rob275 1817 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Post all your pic and videos here! What an awesome day it was, and good of Adrian to pop along and offer his advice on our shoddy driving! I will sort my videos out shortly. P.S Keith, I still have your memory card... It recorded fine, do you want it back or can I persuade you with a bottle of wine or two for it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86-Ian 351 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Great day even the poor weather didn't spoil it for us, Thanks to Keith & everyone involved in sorting this day out, & thanks to Adrian for his driving tips, will come in handy @ the next one Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Glad you got back ok Ian, I tried to keep you in my sights for as long as i could in case your car completely died! Let us know the verdict on it when you can! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 This was the first 'trackday event' organised for Drivers Forum. It follows my invitation for 'newbies' who are considering our big 'track event' at BHP Lydden on May Bank Monday to gain, I hoped, a modicum of understanding how road and track driving differs... We had a mixed day. The organisers had to delay proceedings as the cloud/fog descended and cancelled the first on-track session... (BOO.!). Then they announced that, as there weren't as many cars booked in as they expected, any car that wished to track all day could do so, without restriction on driver/passenger (HOORAY!).But it cost extra (BOO!) To explain how it was organised - there was both 'newbies' in cars and 'newbies' on motorbikes. New-in-Cars1 got 20 mins, with or without instructor. New-in-Cars2 got the same, then New-on-Bikes got their 20 mins... there were also 'classroom lessons' on technique/problem areas - and I'm sure all that attended will confirm that the admin., management and 'classroom' advice on the day was excellent.. We were all in NinCars 1. So I 'booked' Nincars2 for our group to go out in my car driven by Adrian from Fensport (who gave up a whole day for this nonsense!) - previous to which Adrian went out with everyone and gave 1-on-1 tuition in their own car as a passenger. Others will give their own view on the day... for me it went supremely well... other than I had to fill up two times at the circuit - at £1.55 per litre, aaaargh! Nobody erred - and we were given high praise by the organisers, accoding to Adrian. No spins, no problems, despite the wet..damp...drying track. The best it can get - peeps learned and anjoyed. GT86Ian had a problem with his exhaust which required serious consideration after we had all departed - can you give us feedback, Ian? Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Rob - I started a new 'thread' - can you engineer it into this one pls? Ref SDcard... I'm not too worried. Mine 'overloaded' and I need to review what has happened. Yes - I would like your one back but it's not time critical. Download your stuff to hard drive - I will ask my supplier if there's any more 64GB cards available, I might buy a dozen as I can see a need for BHP Lydden! Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86-Ian 351 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Thanks Rob,car doesn't sound good at all, could be just a simple fix like the exhaust leaking, wont know until its been looked at, not sure if I have any boost at all, cant hear the dump valve but that might be just because of all the noise the cars making, I'll take the car for a spin tomorrow & see how it is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Rob - I started a new 'thread' - can you engineer it into this one pls? Ref SDcard... I'm not too worried. Mine 'overloaded' and I need to review what has happened. Yes - I would like your one back but it's not time critical. Download your stuff to hard drive - I will ask my supplier if there's any more 64GB cards available, I might buy a dozen as I can see a need for BHP Lydden! Spec K Overloaded? Explain? each 30 minute clip is around 3gb, you can record around 10 hours of footage on to the card. Already wiped the card clean. If you're at the meet tomorrow I can give it to you then Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Thanks Rob, car doesn't sound good at all, could be just a simple fix like the exhaust leaking, wont know until its been looked at, not sure if I have any boost at all, cant hear the dump valve but that might be just because of all the noise the cars making, I'll take the car for a spin tomorrow & see how it is. Like most things, it probably sounds far worse than it actually is! