22nd-24th June 2018 Midsummer Gas 2018

[Alex Brandon-Smith]

BRAND NEW SUMMER DRIVING EVENT CONFIRMED!

WELCOME TO THE FIRST ARIEL.CLUB MIDSUMMER GAS!

Midsummer Gas is a brand new, summer event for Ariel Club members and their guests.

Intended to be an annual event, the Midsummer Gas is going to remain the same weekend every year, being the 4th full weekend in June, so everyone can plan in advance for the next events.

For 2018, a long weekend, running from 22-24 June, it will be an opportunity to road drive (or ride) your Ariel vehicle, attend a local track day (Nomad & Atom only), green-lane in your Nomad, natter with fellow owners and relax in comfortable surroundings.

The track day will take place at Abingdon Airfield, courtesy of Motorsport Events, on Friday 22 June. Ariel’s very own test driver, ‘Sideways Si’ Clark, will be on hand for a bit of paid tuition, too. And not always taking the shortest route around a corner!

The Saturday will comprise a full club run out in the morning, to a refreshment stop yet to be decided, and in the afternoon, mud-pluging Nomad types can attend their very own green-lane drive, put together and led by Ariel’s Henry Saunders, whilst the remaining Atoms, road Nomads and Aces can continue their afternoon run out with another route to drive.

This inaugural Midsummer Gas is based out of Bicester Hotel & Spa in Oxfordshire. There will be an informal club BBQ on the Friday evening, breakfast is included both mornings with your room price, and the main social even on Saturday night will be a full evening soiree with 3 course meal and private roof terrace should the sun be shining down. Everyone will head home on Sunday 24 June, once their head has cleared and they’re all gassed out.

The hotel has full spa facilities as well as golf for those whose other halves may want a more relaxed afternoon.

How to book

All hotel room bookings for Friday and Saturday night must be made with Bicester Hotel & Spa direct. We have 30 rooms held under Ariel Club ranging from standard doubles at £150 per night including breakfast to Feature rooms at £170 so please call them to reserve on 01869 241204. Should these rooms sell out, there is another hotel down the road.

The Friday track day at Abingdon must be purchased in the Ariel Club shop and the club will then liaise and book the track day space for you. The club has 20 spaces currently allocated to it but after that spaces will be on a first come first served basis as it is a public track day so get booking early. The evening meals must also be purchased in the club shop. Please put together a basket of your track day and/or meals and checkout as normal. Track day guests and passengers can join us on the day and will be paid for directly with Motorsport Events when you register.

Places are strictly limited for this event and it will be a sell-out – so get your skates on.

This is a paid-members only event. Membership can be purchased via the club shop. Any questions, ask away on the forum or contact the team directly.

Let’s make this event one to remember and a great start for the annual Ariel.Club Midsummer Gas!

https://ariel.club/midsummer-gas-2018

[Winmoz]

Booked the track day and a little session with Si (best mod you can make to a car to get it to go faster is between the ears of the pilot, so good luck with that Si!)

Not sure if I can do the evening or Saturday yet as the family may get grumpy. Hope to persuade them otherwise...

[Alex Brandon-Smith]

Hi Steve, good to have you aboard. Even if you don't stay, it'll be worth joining for the BBQ as the hotel is only 20 minutes away. A great chance to catch up with other members. Or, of course, your better half is invited if you both just fancy joining us for the Saturday meal. An opportunity to dress up maybe? It's all very flexible and getting the family involved is exactly the reason why we wanted to start the event...

Alex

[Winmoz]

Thanks Alex,

Challenge for me is that we have two school age kids, so this would mean tearing them away from Minecraft, Terreria and YouTube (which is, apparently a very cruel thing to do) or organising a sleep over or baby sitter or Grandma for them. Not impossible. Will explore the options as it would be good to be able to relax over a hunk of meat and a beer and swap excuses for lack of speed/skill/bravery, but not fun.

[Alex Brandon-Smith]

Yeah we do too mate. Wife will be working Sat morning but then kids staying with parents so she can join us for the main event and stay Saturday night. But even if you can join us for the Friday evening, it'll all be worth it.

See what you can do. Any questions just ask.

