It’s a funny thing old social media and I had it come full circle on me recently. I have been seeing all these amazing cars pop up in Perth recently, finally when a new model Ford GT arrived I did some further digging. Turns out a lot of these cars belong to one man, a gentleman by the name of Laurence Escalante. Anyway a short Instagram stalk later and I was soon following @theleecollectionperth (that is the Lance East Exotics Collection in case you are wondering). Anyway I had been bugging my mates saying ‘follow this guy’ and ‘did you see that latest story’ when I noticed they were at the Bend Motorsport Park….
Of course I forwarded that onto a mate not really thinking twice about it, anyway turns out he pulled some strings and a message pinged onto my phone ‘Want to go out to the Bend?’ … ah yeah I do!
An early morning exodus from Adelaide had us heading out to the Bend in slightly ominous conditions but nothing was going to dampen our enthusiasm. Once we arrived we weren’t disappointed…
We were met with this view – a brand new racing transporter, it had just arrived new to the owner in Perth, was loaded up with (5) cars and then on its way to Adelaide within 24 hours! Talk about turn around.
Now the Bend has a great collection of cars on display (and to buy within their onsite performance garage) but it was what came out of the transporters we were mainly interested in. So of course we checked out the display cars before moving on, we met up with @coconutphotography and @gripshift.media who we ended up spending the majority of the day with. A huge shout out to these guys for their hospitality!
So what was in that transporter I hear you ask… Well nothing less than a Huracan GT3 Evo and a McLaren Senna GTR! As well as…
Three (yes 3) Radicals – talk about Tetris at a mega level!
The team had the Bend booked out for a while, a pretty dream scenario just quietly, with the plan to get to grips with the track using the Radicals and then start honing in further with the Lamborghini and McLaren.
We sat back as the preparation began, it wasn’t just a matter of jumping in the car, firing them up and heading out… Note the position of the mechanics shoes.
One of the big changes was fitting wet tyres on as the weather wasn’t ideal.
How many ugga duggas do Lamborghinis require?
It was quite a treat to hear the twin turbo V8 cycle through its warm up procedure. Remember how I said check out the mechanics shoes? It took all of half a second after he took them off to straighten them up once he got in the car, I must have snapped the previous pic just as he got in! I guess that is the kind of attention to detail you want when you are working on this calibre of car.
What a set up – talk about feeling like a pro!
Air jacks are purely race car – amazing!
We were slightly deaf after taking in the glorious 5.2L of the V10 housed within the Lamborghini as it warmed up but that was nothing compared to when it hit the track!
The first time the V10 came screaming down the straight everyone had huge smiles on their faces as it howled a high pitch scream!
Being a dedicated race car there was a lot going on in the cabin, with a huge bucket seat, roll cage and instrumentation everywhere, even Laurence mentioned the visibility was much less than the McLaren, which is not quite as race prepared! That is not to mention the 13 functions that are on the race steering wheel, it is a busy place indeed.
Apparently the Senna GTR has been used on the school run (with the relevant permits of course) but I chuckle as I imagine what it would be like if a police officer pulled you over and you had to slide the window back to open…
Once the McLaren came down off the air jacks you realised just how low it is.
Not to mention how much aero is happening with all the carbon, front, rear and in between!
Meanwhile back out on track, no reverse gear, no problem grab a few hands and in you go!
The Lamborghini had one, it was quite an audible clunk as reverse engaged, I wouldn’t want to be the one trusted with reversing into the garage with poor rear visibility and heavy steering…
Can we just appreciate how much water these cars and tyres displace, by the time they had got to the end of the main straight the rooster tail was huge!
Pure race.
Fortunately the track was drying out as the McLaren was being prepped.
Menacing.
As we were waiting for the track to dry we took in more details.
Ah the humble zip tie what can’t they do! Notice the red air jack brace there too, in case the air disconnects/exits the system the brace will keep the car up and not on top of anything or anyone that happened to be underneath.
You think your car tyres are pricey…
Things started getting pretty wild when the crew decided to see what kind of lap times the tour bus could do! I joke I joke, apparently tourists can do a lap of the Bend as part of the tourist options, you think the bus driver knows all the racing lines by now?
It is no secret I am a huge fan of…. JDM vans! So you can imagine how excited I was to see this Nissan E51 Elgrand, a true unicorn. Of course there is a GTR in this pic too, as a GT-R owner it might surprise you to know whilst I like the Nissans it is the Toyota vans I lust after!
Door up, getting ready to go.
And we have launch!
Unfortunately just as the track was starting to dry up and the Senna GTR went out it started to rain…
When it did get going though, it went! Nowhere near as loud as the Lamborghini but just as impressive.
Plenty of room to stretch the legs.
All eyes were on it!
Not just a regular ‘Senna GTR’ – if such a thing exists, this is one of the XP models which is the Experimental Prototypes McLaren used during development, apparently car number 8 of 75 and the last delivered customer car!
We then moved around to a different part of the circuit, you almost forget how big The Bend is until you move around from the main straight.
We moved down towards Turn 6 to see the cars and how they handle the corners.
The car looked like a slingshot as it sped up out of the corner and up the hill!
Then just like that it was time to pack it up and call it a day….
A truly epic day to see some fantastic machinery, thanks to all involved and with the collection standing at 55 cars at last count, I can’t wait to see what they bring over next time!
