Luxury trailer way out in front

WHATEVER happens in Formula One this season, York has put Toyota ahead of the race.

Pocklington Coachworks, the Osbaldwick-based winner of the Evening Press Business of the Year 2001 has seen to it that ... the trailer way out in front belongs to Toyota.

No one at Toyota truly expects to blast the opposition off the racing circuits in this, its first foray into Formula One competition. Its car and two drivers Scot Allan McNish and Finn Mika Salo are on a steep learning curve.

But when it comes to the luxurious Pocklington Coachworks-built trailer that Toyota will be displaying at off-circuit paddocks throughout Europe, then it is literally head and shoulders above the rest.

This amazing link-up of two massive mobile trailers capable of rising pneumatically into double-storey buildings, which are the last word in luxury, makes its debut at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy on April 14.

Visitors are bound to gawp at the intricacy of engineering and detailed finesse achieved by the 82 employees of Pocklington Coachworks, all of whom have had a hand in the finished product.

No one is saying exactly how much the fabulous F1 trailer is worth - there are commercial sensitivities - but if some of the coachwork firm's other F1 trailer projects in the past have cost around the £1 million mark, you can be sure that this was a multi-million pound venture.

Business Press was taken on an exclusive tour of the trailer at the plant in Outgang Lane just before it was dismantled and transported to the Toyota Formula One HQ in Cologne, Germany.

Our guides were Steve Preest and Ronnie Bissell, both top Pocklington Coachworks salesmen and clearly proud of their creation.

The linked-up trailers are called S1 and S2. On the ground floor of S1 is the kind of fully-fitted commercial kitchen you would find in any top hotel - gigantic hob and oven to match, fridge, dishwasher and freezer.

Beyond the A1 kitchen is a service area which contains all the air-conditioning machinery plus gas and water connections.

In the front of A1 is the race management office, a board room where top Toyota officials will meet throughout the race or during practices for de-briefings, lounging in plush leather seats. Overhead are ceiling-mounted 42-inch plasma screen televisions.

Up the stairs and you will find one of the two drivers' fully-carpeted relaxation areas, each equipped with leather massage chair and washroom, each with two televisions.

"The clever thing," says Steve, "is that one of the televisions will be able to screen the race while the other gives the full telemetry of lap times, average pitstop times etc."

They will also have a Playstation. Steve laughs. "They'll be capable of playing virtual racing games before they get on with the real thing!"

Just down the corridor on that A1 upper floor is the presidential office of Toyota Motorsport's Ove Anderson. Why? "Just because he can," says Steve pertly.

Also on the upper floor in the front is the team meeting room, with a window giving them a panoramic view over the paddock.

Attached to S1 is an aluminium and glass atrium for team hospitality. Equipped with heating and ventilation, here is where you can eat and drink food created by a gourmet chef.

Ronnie Bissell greets us in S2 which has a mirror-image kitchen, but the rest of the ground floor is taken up with logistics - the computer-filled room where the detailed planning for this and the next Grand Prix is being carried out.

On the first floor is the second driver's relaxation room, but the entire remainder of that landing is to be occupied by the marketing and press support team which will provide marketing and data back-up for Toyota, its sponsors and the FIA, the governing body of Formula One. Cue for more giant plasma screens.

But the S2 atrium is the VIP hospitality restaurant, which will have waitress service and equate in standards to a top London restaurant.

Ronnie says: "Once the other teams see this in its stark red and white livery, now being completed in Cologne, they are bound to want to keep up with the Joneses. They will also want what we offer - the best quality engineering, longevity and aesthetics.

"Formula One is all about presentation and perfection. It is only those whose presentation is 120 per cent and whose ethos is perfect technology and technique who are noticed. Fall short and you are left 100 miles down the road."

Beyond the interlinked trailers are two more support vehicles in which the furniture and equipment fit as perfectly as children's puzzle-blocks.

Meanwhile, the demand for Pocklington Coachwork's trailers goes on among Formula One competitors. It is working on a contract to provide Williams - first and second in the latest Malaysian Grand Prix - with another two trailers, and McLaren has ordered four. These average out at a cost of about £250,000, but can go up to £1 million each.

Fran Johnson, Pocklington Coachworks' founder managing director and Evening Press Business Personality of the Year, brokered the Toyota deal.

He knows that there is a huge and growing market, but is also planning to diversify.

He is plotting a big push into the U.S. market and not just Indie Racing, but also Hollywood.

These are on-location trailers which any self-respecting movie superstar would yearn for.

Super trailer facts:

- It took 25,000 hours to design and build.

- The walls are lined with 160 metres of Novasuede, a durable soft leather.

- It was put there using 60 litres of glue. (Just five litres represents about two month's work for an upholsterer)

- The combined trailer is served by ten miles of electric cable

- The audio system is capable of 1,200 watts of sound with 11 "audio zones" playing different music at the same time

- There are five 42in plasma screens, which retail at about £6,000 each.

- Plus 25 LCD 15in screen televisions

- And four motorised digital satellite dishes

Updated: 09:31 Tuesday, March 26, 2002