Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th January 2002
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Rob's account Another open pit lane Track weekend at Anglesey circuit organised by BookaTrack. This time I was in my blue XR4x4, Spen was in the white XR4x4 and Tony was in his Legacy turbo. Having been there a few weeks ago it didn't take long to get back into the track, sliding round Abbotts and Radar. I have never had to work the steering wheel so hard to keep the car on the track, the car spent as much time sideways as it did in a straight line!!! |
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Tony's account Rob and I drove up through the Welsh national parks on Friday, I was glad that I'd nagged and nagged about going that way, because it was a great drive up. Weather was a bit dodgy, but fabulous roads and scenery nonetheless. I think Rob was pretty pleased too. (I was :o)) And Sarah drove for the first hour, through Brecon, and had her first experience of overtaking on a normal road. In fact, I think she had several experiences! I too had a large grin on my face, and lost count of the number of cars we passed when I took the wheel. I won't mention the 8 cars in one overtaking manoeuvre because it was officially 5 cars and one trailer - the story's much better in TonyLand. :0))))))))) (5 cars and a trailer was still impressive - Rob) When we got to the track, I was surprised to see loads of other cars there. When I checked on Friday, there were only 6 cars confirmed. It turned out that due to the good weather all the provisional bookings had shown up too. Elises, Exiges, TVR, BMW racer, ScoobyScene P1, Westies and Caterhams and a few hot hatches. Oh, and a couple of nutty sierras and a slow old Legacy! Sarah drove first, on the sighting laps. Over the day, she got better and better, on her last session of the day she was hitting School corner at 60/65 mph. I think that Rob and Spen were doing it at 75/80(?) so she was doing really well. It was interesting seeing someone on their first ever track day, and reminded me of how unnatural the right lines can feel. On the day, I thought that our car was the slowest on the track, but in retrospect, I'm not sure that was the case. We spent a lot of time moving over and letting other cars by, but we didn't do all that many laps (maybe 50), so didn't go up against all of the cars there. Also, I was REALY paranoid about breaking the car! After Combe I was nervous about brake fade - I'd installed fast road pads (EBC Red stuff) and the grooved discs and wasn't sure where the limit was. They didn't seem to be all that grippy. As the day went on, I gradually realised that my paranoia was stopping me from working them hard enough to get heat into the pads. Once I started doing that, the brakes started working really well. Unfortunately, it took me until about 3.30pm to realise!!! Never mind, I'll know for the next CCC day! (Coming???) Once I started doing that I was keeping the pace much better...until my brake warning light came on. I presumed due to brake fluid temperature. Shame, cos the brakes felt great! But it was 3.55pm so only 5 laps were lost. However, DOT5 fluid is on the shopping list, along with some braided hoses. There were no scary moments in my car; in fact it felt much too civilised, not a real track day experience in some respects. It was just too smooth and quiet. But as Spen said, a set of lowered springs, and big exhaust and a little extra boost and it would have been very different. Despite my paranoia, the engine actually ran superbly well, hardly any tappet rattle and all gear shifts were sweet. I wonder if the Mobil 1 helped? Highlight of the day (year?) was down to Mark's blue Westie. He was complaining of bad understeer when I asked for a ride. He obliged and the car oversteered the whole way around the circuit. What a laugh! Seems the 100kg of ballast totally changed the balance of the car! So when Sarah got in (about 60kg?) a midpoint was struck and he did loads of laps because the balance was perfect! Sarah had a blast - so much so that she got out and said "We HAVE to get one of these!!!" Hurrah! There is a God!!! I gave Mark some passenger laps in mine after - he gave me some tips on the right line which helped enormously - another big contributor to me getting on the pace. He didn't say much when we got out of the car though, other than "4 wheel drive, tut tut, you get away with murder!". Guess I need some lessons! We all managed to drive away from the circuit, which is a definite sign of a good day. Roll on next year! |
