Had a brilliant day out yesterday, thought I'd share a few of the pictures and memories from the day.

We were at Aintree race track;

Aintree is well known as the venue for the world famous Grand National. But it also has a long and proud history as a motor sport venue. The 3-mile track, opened in 1954 by Earl Howe and Raymond Mays, remains Britain’s only purpose-built Grand Prix circuit and it still exists in its entirety.

Aintree staged the British Grand Prix in 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1962. Stirling Moss scored his first World Championship Grand Prix victory in the 1955 event at Aintree. This also marked the first occasion on which a British driver had won his home Grand Prix.

The first British driver / British car victory in a British Grand Prix was at Aintree in 1957 when Moss and Tony Brooks shared a Vanwall in an event which was also honoured with the title “Grand Prix d’Europe”. Aintree also staged a further eleven non-Championship Aintree “200” Formula One events.



I took a friend a long with me and we were there as part of the Sporting Bears group.

The "Bears", as we are affectionately known, are a dedicated group of classic car and sports car enthusiasts with one primary aim - to raise money for childrens charities through our own social and touring events, and to support other charitable events.

It is to the clubs credit that annual subscriptions support the club overheads thus allowing all monies raised from events to be directed towards the selected charities. Since the Club was formed we have been very active and have raised over £800,000 for childrens charities in the UK.

The event was like nothing I'd ever been involved in, and was one of the biggest events the Sporting Bears had ever done.

8 local childrens charities were invited in two sessions (morning/afternoon) and we basically spent the entire day at our own expense taking them around the track. Obviously depending on the specific condition the children had, we either pushed it a bit or creeped around the corners and blasted up the straights. Still, coming out of the last corner and getting on the gas was good for 120mph before having to brake.

Some of the kids were quite physically and mentally handicapped and some needed winches to get into the car, but it was amazing to give something back and definitely found myself with a bit of a tear in my eye on more than one occasion. The kids absolutely loved the day. Anyway, enough chat, here's some pictures.

The day started at 8am;



We lined up to get in;



Biggest spot of the day has to be the £260,000 Bentley Mulsanne that came along. A fabulous car, attention to detail that's staggering but not one I'd be particularly interested in.



Porsche Carrera RS;



Porsche 911 Turbo S - this thing was easily the most stunning car of the day in terms of performance and engine note. It sounded like a jet taking off. 0-60 in 2.8 seconds!!!



The police showed up as well, brought a couple of their cars along and gave the kids blues and twos runs around the track;



We did a few orientation laps before being the kids arrived. I did mine behind a £220,000 Bentley which is the fastest 4 seat convertible in the world. Limited to 198mph when the roof is down though! I followed in a 4 seat convertible that's nowhere near the fastest in the world!




I finished my lap and watched a few of the others come past;

Panamera 4S



Ferrari 360



Interesting colour on the Gallardo Spyder;





Although the picture doesn't show it that well, the Turbo S was seriously cooking it's brakes. Smoke pouring off them after just 2 laps, but they're made for it!



We came back around and made our way to the loading area, I was a bit out of place with the Ferrari, Aston, Lambo and Porsche boys, but I was enjoying myself;



The kids arrived, and the layout of the was that you arrive at the loading area, pick up some passengers, blast them around the track twice and them drop them off to pick up some more passengers.





Just a couple of pictures, these were the more able bodied and as I said before, some needed winching in, it really was sad. But the smiles on their faces made it all worth it.

We had lunch between 1 and 2 and then the second session started with more than 70 families from Claire House arriving. There were some clearly ill kids.

Still, for them to be shouting with excitement and putting their hands up as we accelerate up the track;



The wild horse, spotted in the wild;



On track;





The Ferrari comes around the corner behind me;



4 up in a BMW, I was never going to get away, so it got closer;





I asked my mate Tom to come along who'd not long picked up his yellow Gallardo Spyder. He arrived in the afternoon session but as you can imagine, his car was definitely in demand until the end of the day, there was a long line of people waiting for a go!



Some cars;





Ferrari Dino;



The £1/4m Bentley;





The interesting Lambo colour, personally I preferred Tom's yellow one;










I couldn't have enjoyed the day more, managed to see MPG figures down to about 6 and MPH up to about 120. Burned through a horrendous amount of fuel (I'd hate to think how much we went through between us!) and I dread to think about the brakes.

awwww wow Al your write up and pictures are amazing!

