GTP_Hun at the 2010 Caramulo MotorFestival (56K warning, many pics inside)

[Hun200kmh]

Hi,

As a few of you know, this year I fulfilled one of my childhood's dreams by becoming the proud owner of a Morgan Plus 4, bought new from the factory (ordered one year before, of course) and brought to Portugal last April ... by road and driven by yours truly.

During that trip across the UK, France, Spain and Portugal my car had - obviously - a temporary UK license plate, as can be seen below. This got a few people confused and asking me questions about the fact that a UK license plate was put into a car with the driving wheel on the left side

Now, I have a few friends in the small but very enthusiastic portuguese classic cars "world" and because of them I became aware that, at least in certain classics events, the Morgan could take part regardless of the year of build (the idea being that this car is a classic because of its characteristics and not because of its age). So, I asked if I could take part in the classic cars hill climb that happens during the annual "Caramulo MotorFestival" held in the North of the country (a big event by portuguese standards, mostly about classic cars, but goes well beyond that), and the answer I got was "Yes, you can, but you must fit a roll bar and fire extinguisher to the car, and you must also race with racing suit, boots, gloves and helmet"

After I got the "all clear" from the mrs. my first difficulty was getting a decent roll bar fitted to the car. Couldn't be a "low" roll bar like the one librands has displayed in their site ( http://www.librands.co.uk/products-view-38.html ), meaning this:

... but instead a higher one, less appealing to the eye, but suitable for competition purposes.

Wasn't easy to find where to build the roll bar, but eventually I managed to get that done.

Next in my check list was finding a way to mount my litle handy camera in a way that I could get onboard clips of my first ever "real world racing" event.

Sadly, that couldn't be done because the day of scrutineering was spent solving a mess up by the guys that mounted the roll bar. While cutting the wood structure (it's a Morgan we're talking about, don't forget ) to make way for the roll bar structure, the wiring that was beneath it was also cut (tail and brake lights, rear turn signals, reverse light ... all dead)

So, instead of a clean job like the one depicted in the librands site:

... I had myself a serious wiring problem:

To find what was wrong (and where) with my rear lights, and to solve it completely, took all my saturday until it was almost scrutineering time, so no time to care about onboard footage. And once the car is approved to race, there's no way I can still "add" a camera to it (especially if that was done with tape or anything else not very secure).

But enough of my problems, race day arrived last sunday, and there I was, worried (a bit nervous I might add) but proudly using a racing suit for the first time in my life.

I didn't have pit babes to nurse me around, but I sure did have some of my own pit babies (meaning, my own children ) with me, as can be seen here:

(note: in this pic you can also see how high the upper structure of the roll bar had to be)




When race time arrived, I got myself ready and equipped to start the hill climb, and drove the car to take my position in the lineup of cars taking part (1 minute between each start, like it was in the rallies of old):

... And then I thought "uh oh, I have no idea of the start procedures, better ask this steward before it is my turn to go"

... and the most hilarious conversation had place right in this moment ...

I ask:

"Hey, I have no idea what's the start signal, is it a countdown?"

His reply, as serious as possible:

"Are you familiar with traffic lights? That's it, green means go!"

(it so happens they had a panel with lights at the start line and I hadn't noticed it before




Well, but enough, there I went. I had four climbs to do, two were practise, two were race. Best of the race climbs would define my position in the final standings.

I didn't know the road, and so I got better with each climb.

First (practise) - 2.03,385
Second (practise) - 1.58,528

First (race) - 1.57,106
Second (race) - 1.57,075

The time from the second race climb was therefore my final, and it granted me the 27th place overall, in front of a 70's Porsche Carrera GT

Anyway, this means litle, considering that the level of competitivity was vastly different among all competitors, we had total amateurs and semi-professional race drivers, we had cars completely in stock form (like mine, even the tyres were "normal" road ones), and cars with a very serious level of race preparation.

May I add that my last run was going to grant me a 1.55 if it wasn't for a serious and time-costly mistake in the braking zone for the last hairpin of the track before the finish line. I even got surprised that, even if marginally, my best time was achieved in that last run.

Oh well, next year I'll go for it again

Enough with the talking, I'll leave you now with a few pics, not only of myself racing, but also of a few other beauties racing there.


Pic 1 - LATE APEX 1

Pic 2 - LATE APEX 2

Pic 3 - I NEED MORE POWER TO SLIDE IT

Pic 4 - A NASCAR CAR IN THE MIRROR ... IS THIS GT5 ALREADY?

