About a million (!!) cars at Castle Combe organised by Cars and Car Conversions Magazine.
Robert's account
Upon arriving at the circuit we discovered it was busy!! We went straight into the queue and waited. Spen had decided that as the Skyline was being sold he would take that round the track for his first session!! As we were going out of the paddock Rob, another XR4x4 owner managed to jump in for a ride. The track hadn't changed since the last time we were there but out tyres are a lot harder and the car was suffering from a fair amount of understeer
I thought I was getting back into the swing of things, when on my third lap I ran a little wide on the exit of Quarry! Ok I ran very wide, managed to get all 4 wheels on the other side of the rumble strip
It was only then that Spen managed to get past me in the
Skyline!!!
There was a LOT of traffic on the track at the same time, people were not particularly courteous either! I was trying to get past another car and they were not moving over as they should do when an Imprezza tried to get past me THROUGH bobbies chicane. Luckily I had already clocked him in my mirrors otherwise I would have driven straight into the side of him if I had taken the racing line!!! By this point I was deciding "If you can't beat them, join them!", and started being a little more forceful when overtaking, but still never overtaking in the corners. I came round a few corners to find cars spun in the middle of the track.
There were also lots of cars that had no idea of what a racing line is!! This made it easier for us to overtake them as I could carry far more speed through the corners!
I had an interesting passenger ride in the XR with Spen (he decided not to take the Skyline back out into the madness!) He was coming up to Tower after passing a few cars, there was no real spaces for him to fit into so he had to take a very tight line through the corner!!!
My next session it rained a little which made the car more fun to drive! You could counter the understeer by stepping the back out, which made the car loose through Old Paddock Bend
Overall I enjoyed the day because there was a lot more to play with, and as usual we overtook loads of much faster machinery. However I wouldn't have taken an expensive car on the circuit as the standard of driving was pretty poor and I was surprised that they do not even have a driver briefing!!! It was nice to be back at Castle Combe and I will be back again in June
Spen's account
Woohoo, I'm going on a track day. At last, after ages. I was well chuffed - I had decided to give the Skyline a good tracking(!) and I had organised a ride in a 500ish bhp Supra. All this and I was going to drive the XR too.
My initial high hopes for the day were a little subdued when I saw just how many people were there already - we thought we were early! We pulled up, dumped the spare wheel, and got in the queue.
About half an hour later we got out on the tarmac! I took the GTR while Rob queued up in front in the XR. Behind me was a black Skyline GTS. The first lap I just followed letting the car warm up and getting the feel of it, then, down the straight I closed right up on Rob. By Avon Rise I was right on the XR's bumper.
When we got to Quarry Rob apparently decided not to brake. This was as funny as hell, I was laughing so hard I didn't brake till too late either. The white XR followed Newton's laws faithfully and understeered straight off the track!! I managed to fare a little better - I had lost more speed - and had more bhp to turn the understeer into oversteer! The GTR's 4wd system did it's thing and sorted my mistake out. Rule 1: Pay Attention.
I've just read Rob's account - 'It was only then he managed to get past me!!!'.
Indeed..
The rest of the session saw me catch and pass almost everything on the track with two exceptions. The first was a very well driven blue Caterham. The second was a race prepped Lotus Exige with more carbon fibre spoilers, splitters and wings than your average Beoing 767. This little thing was catching me! At the end of the session it was a few car lengths behind. A few more laps and he'd have been in front of me
The pros and cons of tracking the GTR:
1. +Extraordinary things are possible with the 4wd system placing torque where the grip is.
2. -The GTR is heavy. Very heavy. After lap 4 the brakes were fading badly - this was with fast road pads
3. +Bearing down on slower traffic the GTR had the same track presence as a flying saucer!
4. -7 laps used a quarter of a tank of super unleaded. Ouch!
5. -Understeer. It understeered too easily for my liking. I was turning in and the nose would refuse to tuck in for me. This was easily fixed with some right foot but instead of a powerslide you get a controllable long four wheel drift.
6. - Oil temp approaching 150 oC. I had to limit the last 4 laps to 7000 rpm to avoid meltdown.
