  |
           |
 |
|
 |
4Dani Gonzàlez (Spain) Dani made a big trip to see live the great man ! He's been to the GPM Silverstone wet race and sent us pics from this week-end. Enjoy !
4Stephen Jones (England) Stephen just sent me some amazing pictures of his incredible Nigel Mansell memorabilias collection ! Stephen talks about his passion for "our Nige" : "I am a part time model maker and a friend had bought a picture for me of Nigel picking Arton Senna up when he run out of petrol at Silverstone (1991). Anyway I decided I would make the car with Nigel and Senna in and on the model. After I had made it, my friend said maybe Nigel would love to have the car, as we had been to his museam and seen that fans had given him things for his birthday. So we wrote to him. Nigel wrote back saying that he would love to receive the car, so we went to meet him to present the car. I have to say he was the most perfect gentleman I have ever met. I could not thank him enough for such a perfect day that I will remember forever. Today, I have a large collection of items, and I paint original Arai helmets for my display cabinets. Now I can die a very happy man thanks to the meeting with my hero Nigel Mansell !!!"
4Simon O'Donovan (England) Lucky Simon once raced with Nigel. Here is his fantastic story.
"In 1995, I managed to get a rare treat, by having the opportunity to race with Nigel Mansell in Karts. Cadbury organised the special event, in a bid to sell more chocolate. If I remember correctly, you were required to send Six wrappers, with the "Race the Ace" logo away. In exchange, you'd receive a token to set a time at your local Kart Circuit; the Quickest would attend the scheduled race in a knock-out form of heats. I did reasonably well in the heats & ended up qualifying second on the grid (I made sure I didn't have breakfast, considering weight). I still have a clear image of Nigel sitting almost beside me on the starting grid in his lovely purple Cadbury's overalls, absolutely covered in chocolate bar sponsorship logos. As I had a Senna McLaren suit, it would have been nice to wear it, but Cadbury was supplying overalls, so unfortunately the suit had to stay in the bag. At least I was still able to wear the famous yellow, blue and green helmet in Tribute to Ayrton. The actual Grand Final turned out to be rather wet, so I opted for some bright yellow wet overalls they also had available (just to look different). In the race, Nigel didn't make a brilliant start, dropping to fourth place, but soon came back and started to hound me. As I hadn't raced in the wet before, I just did my best not to make a mistake, but with a driver with a proven record all over you like a rash, it was just a matter of time. I finally made the error he was waiting for, understeering a little wide on the exit of a corner, and he kept his momentum to draw up alongside. I had a choice: either I slowed, hit the tyre barrier, or chopped accross Nigel's bow ... Out of respect, I sensibly decided to filter in behind him, as he had the racing line and I wasn't about to start upsetting people by taking him out with a careless manoeuvre. Shortly afterwards, Nigel spun. Thankfully for me, I was there to capitalise on his mistake and regain my position to the finish. Nigel came home in fourth, but there was no denying that he was the quickest out there in the wet (very agile). He appeared to be enjoying the whole event and really got stuck in, helping the marshals and also entertaining the spectators and competitors with his presence. That was truly a wonderful experience.
Months later, Nigel was attending a book-signing in Nottingham for his autobiography. When I finally got to see him, you could see the monotony of signing autograph after autograph seemed to be getting to him, so I felt a bit cheeky in asking if he'd sign a group picture from the day at Brands. As soon as he saw the picture, he burst into life and made me feel very welcome; standing up and shaking my hand. He looked at me in a pensive nature for a split second and then said "I remember you, you were the one with the Ayrton helmet". I can only use the word "shock" when I describe my surprise at his recognition to me. Obviously taking his busy schedule into account, it made me wonder just how he'd remember." - Thanks Simon ! 4Frédéric Fuzier (France) Frédéric owns an incredible Nigel Mansell memorabilia collection. Here are some specimens ! 4Veronica Zaccari (Italy) Veronica was at a football game organized the day before the '92 Italian GP, in Monza. A lot of drivers and F1 personnalities played, including Michael Schumacher, Ricardo Patrese and of course Nigel Mansell. That day, Nigel scored 2 out of the 6 goals of the F1 team !
4Nigel Burgess (Scotland) A modelist, Nigel made this 1/12 replica of the FW14-B in which Nigel won the F1 world championship in 1992. It took him 14 weeks of labour to finsh this magnificent car.
4Guillaume (France) Guillaume found a lot of documentation to make this Ferrari 641/2 from 1990 looking so real ! He did not forget any details including the tobacco advertising. Originally, this car is a 1/12 Tamiya replica. It took him about three full weeks to accomplish this incredible job.
|
 |
|