Pic 5 - NOTICE HOW I GAINED DISTANCE FROM HIM ... LOL

BEAUTIES SECTION​

Pic 1 - The Race Director's "0" car

Pic 2 - Ex-Works Delta HF (said to have been driven b Dider Auriol back in the day)

Pic 3 - Alfa Romeo 1900 SSC

Pic 4 - Autobianchi A112 Abarth

Pic 5 - Lotus (no idea what type)

Pic 6 - AC Cobra

Pic 7 - Ford Escort

Pic 8 - AC Bristol

Pic 9 - MG TC

Pic 10 - Riley R 12

Pic 11 - Ford Escort RS 1800 Gr. 4 (this particular car - and its livery - is mythical in Portugal, driven by Joaquim Santos it became multiple times national rally champion in the early eighties

Pic 12 - Alfa Romeo (not sure about type)

Pic 13 - Lancia 037 Stradale ( )

Pic 14 - Ferrari 250 GT

Pic 15 - Lola T70 (a bit lame to paint it with the Gulf colors, fooled many that I heard saying "Look, it's a Porsche 917" ... nevertheless, a beatiful car)

Pic 16 - Swallow Doretti

Finally, as you can imagine, a hill climb is raced on a mountain road. This one in particular is raced at the topmost section of the mountain in question. As Mike Oldfield would say, we really were ... "High Above the Clouds". Funny thing is that I forgot all about it and, because below the clouds it was raining, my first thought when I woke up that morning was ... "oh no ... the roadtrack will be wet. Not good news for a rookie ..."

So, I was relieved to get up there and find this awesome, impressive, jaw-dropping view:

Cheers, hope you all liked my report and pics! I know I enjoyed writing it

 

[Synwraith]

Absolutely loved reading that Mario, brilliant. You can't imagine how much I would have loved being there to enjoy the event with you. You'll just have to make room for me next time you bring the Morgan back to London

This is by far my favourite picture and it's just been added as your contact picture on my iPhone

All the best
Maz

 

[Ardius]

Good stuff Mario 👍. What with Cracker's 2010 season thread and now this, I think I may to have write up my own thread for my first track experience last weekend. The Morgan looks fantastic, not my kind of car but they are very nice looking and classy cars all the same.

The Lotus is a Type 23 by the way.

 

[raz_10]

Great read! 👍
Congrats on the car and the race! that photo of you is awesome!
the Intensity!

 

[arvore]

WOW Mário,what a great time You must have had(although You seem a little bit worried in the picture,but I guess that's natural before taking Your own car,which I'm sure You worked hard to buy,into a real racing environment ) really handsome cars and a great landscape.👍

May I ask if You need a co-pilot for next Year...


Thanks for a brilliant report.

 

[jjaisli]

Bravo, Mario! Even though we briefly 'spoke' about this, it was thrilling to read the full story, complete with pictures.

 

[TheCracker]

👍 Great write up Mario, much less wordy and a lot more picturey than mine (which is a good thing).

Is the Morgan +4 Ford Zetec powered these days?

 

[bullie77]

Great report. Great pictures. Great cars (yours included - I absolutely loved it as I've got the chance saying it personally!)

You seemed to have great fun during the weekend (although that picture of yours might lead others to think differently ). You have seen some mighty awesome cars there!

Oh and I loved how you leave that motionless brick NASCAR car on those hill corners

Cheers! And I'm quite happy for you. That should've been a hell of a good time

 

[Hun200kmh]

Thank you all for your kind words, much appreciated and I'm glad you liked the writeup!

Arvore, co-pilots are not allowed, but I expect to be ther next year again and I hope to meet you and Bullie (and other portuguese GTPers also) there!

The Cracker, of course you don't know this, we barely exchanged posts between us all these years, but you and your writeups have been a source of inspiration for me for a long time. Reading threads like "Cracker @ Croix" and many others made me feel with even more intensity the urge to "go real" one day. Sorry if I didn't reply many times I should have (I guess people like to know folks read their writeups), and thanks for replying here, that was kind of you.

Answering your question, yes, the classic range of Morgans use Ford engines now (4/4 uses a 1.8, +4 uses a 2 L and Roadster uses a 3.0 L V6). The big guns - the Aeros - use BMW V8 engines.

 

[TheCracker]

No probs 👍

Seing that you have a full face helmet and visor, i've noticed that many of the Morgans that compete at HSCC meetings run without the wind shield/screen. It probably makes the cars a little more aerodynamic. Might be worth thinking about (regulations pending) if and when you do venture on track again.

