PETROLHEADS from as far afield as Bristol braved the high winds of Storm Ciara to descend on a Chippenham performance wheel factory.

Mark Hope decided to brave the weather in his very shiny, brand new Lamborghini Huracan, which, he says, can top 200mph.

He says he gets some good reactions from people when he drives the streets of Wiltshire. "People look like they have seen a spaceship," he said. "You don't see to many cars like this on the road, so it is always good to see people's faces when you drive by." Mark, from Swindon, says he doesn't keep the £200,000 car out on the street at night.

"Oh no. I keep it in a very secure place, and keep that quiet," he said.

Lotus Esprit twin turbo owner Alex Carr from Swindon also enjoys the attention he gets.

"Pretty Woman about says it all," he said. "Girls like it because its a super car, and they think Richard Gere might be in it!" he joked.

The venue for the drive was the new Dymag performance wheel factory on Vincients Road.

Dymag is a local success story, having been bought up in 2011 when in financial dire straits and being built up from a team of four to the current 36 strong staff.

Chris Shelley, MD, is expecting business to get even busier. He got a £7m government grant to develop a range of carbon car wheels, moving the business from motorbikes to supercars.

"We launched two years ago and now we are building the business. Now we are selling wheels to car manufacturers and the good news is that there are about 20 different car makers putting carbon wheels on their cars now.

These manufacturers include Porsche, BMW, Ferarri and several American companies such as Ford with the Ford Mustang.

"The level of interest in what we are doing has shot through the roof and now we are being approached to supply carbon barrels to major car makers."