While at the ‘Ring the other day blasting around in the new GT-R, I saw a heartwarming sight in the paddock.
In among the Porsches, M3s and other assorted hot motors were a British registered Ford Orion and what I first thought was a Clio Williams but was actually a 1.2RN.
The Renault was driven by a young lad and the Orion by a couple of teenage girls (or perhaps early twenties). I tell you, my faith in British youth has been restored.
Rather than sit at home virtually going around the Nurburgring on a Playstation they made the effort to get in their motors and have a crack at the real thing. In those motors? Yeah, alright a brace of GT3 RSs would be better suited than an old Orion with a bodykit, but not everyone has got the beans to buy an RS.
And what would you rather prang at Bergwerk? Eighty grand’s worth of sports car or a few hundred quid of elderly Ford? They might even have been having more fun than I was in the GT-R.
Find out how Goodwin got on riding shotgun in a GT-R with Nissan's test driver at the wheel, in Autocar 23 April issue.