 

[Blitz187]

Nice write up Mario! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, car looks great as well 👍 I was asking myself though while reading it... Do you think your virtual racing experience helped you at all with this real world endeavour?

 

[jjaisli]

Seing that you have a full face helmet and visor, i've noticed that many of the Morgans that compete at HSCC meetings run without the wind shield/screen. It probably makes the cars a little more aerodynamic. Might be worth thinking about (regulations pending) if and when you do venture on track again.

And might I add, a change to racing slicks would do wonders. And there's no telling what you could accomplish with an adjustable suspension kit and bigger brakes. Getting the car dialed in is the key. (BTW, your wife doesn't read this forum, does she?)

Nice write up Mario! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, car looks great as well 👍 I was asking myself though while reading it... Do you think your virtual racing experience helped you at all with this real world endeavour?

Surely. But you have to understand, when you look at this picture...

...he had just read the note I had given him and was considering it's implications...

It may have cost him a few seconds. But at least he's here to tell the tale.

 

[Hun200kmh]

LOL Jeff ... tbh, I was more worried about the car than I was about myself! Anyway, in every run, all worries faded as soon as the green light showed up


TheCracker, thanks for the advice, I think Morgan sells a different type of windscreen, one that can be lowered to horizontal position (like the one used by the old MG TC pictured above) but considering the main use I'll give this car is road use I didn't bother. Removing the windscreen entirely could be done, but I'll try to keep all the screwing/unscrewing of parts (each time I take it to a racing event) to a minimum.


Blitz, thanks for your kind words, to be entirely honest I'm not sure if my virtual experience translated well into the real thing. I'll try to keep this reply simple (not easy, and keep in mind I'm not even writing in my own language) but I have to say this: after taking part of a very easy-going, relaxed, amateur, classic car related ... racing event, I can say to you that my respect for race drivers grew immensely. If you like to drive on the roads, and you like to do it fast, you are in any case very far from the pressure of going ... as possibly fast as the you/car combo can do it. Doing a "lively rhythm" on a mountain road, or doing a "race rhythm" on that same mountain road is as different as subsonic and supersonic speed, if you get what I'm trying to say. So, the intensity of the experience is several times higher than any great battle in Spa SCC or Suzuka GT5P.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the core of the racing experience is a PHYSICAL experience. Nothing of what you get playing a game. You physically feel the car, you feel the engine, you feel the tyres, the four of them, the road, the roll, the G-Forces, and your driving is almost purely based on all the physical inputs you and your body are getting. I never looked to the odometer, I never looked to the rpms of the engine. Maybe you can look at those in a track as Le Mans, during the Hunaudieres straight (or in any section of any track if you are a more experienced racing driver), but I can only say that my real experience confirmed what I always thought and wrote here ... "cockpit view is a graphics exploit but what I need is to look outside to the track, not to a extra pair of hands turning a extra wheel"

I'll tell you one thing though ... I had the chance of doing some "lively" driving with the 599 pictured above, and in that case using paddles for gear changing made me smile because it was a very familiar experience to me. So, in that other, very different car, I could relate to my gaming experience.

 

[Ardius]

Blitz, thanks for your kind words, to be entirely honest I'm not sure if my virtual experience translated well into the real thing. I'll try to keep this reply simple (not easy, and keep in mind I'm not even writing in my own language) but I have to say this: after taking part of a very easy-going, relaxed, amateur, classic car related ... racing event, I can say to you that my respect for race drivers grew immensely. If you like to drive on the roads, and you like to do it fast, you are in any case very far from the pressure of going ... as possibly fast as the you/car combo can do it. Doing a "lively rhythm" on a mountain road, or doing a "race rhythm" on that same mountain road is as different as subsonic and supersonic speed, if you get what I'm trying to say. So, the intensity of the experience is several times higher than any great battle in Spa SCC or Suzuka GT5P.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the core of the racing experience is a PHYSICAL experience. Nothing of what you get playing a game. You physically feel the car, you feel the engine, you feel the tyres, the four of them, the road, the roll, the G-Forces, and your driving is almost purely based on all the physical inputs you and your body are getting. I never looked to the odometer, I never looked to the rpms of the engine. Maybe you can look at those in a track as Le Mans, during the Hunaudieres straight (or in any section of any track if you are a more experienced racing driver), but I can only say that my real experience confirmed what I always thought and wrote here ... "cockpit view is a graphics exploit but what I need is to look outside to the track, not to a extra pair of hands turning a extra wheel"

I can definitely concur with this after my as-yet unwritten experience at Silverstone.
Even though its repeated many times before, its true - the biggest thing to hit you is the sense of danger. It may sound very obvious but you really never appreciate what it feels like to feel the danger of running too fast before you actually try it.
In my experience I was driving something even further removed from a road car, which made the sensations even more dramatic. I would have definitely felt a bit more at ease in a tin-top.

