Goodwood Festival of Speed June 2012
June 2012
For the 7th time this year we were invited to drive on of our cars up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. After driving there a Ford GT40, Ferrari 550 LMGT, Mercedes DTM, Lister Storm, Benetton F1, Viper GTS-R it was great to participate to this wonderful event with our BMW 635 Group A ex. Claude Ballot-Léna.
This is car chassis number RA2-51 which raced ETCC and SPA 24 Hours from 1984 to 1986. It was used by Claude Ballot Léna in the 1985 ETCC and the 1986 SPA 24 hours. It has also been driven by Réné Metge, Kurt Thim ( former DTM Winner ), Michel de Deyne, Claude Bourgoignie, and many others.
Though it was not the quickest car I ever drove at Goodwood, it was really a thrilling experience due to the lot of sensastion you feel at the wheel. The engine sounds superbly and with cold tyres the least to say is that you have to be very cautious with the tail...
Steve Soper was invited to share the wheel with me over the week end, he actually drove the afternoon runs and I drove the morning ones. He never drove a 635 Group A before and was in a first time a bit anxious about how different it is compared to an M3 but finally he said to me "as much as I drive it, as much as I like it !". He especially liked the engine sound and the nice shape from the 6 Series. Indeed in the paddock we were parked next to a Rover 3500, it looked really ugly compared to the 635 ! ( sorry Timothy ... )
On Sunday my friend Gerard Lopez ( Lotus GP owner ) visited us and I offered him to drive it up the hill. Gerard is a cautious and experienced driver but also a big BMW fan, owning quite a lot of "M" cars.
