40 cars on an Airfield day at Wroughton (nr Swindon) organised by Race-Speed. The day started well, only an hour drive to get to the airfield. I took my new twin turbo XR4x4 and the others took the original XR4x4. After signing in and the briefing we lined up to follow another car around to get used to the layout for a couple of laps.
Tony's account of Wroughton
First time at an airfield day so not sure what to expect. Only 50 miles to get there, so before we'd turned a wheel in anger it had plus points! The place was easy enough to find and after signing in we were allowed into the pit area.
A fabulous line up of cars - 1 Ferrari, about 4 Porsches, 6 TVRs (all flavours), a swarm of Elises and, of course, a couple of Scoobies and an Evo VI. After the drivers' briefing there were a couple of "parade" laps. I passengered with Robert in his Turbo Technics XR and shuddered every time Andy (XR project new boy) slid around the corners behind us. Never seen that whilst the "safety car" is out before. I guess his hero must be Jenson Button!
The day was split into 4 sessions per hour (not Open Pit as originally advertised) and I was pleased to be in the first session. First impressions of the track were that it was very long and very straight. Second thing was that because of the flat landscape it was very difficult to pick out a good, consistent braking point. However, the track did win me over. The openness of the venue meant that it was easy to safely experiment with different braking points because if you got it wrong (and I did quite a few times!) you just picked a gap in the cones and turned around. No need for grass, gravel or tyre walls! The same was true to a lesser extent for the corners, but the corners at the ends of the straights were pretty similar, and obviously there were no long sweeping corners like you'd get on a track.
The upside of these features was greatly reduced tyre wear. Unusually, the wear patterns on the tyres were very similar, despite 100 track miles. We did suffer some brake fade and the ABS proved a hindrance a few times but the front discs have seen better days and as I say, the straights were pretty long.
Incidents of the day were relatively few (difficult to really get the back out on the short corners) but Robert's chronic understeer as he tried in vain to pass Andy into a hairpin was fabulous! He just flew straight on despite loads of lock as we went around the corner. Note for Andy though - learn what the blue flag means! ;0) I wish it had been on film. Another incident was seeing great clouds of blue-black smoke billowing out of Robert's Turbo XR as his brakes finally gave up.
As for me - I didn't pass anything all day, which did hurt a bit (I'm not counting the Astra Van that was on the track trying to leave the venue!), but I've assumed the mantel of "Cone Boy" for a while. I thought I was gaining on a TVR at one point and got overexcited. Into the ultra tight left hand hairpin, I completely over cooked it and took out three cones on the exit. Oops. Also, mucking about for the cameras at the last hairpin before the start finish was fun too. Not sure if they'll put the pictures on the site or not - my cheesy grin might be too much!
Anyway - I had a good day and would go back again. Reasons for this are - price, track time, impact on car much less than on a circuit, and a great friendly atmosphere. Oh yeah, and the best bacon butties ever!
Rob's account of Wroughton (in my new twin turbo XR4x4)
I was a little apprehensive at first as I have only had the car a week! We went out with all the other cars for a few slow laps of the track to get a feel for the layout (which was much needed!), Andy was behind me in the white XR, sliding round the hairpins in my rear view mirror!
It was time to go out for my first session, I went out in front of the white XR and behind a black Sunny GTiR Turbo. The pit lane controller was leaving a reasonably large gap between the cars as they went out (which was a good idea). I took the first couple of laps quite easy as a couple of the chicanes were a little hard to make out, and I'm used to driving a car with much better suspension round a track! As I got up to speed I started to gain on the Sunny, it's always nice to have a target in mind when going round a track! I caught him up, but he was a little quicker out of the corners, where as I was braking later and carrying more speed through the two fast corners through the hay. We came up to one of the hairpins and he ran out very wide with loads of understeer, I kept it tight to the corner and took him on the inside (not sure if I should have overtaken him there or not but never mind!)