In my experience, I did have to pay attention to the rev-counter quite a bit but that was more for starting the car and on gear changes on straights (to try and perfect them).

I think the biggest thing you can learn and carry over from the virtual thing is practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the better you are. Its like learning to drive in GT all over again (or when you first start to drive in reality), at first you are slightly overcome by all the things you have to take in.

I can also confirm that all you learn about racing lines kind of goes up in smoke when you first try and apply it to the real thing. Like I say though, its all practice really, as soon as you get your head around driving at those speeds in reality, you can then start putting your racing knowledge into practice. Its just at first, you tend to get distracted or overwhelmed by the sensations that you can't focus on racing lines.

 

[bullie77]

I, as Mario, have an almost un-existance experience on a race track. I've only ever do it once, a 44 year old car at Portimão track last July.

I agree with both Mario's and Ardius comments on how your whole body feel the track and the car behaviour. It's something completely different of what you experience virtually, where, no matter how accurate the graphics and overall car behaviour is reproduced it can never be detached from experiencing it through a glass screen and comfortably seating in your couch at home.

Another thing I would add is, and I don't know if you guys did feel the same, everything seems to be happening in slow motion. I'm not talking about the actual speed of the car, which in my case was obviously very low compared to a race sim or even to what you've guys might reach in your experiences, but the feel I had was like being "outside" of myself analysing what to do and when to do it. Do you know what I mean?

 

[arvore]

Hey Mário after spotting some beauty's in today's "Noticias Magazine" which took part of the event-I think they're from some sort of Portuguese novel -I did some quick search on Youtube for footage of the event and stumbled into this:




and there is more available on this guy's account(even classics,although I couldn't spot Your car .Hope You enjoy.👍

 

[Hun200kmh]

I, as Mario, have an almost un-existance experience on a race track. I've only ever do it once, a 44 year old car at Portimão track last July.

I agree with both Mario's and Ardius comments on how your whole body feel the track and the car behaviour. It's something completely different of what you experience virtually, where, no matter how accurate the graphics and overall car behaviour is reproduced it can never be detached from experiencing it through a glass screen and comfortably seating in your couch at home.

Another thing I would add is, and I don't know if you guys did feel the same, everything seems to be happening in slow motion. I'm not talking about the actual speed of the car, which in my case was obviously very low compared to a race sim or even to what you've guys might reach in your experiences, but the feel I had was like being "outside" of myself analysing what to do and when to do it. Do you know what I mean?

Well, Bullie, my experience was very different from yours. Firstly I have ZERO experience of driving on a circuit, and you drove at Portimão's track. Secondly, up the hill in a narrow road surrounded by guard rails and turning left/right/left/right for 2 minutes is a very fast-paced experience, no slow motion there whatsoever

But indeed the two big differences between gaming and real life racing are:

a) in gaming you almost exclusively use ONE of your senses (your sight) to race. You act accordingly to what you are seeing displayed on the TV. You need to be fast, precise, and of course skillful, but almost all input you get comes from what you see ...... really racing is NOTHING like that. As I said, it's a physical experience, all your body and senses are 100% commited to what you are doing, and getting info on what is happening and what to do next.

b) As righfully pointed out by Ardius ... there's no FF in gaming, but there is plenty (even when subconscious) in real life. And by FF I don't mean "Force Feedback" ... I mean Fear Factor. Like it is written in jjaisli's note, there's no reset, and crashing probably hurts, either your wallet, yourself, or both;


@ arvore: The cars depicted in that clip took part in the official classics hill climb that happened the day before the one I took part in. That's a professional event, within a full championship (they do Estrela, Falperra, and many other hill climbs events throughout the year). "My" hill climb was for amateurs (no racing license needed) and so far I haven't seen any YT clips about it. I'll try this weekend to upload some footage taken by friends.

 

[FLASH48]

Very nice write up and pictures Mario! Glad you got the chance to do some you have dreamed about, plus being able to get yourself a Morgan! Picture #6 is my all time favorite car( Cobra ), if i had the money one would be in my garage.

Hope to see more of you when GT5 comes out! Or should i say, see some of your tail lights in the distance.


