Silverstone Classic: Oddballs and Rarities

Odd7 Hopefully, you have not yet grown weary of our ongoing coverage of the Silverstone Classic. If you have, perhaps this final installment will rekindle your interest. We’ve saved the best (or at least the hoony-est) for last. This post will be a photo dump of some of the odd and rare vehicles that turned up for one of the greatest vintage racing events in the world. The VW Transporter pictured above was certainly not the rarest, but it seems an obvious choice for the lede image with its sweet track graphics. Come one, come all, and click through for the odd, the ridiculous, and the amazing! Odd2 odd3 The Motobecane Mobylette X1 moped of Team Lotus was a real gem. Any self respecting Lotus mechanic must have one of these to get around the pit area. Odd4 The odd thing about the Citroën H Van/food truck was the sheer number of them. I counted at least a half dozen of these great machines shilling everything from CHICKEN BREAST BURGERS to ICE LOLLIES. Odd1 There wasn’t anything particularly strange about this Buick boat tail speedster, except that it seemed out of place amongst the Maseratis, Lotuses, and Jaguars (pronounced jag-you-ah when in the UK). It was the only machine of its type at the track. Flat head straight eight? Check. odd5 So many times in this life, I have awakened one morning not knowing that a particular car exists, then gone to bed desperately needing one of my own. This applied to the 1984 Talbot Matra above. This particular example of French brilliance is equipped with the optional Raid Pack. The Raid Pack! That means it was equipped with such off-road goodies as locking differentials and a winch. This vehicle would look good – I mean really good- in my garage. odd6 The Reliant Scimitar shooting brake looks a bit like a Volvo 1800ES at first glance – Thus, it’s awesome. Of course, if you paint it butterscotch-maize yellow, it gets even better. Reliant built this particular model from 1968 to 1975. Odd9 The GTM Libra, which is a British kit car that uses Rover Metro bits bolted to a monocoque tub to produce a tiny, lightweight little performance car. Fun size! odd91 The Piper GT looks like a future car from a bad 1970s movie.  Odd92 Several Marcos models were in attendance, including the Mantula, the 1800GT, and the Mantis. Odd94 Finally, the 2CV, which is not all that rare, but these 2CVs were part of an interactive experience called the “Tin Snail Challenge”. During the challenge, the driver is blindfolded while the passenger stands up through the open roof and tries to guide the driver through a course of cones, planks, and bridges. Oh, and the steering is reversed. The teams wore microphones and their conversations were broadcast over loudspeakers for everyone in the vicinity to hear. Great entertainment, to be sure. Once the course was completed, the top 25 teams would be ranked on a Top Gear style leaderboard. Sadly, your Hooniverse team fell about 3 seconds short of the top 25. We’ll get them next year!   All images: ©2014 Hooniverse/Scott Ith, All Rights Reserved

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