R20 BTG - 200 Cup Track Car Blog
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R20BTG
Paid Member
Next up, camera installation. Nathan (@RSRowe ) is knocking out a few cool things on his 3D printer, so we'd exchanged a few messages. Here is the prototype 'Cup Racer GoPro Mount' designed specifically for my cage, with a bar diameter of 40mm and a diagonal angle of 46 degrees. We went back and forth via text with some measurements etc:
Prototype 1 looked like this:
Nathan wasn't happy with how it was coming out of the printer, so the design changed to a slightly bulkier mount that would be attached with some hose clamps.
Because I'm picky bastard I didn't like the idea of hose clamps, I preferred hidden bolts so Nathan rolled his eyes, bit his tongue and changed the design:
Here's the final product:
I had to order some M8 x 25mm Allen bolts as I didn't have any in stock. They arrived on Friday so on Saturday I had a go at fitting it, here's what it looks like just held in position:
After some contortionist skills in and out of the car, and some fine tuning of angles using the GoPro live preview, this is the view from the camera (GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition, using the 'medium' view setting). The mount was rock solid, no vibration at all, I'm really impressed.
I've had some thoughts on fine tuning V2 which I'll be chatting to Nathan about. I plan to run an external mic and hard wire in the power supply, so I might look to see if we can integrate some cable clips and slim the mount down a bit, but so far so good!
Contact @RSRowe or check out his page https://www.duct3d.co.uk/ for any custom work. I've already got some ideas in the pipeline about intercoms, remote GoPro wiring and additional camera mounts.
Prototype 1 looked like this:
Nathan wasn't happy with how it was coming out of the printer, so the design changed to a slightly bulkier mount that would be attached with some hose clamps.
Because I'm picky bastard I didn't like the idea of hose clamps, I preferred hidden bolts so Nathan rolled his eyes, bit his tongue and changed the design:
Here's the final product:
I had to order some M8 x 25mm Allen bolts as I didn't have any in stock. They arrived on Friday so on Saturday I had a go at fitting it, here's what it looks like just held in position:
After some contortionist skills in and out of the car, and some fine tuning of angles using the GoPro live preview, this is the view from the camera (GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition, using the 'medium' view setting). The mount was rock solid, no vibration at all, I'm really impressed.
I've had some thoughts on fine tuning V2 which I'll be chatting to Nathan about. I plan to run an external mic and hard wire in the power supply, so I might look to see if we can integrate some cable clips and slim the mount down a bit, but so far so good!
Contact @RSRowe or check out his page https://www.duct3d.co.uk/ for any custom work. I've already got some ideas in the pipeline about intercoms, remote GoPro wiring and additional camera mounts.
RSRowe
Paid Member
R20BTG
Paid Member
Not really a car update as it hasn't moved but we took the decision to postpone our family holiday (again!) to 2022. With a lack of clarity of green/amber/red lists, quarantine or no quarantine, test or no tests, status of fully vaccinated people (which we are), we didn't want to risk it. We're going camping in Cornwall instead, which frees me up for the 19th August. I've booked onto the Snetterton day and I'm looking forward to seeing all the Clios out on track in various states of tune, from road cars to supercharged track specials!
We had our kitchen re-done last year just before the first lockdown and I'd had a 2.5m length of oak worktop kicking around for ages. I was also getting annoyed at tripping over wheels and tyres in the garage so my brother-in-law and I went to the timber yard and got a load of 3 x 2 and turned the dumping ground of my garage into a workbench. I can now store the two sets of wheels out of the way under the bench and have a workspace to fiddle with stuff, rebuilt calipers, knock up wiring etc. The vice isn't bolted down yet, I need the right size bolts and washers. I might also put some organisers on the wall to keep nuts/bolts/washers/electrical connectors organised.
In reality it'll be somewhere else for my wife to store bags of unsorted washing, but I can hope.
Next outing hopefully 7th July evening slot at Donington. I'm meeting a mate there in his 182 race car and I'm hoping to get R20 BTG a slot if there's a cancellation.
We had our kitchen re-done last year just before the first lockdown and I'd had a 2.5m length of oak worktop kicking around for ages. I was also getting annoyed at tripping over wheels and tyres in the garage so my brother-in-law and I went to the timber yard and got a load of 3 x 2 and turned the dumping ground of my garage into a workbench. I can now store the two sets of wheels out of the way under the bench and have a workspace to fiddle with stuff, rebuilt calipers, knock up wiring etc. The vice isn't bolted down yet, I need the right size bolts and washers. I might also put some organisers on the wall to keep nuts/bolts/washers/electrical connectors organised.
In reality it'll be somewhere else for my wife to store bags of unsorted washing, but I can hope.
Next outing hopefully 7th July evening slot at Donington. I'm meeting a mate there in his 182 race car and I'm hoping to get R20 BTG a slot if there's a cancellation.
R20BTG
Paid Member
Having deleted AC, and with some summer track days coming up, I've taken the plunge and ordered a cup racer roof scoop from @Flacsi in Budapest.
I'm having it in carbon, naturally:
These are made to order so there is a few weeks lead time plus delivery. Just a waiting game now. Then I have to take some brave pills and measure 38 times and cut once before chopping a hole in my roof. I've got a template for the hole so I'll take my time.
I'm having it in carbon, naturally:
These are made to order so there is a few weeks lead time plus delivery. Just a waiting game now. Then I have to take some brave pills and measure 38 times and cut once before chopping a hole in my roof. I've got a template for the hole so I'll take my time.