Am so glad the kids really enjoyed themselves, was great to see the picture with their arms up in the air! lol

well done Al

Good work guys!

That's one ugly BMW you got there Al! Looking good though!

Thanks Snickas, the day was absolutely amazing, the kids loved it and the drivers took so much away from the day as well. The organisation that went into it was amazing and everyone who contributed did a fantastic job.

The guys at CES UK covered the cost of the track as well as laying on a brilliant lunch for the drivers as well as tea and coffee throughout the day. Audi provided water and bacon/sausage butties as breakfast and the Liverpool Motor Club provided marshals and driver induction/training etc.

Loads of volunteers at the loading area and at the various marquees and Everton sent their mascot along with some football games for the kids to take part in.

3 of the 4 big NW football clubs provided prizes for the raffle except for Man United who didn't even respond to an email.

Oh, and thanks Phil, the 6 is quirky which is why I like it.

I meant ugly in a good way dude...
Sounds like everyone had a good time which is the main thing!

It is sooooooooooo goooooooooood to hear of people like you doing stuff for those who cannot help themselves. More power to your elbows.

A quite extraordinary mix of cars all looked after and turned out in such style. Fabulous.

looks fab! x

One of the best days of my life, and it makes you appreciate all that you have.

Two good mates of mine there yesterday
one in Porsche Turbo RS and one in zetec powered mk1 cortina all seemed to have a brilliant day will try and get some of their photos on here when i get a chance.

The turbo RS was excellent, and the Cortina was immaculate. I really look forward to you adding some pics.

Meanwhile, here's me, on track;

Looking through my pics, I seem to have only caught them a couple of times, which of course is criminal as I'd eat my dinner off the Cortina's engine bay!

My pc where the photos are is playing up so i am working off my laptop as soon as the pc is sorted i will upload them the rs belongs to Kieth and the mk1 to Pete

wow looked like a very cool day wish i went in my sharran lol

Look forward to seeing more pics!

a few more from aintree

aintree

Well done Al, good work there mate, sorry i missed this, looked like a quality day, hats off lad

aintree

Nice pics John, loving the KTM Xbow

Also feeling the nose of that Capri

lady driver in KTM as well respect ! lol

Good pics mate, wish I'd have known at the time. I'd have said hello.

The bloke in the Capri was an 'interesting one'.

Hahah i can imagine lad

Was it a brooklands or a laser injection bynchance

No idea. Not my thing really, even though I can appreciate the effort.

The 997 Turbo S stole the show, so the Capri and Cortina really didn't feature on my radar.

Al, i was taking the piss mate, thats a claddics 80's owner comment, shame on you lol

Humour on wiki doesnt convey well sometimes

brooklands i think but might have been a 280

I know mate, a Ford thing...

280 meaning 2.8l? If so my uncle uncle had one of those, definate enthusiast

the 280 brooklands was a limited special edition capri, only so many were built, one of these in mint condition are worth more than your car al, show some respect

OMG those maserati`s are darn right fugly, give me a chrysler 300 anyday, in fact i`d even have a crossfire rather than that maserati, if i wanted something that looked like a rover 600 at the rear i would just go out and buy a rover 620Ti lol

I can imagine, and I appreciate them, I just don't really have much interest.

I'm not seeing it to be honest.

Sounded brilliant as well. I never got bored of hearing that off the line.

Have to admit, wouldn't touch a crossfire with a sh**ty stick, ugly looking car and under performs, given it has the same chassis as the slk borrowed from a c class amd a merc sourced 3.2 v6 it should have been a show stopper me thinks, but it wasn't, unfortunatley they were a massive fail. SRT used the AMG engine that was also a massive fail,

Have to agree with Ste the maseratti has an ugly back end, but is far better looking at the front then the crossfire, and yo be fair the back end of the cossfire aint no oil painting looks like a budget panamara

Crossfire used the chassis from this SLK;



Which is an absolute shocker to drive. Definitely not a car I felt comfortable chucking round. I was looking at buying an SLK320 but it was shit.

I think the Maserati is a lovely looking car, but each to their own and all that.

As for the Crossfire, horrendous looking thing.

just booked on an aintree track day for 01/10, hope the track is as good as it looks on the pics

£115, bargain imo
http://www.liverpoolmotorclub.com/track-day-information/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQV50nKO0qQ&feature=youtu.be

Exceeded bandwidth due to everyone looking at my pictures... but here's a video.