I just got into the UK this morning. Or was it afternoon? Jetlag and timezones got me all screwed up. I haven’t even recovered from the Japan jet lag yet. The flight on United’s Economy Plus wasn’t too bad. No Tokyo Auto Salon for me this year (it’s going on right now).
I met my boss Ken at his hotel after landing at Heathrow. There I got a cup of coffee for $6 and sat down. I stared at the menu and saw this:
Keep in mind that the UK pound is aproximately 2 to 1 vs. the US dollar. So if you paid attention, that’s $27 for a chicken caesar salad and $22 for a club sandwhich. There’s no fucking around with food in the UK, man. Leaving London and heading toward Birmingham for the Autosport show in our Audi A4 turbo diesel (everything puffs smoke here), we stopped by Burger King to check it out:
This is the UK spec $6 burger. I think Carls Jr. has the better deal here. This little ass burger would probably be 49 cents in the US.
If you saw Pulp Fiction, then you know the “Royale with cheese”. Vincent Vega was referring to the 1/4 pounder with cheese in Amsterdam, but this is Europe too so I figure it’s close enough.
For dinner I had Beef and Bombadier Pie (basically a beef pot pie) and 2 pints of Guinness at the Crossroads pub in Northampton where Cosworth is. It was pretty good. Everybody tells me the food in the UK sucks, but so far it’s ok. The Guinness on tap tastes better here. It’s almost a tad bit sweeter and definitely less bitter.
The Autosport show seems pretty damn dope. Cosworth is displaying here so I’m working the booth for a couple days. We’re talking F1 and other formulas, rally, British Fords, “sports cars” like the Caterham, hill climb cars, and track day street cars. What I love about this show so far is that it’s all hardcore shit for small engines! There are almost no pushrod engines here (a nice change of pace) so it’s cool to see Euro spec small engines and race cars.
Seat is a Spanish car manufacturer I think. Here’s a tarmac rally car. Sorry, Rich corrected me here via email. It’s a World Touring Car (WTCC).
Here’s an old Primera (Infinity G20) BTCC touring car.
The Prodrive booth is fucking huge with this new STI in pieces. It looks like they’re going to do some kind of build at the show as part of their display.
This is my first visit to the UK and I’ll be here for 9 days. More to come…stay tuned.