First Track Day at Blyton Park

[bigsid]

Hi all,

I got my 197 Cup out on its first track day at Blyton on Sunday. It's also the first time I've been to Blyton and the first time I've done a track day in my own car, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Had a good time and although I felt like I was slow compared to a lot of the stuff there, I did manage to overtake a few other cars so I'm calling it a success

These are probably really difficult questions to answer, but I'm going to ask them anyway just to see what other peoples experiences are. I ended up heading home about 3PM because I was starting to get paranoid that something was up with the car. There are two corners about two thirds of the way round; Bishops, a 90 degree left, and Bunga Bunda, another left that tightens into almost a hairpin. Under hard braking coming into both of these corners I was starting to hear a kind of rumbling, droning noise coming from the front passenger side wheel.

There wasn't any noticable vibration in the steering wheel and if I braked earlier and softer it didn't seem to happen. I couldn't work out if it was the track surface or something else, but I didn't seem to notice it happening on any other bend. Its really hard to pin point when your head is stuffed into a helmet, but I started noticing it before lunch. I took the wheel off back in the paddock and couldn't see anything obviously wrong.

At lunch time I drove into Gainsborough about 5 miles away to fill up with fuel and on that drive everything seemed fine at normal speeds. Came back, went out a couple more times but it kept happening and I was getting more and more worried something was about to break, and as I had an 80 mile trip home I decided to play it safe and call it a day.

Car seemed fine too on the drive home. Anyone else experienced anything like that and figured out what it could be down to? Maybe I was just being over cautious.

Cheers

 

[Beany]

Could always get the tracking checking..

Blyton is hard on brakes and tyres.. was it during any point that you started getting vibrations? Braking, entering, mid corner, exit??

 

[bigsid]

Could always get the tracking checking..

Blyton is hard on brakes and tyres.. was it during any point that you started getting vibrations? Braking, entering, mid corner, exit??

Hi Beany, as soon as I went on the brakes hard. When I let off and turned in it stopped, but like I said only seemed to happen on those two corners in particular.

 

[Liam Gunby]

Blyton is hard on brakes and tyres been there done that, if you have original brakes possible warping..... as stupid as it sounds checking wheels are done up to correct torque. Iv had wheels come loose before on track.
Or it could just be a build up off brake dust causing pads to stick a bit... in all cases I would strip the front brakes down and clean them up

 

[bigsid]

Thanks chaps. I checked the wheel nuts a number of times with a torque wrench and made sure they were at 140Nm. I'm wondering if the one disc has gotten ever so slightly warped. I'm going to strip it down at the weekend and see if I can figure it out. I might try swapping the discs over to see if I can recreate the problem on the drivers side, at least then I'll have narrowed it down.

 

[Bunta]

What pads are you using mate? Could be uneven build up of material on the disc

 

[bigsid]

What pads are you using mate? Could be uneven build up of material on the disc

Hi Bunta, they're the ones that were fitted when I bought the car, I think they're Brembo. They had/have plenty of meat left on them so I haven't replaced them yet. I'm also not sure what discs are on there. I've not see any like them for sale on the usual sites. Both front and back are straight grooved and drilled. Fronts are vented, rears are solid.

 

[Big Ben]

After a while you get used to unusual noises and the panic wears off or you drive round them
I’ve had similar and thought it was a bearing but never got to the bottom of it and it went away. Car is under enormous stress doing trackdays compared to even the most spirited road driving so likely to sound/feel different to before.
Hope it doesn’t put you off

 

[bigsid]

After a while you get used to unusual noises and the panic wears off or you drive round them
I’ve had similar and thought it was a bearing but never got to the bottom of it and it went away. Car is under enormous stress doing trackdays compared to even the most spirited road driving so likely to sound/feel different to before.
Hope it doesn’t put you off

Nope, not put me off... although I do now have a credit card bill which includes inner tie rods, wheel bearings, brake discs, rear shock absorbers etc. etc.

 

[Bunta]

Suprised you didn't cook them at blyton if there the brembo oe spec pads, they might be part of the problem but like big ben says, it seems quite common to get noises like your describing which just seem to go away on there own