Driving a classic MGB around Silverstone

What’s it like to drive a classic MGB around the legendary racetrack at Silverstone?

Having grown up hearing about my dad’s various MGB GTs back in the 60s and then having had the pleasure to hire a lovely red 1969 model for his 60th birthday, I thought I’d ticked all the MGB boxes, apart from possibly owning an MGB in the future that is. But then along came the opportunity to be driven around Silverstone in one as part of MG car club’s MGLive! meeting. Helped by the fact that my girlfriend is an MG Car Club Member.

Heading under one of the many Silverstone bridges

This was back in the Summer of 2016 and was made even more special as Rory from Top Gear was filming there on the same day, and on the track at the same time, albeit sufficiently far in front of us that we didn’t appear in any of the subsequent ‘Extra Gear’ footage! Here you can see them prepping the £95k MG Abingdon with its swift 0-60 in 3.8 seconds offering!

Extra Gear preparing the MG Abingdon for its circuit tour

So what’s it all about? Well MGLive! is the biggest gathering of MGs in the world and even though my knowledge of MGs only really stretched to MGBs there were of course older MGAs, newer MGCs and many MG Rovers and MG Maestros as well. There were also many old men with beards but this didn’t appear to be a prerequisite for attending.

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Visiting the event myself and perusing the various trade stands, aisles of display cars and watching the racing out on the track would have been perfectly sufficient but we’d already booked a few laps on the track in our own MBG! (well my girlfriend’s parent’s MG). Her dad had explained it was a little bit different in previous years, whereby you could pretty much fly around the track as quick as you liked, so I was pleased that the circuit tours driver briefing dictated a 50mph maximum, no overtaking, and leaving plenty of room between cars. All fine by me.

The circuit tour driver’s briefing

During the racing lunchtime break we assembled in a car park near Brooklands Corner where you could sense the excitement in the air. There was time to check out the row of waiting cars but we were told not to stray too far away as they wanted everyone to drive around the track in their allocated order. After about 20 minutes we were giving the nod to “start your engines”, although by the time the snake of cars actually gets going there’s plenty of time to switch on the ignition. However not wanting any awkward, embarrassing moments we made sure we started up along with everybody else. We didn’t want to blow our big moment!

Near Brooklands Corner waiting for our circuit tour to start

So following the queue of cars in front of us we went out onto the track and commenced the first of our two 3.66 mile long laps. Rather than finding the list of rules restricting it actually meant we could enjoy it more as we never felt anybody was going to be up our bum! In fact we never did get up to 50. Maybe 40 was our top speed. It was quite the thrill driving under the Silverstone banner on one of the long straights, and even though we were hardly speeding along, you lose all sense of speed on such wide, sweeping tracks anyway. There was no opportunity to swap drivers on the 2-lap procession and anyhow, I haven’t yet been signed off to drive the dad’s pride and joy. I’ll keep working on that 🙂

Acting as co-pilot to my driver as we set out onto the track

Keeping an eye on the MGF behind us

So after maybe 10/15 minutes we were all done and dusted and after passing the “chequered flag” along the ‘International Pits Straight’ we headed back to the communal car park to meet up with the parents. So no incidents. No dramas. A nice little spin for our M-reg Citroen yellow MGB GT and the bonus of seeing Extra Gear filmed, which did lead to my girlfriend’s dad making a small cameo appearance – I’m fairly sure chiefly due to his signature MGB owner’s beard 😉

My girlfriend’s dad (white shirt) making an appearance on Extra Gear

 

Getting pickpocketed in Bangkok

If I had to choose out of the two I’d probably prefer to be pickpocketed rather than mugged, but that didn’t lessen the initial shock when the former happened to me in Bangkok a few years back. It took just 30 seconds for me to notice what had happened as I did that reassuring pat of the trouser pocket “thing” that we do, but in doing so realised that the rectangular protrusion of my wallet wasn’t where it should be.

Soi Cowboy District in Bangkok. Source

Part of me felt violated, part of me felt stupid, a small part of me felt upset, part of me even felt guilty! After all it was 1am, I was in the less than salubrious district of Soi Cowboy in Bangkok, and I’d been ticking off that unique experience of watching live “ping pong ball” shows. Although to be honest I’d been more impressed by the entertainer firing out paper darts and popping balloons attached to the ceiling! Anyway I digress. How can a fairly savvy traveller like myself put myself in a position to be pickpocketed, and worse of all the pickpocket had been talking to me quite openly beforehand?

It all happened back in October 2009 when I left a bar at the end of the night and started to make my way home. A hispanic guy in the street started chatting to me, correctly guessing I was English and walked with me all of 10 yards down the road. My “spidey” senses were on full alert so I was fully aware of my surroundings and his reasonably close proximity to me, although the street was fairly busy and it wasn’t just me and him standing there so I didn’t particularly feel in any danger. Within seconds he was initiating a half-hearted football tackle on me with an imaginary football while smiling and cheering “Ronaldo, Rooney!” I went along with it, while still continuing in the same direction. In hindsight I can now see why he went in for a second fake tackle. He hadn’t been able to get at my wallet the first time round!

Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney – not that I blame them of course Source

Looking back, what had given me a slight false sense of security was that the trousers I was wearing were of the cotton “backpacker” variety and had zipped front pockets. If my wallet had been in my back jeans pocket, poking its head out, looking back down the street I can understand how it could have easily been swiped. But this one was safely “locked” away. So the first pretend tackle was to undo the zip (something that no doubt happens to Western tourists for a completely different reason in this part of town) and the second tackle was to take the wallet out.

Zipped trouser pockets – not pickpocket proof though. Source

It was at this point I was getting slightly uneasy with the unwanted attention and made it clear I wasn’t playing any more football and headed off on my way, but not before my new friend had the audacity to shout back saying that he and his friends were meeting for a drink in the bar down the road in 20 minutes and that I should join them. “I don’t think so” I thought. Then just 20 strides away I pattered my left pocket out oh habit and realised my wallet wasn’t there. I turned round in panic (not quite in blind panic, but panic all the same) scouting out the groups of people in the near vacinity but nothing. I moved back to where the game of football had taken place but nobody I recognised was there either. At this point I just wanted to get the hell out of there. However it was least a 1h45 minute walk back my hostel in Khaosan Road and how was I going to manage that without any money? And that’s when beautifully I reached into the zipped rear pocket of my trousers and pulled out a small wad of 100 Baht notes (about £10 total), easily enough to get me back home in a Tuk-Tuk.

Heading back home in my Tuk Tuk. Source

I was still slightly shocked by the sad end to the night but flying along the streets back to the relative sanctuary of Khaosan Road, a wry smile came across my face as I pictured the culprit opening up my cheap, blue “freebie” Fosters wallet in the shadows to disappointly find out it contained NO cards, NO notes,  just 2-3 coins worth about 20p in total and a solditary PADI divers card I’d got back in Australia a few years earlier. So essentially he would have opened it up and seen a picture of me inside giving him a big “two fingers” and a “**** YOU!” Now that was totally satisfying, made up for any intial upset and most importantly made be much more aware of looking after my belongings in the future. Now this could have happened anywhere. It just happened to take place in Bangkok! I’d certainly go back to this beautful city again.

Anybody else been pickpocketed on their travels? Or worse still mugged?