Formula 1 blog - Linksheaven

Noisy neighbours put stop to noisy F1 cars

November 20th, 2006

Villagers living next to a McLaren test track at Elvington airfield near York in the UK have won a battle to limit the number of days that F1 cars can test there.

During the summer hearing, resident Timothy Vicary claimed the “horrendous and outrageous” noise from vehicle testing was ruining the life of him and his wife. He said the noise of the testing of Formula One racing cars and motorcycle events made them depressed, irritated and angry.

Another resident, Denise Howard, compared the noise of the squeal of tyres on tarmac during testing to “howling banshees whipping through the house”.

It was just as well it wasn’t the first McLaren engine from 1966, which was described as:

Bruce admitted that the engine’s greatest success was in being by far the noisiest thing running round Monte Carlo, and the raucous echoes it set up between the cake-icing buildings of the old town threatened not only the occupants’ eardrums but their window panes.

The court was told that McLaren’s test team could quit Britain altogether if the case was lost.

Entry Filed under: Formula 1