by ChrisR32 » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:46 pm
I'm sure there are some other ADUK users that attended this day, however let me be the first to put a quick post up about it.
As a young driver (well at 28 I was slightly over the cut off age, but never mind), this is the first HPC event that I've been too. My day started at 6am as I had a good 123 miles to cover in order to get to the Holt Hotel. So with weary eyes, I pulled myself out of bed hoping that the day would live up to my expectations. After a good drive over to Oxford, I was greeted at the hotel with smiles from Susie and Hugh. After a quick chat, a cup of coffee and a very much needed bacon roll, we sat in one of the conference rooms where Peter Dixon proceeded to run through the outline for the day.
The day overall consisted of a number of talks / presentations along with two driving sessions (one morning and one afternoon). The presentations were fantastic and I found the talk by Simon very funny indeed!
However as good as the presentations were, the best part of this day were the demonstration drives and assessments by the HPC members. I was fortunate enough to have Clive Jones in the morning session and I found his wealth of knowledge simply amazing. Clive began the drive with a demonstration which just showed me how far I have to go! The drive had flair and pace but was super smooth and effortless. As I am keen to join the HPC, I asked Clive if he would don his "Gatekeeper" hat and assess my drive as a potential member. After about an hour of driving, Clive broke the good news that he felt I was at HPC entry level. Not that I will get too excited as I'm not seeing Hugh until next month, but it bodes well for my upcoming RoADA test!
Anyway, I managed to calm my excitement down (a little bit) by lunch time and had a chat to a number of people. One thing that struck me was the amount of enthusiasm everybody had. This was not your typical "flat cap advanced driving club", this was a serious bunch of petrol heads with a fantastic love for driving and cars..fantastic!!
The afternoon session we were treated to a few more presentations. The circuit driving presentation by Steve was exceptionally interesting and we were treated to a number of fantastic videos (Walter Rohl in particular!!). I then had my second demo drive session with Gordon in his TVR. Well, what a car!! The sun was shining, the roof was down and the TVR sounded amazing! We managed to get a little lost on our route, however as I was reading the map I think I may have been enjoying myself too much to go back too soon!! Again, the demo drive was fantastic and with ten years worth of HPC experience, Gordon was a joy to watch and speak to.
Overall, this day exceeded expectations. With some fantastic cars, great knowledge and experience plus wonderful roads, it was well worth making the journey to attend!
Will I go next year? Yes, but hopefully next time I'll get to do the demo drive as the HPC member!!
Cheers!
Chris.
RoADA - I'm working on it
HPC...one day maybe.