A rather dull start to Sunday became a very sunny day at Brooklands in Surrey for the 2024 VSCC New Year Driving Tests.
To anyone unfamiliar with the discipline, driving tests involve threading one’s way through a series of cones in the fastest possible time. Easy, until you realise that you have to stop and start again at different points around the particular test. Miss a stop and/or fail to stop in the correct position and you may as well go home.
The VSCC had organised 12 tests, 6 for the morning and a further 6 for the afternoon. Each test was given a name and in the morning, test No. 1 was “The Brooklands Can” which involved leaving the flag point at the bottom of the test hill then climbing the hill as fast as possible before stopping at its peak, then moving round to a second stopping point which signified the end of that test.
The “Brooklands Can” refers to a particular design of silencer, developed in 1924 to appease residents who had moved into the area around the circuit.
Andrew Messent attacks the hill in his Morgan Super Sports.
Photo: Peter Mallett
It seems Andrew’s “attack” may have been a touch enthusiastic.
Moving on from the test hill the next test was “Ernest Eldridge”. In 1924 Ernest lapped the circuit at 122.37mph in a Fiat Mephistopheles. The test took place on the Members Banking.
Charlotte Garton checks her progress.
Photo: Peter Mallett
The competition is taken seriously by the entrants but the atmosphere was very sociable, lots of interest in the various cars. Of particular interest to many was the Bentley 3 litre powered by synthetic fuel.
Photo: Peter Mallett
So, a sunny sunday spent inhaling Castrol R. Thank you to the VSCC. For more info about the VSCC and its calendar of events, visit: https://www.vscc.co.uk/page/events
A file of photographs from the day can be found at Peter Mallett Racing
Peter Mallett Racing 
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