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Spen's account A long long time ago, on a race track far far away... The journey was a little bit tricky. I was in convoy with Andy in his Imprezza. You see we were roaring along just fine, for this read Andy's passenger was scared, until we hit the M5. This happened almost literally, we tanked on to the motorway in the rain. After the wipers smeared across and a sea of red smudges were revealed we had to stop pronto. The XR has a habit of getting hot under the collar when stationary. I was starting to consider rolling down the hard shoulder as we were nosing towards the red but then at the last minute we started to move at about 15 mph. Just enough air flow and with the heater on full blast it was enough to prevent meltdown. When we finally arrived I was glad to be there. The XR also had an awful vibration from 40 mph upwards - more of this later. To prevent Rob interrupting I'll mention that he's driven to lots of events and that he's a hero! ;) To the track. I went out on the sighting laps, the thing with these laps is that as soon as someone doesn't follow the 'pace car' everyone behind is still in the dark. When the pace car left I was feeling none the wiser. It is a really good track but it's really demanding. Nothing too tricky in isolation (except the bloody hairpin - must actually slow right down for it). It's the rapid combination - you don't get any chance to repair a screwed up corner, you've automatically fluffed the next two. I think I did get faster, my only judge was the exit speed out of the first corner, I think the highest was 75 mph. I think the average was nearer 70. When I went in with Rob I know he was doing high 70s average. :( Laps count here. As the day wore on so did the brakes. Imagine you're doing Ooohhh, a ton I guess, maybe just under and you're approaching the first corner. The wheel is vibrating like an angry, epileptic wheel, on a PCP / special K drug cocktail. God knows what it's going to do next. Speed loss is a definite requirement. Ahh, use the brakes I hear you say. Oh yes, but the brake pedal had been replaced with a large very ripe tomato. I kid you not, straight to the deck with a 'phut' sound. Actually the 'phut' could have been me? Not nice. This bit is blank. A bit like my memory. I dunno, it didn't crash or spin though we did grab some mud. When I got back to the pits I dunno who was shaking more, me or the wheel? After some investigation and messing like checking pads, bleeding brakes etc I went back out. Ohhh no, those brakes aren't working. At least I was expecting it this time. We were scratching our heads when Tony noticed the *very* odd angle of the front wheel. Yep, no hub nut and the wheel was being held on by the brake pads! It's very odd indeed. I put the nut on when I replaced the wheel baring, Rob took it off put a washer in, tightened it 'FT' and I crushed it (you're supposed to crush it) en route when I was sure it wasn't too tight. With a new spare, we had a spare, so there is proof of God after all, the vibration was hugely diminished. You need the twilight zone music now... I must mention that Tone had informed me the wheel looked 'odd' earlier but I refused to listen. Doooh! Out I trotted again but the brakes were still mostly mullered - grease from the middle of the wheel bearing had leaked due to the bearing splitting when the wheel nearly fell off. Huge fun!! Will it pull to the right or not? Russian roulette has got nothing on this game!! Last off we all went out together me at the back filming. It's like a car chase ;) All was going well till I got caught by a lotus, Exige I think, and I let him past. After that I never caught up with Rob though I did catch Tony for a lap. I also managed to film my only 'off' which was my fault. Doooh, stupid camera! It put me off, honest! At least I didn't spin it. Hats off to everyone. Lots of fun. Lots of cash. Lots of miles, on and off track.... Thanks to BookaTrack (sorting the day out), Rob (lines), and God (letting me off on that particular day) |
Movies!!
These videos are from a fellow track day nut and he has a site full of excellent videos here
Me going through School, sideways through Abbotts and into Radar!!! right click here and click 'save target as' to download it. The file is 2.5MB and will take about 10-12 minutes to download on a 33.6 Modem.
An excellent rear view shot of Spen in the White XR from James's car right click here and click 'save target as' to download it. The file is 4.9MB and will take about 20-25 minutes to download on a 33.6 Modem.
Me in the blue XR hanging the back out again ;o) right click here and click 'save target as' to download it. The file is 4.9MB and will take about 20-25 minutes to download on a 33.6 Modem.
more videos coming soon
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