burrellbloke
Paid Member
We went to Snetterton on Saturday for our first track day of 2025. It was a cheap £119 day run by MSV, in fact it was so cheap we took the Clio and @EthanMenace's Megane 250. Just for a bit of context his Megane is a 2010 model with a cup chassis and OEM LSD. It is mapped to about 300 bhp. It is on standard suspension with about 1 degree of negative camber at the front.
We got very lucky with the weather. Earlier in the week the forecast was thick fog and freezing temperatures, but it was a clear, dry day. It was cold but not subzero. The day was advertised as 9am until the light faded. What that really meant was 9am to just after 4pm.
After arriving about 8am and filing both cars at the nearby Esso petrol station with fuel we headed to the garage and started to set up the cars and swap road tyres for track tyres. Between trying to sort out the wheels, getting sound tested, doing an in person briefing and having breakfast we missed the usual sighting laps.
I spent most of the day in the Ciio, and Ethan spent most of the day driving his Megane.
The first session was interesting as we decided to take off the 25mm spacers on the back of the car. I don't think that we have ever done a track day without spacers on the rear wheels. The rear of the car initially felt really skittish, but after a while the extra rotation in the rear made the car better to drive. By the end of the day I was enjoying the extra movement at the back of the car as it made it more nimble getting round corners.
As the morning went on it became clear that the third gear synchro had had enough and was starting to crunch. Even when I was trying to change gear and was being patient with the clutch depressed and slowly moving it in to gear it was still crunching. It was only third gear that had a problem. Despite the gearbox issue I thought sod it and kept ramming it in to gear.
The track day was surprisingly busy and looked like it was full. There was a wide range of machinery being used from Porsches down to the usual Renaults. There was only one other 197/200. Just before lunch that had an accident and lost its front end. Most cars turned up on trailers and some teams were clearly using the track day as some winter practice. Track etiquette was okay apart from a few cars that just refused to let the Clio past.
Ethan jumped in the Clio just before lunch for a 40 minute session and set a lap time of 2m 23s. That was about the same lap time he had managed in his Megane. The session was red flagged when a KA looked like it had bounced over a sausage curb at Coram and rolled over on to it's side.
After lunch I took out the Megane and Ethan took out the Clio. Whilst it was very nice to have a car with turbo power and a higher top speed down the back straight (by 10 mph) but it did feel heavier and less nimble through most corners. I was probably driving the Megane a bit cautiously as I did not want to be responsible for any damage caused to it.
In the afternoon Ethan had another stint in the Clio and set a respectable lap time of 2m 18.3s.
My best effort for the day was a 2m 26s. Slow and steady. I did have a good session in the afternoon with a GT86 and an EP3. I will have a look at the video we captured and see if was actually as good as I remember.
As the sunlight faded the track day came to an end. We packed up the cars and had a look at the RaceBox data and compared laps from the Megane and the Clio. When Ethan was driving his best lap in the Megane was 2m 23s compared to the faster time in the Clio. The Megane is more powerful but it is just not set up for track work and does not have the same breaking power as the Clio.
We will need to get the gearbox refurbished again as the car was still crunching on the way home when it was being being driven carefully on the road. I do not think that an oil change is going to solve the problem. We have a "medium" Gripper in the car and may go for a more aggressive set of plates/ramps of whatever they are called when it is refurbished.
The journey with the CANchecked display is still progressing nicely. If you watch the YouTube video of Ethan's hot lap you will see that I have been able to extract some data that has been logged about temperatures, pressures and the gear that the car is using. We did have the TPMS sensors in the track wheels on Saturday but I have clearly not configured the sensors correctly as they were providing wild readings. I need to do some more research on the TPMS sensors.
It was good to do a track day as our last outing was in September 2024. The next track day that we have booked in Donington Park on 28th February 2025. We are doing the GP layout for the first time. Hopefully we will be able to sort out the gearbox by then.
We got very lucky with the weather. Earlier in the week the forecast was thick fog and freezing temperatures, but it was a clear, dry day. It was cold but not subzero. The day was advertised as 9am until the light faded. What that really meant was 9am to just after 4pm.
After arriving about 8am and filing both cars at the nearby Esso petrol station with fuel we headed to the garage and started to set up the cars and swap road tyres for track tyres. Between trying to sort out the wheels, getting sound tested, doing an in person briefing and having breakfast we missed the usual sighting laps.
I spent most of the day in the Ciio, and Ethan spent most of the day driving his Megane.
The first session was interesting as we decided to take off the 25mm spacers on the back of the car. I don't think that we have ever done a track day without spacers on the rear wheels. The rear of the car initially felt really skittish, but after a while the extra rotation in the rear made the car better to drive. By the end of the day I was enjoying the extra movement at the back of the car as it made it more nimble getting round corners.
As the morning went on it became clear that the third gear synchro had had enough and was starting to crunch. Even when I was trying to change gear and was being patient with the clutch depressed and slowly moving it in to gear it was still crunching. It was only third gear that had a problem. Despite the gearbox issue I thought sod it and kept ramming it in to gear.
The track day was surprisingly busy and looked like it was full. There was a wide range of machinery being used from Porsches down to the usual Renaults. There was only one other 197/200. Just before lunch that had an accident and lost its front end. Most cars turned up on trailers and some teams were clearly using the track day as some winter practice. Track etiquette was okay apart from a few cars that just refused to let the Clio past.
Ethan jumped in the Clio just before lunch for a 40 minute session and set a lap time of 2m 23s. That was about the same lap time he had managed in his Megane. The session was red flagged when a KA looked like it had bounced over a sausage curb at Coram and rolled over on to it's side.
After lunch I took out the Megane and Ethan took out the Clio. Whilst it was very nice to have a car with turbo power and a higher top speed down the back straight (by 10 mph) but it did feel heavier and less nimble through most corners. I was probably driving the Megane a bit cautiously as I did not want to be responsible for any damage caused to it.
In the afternoon Ethan had another stint in the Clio and set a respectable lap time of 2m 18.3s.
My best effort for the day was a 2m 26s. Slow and steady. I did have a good session in the afternoon with a GT86 and an EP3. I will have a look at the video we captured and see if was actually as good as I remember.
As the sunlight faded the track day came to an end. We packed up the cars and had a look at the RaceBox data and compared laps from the Megane and the Clio. When Ethan was driving his best lap in the Megane was 2m 23s compared to the faster time in the Clio. The Megane is more powerful but it is just not set up for track work and does not have the same breaking power as the Clio.
We will need to get the gearbox refurbished again as the car was still crunching on the way home when it was being being driven carefully on the road. I do not think that an oil change is going to solve the problem. We have a "medium" Gripper in the car and may go for a more aggressive set of plates/ramps of whatever they are called when it is refurbished.
The journey with the CANchecked display is still progressing nicely. If you watch the YouTube video of Ethan's hot lap you will see that I have been able to extract some data that has been logged about temperatures, pressures and the gear that the car is using. We did have the TPMS sensors in the track wheels on Saturday but I have clearly not configured the sensors correctly as they were providing wild readings. I need to do some more research on the TPMS sensors.
It was good to do a track day as our last outing was in September 2024. The next track day that we have booked in Donington Park on 28th February 2025. We are doing the GP layout for the first time. Hopefully we will be able to sort out the gearbox by then.