John

 

[jjaisli]

...up the hill in a narrow road surrounded by guard rails and turning left/right/left/right for 2 minutes is a very fast-paced experience, no slow motion there whatsoever

Indeed, it is for exactly this reason that I was casually trying to warn you and urging caution before your event. I hope I didn't sound like a worried grandmother. I just hated the idea of you trashing your dream car after less than a year of ownership. In my opinion, there's a huge difference between driving on a modern, closed road course with proper run off areas, gravel traps and relatively defined lines around corners, which you end up repeating, over and over again, and a hill climb event where a small lapse in judgement can mean a complete right off or injury or both. And it's why I have a lot of respect for Rally drivers and what they do.

I've attended 2 high performance driving schools, I've done some closed Autocross events and I've done a few tracks days at actual tracks. Although all of my events have been in a road car on street tires (either a modified Golf MK II, and Audi A4 or a Mazda Miata.) The track events struck me immediately because I had to sign an insurance waiver which through a lot of legal talk, basically told me, if you trash your car, another car, yourself or even the track, you're responsible for everything and your own insurance won't cover you. Rather daunting.

But I found the fear only last for a few laps. And as you start to fall into a rhythm, you start thinking, "I could brake a bit later there" and "I could get on the power a bit earlier there" or "If HE isn't lifting through there, I'm not going to either". But at the same time, as you repeat the course 5 or 10 or 20 times, it becomes easier or more intuitive simply through experience. And if you DO push a little too hard, in most cases, you'll probably end up with a lot of grass in your wheel wells and a red face but nothing worse. Where as with 2 practice runs, there's no way you can really feel comfortable to push to the limit on a Hill Climb event. And pushing a little too much can lead to a lot more than embarrassment.

It's been quite a few years since I've taken part in any events. But you guys are exactly right, there's so much more stimuli driving a real car that you just don't get in a game. And I've made a lot of reference to this in my posts over the years.

 

[arvore]

That's why the concept of "sim racing" is so strange...there aren't(at least for the time being and current technology) real racing simulators...only good racing games or bad racing games ,hard racing games and easy racing games,like shooters there isn't such thing as "war simulators" only good games and worst games but like in the movies it's only a way of one entertaining himself not even a pale reproduction of reality.💡

 

[Hun200kmh]

Thank you for your kind words John, but if I recall correctly you kicked my rear plenty of times back when GT5P was our daily meeting place!

Anyway, just for you, here are two more pics of your favourite car. As you can see, the owner/driver is not exactly a young guy like us so start looking for a Cobra in the used classics market. Of course you'll need to move back to California to drive such a beast, I don't think snow and ice are suitable for it!



Going Up ...

Coming down ...

And one other interesting picture, taken by a friend that sent it to me today. It so happens that the guy that started before myself was the winner of a Caterham Trophy (for some reason that gave him an entry to this "amateurs" hill climb) and he was a semi-professional race driver with a proper team supporting him. This meant and included ... PITBABES to shelter him from the relentless sun Now, I had a very good view of those 2 pitbabes (one on either side of his car) and this friend of mine, together with a few more, started to shout to the guy in front of me things like:
"Hey that's not fair, you have two babes and he has none!"
"Spare one of them will you?"
"Look, the poor guy in the Morgan is suffering from all this heat!"
"He can't possibly be Ok, with all this sun and two beautiful ladies just in front since 15 minutes ago!!"

And other things they said ...

This picture doesn't show all I had to suffer ... but shows enough I guess

PS - Notice the tow truck behind me ... I guess race direction didn't trust I could make it to the top of the hill

 

[Hun200kmh]

Finally got some time to review the footage my kids have done. Most of it is totally useless, but it was possible to "rescue" a few bits here and there. Enjoy

[YOUTUBEHD]Eh6TFP_QaxE[/YOUTUBEHD]​

 

[bullie77]

Finally got some time to review the footage my kids have done. Most of it is totally useless, but it was possible to "rescue" a few bits here and there. Enjoy

[YOUTUBEHD]Eh6TFP_QaxE[/YOUTUBEHD]​

Very good! Specially your enthusiastic reaction to your son's introduction...

 

[PASM]

Hehe, I discovered this thread just now. What a awesome read 👍 Nice to see you fulfil your lifelong dream of owning a Morgan Plus4. The hill-climb experience must have been great too. I can't understand Portuguese but it's nice to see a video impression of it.

Btw, one of my dreams is to own a BMW E46 M3 CSL and take it to the Nordschleife

 

[solidmic]

Great read & pictures Mario! I am very envious, but very happy for you. Awesome picture of you in the race suit! Almost Senna-esq! I think it should be your new avatar.