Which was awesome

Started off with lashings of free bacon rolls and danish pastries washed down with coffee. And on the table were bits of F1 cars like wheel hubs and exhaust manifolds, wings, and a seat used by Montoya that we were encouraged to handle. Some of the parts were incredibly light.

Then we walked past the two wind tunnels - the new full size one and the old 60% sized one, both of which run 24x7 testing new aero parts, and through the main reception into the machine room where they fabricate all the metal bits - wheel bearings etc. They make pretty much all of the car on site including valves, bearings, dampers, etc. The only bits that they really ship in are engines, tyres and wheels.

The workshop was full of big machines - lathes, etc. All doing nothing. Like all good British factories, we got there at tea-break time so everyone was sat around reading The Sun, but it looked impressive anyway

There was a door marked R&D that we weren't allowed to go through

At the back we could see the test room where the car sits on a load of hydraulic rams which can simulate complete races at any circuit using telemetary data gathered from the previous year. Some rams move the car in all directons and some twist the chassis to simulate the forces that are exerted on the car. Chap said it's impressive to watch the car "drive" round a circuit where the drivers really attack the curbs as the rams shake the car about. Sadly it wasn't being used as we passed it.

Next was into the garages themselves. The tour was specifically been arranged during the summer break so that the cars would be there, and we weren't dissapointed. Rosbergs, Webbers, and the T-car were all in their garages completely stripped down and we got to have a good look round them.

The engines were on stands (gold head shields *rawr*) as were the gearboxes and rear suspension, with all the gear cogs sticking out so I had a good look inside - although no idea what I was looking at. And the tubs were on stands. I've never seen an F1 car stripped right back like that and it was really interesting. One of the race mechanics, a middle-adged bloke called "Bob" was fitting the brake fluid reserviors (I think - the two white plastic things you see when they take the nose off) onto Webbers car ready for the next race. I could have stood there all day and watched them wk on the cars but they wouldn't have let me

Onwards to the carbon fibre manufacture room which was very busy with machines cutting bits and men in white coats with hairdryers doing stuff. Not sure exactly what was going on but it looked impressive and they had some nifty looking bits of CF that they were wking on

Back outside they were just setting up a car to do some pitstop practise but we couldn't hang around to watch sadly.

Then we went to the museum which had Williams cars through the years including the 6-wheeler that never raced. The museum was excellent too and we were encouraged to take lots of photos (sadly and understandably we couldn't take any in the factory itself). The tour ended with a chance to sit in Webers car from last year. Sadly it didn't have an engine or gearbox

Top day out

Photos: http://www.furtive.co.uk/WilliamsF1/