I had a very long day yesterday following the Monte Historique and have just finished editing the Mini stuff. I have plenty of teh otehr cars aswell to get through, but that's for later.
Anyway, the day started dull when I left home but as i got upto Glasgow at lunchtime it was brightening up nicely with the sun breaking through the clouds. I quickly found a space in a multistory and wandered down to George Square to find all the cars and plenty of spectators having a look at the impressive line up.
I made straight for the MCR team cars and started snapping. All the cars were well presented and were obviously a crowd favourite as there was a constant crowd of onlookers gathering around them.
At around 4pm the cars started to move off to make their way to the start at Blythswood Square. There was an atmosphere of excitement as the engines were started and it seemed like all the staff from the surrounding shops and offices had come out for a look.
It seamed to take for ever to get the cars out of George Square as the normal daily traffic was building up and the traffic lights were not very favourable.
I watched the Minis move off and then walked up the route to Blythswood, enjoying the sounds of the cars echoing off the buildings.
I got upto Bltyhswood at about 5pm, and it was already a hive of activity. All the cars were lined up again for the spectators to view. The marshalls and police were constantly asking everyone to stay behind the barriers, I just followed behind them and took advantage.
The teams were doing their final preparations and route planning with bonnets up, tyre gauges hissing and maps been unfolded on the roofs.
As the start drew closer the crowds just got bigger and bigger, the marshalls and police were having trouble keeping the crowds back, but at 6.30pm the first car, a Renault Alpine A310. With a piper leading the car through the crowd and flash bulbs the car went off down the hill and off for Monte Carlo. Then, at intervals of a minute, each car went off to a round of applause and cheers from the crowd.
After the last car was flagged off it was time for me to play catch up. As the cars were taking the scenic route I decided to blast down the M74, M6 and A66. The M74, as usual, was near empty, so progress was easy. On the A66 I passed a couple of competitors, but still manged to get to Scotch Corner before nayone had arrived.
Within 10 minutes the cars started to appear, with most asking the way to the control, others made straight for the petrol pumps to fill up. Already some cars were suffering problems, with an Escort coming in with a broken brake pipe, and an Alfa and a Datson 240Z that were difficult to restart.
The last car I saw was 222, the Mark 2 S, which arrived much later than the others. They had run out of petrol somewhere on the way to Scotch Corner. As I left the wether was getting cold and wet, and a few bits of sleet were falling.
I've put together a small video of the cars at the start...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s8YxTq_9ik
...and the rest of my pictures can be found at.
http://s710.photobucket.com/albums/ww10 ... ic%202011/
I will be adding the rest of the cars to the album in the next few days, so if your into more than just Minis take a look over the weekend.
And good luck to Graeme and Anthony and the rest of the MCR team.
