Well, I wasn't expecting to have to do a postscript to my piece on the Gold Club lunch but that John Lovatt fellow crept out of the woodwork and put the squeeze on me again. When I last put finger to keyboard, I was thinking that the Gold Club Lunch was going to be the last I saw of Thrust SSC before it went out to Black Rock. I had bargained without the Press Day.
Another call from John saw me speeding my way (not literally, officer) (would they wear "just trying to get into the spirit of things"?) towards Farnborough at an unholy hour of the morning to help out with the final Press Day before departure, SSC finances permitting.
Step this way sponsors. Please! We need less than the cost of a new McLaren F1 to sort the finances out. Petty cash, if we could just find the right person....
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| McLaren F1 Only 230 m.p.h. £600,000 |
Thrust SSC 540 ............... 850 m.p.h.? less than £420,000 needed |
I met the M.C. of the day, Howard Stableford, at the main gate as we were getting checked in. We had a short reminisce about "Tomorrows World", Raymond Baxter (whose age is a rather grey area I gather), and the good old days when they used to do live demonstrations in the studio. We agreed that those days were much more fun - there was always the chance that things would go horribly wrong, and they quite often did - but I gather the producers don't look quite so stressed these days! Such is progress?
The Mach 1 club was there in force, luckily, as so were the press. I think I covered most of the problems with Press Days when I wrote about the one prior to Jordan 2. We did the usual round of chair shifting, table erecting, barrier building - you wouldn't believe what a knot a reel of blue rope can get into - ladder shifting, press pack stuffing etc. etc.
And then the press arrived. This time they all seemed to be having a good day out. The sun shone. The photo opportunities were delivered and the presentations went well. But best of all, there was a free lunch! Now if there is one way to charm a gentleman of the press, it is to feed him well! All through the presentations you could smell cooking and watch the journalists salivating. And when the questions were over we trooped outside into the sun to a truly wonderous barbecue (please insert the caterers name here, they did us proud).
I grabbed a bacon burger and a sausage and went off to the edge of the roped area to do sentry duty. The control tower has to shut the airfield down if people go wandering off across the runways. They are not happy bunnies when this happens! I caught one gentleman some way out of the enclosure and politely asked him to get back before he upset someone, only to discover that he was one of the Farnborough security men..... I prefer to think of it as a good bit of P.R., proving we were doing our job - not me making a fool of myself!
We had a small demonstration of foam spraying by the Jaguar Firechase, just by where I was standing - quick, where did I put my burger down? I was beginning to feel the effects of the sun by now but had to wonder how much hotter it would be in a fire-fighting suit!
At two o'clock SSC was rolled out followed by those who could still manage to walk after their lunches. In due course the engines were lit. The car taxied to the end of the runway, spooled up, released its brakes and catapulted away. This time Andy lit the reheat a bit earlier than usual which meant that instead of the expected orange glow for about half a second, we were treated to the full white heat of two Rolls-Royce Speys giving their all! And a top speed of over two hundred miles per hour. A good one for the photographers.
Paradoxically, the biggest problem with watching land speed record cars is that they are quick! The fun is over all too quickly. After a last couple of interviews all that was left to do was put the visitors on the busses and send them their various ways.
But we were left with the task of clearing up. The trouble with working on an airbase is that you can't just make some feeble excuse and nip off home. You need someone to escort you through security. Which is how I came to find myself doing something I learned about the hard way at the last press day. Folding the Airshelta. It is a wonderful shelter but you just can't believe how heavy the thing is. I mean, it's only an inflated plastic bag, isn't it? Except that it is the biggest they have ever made and it is built to take a bit of punishment. Well, it took a dozen grown men and quite some time to fold it up and roll it onto a pallet. Depressingly, the Merlo lift truck barely flinched under the weight!
You try to force yourself not to ask questions about things like this as you get older because you should know better. If you can, you just observe them and try to hang onto your sanity.
Dangling from the roof in the hangar there was what looked remarkably like a duck dressed in a home made communications satellite. The satellite looked very much like a Blue Peter job as it was constructed from bits of wire coat hangar and tin foil. Jeremy Davey did produce what sounded like a fairly plausible explanation at the time.....
When everything was over, most of the team adjourned to lawn outside the Officers Club for a drink. After a day of moving heavy objects around and cooking in the hot sun, I think you will appreciate how well my pint went down!
Well, like I said last time: "watch this space". Hopefully some sponsors will come through with the money and my next report will be from Black Rock. Unless John Lovatt has any other schemes that he has forgotten to tell me about.
As always we are more than happy to publish articles by the Daily Telegraph Mach 1 Club members on or related to Thrust SSC. Please send your articles to mach.one.club@battlement.digital.co.uk
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