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Was good to meet everyone again (and to meet a new person in Ian!) - was a great day! As always I forgot photos Did anyone get to drive through that lovely little mini-storm? I went to shell garage east of the track, set off for home and about 5 mins after going back past the track, it all went dark, thunder/lightning, heavy rain, strong gusty winds that started blowing the car about at 70mph which was fantastic fun Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86-Ian 351 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Like most things, it probably sounds far worse than it actually is!very true, just a pain though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted January 25, 2014 Had a fantastic day, here are my picshttps://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152542231472646.1073741855.821767645&type=1&l=62781aab29Plus a little vid [TUBE] [/TUBE] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 I'd like to start by saying it was great seeing you all again today, had an awesomely long and joyful day as well as an entertaining evening the night before.....even though I was soooooo close to not being able to take part as I had failed the noise test! To pass, people needed less than 105db.......I got 108db with about 5500rpm.....I knew my exhaust was loud but not that bloody loud....even with about 5000miles on it. Revved the car some more and did some laps around a lampost (in the attempts to warm it up....even though it was already fairly warmed up), queued up again for another attempt and tried to hold the revs at 5000rpm which he clocked on and asked me for more revs (they ask for about 6000rpm). Don't know exactly what I got from that run but he said that because it's wet, I won't be going full chat (lol, yeah right, I was still revving the nuts off my car ) that they'd let me off and that if it was summer time, they wouldn't have let me on. So I'll need to do something about my exhaust me thinks We pretty much had the track to ourselves as all the GT86's were all in one group bar a rather nice Renault Alpine, an old BMW that kept on spinning and a rather nice Lotus Esprit but driven by a rather slow and inconsiderate bar stool. It was Angelsey and the stupid BMW X5 driver all over again, fast on the straights but this lotus driver was taking every corner at 10mph. He would rarely pull over, and when he would, wouldn't slow down (like a lot of the other drivers there to be honest) but would sometimes all of a sudden take the racing line again, thus cutting you up! But enough ranting, BIG thanks to Keith for organising this event and Adrian for taking precious time out from his busy schedule to baby sit us noobs Got to say, good call from Keith to leave when we did as like Mike mentioned, it absolutely piiiiissed it down shortly after we left! And I ended up taking 3 and a half hours to get home rather than just over 2 as I had to pull over for a rest/power nap for about 30 mins, them later on, stop for a KFC But overall, I quite enjoyed the trackday today, learnt a few things thanks to Adrian and the organiser who did the classroom thingy. I was a lil nervious it being my first wet trackday and it was pretty slippery, especially with the primacys, I was pretty much breaking traction on every turn/corner. I even had a couple of hairy moments with a bit of tank slapping. My first moment was on the final sharp turn with Adrian in the car with me and I have no idea why but I ended up pushing the car too much out of the corner that the backend came out about 45deg, caught it, tank slapped back and forth a bit and managed to skid the backend out on to the grass before slowing down enough to regain control and carry on. Wasn't mega scary as there wasn't much around besides grass and mud, but more embarrised with Adrian in the car The second time was during my very last lap where I had built up too much confidence and ended up pushing the car too much through the first long bend where I was doing about 75mph+ on fading tyres and brakes and ended up in a full on drift....but as the turn began to straighten up, my car didn't and it continued to face the big metal barriers which made my bottom squeek. Panicked, started jerking the steering left and right as the car tank slapped left and right, but then I started to pump the accelerator pedal and it eventually gripped and drove straight on.....I knew I had to calm down after that so I pulled in....at which point shortly after, the marshals waved the checkered flag anyways and thus concluded our trackday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 Not sure it if will help, Keith, but if you get into a 'tank slapper', then you've applied too much steering lock, too late. Some might call it 'over-correcting'. Also balancing the throttle in these situations helps or lifting, just slightly. Sounds like you all had a good day, must admit, I was a bit jealous when I saw the weather as I think you learn more from wet trackdays than you do in the dry. Also you get no tyre wear to speak of, less fuel and less brake pad wear. But I think the wet is more fun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86Jay 202 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 Excellent day! Learnt so much and was nice to have a little bit of water on track. It meant I could concentrate on getting the corner perfect and take it slower but more technically correct. Rather than just trying go into it as fast as we can and rely on having loads of grip! Learnt so much with the help of Adrian! Felt so much more confident by the end of the day after Adrian had given some tips! Breaking was my biggest improvement. And not lifting on the throttle before a corner and rolling before getting on the brake! All obvious things but unless you've got someone sitting beside you clarifying it it's impossible to judge you're going to stop in under 300 yards from 110mph! Could tell I had improvement as the first right hander I started the day going through at about 50mph and could feel the back going. By the end of the day me and Adrian were going through it at 75mph+ and the car was perfectly balanced and in control! Definitely going to do a couple more of these in the future! Already got my eye on the Feb 15th novice day at Snett! Huge thanks to everyone for a fantastic day! and to Keith for organising it. And most of all Adrian for all the help! