News - Updated 10 July 2008
COMING UP - British Motor Show 2008 - 01-03 August 2008

British Motor Show 2008
Honda – “The Power of Dreams”
ExCel Docklands – London
Performing Times 11.00am 1.00pm 3.00pm & 4.30pm
Click here for more information
VXR Track Days - May/June 2008
Experience the complete range of VXRs on BTCC tracks.

VXR Track Day always gets the blood pumping. In just a day you can get your hands on some seriously powerful VXRs, get a feel for the track and do it all with the guidance of our professional instructors.

Oulton Park 12th/13th/14th May
Brands Hatch 19th/20th/21st May
Thruxton 11th/12th June
Rockingham 25th/26th June

For more information click on http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vx/microsite/vxrtrackday/vxr_trackday.html

Rounds 1,2&3 - British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch
Last week the team were asked to perform at the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch racing circuit in Kent.

Performing in brand new VXR Astra’s the crowds were kept entertained throughout the day regardless of the weather. We will be returning to Brands Hatch in May as part of the VXR track days tour where Paul and the team will be running stunt driving school.

For more information or to book your place click on. www.vauxhall.co.uk/vx/microsite/vxrtrackday/vxr_trackday.html

Johannesburg 2008
The team were again invited to South Africa to perform part of the MPH Motoring Theatre show with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Local presenter Sasha Montenagro.

Each of the 90 minute theatre shows were an explosive combination of car chases, outrageous stunts, incredible driving and world debuts.(please click images for higher resolution versions)
New Ford Focus Tour 2008

We are delighted to announce our involvement with the official launch of the new 2008 Ford Focus.

The new Focus models adopt Ford's crisper 'kinetic' exterior styling philosophy coupled with enhanced interior quality and better equipment levels, for more or less the same price as the outgoing models.

The Focus has been the UK's best selling car for every year since its launch. One in 20 new cars sold in the UK is a Focus and it is the best selling car of its size in Europe.

We certainly look forward to putting it through it's paces!!! (please click images for higher resolution versions)

Night Of Champions 2008
Paul will attend the Motor Sports Association’s star-studded Night of the Champions ceremony next week, where he will receive the prestigious MSA Gold flag trophy.

Once again the event takes place in the elegant surroundings of the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall and is attended by the newly crowned champions from each of the MSA’s British championships.

Driving his Smith and Allan Oils sponsored Mini, the 28-year-old fended off challenges from over 70 other British and Irish competitors to win his third MSA title in four years.

This is a special award for Paul as after 10 years of competition he now plans to step away from it and concentrate wholly on his stunt driving commitments. Paul commented “balancing work with this championship has been a huge commitment and a lot of travelling but It’s been great fun and I owe a big thank you to all my sponsors. (please click images for higher resolution versions)
Audi Channel Feature - A5 Light and Motion
Legendary designer Peter Saville was challenged by Audi to find a way of pushing the boundaries of art and design, by using the car as a tool of expression.

Combining the skills of photographer Johnny Carr and precision driver Paul Swift, the car was put through its paces in the dead of night at Battersea power station in London.

As Paul performed a series of choreographed manoeuvres in the A5, the beams of light from the front and rear were captured by camera exposures of 10-15 seconds. The results were stunning!!

As well as the film feature on Audi Channel, five of these images have been selected to celebrate the Audi A5 and its unique ability to paint with light while in full motion.

These will be on public display at the national design museum in London early next spring.
Please visit the video page to see a short preview of the show
Rally drivers turned actors for a special film shot in Cardiff and to be shown at Wales Rally GB.
Once again, former school-bus driver Gwyndaf Evans donned his cap and climbed behind the wheel of a bus for his part in The Millennium Job, while Nicky Grist and Mark Higgins swapped race suits for police uniforms.
Cardiff city centre streets were closed off for the chase sequence involving Ford Fiestas racing into the Stadium

The sequence will part of the spectacular spectator special event leading up to Wales Rally GB on 1 December.
Seven-times Auto Test champion, Paul Swift, and his team planned the sequence and did the driving while the rally stars watched.
The all-action show will precede the rally cars’ special stage on the floor of the stadium which was so popular last year.
Pictures by Mark Simpson and Ben Gower
Too Swift to insure - MPH stunt driver tops dangerous job poll
Few people run rings around Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, but the stunt driver who does exactly that is deemed so dangerous, that he’s virtually uninsurable.

