750 BHP SUPRA BLITZES LONDON

London is the last place you'd expect to drive a 200MPH racing car - unless you're a self-confessed Max hooligan like Dave Clark.  He looks across the City from Westminster Bridge unfazed but slightly bewildered by the prospect.  He's attacked Germany's lethal 14 mile Nurburgring circuit in this car, hit blind crests at 170 MPH with no idea where the road goes, he's even had all four Blitz split rims of the ground at 120MPH, but never has he attempted London's hostile rush hour in the pissing rain.  "This is gonna be fun", he says, before proceeding to do a burn out.  Not a regular midly-squeaky chirrup of a burn out, however, but a king-size, thundering tornado of tyre smoke and pant fumes..... in goddam bus lane!  People stumble past in shock, not sure whether to applaud or call the police.  We've just interrupted their long and lonely trek home by making the bridge shake beneath their feet.  He's right, this is going to be fun.  We've got 750 horses of the Blitz Racing Cavalry to play with all bloody night.

GET IN THE "RING"

Fears put aside for the moment, we follow fly's Mondeo towards Soho.  Diving between black cabs and wandering red buses, Dave starts chatting about the Supra's fearsome record breaking laps round the infamous Nurburgring.  'At the Ring', some corners are hidden behind blind crests.  Many are fast, which is okay if you're doing 160MPH, but others are hairpins - then you're screwed.  There's one where I had to pitch the car sideways at 120MPH before the crest so it was pointing in the right direction of the corner when it landed'.  It seems a world away from this dank evening in London, but a world away isn't far when you're doing 200MPH.

The Traffic towards Soho's centre clams up like, well a prostitute's clam when faced with a skint punter.  It's all pretty chilled inside the Supra.  The engine is surprisingly quiet at low revs and the only noise is the 'tap-tap-tap' of the fuel pumps working away behind us.  I doesn't feel like a 750BHP road racer until Dave dumps the clutch for another burn out,  this time in front of a bunch of French school kids.  Lowering the lightweight side glass allows us to hear as well as see their jaws drop.  They follow until we stop just outside Paul Raymond's Revue Bar, a world famous grot place.  In five minutes Dave has signed autographs for Americans, allowed Turkish, Italian and Spanish tourists to sit in the car, and been told to ' naff off', this is my patch' by a gorgeous prostitute.  Just as we're  scratching around for a tenner, Dave says I've not been asked for my autograph since I acted in films as a kid.  Is there no end to this man's awesome talents ?.
Two policemen turn up.  We quickly hide the tenner.  One cop could easily touch the moon, the other can just about reach the door handle.  Tall cop loves the car and doesn't give a toss that we're parked illegally. Small cop is suspicious.  Small cop's oversized helmet slips down over his eyes when he looks up to argue with tall cop.  He walks off humiliated ad Dave explains to tall cop how the car will do 200MPH ' though i wouldn't attempt it on the Queen's Highway, officer'.
Yeah, right......
  As the Soho crowd move aside and allow us to leave , a tramp offers us one of his treasured cans of Super T.  We try to explain that we've got enough petrol but he doesn't understand.  He doesn't understand why he's just fallen over either.

It's like a war has just broken out under the bonnet

The neon nirvana of Piccadily Circus is next up.  As the traffic thins, Dave issues the Supra a challenge.  He asks it to take half-throttle in second gear at low boost (504BHP).  The car fails spectacularly.  Its rear tyres spin up, whizzing away like demented fireworks while the wastegates sound like semi automatic  blow pipes.  But still, somehow, we're flying up the road at a lunatic pace.  Then sideways into Trafalgar Square and sideways up Charing Cross Road and sideways back to Piccadily Circus. 'None of this would happen with the traction control switched on' he says.  So on it goes and the car fires its way around London like a Supersonic pinball.  It sounds like one too.  The system works on the ignition, so it's effectively misfiring until it senses grip through the car's ABS system.  But from where we're sitting, it's more like a war has just broken out under the bonnet.  As we leave, a sense of shame overcomes us.  We expected hostility towards us and the car from London folk, but received none 'if this was a Porsche, their reaction would be different,' says Dave.  He's right.  The Supra is not instantly recognizable, and therefore doesn't bring with it any preconceptions.  As far as the people of the capital were concerned, the Supra was not so much a car, more of an event which brightened up their Thursday night.  As far as we were concerned, this was the most mental car and driver combo London's ever seen.

RECORD BREAKERS

Last year, Japan's foremost hyper-formance tuners, Blitz, teamed up with UK's traction control experts, Racelogic.  Their plan was to modify a Supra to break the outright lap record of the Nurburgrinf for a tuned road car.  They did it, in 7 mins 49 Seconds.  Here are the Facts.....

14-Mile lap with over 80 corners ranging from hairpins to 190MPH bends.
Scene of Niki Lauda's flaming crash in 1976
Anyone can drive it.  Just turn up with a tenner and a spare pair of pants.
This also means you might come across a coach load of Armenian tourists when you're on a quick one.
A torn off wheel was found a mile from the track in a nearby forest.
It's possible you could die there and no-one will find you
The fastest ever speed recorded on the two mile straight was 240MPH
Eight Minute laps defy belief. This cars done a 7.49
Jackie Stewart once said"The only time you can do a perfect lap of the ring is in your head"
It's only four hours away once you're in France. Call 0049 6205 9500.