The car was starting to get a little warm now so I started to ease off a little, changing gear earlier than I normally would and the temperature started to come down a bit. My shopping list consists of new suspension and an oil cooler, though I am not sure where I can fit it!
The next session I went out behind Andy in the white XR. It took me a few laps to catch him up, and when I did he wasn't very cooperative
He was shown a blue flag (but afterwards confessed to not being sure what that was for!) He pulled over
to the right but failed to lift off at all! So by the time I'd caught him up again (as the White XR has solid suspension)
and ready to pass him we were at the next corner! I tried to get a better run out of one of the faster corners, he moved over
and I was just past him for the hairpin but had no chance of making the corner! The car just understeered well wide,
I tried to step the back out with the brakes but the ABS kept cutting in! (must disconnect that for the next event!) Obviously
Andy sailed past on the inside! He then slowed right down into the next hairpin, I didn't overtake as you are not
supposed to overtake round a corner, we were then coming back up to the guy who showed Andy the blue flag, he finally
pulled across and eased off a little so I could get past!
After lunch went out again, managed to pass an Elise, but other than that a reasonably uneventful session, getting faster through the hay section was fun though! The brakes were really starting to fade badly towards the end of the session and after the chequered flag was shown and I slowed down to for the cool down lap. I noticed a large amount of smoke coming from the back of the car. My initial thoughts were that the engine had gone
That is not good.
When I got into the pits I found that the rear pads had melted and bent! This had forced the piston out so far that some brake fluid had escaped which is what was causing all the smoke! The engine was fine! After changing the pads I went back out onto the track but after just a few corners it was obvious that the fluid was still leaking, loads of smoke coming from the back of the car
. My afternoon was over, I got shown
the black flag but I was already coming in anyway!
When the afternoon turned into open pit lane the guys let me take the White XR out. I'm really glad I got another session in as I was disappointed to miss out on the afternoon sessions. The car felt much stiffer and much more stable on the track, I must replace the suspension on my TT. I did managed to catch and pass an Imprezza which cheered me up!
Ravi's account of Wroughton
My last event in the XR4x4
Wroughton, an old RAF airfield, was the venue for my last outing in the Sierra XR4x4. I have decided to give up my share in the project, mainly for reasons of time, and partly because I now have a "been there, done that" feeling. But this didn't temper my attitude and enjoyment of this event.
The setting: a crisp (no, cold) Spring day. The wind was extraordinarily cold and obviously on an airfield there is no cover - I was well and truly wind-blown at the end of the day.
I drove the Sierra to the airfield, following Elise's, TVR's and a Scooby en route. After signing in and getting scared by Andy's first drive in the XR4x4 (this was from the signing in venue to the airfield!!!), the first thing that struck me was the number of cars. There were 40 or so, organised into groups of 10. I looked along session 'A' and couldn't quite work out why we had been placed there - veterans of track days, after 5 events? I don't think so!
So, the parade lap was next, where people get to drive around the "circuit" marked with cones, just to get a sighter, gauge some breaking points, severity of corners etc. Try telling Andy that! As soon as he had a vague idea of where the track went, he was sliding about the corners straight away. Easy Andy, you're very keen!
After winning the toss and letting Tony go out with Andy-at-full-pelt first, everything seemed to be going swimmingly well. Rob's XR4x4 twin turbo looked fast, but had noticeably more body roll than the white XR4x4. This would explain why he wasn't opening large gaps between the two cars. Tony took me out after lunch and drove well. No incidents, plenty of understeer in those sharp hairpins. Regrettably not too much oversteer, though Tony tried.
Suitably confident, it was my turn. And a chance for me to exorcise some demons - I recently wrote off one of my cars by losing control on a wet roundabout and hitting a lamppost. So, in the dry, no lampposts, nothing much to hit, a car that I only own one quarter of. Perfect! Except for one thing - we had no gear knob! A loose gear knob at the start of the day had been turned into no gear knob at all when Rob did the 0-60 acceleration tests - apparently a funny moment when the gear knob came off in his hand mid-test .. "he looked at it, confused, then shrugged, and tossed it into the back of the car!". Now, where's reverse?