[Peter255]

Confirmed with the hotel inc CC details.

We have taken one of the feature rooms to allow room for a toddler and cot.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks for organising Alex!

Peter

[Kai]

I’m in for the trackday and bbq - looking forward to seeing you all
Kai

[Peter255]

Just paid for 2 for the BBQ and Dinner and 1 for the trackday.

[HenryJS]

IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

For those of you that want to come on the Nomad Green Road Excursion:

There is no maximum amount of vehicles we can take in total - HOWEVER, there is a limit on the size of the group. In accordance with the countryside code of conduct, there should be no more than 4 vehicles in a group, with 15 minutes between groups.

I am going to be doing a Recce of the lanes and will modify the route accordingly to suit the Nomad. If you would like to come along, no problem - but i cant guarantee you wont get stuck (I'll be going in my Defender, and someone from Ariel will bring our Demo 'Off Roader'.

I am happy to share a .gpx route plan or if you have an Ordnance Survey subscription, send you the link to the route that way.

In order to keep our privileges of driving 'Green Roads' intact, there are a few things i would like to bring up:

Speed - we are not at Sweet Lamb! There is no speed limit on Green Roads, but please, be sensible - you must be able to stop in good time if you encounter a horse, mountain biker or walker. There are a lot of people that want to shut the use of Green Roads to motorised vehicles, so keeping them on side, being polite to them, moving aside and shutting off your engine for horses goes a long way.

You must stay on the designated path. Straying 'off-piste' is strictly forbidden. After all it is a public highway - and you wouldn't drive down the verge of the motorway (much as it would be fun in a Nomad!)

Other than that it should be a mega day out - If you have any questions at all - please call me at Ariel and I will be happy to take you through anything you need to know.

[Alex Brandon-Smith]

IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

For those of you that want to come on the Nomad Green Road Excursion:

There is no maximum amount of vehicles we can take in total - HOWEVER, there is a limit on the size of the group. In accordance with the countryside code of conduct, there should be no more than 4 vehicles in a group, with 15 minutes between groups.

I am going to be doing a Recce of the lanes and will modify the route accordingly to suit the Nomad. If you would like to come along, no problem - but i cant guarantee you wont get stuck (I'll be going in my Defender, and someone from Ariel will bring our Demo 'Off Roader'.

I am happy to share a .gpx route plan or if you have an Ordnance Survey subscription, send you the link to the route that way.

In order to keep our privileges of driving 'Green Roads' intact, there are a few things i would like to bring up:

Speed - we are not at Sweet Lamb! There is no speed limit on Green Roads, but please, be sensible - you must be able to stop in good time if you encounter a horse, mountain biker or walker. There are a lot of people that want to shut the use of Green Roads to motorised vehicles, so keeping them on side, being polite to them, moving aside and shutting off your engine for horses goes a long way.

You must stay on the designated path. Straying 'off-piste' is strictly forbidden. After all it is a public highway - and you wouldn't drive down the verge of the motorway (much as it would be fun in a Nomad!)

Other than that it should be a mega day out - If you have any questions at all - please call me at Ariel and I will be happy to take you through anything you need to know.

Great Henry, thanks very much for this. Very much appreciate the help and guidelines for having a great day!

[Trigger]

I will try and come on this - after 6 years away from Ariels its time to try and get back into the fold.

I would be keen to try the Green lane excursion but Henry can you advise how 'off road'/challenging it is likely to be ? I doubt I will have taken the Nomad off road before then and will no doubt need different tyres as planning road tyres to start - but some idea would help ?

Trigger

[HenryJS]

Trigger:

I am going to make it 'Nomad Friendly' for all types of Nomad... It should be dry at that time of year so your tyre option will be adequate.

Once I have done the Recce I will be reporting back with some photos etc.

[HenryJS]

Hotel and BBQ / Dinner Booked!

Looking forward to this one.

[Bruce Fielding]

Hotel booked (for the Saturday)

[Atom120]

Hotel and trackday booked.

Henry - Please put me down for the greenlaning. Presumably it'll be road-tyre friendly, rather than requiring mud-terrains? Either way, I'll be happy to winch your Defender out when it gets stuck...