We started our trip with a drive up to Silverstone, England as guests of the Spyker Formula 1 Team. Steve won some VIP passes to see them on test day. See those bright orange tags around our necks? Lucky for us the weather was spectacular! Blue skies, not a cloud in sight. In fact, despite vigorous applications of sunblock and the use of sunglasses and a hat, I still got sunburned. Here we our on pit lane during lunch time when the safety workers were on break. All other times if we wanted to be near pit lane, we had to be in the Spyker suite or in the little space on pit lane at the Spyker garage.
WOW is all that I can say about being that close to these cars. First, they are LOUD! Fortunately one of the Spyker ladies had ear plugs for us. The cars are powerful and unbelievably fast. I tried to take pictures many times. Most of the time I'd catch just the nose, or just the tail. And a lot of shots were just empty track. Here's a picture of one of the Ferrari test drivers coming in for a pit stop. 
You wouldn't believe the amount of money that these teams spend. It's a fortune. Now I know why, look at the number of spare noses that Toyota had for one of their cars.
We also got to go behind the scenes for a factory tour at Spyker. Now Steve may have been thrilled to see the inner sanctum of a F1 factory (and I was very interested too!) but I was more drawn to the gorgeous shade of orange that is their team color. Isn't it beautiful?! After a full day of fast cars, we rested for our drive back to Heathrow airport the next day. Next stop, Poland.
