2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

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No other pics than this, I don't think my phone came out of my pocket all day apart from lunchtime!

Snetterton 300 - 29th October

Booked on to this with @Big Ben @R27WTF and Alex from AW Motorworks as it was a rare cheap Saturday with MSV, the morning didn't look great when I crawled out of bed as it was wet and miserable looking, luckily I'd overpacked as usual and had a set of wheels with road tyres on. The track was fairly wet to start out with and I elected to stay in the pits during sighting laps, my well used MRFs weren't going to handle the soggy bits too well! Changed the wheels over and headed out onto a very greasy circuit. An old friend from work turned up and came out as a passenger for the morning, he was having a whale of a time and as the track started to dry, we were getting quicker and quicker as the morning progressed. A dry line started to appear and I toyed with swapping wheels before lunch but I'm lazy and didn't do it.

After lunch my friend had to go so I was running solo in the car again, after Ben had been out for a quick session chasing Matt in his M2c, he assured me the track was ready for the MRFs to go on, so they got swapped over. Ben was very right, there were still a few slightly greasy corners but once the heat was in the tyres that was it, we were cooking on gas! The alignment that Alex did for me worked a treat, the car felt very predictable except for the moment I went into turn 3 (Palmer) a bit hot, the rear got a little light and I ended up sideways on the grass, somehow managed to save it and decided to dip into the pits to let the adrenaline disappear. I'd had a few little tussles with a couple of Mini Cooper S's that were out on track, one was running slightly more power but he said he was struggling to match my braking and cornering, whether that was the car or driver I won't know.

Final session of the day and the track was near empty, went out to chase Alex in his 182 and had an absolute blast, once I'd caught up with him I managed to squeeze past and then gradually got away, I was driving at about 9/10ths after my little slide as I don't fancy having to do too many repairs over winter! Was out for a good half hour before he dipped back into the pits with no fuel, I had to get packed up and get the car loaded so I came in a lap or 2 later.

All in all it was a great success and the car yet again, proved how good it is. It's certainly held back by the driver now for sure!
 
Once again I did a thing where I said the last Snetterton trackday would be the last of the year. Well, you lot know what I'm like by now so of course I booked a Track Obsession day as it was cheap!

Weds 9th November. Snetterton 300.

The Clio was still on the trailer from the last trackday, wheels were all loaded up so all I did was chuck some tools in the Mondeo, hitch up and we were ready! The drive to the circuit was a rather damp one, the weather said it would be dry overnight and dry all day, the rain along the A11 said otherwise!
Got set up near the restaurant as I didn't have a garage booked and didn't know anyone else going, so I picked out a nice quiet spot. Parked up next to a C6 Corvette owner and a retired Superbike Endurance rider in an R53 MINI.

Out on track the conditions were... Slick. The track was wet so I swapped wheels and got onto the Eagle F1s, it was still a bit slippery but I was getting some good laps in with minimal understeer.
I was constantly fighting with the front brakes, trying to get enough heat into them to clean up the deposits left by the DS UNOs but all I was doing was locking up and slithering all over the place. Once a dry line appeared I swapped out to the MRFs and changed the front pads back to my relatively new PBS ProRace pads. With the track drying pretty rapidly I could get on the brakes much harder and clean the discs up.
For the most part, there were no issues on the day. Only complaints were the usual Caterfield drivers trying to divebomb under braking and a bloke in a Focus ST170 with no brake lights that loved to get on the brakes really early and not let anyone quicker go past.
Photos are huge so they're only attachments. I did get footage from the day which I'll upload soon, but here's a short clip of the previously mentioned Corvette spitting some flames.
That thing was quick in the straight bits as expected (400+bhp) BUT was as quick through the corners, if not quicker! He was really husting the C6 around!
 

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Was the day quiet with low numbers? I am starting to think that November track days are good value.

Were you out on track with the Pinder Wagon and the time attack car from RuskiWeldFab?
 
Was the day quiet with low numbers? I am starting to think that November track days are good value.