I went out alone, and after one warm-up lap, I really started to get into it and push the car. I particularly enjoyed the hay bale section which was a left-right-left combination. Cars passed me, but they were an Evo and Westfields - I don't feel too bad about that. I think it was this session where the Lotus 340R span a corner ahead of me - that made me feel better - 'cause that's one of the organisers cars!
I was getting to know the layout well, and then came my only "incident": Third gear top-end revs, hit the brakes for a 180-degree right hairpin and ..... the brake pedal goes hard, the car pulls to the right and it doesn't stop! Jump off the brakes and apply again, although all of this is a bit too late seeing as the corner has now passed. Oh well, it didn't happen again in that session, or the next one in which I took Tony out as passenger. Actually, I saw a lot of cars going beyond that corner - I wonder if the braking board was a bit late or the surface provided less grip.
The Sierra behaved very well; predictable slides, understeering mostly, good grunt out of the corners. In fact, the Nissan Pulsar GTi-R owner was impressed that I managed to keep him within sight (albeit after he passed me ... but it really is easier to follow another car rather than be followed). I got a ride in the Pulsar later - very quick acceleration and quite wild in the corners. He got oversteer - why didn't we? (Probably due to shorter gears and less weight - Rob)
The only downer of the day was limping home with Rob's XR4x4 because his brake fluid had decided to empty all over the wheel/road. Rob, Mr. Risk-taker, asked Tony for the Fire Extinguisher "just in case" - Mmmmmmmm .........
So that was it - a very friendly and entertaining day to finish my involvement in the project off. I fancy coming back for more some time - I may have a go in my road car, or I'll act in a "support" capacity, as long as the track days aren't on summer weekends. Pub conversations will never be the same again.
Ex- Cone-Boy Ravi
Involvement in Sierra XR4x4 project, May 2000 - February 2001
R.I.P.
Andy's account of Wroughton
My first drive on a track - that was more fun than most other things you can do with a Saturday morning!
I was there at our last track event at Donington (although not driving), so I was used to the Sierra looking a bit out of place amongst the other cars - safe in the knowledge that it still handles better than many of them even if it could do with a squirt of paint here and there
I wanted to get some driving in before lunchtime (had to get to Nottingham for a wedding in the afternoon but that's a different story) - so I took the Sierra round for the parade laps. I wanted to get a feel for the corners so I was slowing down on the straights to get a bit of a gap in front of me, then accelerating just before the corners to take them at a nice speed (I'm sure I wasn't the only driver doing this!). I think this strategy worried Tony a bit as I had a job persuading him to passenger with me afterwards, but at least I had a feel for how the car handled round the bends before hitting the track in anger!
I only managed one full 15 minute session before I had to leave, but it was well worth it! We had a bit of trouble persuading the Marshall that we were in the correct group (not sure why!), but he let us out in the end. The track was laid out with a nice long straight at the start so I went into the first corner far too quickly, turned in too early, slid my arse around the track for a bit and scrubbed off loads of speed - that's how not to do it. I think by the end of the session I'd got much better at keeping a few more of those mph for the exit! There were a couple of other moments I didn't quite get things right, perhaps being a bit ambitious with the gears going something like this:
Sierra: "Gzzzzzzzzzz, Grind, Crunch"
Andy: "Think I beat the 'box a bit there"
Tony: "Erm, that was first gear"
A: "yeah?"
T: "Er, you tried to put it into first at 50mph!"
A: "oops"
It was good driving on a track with another car we knew (Rob in his blue XR) - there were some top comedy moments (mainly brought about by my inexperience but fun all the same); I really wish I'd listened more carefully at the briefing: must remember blue flag = get out of the way. After I got to grips with the top notch handling of the XR, the whole thing became a lot more fun & I was only overtaken by two cars (one of which was Rob!) which must be a good sign I guess!
Now I need more!!!!! Soon!!!!
