Santa Pod (12 Oct 2003)

We started off from London Gateway services at an unholy hour (7am) and made a mad dash up the M1 in a six car convoy to get to the Pod. Kirk and Sherry led the charge past a half mile, 2 lane wide column of Imprezas - which, given the beautiful tone of their exhaust and the early hour, probably woke many of them up! We were joined later in the day by 4 other fives, including a newbie from London with his blue mk2.

After rearranging the cars on the stand into a rather natty formation we went walkies to gawp at the fantastic turnout of other Jap cars. None of the London crew could be tempted to run the quarter mile, but we were represented by a silver mk1 turbo that ran the strip, managing an impressive 13.8 seconds. Possibly the highlight was a Skyline that blasted up the track in close to 10 seconds, driven by a girl who was creaming the attention on the cruise back down. Next to that would be the camper van - yes one with a V8 engine - blowing off an Impreza who had held back to give the camper van a chance!

The day had lovely background aromas of burning rubber, cooking clutches, the smell of fuel, oh and the odd burger van! And the soundtrack was a mix of the scream of engines redlining, and throbbing dance music. Don't you just feel you were there!!

Phil Bradburn