During the MPH show seven times British Autotesting champion, Paul Swift, 28, leads a team of stunt drivers who do high speed precision powerslides, J-turns, donuts, two wheel balancing and handbrake manoeuvres in the MPH arena.

However, the routine sees terrified insurance men flinching at the mere thought. The result is a life insurance premium that eclipses those of an electricity pylon engineer.

Paul Swift explained: “Because of my job, insurance men imagine that danger follows me around. The irony is that I have never had an accident, I don’t even have points on my licence and the only time I have been to hospital is because of my nut allergy.”

Tickets to see Paul Swift and the team perform alongside Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow at London’s Earls Court (1-4 November) and Birmingham’s NEC (9-11 November) are available through a ticket hotline 0871 230 0333 and via the MPH web site www.mphshow.co.uk and range from £23-£89.
Paul Announces Retirement From Autotesting After Clinching 7th National Autotest Title.
Last weekend Paul Swift from Darlington clinched his 7th National Autotest Title and immediately announced his retirement from the sport at just age 28.

With over 20 years experience at the wheel after starting his driving career performing stunts on the Garden lawn mower age 7, Paul now plans to concentrate on his display driving commitments.

Paul started autotesting at 16 years old competing in the Durham Autotest championship and rapidly moved up to the British series in 1999.After 5 seasons competing at that level he clinched both the MSA & BTRDA titles in the same year.Since then he has won over 35 events outright including several in Ireland, being the first Englishman ever to do so.

Paul commented “Its been a manic year for me, balancing the displays with the autotesting, it’s a big commitment to do a whole championship and a lot of travelling.I have say its also been a lot of fun, but I’m getting married next year and would like to see a bit more of home. I do owe a big thank you to my sponsors, without there support it just couldn’t have been possible,”

Following the success of his championship, Paul has been asked to compete in one final event, representing England at the Ken Wharton International on the 20th October.This is the end of season international event which takes place annually at the Arrow Mill hotel nr Alcester.Four car Teams from all the home nations battle it out for the prestigious trophy which has been running now for over 50years.

For more information click www,paulswiftmotorsport.com
“Minis” Feature 5th Gear – Monday 17th Sept Channel 5
In hindsight, we should have realised being blindfolded and chucked around in the back of a car would make Tom and Jonny sick. Still, it made for an entertaining bit of telly and certainly had everyone in Fifth Gear's editing department in tears. Sadly we had to edit the full horrors out of the sequence to protect the squeamish, so for the record Tom said "I'm going to be sick" ten times, while Jonny said "oh no please don't go" seven times and "stop the car" six times.

The man we're holding directly responsible for the vomit was precision driver Paul Swift - www.swiftsport.com shows you his full repertoire of skills. Top work fella.

Link to Channel 5's article

Swedish Trip - 18/19 August 2007 Motor show in Helsingborg – Sweden
Over 30,000 people attended this fantastic event on an airfield close to Helsingborg in the south of Sweden. Originally Russ had planned to perform at the event but unfortunately had to pull out after breaking his arm whilst changing tyres on a car. Russ suggested Paul perform in his place. Performing in a Ford C-max, Fiesta ST and Evo 9 MR

YouTube video clip
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Parking A Dream At North Beach
by Nick Mollet
3rd September 2007

A RANGE of spectacular car stunts dominated North Beach yesterday.
Hundreds of people witnessed highly specialised driving skills at the Sporting Bears Motor Club’s second Dream Rides day, which raised money for local children’s charities.
Top stunt display and precision driver Paul Swift, the five times national autotest champion, demonstrated his technique on both two and four wheels.
World record attempts were made at parallel parking and J-turning into the tightest space and highest number of doughnuts (a manoeuvre which rotates the back or front end of the car around the opposite end), in 10 seconds.
Paul’s father Russ was unable to participate in the event after he broke his arm a few weeks ago changing a wheel.
Both have appeared on BBC’s Top Gear, teaching grannies to turn doughnuts. Paul has also appeared in the programme’s car football match.
Islanders and visitors were able to sit in a car as the stunts were performed, which included parallel parking between two cars – but only if they made a donation.
‘It’s fantastic – it’s the first time we have been at the North Beach. We are trying to raise as much as we can with the rides,’ said Mr Swift.
‘We have parking manoeuvres, two wheel driving like in the James Bond film and we are trying to break a few world records.’

The efforts were appreciated by all ages – especially the precision parking between cars at speed.
‘It was perfect – I like the thrills and the spills and fast cars and anything fast,’ said Veronica Oliveira, 34, a Brazilian on holiday and business in the island from Windsor.
‘Guernsey is not the kind of place where you can drive a lot of these cars and it’s nice to show them off,’ she said.

