Castle Combe 22/09/2018
Never having been to the Rallyday before, or indeed a Club event (since we only joined this year when visiting the London Classic Car Show at the Excel Centre back in February), my son Ben and I set out on Saturday morning in my late Father’s quattro, hoping we were not going to get too wet.
The run from Winchester through Marlborough to Swindon is a route the quattro has enjoyed since it was new, and it wasn’t long before we pulled in at Combe, to park up with other club members under what turned out to be some very useful trees.
It was lovely to see the other cars lined up, meet their enthusiastic owners and learn more about the cars in general and ours specifically. Having so much expertise on hand and plenty of time to compare notes was wonderful, and the ever-increasing rain did not dampen spirits, especially with so many other fantastic cars to look at and see in action on track.
The afternoon track action in wet conditions was especially good, with an eclectic mixture of cars being put through their paces once the organisers had added a series of tyre chicanes onto the tarmac circuit, and a large bale to do donuts around before heading off round the rest of the track. Particular highlights were Miki Biasion demonstrating a Lancia Delta Integrale. However, seeing the Rally quattro of Nick Barrington charging around complete with turbo banging and popping made our day – there really is nothing like a 5-cylinder quattro motor pushing on hard…..
Ben and I decided to head on home mid-afternoon, thanking our fellow club members who had turned up for their company and welcome advice. On the way back, we compared notes on our favourite car of the day, having seen such a wide variety of exotic and beautiful cars, but after much discussion, decided we were actually sat in our favourite one! There is of course something very special about a proper quattro and all the club cars at Combe were spectacular, but that coupled with ours being my Dad’s retirement present to himself back in ’86 and the family memories that the car features in means our car is just that extra bit special to us. The run back was fun in the rain and just showed again how ground breaking the quattro was as we flew around wet corners and up steep hills with incredible traction; what a car, and what a fun day out.
Adam & Ben Hooper