Overall the GTR was a brilliant car to own and drive. I'll miss it. It was a car with an awesome reputation - it was a pity the reputation has grown beyond what the standard car can provide. The standard car needs a big oil cooler, massive competition brakes and super grippy rubber. Oh, and another 100 bhp at least!
Session 2. Passenger in the XR. The very first lap I was frowning away. Rob all over the kerbs and rumble strips ripping the tyres to shreds. Either that or I was frowning 'cos I knew he'd just pulled a higher exit speed than I have ever out of The Esses. I'll just screw the tyres too - I'll get the same speed there even if it kills me/us/the car?
Next the howling laughter. Approaching Bobbies approx half way through the breaking area. On with the anchors. Whoa there car! The ABS stuck it's nose in and the car swerved too and fro right into the chicane!! After the car had exited the chicane Rob finally got it all settled down. We both laughed for the rest of the lap
Session 3. I took Rob out in the XR. It was good to be back. The brakes and the grip. Pitty about the lack of punch and the arm chair I was now sitting in. I took a lap to get used to the track again as well as the sheer amount of traffic. I went through the chicane where I had promised myself I would take the rumble strips and didn't. I didn't have the heart
I then 'accidentally' overtook someone into a bend - they obviously weren't moving over. This caused a raised eye brow from my passenger.
A few laps later the frustration was beginning to get to me. 5 cars. The guy at the back refusing to let me by. It was beginning to look like a parade lap
Only one thing for this. I planned it for Tower - most people don't like the big solid wall and brake early. Rob grimaced 'There's no, room, there is NO ROOM' as he thought I was gonna do the next car or two. Oh no, I was hell bent on taking them all. Two on the straight. No probs. Out brake the next couple at the end of the braking area. Ok, we're into Tower now, on the inside with one car to go and no room to slot onto the 'line'. Oh well. I'll have to pass the slow lead car through tower. Not entirely within the rules but the rules also state you should move over when a car is catching you. I know two wrongs don't make a right and all that but....
Anyways, no more traffic.
The rest of the session I didn't really fly, I broke early for quarry and still took the chicane politely. I don't know why I just didn't.
My final session was as a passenger in the tuned Supra. It was getting towards the end of the day. I was pretty nervous. I was in a Supra with 480 bhp at the last rolling road session with a track virgin as a driver.
It started bad and got worse. The standard of driving was appalling - not us, we we're doing ok, a bit slow in the bends but we had the line rightish. Other people seemed to have left there brains in the paddock.
There were at least two spins per lap. It was on the second lap we rounded quarry and Jug, my driver, buried the go pedal only to be confronted by a spun / stalled Peugeot 205 smack in the middle of the track. Jug avoided it but not by much.
I thought, 'I saw no yellow flag'. I looked around for the marshals for the next lap. There were two. One at Tower and one with the chequered flag - no one to watch Quarry. The nightmare was beginning.
More spins, a XR4i exploded about 100 yards in front of us going into tower. Red flag, I told Jug.
'Slow right down as we'll probably be stopping and get right out of the way of the muppet show behind us'
Clouds of smoke wafted across the track. A few idiots flew past at 90 mph+ into the dense smoke with the only marshal waving his red flag furiously. There was no way they could see a thing. We decided to get the hell out of here and pull off the track before someone hit the supra.
During the remainder of the lap it seemed calmer so we stayed out as we figured we only had another lap or two anyway.
We came round quarry and dived into the esses with a ****wit of a cossie driver right behind us. He was one of the cars that ignored the red flag. The car so close behind distracted Jug and he chose a really poor shallow line through the Old Paddock bend. He then nailed it. I screamed 'It's gonna spin, steer into it, steer into it'. The correction was too late, the power was too much, round we went onto the grass.
I think Jug viewed the whole things as an education. I doubt he'll be putting his supra anywhere near a track day with 2 marshals and a bunch of morons with no sense of self preservation again.
I couldn't believe the lack of officials to inform drivers what was happening ahead. I can't believe the session wasn't abandoned with so many cars ignoring what little marshalling there was. This session was the first and only time that I felt in danger on the track.
I hope CCC make a better job of the next event. I'll be going along but I won't be going on the tarmac unless there are a reasonable number of officials and they take action against those who ignore the flags.
