Cheap airfield trackday - 22/23 April 2017

[David T]

No I won't be aiming for terminal velocity on the straight, anything above 90 is pretty unbearable!

I briefly managed 115mph at Silverstone. That is on my speedo that overreads at 5%. Not sure I'd want to go much faster or inflict it on the engine for an extended period - its not a race car to be rebuilt after the weekend.

[David T]

Well after more unsuccessful faffing trying to get my inline connectors to join, I gave up and just replaced the whole line, from tee piece to brake flexi hose. Thankfully the one in question was the shortest run, to the offside front. I was close to walking away and closing the garage door. I'm glad now that I perservered.

So, I'm all set. Fueled up, ready for 04:30 depature. Chris, will see you at the service station at 06:30. I'll PM my mobile number to you now.

Looking forward to a good long run out and some time at VMax!

[ChrisL]

Re meeting: plan to eat and run so will leave about 6:35, no worries if paths don't meet until we're there...

[ChrisL]

Update:

A little light rain on the way didn't manage to dampen our sprits (see what I did there?) and we randomly managed to meet up at a petrol station near Marham. Luckily I managed to locate an issue on my car, someone didn't do his wheel nuts up on his new set of wheels! The circuit layout wasn’t ideal for 7 type cars but there was still fun to be had harassing the M5s etc through the twisty sections, although they soon disappeared of the mile long straight. There was quite an eclectic mix of cars, including a great sounding Arbarth 500; Nissan Laurel and a Stripped out Merc 350 (?). All in all a good fun day for not a lot of money and the soon even popped out

Couples of pics below:

That's water from cleaning my screen!

[David T]

I thought it was a most excellent day. Certainly one where I've got maximum use out of my car and I definitely improved my driving technique during the day (ignoring my late afternoon spin near the pit entrance, shortly followed by wiping out the cones at the runway crossing.

It was only the very long straight that I found too long. I just limited my speed to under 110mph. With my relatively low 5th, I'm probably around 6k RPM. There were I think three other sections where I'd get to around 100mph, but that was okay as you'd be braking immedidately after, i.e. no suststained high speed.

Without doubt, the car was well and truly spanked for the full day and nothing broke. I was caught out by the rate of fuel consumption though. I started to run out before lunch and hadn't brought any jerry cans with me. At the lunchtime petrol station stop, I think I put about 24 litres in. How many laps did I do in the morning? 25? So about 75 miles on about 5 gallons, so that'd be average 14mpg. But then maybe 75% of the course is wide open throttle. Topped up the oil twice too.

The sections through the cones and the high speed bends were the most enjoyalbe. You'd make up any time lost on the big straight to Golf R's, etc.

Some good points for me:

No queuing - apart from before the sighting laps, didn't queue for a moment, unlike North Weald or regular track days.

No pressure - never felt any pressure from faster or more reckless drivers. There was space for at least three cars wide on the straights. Had a few accidental drag races side-by-side with some tin-tops.

Reversed direction for afternoon - this made it even more varied and I think I prefered the afternoon direction.

Cheap price, well organised and money goes to charities.

Surface was much better than I'd expected from airfield taxiways. That said, I do have a bit of gravel rash on the front of the car, probably from following others off the clean line. Next time I'd leave a bit more space.

I'd recommend it to anyone who has not done a track day before. It'd be a great introduction.
Thanks Steve for posting the idea and I'm glad that I decided to go, including pushing on with my pedal box install. It is a bit of a treck out East, but I'd do it again.

Cheers.

[SteveRST]

Yep, as David and Chris have said - it was a great day out! We were blessed with fine weather all day and not a single car issue amongst the three of us.

The change of circuit direction after lunch was good and kept it interesting - I also preferred the 'clockwise' version in the afternoon. Some very long high-speed corners - plenty of time to practice balancing the car on the throttle and trail braking and maybe also some little power slides.
But saying that, it wasn't a course suited to a '7' - too 'straight' - one of them nearly 1.2 miles long! Too much sustained high speed and hard on the throttle for ages. Petrol consumption was dire.
Also - loads of yellow flags and slow to recover broken-down vehicles - but it was a charity day and we had all the track time we wanted. Would have been an ideal introduction for someone that has never done a track day.

Thanks for coming Chris and David.
Guys - there are hundreds of high-res photos here: http://www.jsn-photography.co.uk/p1047349422

Here are a few:



It does spit flames





Steve

[ChrisL]

Nice bonus getting some decent pic's, good find Steve

[b33fy]

Great reports guys, sounds like it was a great day. Steve did you swap your tyres for anything a bit stickier or was there a bit of sideways action going on also what sort of speeds were others getting on the straight. Any film clips at all?

If I can get my car to stay together long enough and do more than 2 gallons a lap I wouldn't mind doing this next time around if it's happening again.

[David T]

Thanks Steve. No flames for me , but some good high energy shots.

[andyf]

Surely no flames is a good thing