By Luke Fleming
October 31 2002

Jordan opened it's doors to 1000 Club Jordan members a few weekends ago. Was it worth the trip from the Emerald Isle? I think it was, thanks to Luke Fleming at the Grapevine...
It may have lashed rain the night before and didn't look as if it would be much better on Saturday morning, but after a cold start, the day cleared up and it stayed dry and sunny.

This was the first open day actually in the factory since 1999 when a large contingent of Damon Hill fans were present and that day wasn't as enjoyable as you had to queue for everything and things were a bit squashed!! Thankfully the numbers weren't at big this year, but in excess of 900 did turn up and had a very enjoyable day . A lot of familiar faces all over the place starting with Paul and Elkie at the gate to register people and it is good to see that the Club Jordan happy family is still alive and still supporting the cause!

The number of Irish registered cars in the car park was a healthy indicator that Paddy had indeed travelled en masse! A big marquee was out on the front lawn and from here most of the days proceedings took place. Lots of merchandise was on sale and was quite nicely discounted. The number of people walking around with the remote control model of the EJ11 bearing testament to that!! Perhaps the most sought after piece was a Takuma Sato Cap as he wore in Japan and lots of them were snapped up for 25 quid sterling!! Bob Salisbury had his people selling car bits also, the people from MBNA were there trying to flog the latest Jordan credit card. NB its not available to the paddy yet but may be for next year. Russell was doing MC for the day and quite an admirable job he did also. EJ10 and more importanly V10 was in plentiful supply and at only a quid sterling a shot it was being consumed at a fine rate!! A lot of it even made its way back over the Irish sea!!

Various displays were put on by team staff in the factory, including a display of all the steering wheels over the 12 years of the teams history. the latest version with all the electronic gizmos attached is worth about 25,000 pound!! A far cry from the 191 which is probably worth about 200 pounds!! Scaletrix displays, a tyre changing competition, and a lucky dip for parts all went down well. HP had a stand displaying their line of printers and cameras and Suttons photography also had a display as well as a photographer to capture shots of people in front of a show car.

The team transporters and a car from 92 to 02 were on display in a marquee out the back, with pride of place going to the 191 in the Jordan reception! After all it did have a Ford engine in the back of it!! Honda, fair play to them had a display of road and rally cars and motorbikes on display also. Most popular attraction of the lot judging by the large queue to get into it all day was the teams motor home, Its due for a bit of a refurbishment as it got damaged in Budapest. The timber up on the balcony of all things got destroyed by acid rain!!

Back to the main marquee and various people were interviewed during the day including live Satellite link ups with EJ, Takuma and Fisi. Taku was in Japan still doing promo work and seems to be learning his English from Fisi as he "was very 'appi"!! He still seems to think he will be driving a Jordan next year. Fisi was at home with the family in Monte Carlo was was "very optimistic"! EJ was after doing 40 miles on a bike training for his latest charity work and he was the same as usual. Other people interviewed included Mark Gallagher and Fiona Cole, and also some of the lads from the brand section at Jordan. A major attack on the South American market is in the offing with EJ 10 and V10 apparently!!

However, the most interesting chat of the day had to be that with our new designer Henri Durand and it was at this stage that I took out a biro and wrote down some of what he actually said. After a brief chat with Mark Gallagher about his previous experiences in F1, which took in his first job in the Ligier drawing office on to Ferrari where he was employed by Enzo himself, and then on to McLaren he started to talk about the EJ 13, the challenger for next year from the boys in yellow!!

The car according to Henri is "on target from a production and technical point of view" With regards to the EJ13 he stated that the most important points were "attention to detail" and that the main aim of the design process was "the drive for simplicity, and have a good looking and effective car". In relation to the Ford engine he commented that "it is lighter, smaller, more powerful and has better fuel consumption" than the previous engine used!! A very tactful way of not insulting the men from Honda, he refused to say how much lighter the Ford engine is but it is rumoured to be around 25 kilos lighter!! He talked about the relationship with the people working with Cosworth and stated that there will be two main updates to the engine, one for Austria and one for Hockenheim next year.

Henri does most of his work in the design office and at the wind tunnel in Brackley. His working day is generally between 8am in the morning and 9.30pm at night. He oversees and works in tandem with a staff of 35 and the wind tunnel is in operation from 6am in the morning to 11pm at night with the staff working on a 40% mock up of the car. He also took questions from the floor and bearing in mind that the FIA meeting was imminent, when asked what rule changes he would make, the answer was "ban refuelling and improve the show". All in all, Mr Durand spoke for about 40 minutes and was very well received. If the mild mannered Frenchman produces a competitive car for next year then we will all be raising a glass to his exploits!!

Very many thanks to Luke at the Grapevine.  Visit here for a great newsletter with a definite Irish slant.  http://grapevinef1.blogspot.com/
 

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