It’s a tense moment: Keeley Hawes’ character in Finding Alice is parked up in a car, having a heart to heart with her on-screen daughter. Unfortunately, the tension of the scene is broken by yours truly suddenly exclaiming: “See that tree there? That’s where Sutcliffe spun a 16-valve Volkswagen Golf GTI backwards and ended up with a plug of wood rammed up its exhaust pipe.”
My family are getting hacked off with this. The trouble is, more and more driving scenes in TV dramas and films are being shot at Longcross Studios in Chobham, Surrey, using sections of the test track that hold many memories. Scenes from James Bond films, Broadchurch and many others have all used bits of track very familiar to anyone in our business.
I can’t help this enthusiasm, because Longcross has been part of my life right from short trousers. It was purpose built during the war as an extension of the Fighting Vehicles Proving Establishment at nearby Farnborough. The facility underwent many changes of acronym until it became the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment in 1970. I remember seeing what must have been Chieftain tanks running with rubber blocks on their tracks (to protect the asphalt) on local roads
The original Mini was launched at Longcross in 1959, but the first time I remember seeing it used as a venue for a magazine test was in the late 1970s, when Superbike magazine organised a twin test between Derek Bell in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage and nine-time world motorcycle champion Phil Read on a Honda CBX. It was only after my first visit to Chobham (we never call it Longcross) that I realised how ballsy Read must have been.
llsy Read must have been. The track at Chobham isn’t for the nervous of disposition, and while I won’t say that I treated the place with the utmost respect in my youth, I did rein in my usual exuberance.
The facility consists of an outer circuit with varying degrees of bank in its corners and a pair of dangerously long straights. It’s lined with trees on the outside and much of the inside – apart from where you drive next to a golf course. Where Read and Bell did their scariest driving and riding is called the Snake, which cuts off a chunk of the circuit. It’s where Sutters, as many had before and have done since, went off into the woods.
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I remember going to a launch event for the Jaguar XE at Longcross. We got to drive an XE around cones etc, but the finale was to be driven round the circuit in an F-type by a professional.
Now, I've done a lot of track driving both in the driver's seat as well as a passenger. I've never been so nervous as that time at Longcross... there is literally nowhere to go! If you think Goodwood has no run-off try Longcross!
Last summer I was asked by a friend if I would take his beautiful Citreon DS to Longcross to compete in the Daily Telegraph "Car of the Centuary Competion". I knew well what went on at Longcross, and recognised it from a million Autocar photo shoots and numerous TV appearances , but had never actually been there. I turned up with the DS on my spanking new ( and very fabulous ) Brian James six wheeled tilt bed trailer towed by my faithful Discovery 4, I saw the pink coloured "LOC" signs and was happy to have found the place, the security guard at the track crossing waved my through into the inner sanctum and I climbed up a narrow twisting road to a very full car park, in fact mostly full of identical white caravans all with "film unit" stickers on them , I thought "Hell this really is a big event, people everywhere, cars everywhere, no space to move" . Nobody greeted me , but after about ten minutes or so a chap came up to me and said "here for filming", "yes I replied", "just leave it there and come and have some breakfast", over a delightful fry-up in a nifty catering tent, the chap said to me, "I don't understand these Directors, can't imagine why they need a Citreon DS on "Call the Midwife" , but never mind, anything to keep them happy ! Oh heavens what have I done was my panicked reaction ! I'd arrived at the wrong bit of Longcross, as I mentioned before it was pretty chaotic at the place I'd left the Discovery and trailer, and a long and tricky reverse out of the film location was for once , and very thankfully , completed pretty efficiently ! Off to another entrance to the Longcross facility, this time after passing through another set of security gates I was confronted with the almost finished construction of a full sized Mississippi River Boat sitting in front of a gigantic blue screen, the boat was on a full sized rail system with dozens of hydraulic cylinders supporting its structure, apparently a set up for a forthcoming feature film . Eventually I was greeted by the very charming Andrew English from the Daily Telegraph and rapidly unloaded the Citreon and headed home agreeing to collect the car that evening. On collection, Andrew very kindly drove me around the Test Track, and took me up a side road to show me the set for the BBC series "Pinky Blinders" where a perfect ancient street scene had been created. The Test Track seemed very familiar from numerous appearances on TV and in this magazine . Quite an unforgettable day for an Autocar reader ! From memory the Citreon DS came 4th or 5th in the Daily Telegraph's Top 100 Cars of the Centuary to top it all .