My damp, but Epic, day at the Blancpain Series, Silverstone.

[daan]

As noted on GTP's news pages (here and here) Famine and I were invited to see Jann's race in the Nissan GTR at the Blancpain Endurance race at Silverstone.

We arrived in the RJN Motorsport garage on Sunday morning where the GTR was patiently waiting.


Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

We spent the next while walking round the car, taking photos, and trying not to get in anyone's road. Not getting in anyone's road was basically the theme for the day...

We then had a wander round the paddock, where we saw loads of Lamborghinis, including all of the Aventadors. It must have been all of them, there were loads, including what must be the meanest looking one of all...

Lamborghini Aventador at Silverstone by GTRdaan, on Flickr

We also saw the JRM Nissan from the British GT series.


Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

Back to RJN's garage and we see the garage door has been raised, so we're allowed to take a wander down the pitlane. I didn't go far as a pitlane is an alien place for me... Met Speedster502 at this point too. 👍


Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

The garage next door cantained a McLaren MP4-12C

Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

...and the one next to that contained 2 Ferrari 458s

Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

Back to RJN where they were doing last minute things before starting her up. Once started, they ran through a warm up program. The car was still up on the jacks with no wheels or tyres on and they run it up and down through all the gears for a few minutes. The weights on the axle are there to simulate the weight of the tyres.


The car wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, and certainly not as loud as those hooligans next door at Marc VDS who had the loudest car there and wanted everyone to know about it.

Alex Buncombe was strapped in the car for the first stint.

Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

Once the car left the garage, we sneaked out onto the grid. It was quite crowded out there with loads of folk milling around and cars making their way through to their grid slots. Eyes in the back of the head were needed here as there were cars in one direction, and mechanics pushing trolleys full of tyres in the other.



Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr
Oops! Looks like we've been rumbled by Bob (The RJN of RJN...) Best scarper back to the garage....

The race report was covered by the news, so I'll not really go through that here.

I'll just leave another few videos and pics of the cars going through a very slippy and soggy Vale.






Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

I'll just point out that Jann is an excellent driver and he was chucking that car around as if it wasn't wet for him. I'll also point out that he was driving round in that with his traction control switched off at the same time that David Brabham, that's David "one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing" Brabham, was chucking his McLaren in the gravel...


Blancpain Endurance Series by GTRdaan, on Flickr

It was said in the news, but I'll say this again here, massive thanks to Jardine, RJN and Nissan for the opportunity to spend the day with the team. Much Appreciated. 👍




The rest of the Flickr set is here

 

[Wardez]

Just brilliant guys, what an awesome insight into Jann's good work out in the racing world. The video of the warm up and the gridding up process were awesome. Must've been hard to have a chat with Jann since it seemed quite busy while you were there.

Must've been awesome to go so deep into the Silverstone complex itself! Were you guys able to catch site of the GTA NA quarters building?

 

[Hun200kmh]

Great pics and report, thanks for sharing! 👍

PS - That Lambooooooooo ...

 

[daan]

Must've been hard to have a chat with Jann since it seemed quite busy while you were there.

It was. We got to chat with him when he arrived and we were "booked in" to chat with him after the race. He was around most of the day and chatting to the team, friends and relatives, and other journalists too. I also watched him being filmed walking down the pitlane a couple of times...

The car wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, and certainly not as loud as those hooligans next door at Marc VDS who had the loudest car there and wanted everyone to know about it.

And, since I mentioned it, here is the sound of the Marc VDS Z4 in the next garage to be compared and contrasted with the GTR above.

 

[Bopop4]

After filming a earsplitting bike revving and then watching the video back and finding it a bit dull, I bet that Z4 almost made you deaf.

 

[daan]

After filming a earsplitting bike revving and then watching the video back and finding it a bit dull, I bet that Z4 almost made you deaf.

Yeah, the sound recording on the camera isn't great but it was ear splittingly loud.

The Z4 and the SLS both sounded Awesome (capital A intended), but the Ferrari 458 sounded very disappointing. You didn't hear much at all over the transmission whine as they went past.