Jock Freemantle talks about Hulme Supercars appearance at Goodwood
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Prill and Pester at the Goodwood Hill Climb
Radisich and van Breugel at the Goodwood Hill Climb
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Hulme
9th August, 2011
After returning to New Zealand, following the Goodwood
Festival of Speed, Jock Fremantle of Hulme Supercars spoke of the experience:
"The trip to the UK and Goodwood Festival of Speed was very exciting, a great learning
experience, and very, very rewarding; it was absolutely the right thing for us to do."
"I got many of my prayers answered, not them all, but we were defiantly blessed with many wondrous
happening: Great weather at Goodwood and no rain for 5 days: awesome drivers to drive the car up the
hill, Paul Radisich and Andy Prill: Everybody who saw the car was very complimentary, even
drivers/owners of other super cars: TVNZ turning up to film us and getting fantastic exposure on NZ TV:
and thanks to the fabulous, very hospitable Goodwood staff we even got the opportunity to drive "Bear
1" (on its trailer) around the famous Goodwood race circuit and see the memorial to Bruce McLaren: The
amazing help and support we got from everyone we came in contact with: Just amazing."
"I was going to list and thank everyone who helped us get the car ready to take to the UK and the
many who helped us in the UK, but there are so many to name, they know who they are, Thank You: There
is one person and one NZ company I must name: John Nicholson (Nicholson McLaren) who was an amazing
host and helped enormously, I really do appreciate what he and the guys at Nicholson McLaren did for us
in the UK and the guys at Resene/DuPont in NZ who prepared and repainted the car, they were
outstanding, it looks fantastic, everybody said so, it is a credit to their workmanship. They have been
great supporters and today they showed me the new summer uniform for all their NZ staff. It looks
fabulous, thank you."
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He continued.
"After lengthy discussions with a number of potential customers and people who market super cars,
we have decided to focus on building the "Hulme F1" (the same car taken to Goodwood in 2006) but with
significant design refinements that will be incorporated based on the testing results and lessons
learned from the open Can Am prototype. It will be built to the same quality level as the fabulous
Pagani, and be built to comply with "Group LVV EU certification. This will enable our cars to be sold
and resold in all countries that accept this certification. The ultimate car would have been a full
convertible, but the extra costs required made us decide on the F1. Down the track, a proper
convertible will be built."
"We collected the car from the airline on Tuesday morning 21st June and took it into the city for
the London launch at Clive Sutton's on Tuesday night: A great event: Clive and his staff were fabulous
hosts; he had invited lots of customers and all in all it was a great evening ... enjoyed by
everyone."
"Wednesday we headed off to Goodwood with the car back on the hired trailer, towed by the hired
4x4. Thursday was a static display day, but lots and lots of Photos taken: If we could have charged a
dollar a photo over the 4 days, we would not now need any more money."
We took the car to the shippers at Auckland airport on Thursday the 16th June, and had not driven
it after its complete re-build, we had not had time to drive it in the UK, and so I drove it for the
first time, up the Goodwood Hill on Friday morning. Tony came with me as the passenger, and even though
I had walked the hill on Thursday evening, it was scary, but very exciting."
"Saturday we were very fortunate to have the double World Touring Car champion, Paul Radisich and
the well known UK driver, Andy Prill drive the car, on the Sunday, Paul did both runs."
"On the Monday we returned to London, Clive Sutton had invited us back to put the car on display
in his showroom until we were to take it to the shipping agents on the following Tuesday. The showroom
is on "The Lords Roundabout" very close to Lords Cricket Ground, and right in the middle of "The city
of Westminster". A great location."
"All in all, it was a fantastic, exciting and rewarding trip; we had lots of fun and met lots
of great people."
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