This year all money raised at the event will go to Help A Guernsey Child, The You Can Do It Foundation and The Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation
..Archived News

My stunt spin-off
By CHLOE SCOTT - Metro Newspaper - Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The challenge: Learn to drive like a professional stunt driver.
The venue: London's Earl's Court.
The participant: Chloe Scott, 31, Metro writer.
Driving experience: Occasionally gets to run around in mum's Skoda.
I'm in the middle of Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, where they are preparing for this year's MPH. That's the Jeremy Clarkson-fronted auto show featuring a load of souped-up cars and 'Stig Wars' – a series of high-octane stunts like those done by the near-legendary and deeply mysterious Top Gear race-driver, The Stig. And I've been told to not come back until my driving skills come close to his.


Sunday driver
The problem is, I can hardly drive. I don't own a car and, in an effort to keep my carbon footprint down, in recent years I've stuck solely to cycling. When I do drive, it's only on fraught trips to Tesco in my mum's battered old Skoda, when I struggle to tell my clutch from my carburettor.

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Clarkson tells me that I'm there to attempt a set of stunts such as J-turns and doughnuts. But it may as well be J-cloths and Jammy Dodgers as far as I'm concerned.

Any further embarrassment at my total lack of knowledge is cut short when a bloke rocks up in a lipstick red car (which I later learn is a Ford Fiesta ST) and I have to jump in. The chap behind the wheel is Paul Swift, five-times British autotesting champion – a sport, I am told, where you make your motor leap over trucks and do remarkable death-defying tricks. He's so skilful that he once drove on two wheels for three miles, only stopping when his tyres wore out.

Within seconds, he decides to demonstrate the trick to me. The car flies off a ramp and is flipped on to its side so we're gliding on two wheels. I'm just wondering what death may feel like when the car comes back to earth with a bump. Now it's my turn to have a go. Not to try the two-wheel trick (I think more than an hour's instruction would be needed) but to attempt a doughnut. This, I find, is spinning the car through 360 degrees with the nose in one place so as to create a circle with the skidmarks from the rear tyres.
Paul and I transfer to a Mazda MX-5 with rear-wheel drive, which helps with the skids. This time, I'm in the driving seat and I can feel my mouth drying up – despite the fact that the pretty girl who would normally stand at the centre of the doughnut has been replaced with a mannequin.
My left leg, supposedly controlling the clutch, is wobbling pathetically. 'Put the accelerator down and, when it gets to 6,000 revs, let the clutch go,' Paul instructs. 'Start on a wide slide and go around the dummy. Eventually, you'll do a doughnut.' But I'm in a car so different from a Skoda, I can hardly remember where the accelerator is. And what are revs?
He points to a panel in front of me.

Queasy rider

Within seconds, my foot's flat down on the accelerator and we're spinning towards the barriers. Paul stops the car from crashing into the hoardings with an emergency button. Several goes later, things improve: I put the accelerator flat with my steering wheel locked to the right, let the clutch go and away we screech. While other amateur racers had earlier been doing slides and loose doughnuts, through sheer naivety I manage tight, fast ones. My head experiences a dizzy G-force sensation and, as we spin, it's almost peaceful.

Clarkson arrives soon after we stop and congratulates me on my efforts. 'But you're a long way from The Stig's standards,' he adds. Oh well, at least next time I'm at Tesco, I can try a new kind of doughnut
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Skoda Fabia Launch

Unless you’ve been on the moon for the past week, Skoda ’s latest TV advert won’t have passed you by. The ad’s life-sized cake car has been causing a real stir among the British viewing public.We were asked to bring the car to life at Telford Skoda Dealership in Carlisle and produced our own take on the catchy commercial.With over big 50 do-nuts, slice of handbrake parking and a few jelly legs the crowd were left fulfilled with a Fabia-less evening.
Dealer principle William Morgan commented.
“Thanks to the team the show has been a huge success for us, we now have many new customer leads and over a dozen firm orders taken for this popular new car.”
South Africa MPH07

Earlier this year, the team travelled to South Africa with the MPH 07 show. Held in the Coca-cola Dome in Johannesburg they performed 3 stunt shows a day to over 30,000 people. This included a James Bond tribute together with the Caterpillar Dancing Digger team, a Stig Wars Battle in Fireblade powered Rage Buggies as well as live commercials for Volvo & Chevrolet.
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