We went to Oulton Park on for a Javelin track day on Tuesday 19th September 2023.
Oulton Park is a 3 hour and 30 minute journey from home so we set off on Monday afternoon and stayed overnight at a nearby Premier Inn. The car was a pleasure to drive with the internal electrics working. The radio and cruise control were very nice to have for the journey. The internal light was also very useful in the fading light. We met up with
@Helpimonfire for some dinner on Monday night.
I had been checking the weather the week before the track day as the forecast looked like it was going to be very wet. Apart from a damp track day at Brands Hatch earlier this year every other track day I had done had been mostly dry. On Tuesday morning we got up and it was raining, the ground was wet, and the forecast was more rain with a heavy downpour due to arrive at lunchtime.
We got to the track and left the Speedlines on PS4 tyres rather than putting on the Ultraleggeras with semi slick MRF ZTEs. It was good to meet up with some familiar faces including
@Helpimonfire,
@jimmybell,
@PITA,
@RSRowe and the Baguettes. We did the sighting laps and thought that we would keep the road tyres on for a few sessions in the hope that the track would dry out, but a lot of people ran semi slicks so we changed to the MRF's for the first session. At the time of the sighting laps the rain had stopped.
The organisers said that there were 80 cars booked on to the track day. There were a good amount of Clio 197s and 200s there, a few 182s, quite a few Porsche variants, a single BMW e46 M3, lots of Caterfields, and a smattering of other cars. For some bizarre reason even though we had a garage we were unable to go out on track via the pit lane - we had to go via the assembly area. This might be a quirk for Oulton Park?
@EthanMenace did the first session. Neither of us had been to Oulton Park before and the track looked immense from the passenger seat with it's changes in elevation and the banked corner at Shell Oils Corner. The track also looked very technical in that you could not just put your foot down and point the Clio in the right direction like you do at somewhere like Snetterton. The track was technical with multiple apexes on some parts of the circuit. The track was made more difficult due to the rain and the greasy surface. Ethan did a respectable 2m 31s in his first session.
I went out for my first session and quite literally tip toed road the circuit. I had not driven the circuit before and had only done a few laps of Oulton Park on Project Cars 3 on my Xbox. I was being super cautious due to the damp conditions. I did a few laps and spent most of my time looking in the rear view mirror and letting faster drivers come past. My first session was cut short due to a red flag. My best lap time from the first session was a painfully slow 2m 42s.
As the morning went on the rain came back when it started spitting but the track stayed moist but did not have standing water on it. There were many greasy spots on the track particularly at Knickerbrook which resulted in a routine slide on at least each session.
Ethan did the third session and improved on his times. The track looking was getting drier with constant use. I did a second session just before 12 noon. At this stage the weather was getting worse. Although I improved on my very slow times I found it difficult to have more confidence as the rain was falling. Although I was getting faster I kept lifting off the throttle after exiting a corner and before the braking zone of the next corner as my brain kept telling me I could not get round the track faster than I was already going.
A red flag caused an early lunch. At this stage I wanted the track to dry out and Ethan was looking forward to some wet sessions. The predicted downpour came at lunchtime leaving a wet track with areas of standing water for the afternoon. This is the weather as we drove over to the restaurant to get some lunch and avoid the rain.
After getting some food and returning the the garages I met
@Tarticmonkey - it is always good to put a face to a username.
We thought about changing the wheels back to the PS4s after lunch but just decided to stick with the MRFs. We both did more sessions in the afternoon. The MRFs coped perfectly well wit the moist conditions. I was making small improvements and Ethan was making big improvements.
Halfway through the afternoon we ran low on fuel. As Oulton Park is not a "power' circuit we were using less fuel than usual. Helpfully
@RSRowe sold me some fuel that he was not using as he had run out of brake pads and had already put his Megane back on his trailer. This saved me from driving off to a petrol station or waiting 40 minutes for the on site fuel station to re-open.
As usual my best session was my last session of the day. I went out about 4.15pm and did 5 or 6 laps when there was a dry line appearing on the track and dry areas in most of the corner exits. A drier track was a game changer for me. The car had grip and that gave me confidence to push harder. The exit from Shell Oils Corner was excellent in the dry as you could power out of it rather than feather the throttle to get to a point where the wheels would grip but enough without spinning. Although my best lap time for the day was still a very slow 2m 26s I had improved. Having put together some consistent laps I decided to let Ethan have some flying laps to see what the car was capable of with its new stiffened rear beam and additional front camber.
This is Ethan's best lap of the day, a 2m 09s lap:
I think that we managed to record every session on the GoPros so will look to see if there is any decent footage. I have noticed that the spot meter on the front GoPro wasn't set correctly so some of the front footage is a bit washed out. The rear footage is likely to be useless as a lot of it looks like this:
When I was able to push the car in the drier conditions the rear of the car just seemed to follow the front. When it skipped over a kerb at chicane it felt predictable in the way it moved. I think that the stiffer rear beam has made the car better but I need more seat time to give some real feedback. On the journey home Ethan certainly felt that the rear beam was a big improvement. The additional front camber made the car turn it sharper.
When I went to Cadwell Park earlier in the year I left there feeling like I had unfinished business there. I had the same feeling when I left Oulton Park. I know that with more laps I would have produced some better laps, and, ultimately driven faster with more confidence. I have said it may times in this thread that the car is more capable than I give it credit for. Oulton Park is definitely a circuit I would go back to.
I don't think that we will do another track day this year. We have nothing booked. The Clio fund is empty at the moment so we need to save for our future plans. The car needs an oil change and a coolant flush. The DS1.11s have worked well this year but they may need replacing soon. The car needs to be MOT'd in November so it will need two rear tyres as the existing rear PS4s are now well worn. Ethan wants to install an oil temperature sensor and gauge, and, possibly an oil cooler. Ethan's plan is to make sure the engine runs as well as it can do and perhaps an oil cooler will help even if it is not entirely necessary?
With plans to go to the Nurburgring and put on a Cup Racer front end next year it could be an expensive 2024.
