Jon

Car should be on the road at the beginning of April, just a few wiring issues to sort out......

All being well it will be MOT'd in the next few weeks, then I can thrash the arse off it

Thats great as long as the owner lets you thrash their car around a track whilst on the shoot, but then alot tends to be down to personal taste. The seating position maybe all wrong for the journo as the car was built for the owner so its never gonna feel right, and how many people would continue to put their cars up for features if they were slated in the magazine each month? I remember Mr Clarkson was invited to test and report on a hot rod in Street Machine many years ago, it was one of the top rods at the time and he slated it, awkward seating position, didn't handle too well etc etc. I agree that there should be info regarding the performance but sometimes it just isn't possible, many shoots are done on the road/carpark etc during the week. We could just print what the owner tells us, but most people have a rather blinkered view of how their own car performs. I do think that now so many people have good quality digi cameras we will start to see more in progress shots in features, a few years ago you would get given a load of blurry snaps showing what was done and people would have moaned like mad if we had printed them. With the modern digi stuff it will be much easier and I too would like to see more of these finding their way into the magazines.

I like those arches...

I beleive it may have been a spring that is used in the parachute itself that came off and hit the spectator in the chest! I suppose one of the results from the investigation could be that wire fencing is errected along the barrier, most race track now have a similar set-up in front of the stands etc.