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Test Drives Unlimited 278 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 Well it looks like you all had a good time at Snetterton Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fensport 76 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 Cheers everyone I really enjoyed the day yesterday the tricky conditions added to the fun. You all done amazingly well and the staff at Snetterton were very impressed Roll on the next event Cheers Adrian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted January 26, 2014 Thanks Lauren, I really want to take some drifting lessons of some sort, this way I'd be more confident in catching the high speed over steer and not over correcting it etc. Here are some pics I took: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted January 27, 2014 I tell you what though, on the way there, on the way back and throughout most of the day, at no point did I really think to myself that I needed to go FI, I didn't feel that I needed more power or the car was underpowered, even with the long straights. With the new exhaust and the ECU remap, the car feels so spirited and had enough pull down slip roads and out of roundabouts etc. Even when on track, get the corners right and you can speed out of most corners there to over take whoever was too slow, and in the conditions that day, even with Keith in his turbo'd 86, I managed to stay in front of him for about 3/4 of a session.....though then he managed to get one of the corners spot on and he just blasted past me on the straight. When on the straights, I didn't feel that the straights were overly long, it gave you enough time to get some high speeds in but also enough time to plan and prepare for the next turn. Though I'd probably have felt differently if there were more cars on track and on a dryer day while up against more experienced drivers, and I've always said this, when you're on your own, you never feel like the car needs more power, but when you're head to head with someone and you're flat out but they're pulling away, that's usually when you want more power. But in the wet with hardly any cars about, I didn't really wish for more power at all....with the only exception that day of when trying to over take people on the straights who didn't bother slowing down, at which point I would only just creep past them and only just in time to then brake for the next corner, but even if you did have more power, there will typically be a more powerful car on track than yours and you'll end up in the same dilemma again anyways. Adrian and the instructor/organiser made a really good point that when your tackling a particular set of difficult corners, as you improve your driving line through the first corner, you end up exiting the first corner with more speed....at which point you'll end up messing up the next corner.....which did actually occur as I (and probably others there) improved throughout the day. Going FI would mean building up more speed, reaching the next corner sooner and reducing the time to plan and prepare for the next turn. But I suppose that's just another challenge to tackle and fully utilising the potential of my NA GT86 is my current challenge. Have I told everyone how much I love the GT86? Though I'm still gutted that I never took my Clio 200 on a trackday before I got rid of it 1 Lauren reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted January 27, 2014 There were come instances where I couldnt get the power down out of the corners. But i think this was mainly due to the way I took in to the corner and it affected my exit quite drastically. But i'm still going FI! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted January 27, 2014 Some video footage Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted January 27, 2014 Awesome vid Faith...loved how you managed to capture the BMW who span out Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GT86-Ian 351 Report post Posted January 27, 2014 And some more very good video faith. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted January 28, 2014 Good videos! Some interesting lines through corners, Faith....Comment of the day for me when was Adrian took my car out with me as a passenger.. we're coming up onto slower traffic out of Coram when warning buzzers start going off...Adrian says "What's that?".... so I told him...... it was my front parking sensors... they start bleating when you're four feet from the wall... I reckon Adrian was six inches...!!Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted January 28, 2014 Love it Ian, funny seeing the BMW spin from your car :-) Keith, I'm hoping my lines started to improve after my session with Adrian B-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted January 28, 2014 Glad I saw that BMW almost lose it on the lap before, he clearly was being an idiot trying to floor it out of corners far too early. Think I was doing below 30 before getting to the corner he span at otherwise it might have been different! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
