SPITFIRE v RED BULL RACER

03 Jul 2008

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PUBLICITY stunts come and go, but this one was a belter: Red Bull racer Paul Bonhomme in a WW2 Spitfire Mk9 v fellow racer Nigel Lamb in his modern MX2 aerobatic aircraft.

The idea was to big up the London round of the Red Bull World Air Race Series with a tenuous link to the 70th anniversary of the first production Spitfire, and and even more loose link to the 85th anniversary of the first Schneider Trophy race in the UK.

So it was that the two racers found themselves belting around the Isle of Wight (site of the Schneider Trophy race) last month, on a timed lap. The famous Needles at the west end of the island were used as a natural start-finish point.

Needless to say, the 1470hp Spitfire blitzed the 380hp MX2, despite a massive 4000lb difference in weight. The Spitfire raced around the 40-mile lap in 9min 35sec, while the MX2 took 11min 29sec.

LOOP columnist Bonhomme said afterwards, “The aircraft that I’m flying today is a real feat of engineering. Given that it was built in the 1940s, it’s an absolute pleasure and privilege to fly."

Lamb said, “A Spitfire will fly a lot faster than an MX2 but the advantage the MX has is its phenomenal turning ability, thanks to its carbon fibre wing and strength.

"In the Red Bull Air Race World Series, our aircraft need to be suitable for the precision moves required to navigate the low-level slalom gates. On paper a Spitfire will clean up on the straights and the MX will gain in the turns, so the lap of the Isle of Wight was more suited to Paul’s plane than mine.”

The London Red Bull Air Race is on 2-3 August, on the Thames between Canary Wharf and The O2 Dome. A full preview of the event is in the next edition of LOOP.
w. www.redbullairrace.com

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