Were you out on track with the Pinder Wagon and the time attack car from RuskiWeldFab?

Yeah it was mega quiet. There was an RMA day on Tuesday with about 25 cars, I'd say Weds with Track Obsession probably had 35-40 cars? The Pinderwagen and RuskiWebFabs Clio were there, the Pinderwagen was going really well after his breakdown the previous day, RWF's Clio was having a bad day though. I let him through in the infield and he immediately fell off the track, then he caused 2 red flags I believe for breaking down on track.

EDIT - Hidden the video for now, it's been processing for ages now and is only in 360p. I'll post again once both videos are ready to watch.
 
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Here comes the long overdue bump that usually happens when I spend money.

So in December I treated myself to a lap timer, I was going to go down the route of a GPS unit and going through my phone and other such nonsense but I'm lazy enough that turning a GoPro on is hard enough, so I bought a Racebox Classic.
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Toaster not included.

Comes with an external GPS antenna if required and mounts on any GoPro style mount, for today I mounted it on the provided suction cup.

Had a bit of a nightmare to start the day, with the handbrake cables being frozen solid, I managed to force the car off the trailer and into the garage but I missed sighting laps and didn't get out until around 10.30 after the first (and only!) red flag of the day.
First session was slow, the track was mostly dry but greasy in places, I couldn't get any heat into the tyres so decided to come back in and back the coilovers off a touch, put a bit more air in the tyres and see what happened next. Next session was obviously quick as it made my sunstrip evacuate the windscreen, less than ideal with the low winter sun...
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By this point the car was absolutely minging, as per usual...
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Slowly through the day I managed to bring the times down from a disgusting 2:57.05 (Cold and greasy) and by the last session I managed a 2:26.24. After this last session, it felt like I'd run out of rear brakes and even though they have plenty of tread left, the MRFs are dead now, they've had way too many heat cycles through them and they're really struggling to get up to temp.
Once you park up and the Racebox knows you've stopped, it gives you a rundown of the session you've just completed on screen. I had it set of predicted lap time with the delta showing at the bottom, I found it REALLY useful to see if I was improving over the day and if there was anywhere I was struggling with
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Once connected through the app, you can sync your sessions and it shows your best times from each session.
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Once I'd had a look through the sessions I decided enough was enough and packed up for the day
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Next plans...

New sunstrip, new rear pads, new seat for me and a general tidy up, the poor thing is disgusting now. Then more track time! I've got nothing else booked so I'm in no rush to do any of this!
 
Hello RaceBox frenwd. Send me your e-mail address and we can compare laps, or you can laugh at mine and look at Ethan's.

Did you book Snetterton out for yourself - there is no one else in any of your photos?
 
Hello RaceBox frenwd. Send me your e-mail address and we can compare laps, or you can laugh at mine and look at Ethan's.

Did you book Snetterton out for yourself - there is no one else in any of your photos?

It was SO quiet. Only 7 garages rented out, probably only 25-30 cars there today. It was great!
 
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Next plans...

Buy and fit Gripper

The other shite things I listed:
New sunstrip, new rear pads, new seat for me and a general tidy up, the poor thing is disgusting now. Then more track time! I've got nothing else booked so I'm in no rush to do any of this!
Fixed that for you mate
 
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2&½ hrs for lunch mate? Big ol gap between sessions there:grinning:
Madman going out in January but I salute you!

See you soon
 
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2&½ hrs for lunch mate? Big ol gap between sessions there:grinning:
Madman going out in January but I salute you!

See you soon

Haha we decided on an early lunch as I'd missed brekkie trying to get the shed off the trailer. Then we spent about 40 minutes after lunch helping a guy try to fix his supercharged BMW 330. It did a very BMW thing and sprang a leak. Not ideal on a freshly built engine!
 
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Reactions: Big Ben
which sunstrip did you get? i'm thinking i need this given how low my seats now are, but was worried about the wipers ruining it on the outside. wonder if any work well on the inside?

that said, my wipers don't seem that reliable atm and need recalibrating i think, lol.