG from the Southern Kit Car Club.

Sylva Riot owned by Adam Wilkinsof Complete Kit Car Magazine * is an absolute flyer.

At the first corner Mark kindly flipped up most of a dead hedgehog onto the Caterham ahead of me ...Nice !! :) - and after being pebble-dashed over the next few miles I though I'd better wear my crash-hat before something bigger hit me !!!

Soon into the blat I realised that this was my first 'proper' blat with the SKCC, as our two previous meetings had been a 20 mph blat-on-ice, and the Rallye des Jonquilles in France two weeks earlier. The blat moved on at a frantic pace as I hung doggedly onto the tail of the green R400 and Mark ahead , along some sublime roads, and also some surprising roundabouts (I'm sure I didn't square-off my tyres !) 

some people collected more than their fair share of undergrowth !

The end-point of the blat was an excellent cafe based at a fishery near Horsham, and provided the usual 'healthy breakfast' fare needed. After which we headed home,and the roads were the polar opposite of the dead quiet 6am blat, and getting home was a long traffic jam !!!

'Health-food'

A quick stop at Bell and Collville to ogle their latest Evora/Elise/Exiges on sale. Their showroom walls are adorned with portraits of past Lotus 'pilotes' like Fitttipaldi, Clarke and Andretti - very cool !

I couldn't resist a quick divert through the Pirbright Ring , where I joined a surprised XKR driver - who was amazed at what a 50 year old design is capable of !


* Picked up a copy of Complete KitCar after meeting Adam Wilkins , who writes the features - some really interesting stuff including Tigers new HS6, an alloy and fibreglass Lotus 6 replica launching at Stoneleigh Kit Car Show this weekend.


full gallery HERE