R20BTG
Paid Member
I was looking at a couple of these vents:
Where do people take the drain tube to? Across the top of the windscreen and discharge where?
R20BTG
Paid Member
I managed to get a last minute cancellation slot for the 7th July evening slot at Donington. I haven't done an evening session before and I probably wouldn't have bothered except my good pal Matt had booked his 182 race car on the event and I wanted to go and play. I was dead happy when I got the email two days before the event saying there was a slot. I was on a teams call when the email arrived and ended up just pretending to listen to whatever was being said, nodding occasionally while I fumbled around with my wallet before I missed out. 
Matt has dropped some serious cash into this build, probably around £30k over a few years. It's basically running Pure Motorsport's entire catalogue of go faster bits. ITB's, exhaust, manifold, shifter, suspension set up etc. It's running over 200BHP. Built and looked after by Charles Gates Racing, he campaigned it in the Tricolore trophy in 2018 but has since just sat in his garage gathering dust. He's the guy I bought R20 BTG from at the beginning of this thread. It was a 'one last trackday before I either decide to use it more or sell it".
I took the afternoon off work and went to pick up the rental trailer, got home and strapped the car on, loaded some tools and tyres and headed to Donington:
It was dry when I set off, but I encountered a couple of big showers on the M1 down there. It was a sign of things to come. As usual the Disco 4 towed impeccably barely even noticing the trailer on the back. Wafted down with the AC blowing nice and cold as it was quite muggy.
Got there in good time, and offloaded the cars in the paddock. There were blue clouds above us but a dark and dense looking cloud lurked in the distance:
The sighting laps started dry, but by the end of them the rain had started and there was no letting up. I'd ambitiously packed the R888R's but decided to stick with the most 'wet' orientated tyre I currently have which are the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.
Thankfully by the time the daytime crew had packed up and left, there were a few garages left so we sought refuge together until the track opened properly after the sighting laps:
Then it was time to venture out and see how she faired. I ran the damper settings I used last time in the dry, just as a starting point. 17F, 15R, tyres set at 30psi cold. I ended up leaving everything like that for the rest of the evening because a) I couldn't be arsed crawling around on a wet floor to adjust dampers 2) they actually felt OK and D) I was having too much fun.
I'd describe the first session as 'damp':
The Cup 2s felt fine in the wet. Don't know why everyone bangs on about them being crap in the wet. Once warmed up they gripped well. Two sets of passengers both commented how surprised they were with the amount of wet weather grip.
Damp turned into wet, and wet turned into very wet as the rain kept hammering down:
I saw no reason to come in so just kept lapping and lapping, the car didn't miss a bit. Oil temps 10c cooler than the last dry day, rock solid at 90c.
Had a good ding dong with an E9X M3 (nothing in it), was passing the other Clios pretty easily. Had quite a few unexpected battles with E46 M3s, Porsche 944 (who spun twice) and a nice Z4M. Not sure what tyres they were all running but hunting them down and passing them wasn't too tricky. The only thing that really gapped me big time was a Impreza which was probably the ideal car for the conditions!
The conditions got worse:
There was a definite benefit from taking the wet line around the outside of Turn 1, I was able to drive around the outside of a few people there. The run down through Craner Curves was a bit sketchy in the wet. I'd never noticed it in the dry but there's quite a noticeable dip and change in camber just before the second kerb on the right which was pitching the rear of the car around. On a number of occasions I was having to correct a slide one way into the right hander before Craner Curves only to then have to correct in the other direction going through the left hander downhill. It's scary when it happens first time, but when you get used to it and you know it's coming, and you've built up the confidence in yourself and the car's behaviour it actually becomes enjoyable. It's exactly what I needed to 'bond' with the car in the wet, having only driven it in the dry. I'm really impressed with the way it handles and the way you can provoke the rear to come round. By the end of the evening, having to add a quarter of turn of lock to correct oversteer at the top end of 4th gear became second nature rather than a shit your pants moment.
I did have one MASSIVE moment later in the evening, again down through Craner Curves. Not sure what I was thinking but I got a bit cocky and thought to myself 'I wonder how far it will go if I don't correct this slide quickly', so I delayed my reaction by what felt like a second or two, then had an almighty panic when it went one way, then the other, and ended up with a tank slapper all the way down the hill to the Old Hairpin. It felt like an eternity, I remember thinking 'I'm gonna hit that wet grass, then pirouette right into the gravel trap and it's gonna be messy and I'll have to clean it all up' but rather than give up and slam on the brakes and accept my fate I carried on battling the tank slapper and eventually caught up with it after what felt like armfuls of lock one way and the other. God knows what the marshall must have thought. I'd love to have seen it on film.
After the heart rate spike, realising I'd recovered what was probably my biggest moment so far. I was punching the air and shouting in my helmet I FUCKING LOVE THIS CAR!
There was some kind of soccer ball match on, Team GB were playing another European team in some sort of playoff for the World Series, not sure. This was great because as all the other hooligans went off to drink Stella and sing songs about 'coming home' we basically had the track to ourselves. If there was ever a 'private track day' with me and my mate this was it. It was epic.
Eventually our time was up and we returned to the paddock to load up. Big smiles and fist bumps all round. I love the feeling that you get at the end of a track day when you and some mates have been battling, everyone is back in one piece and nothing has gone wrong. This is only improved by a cold beer and a steak from the Pistenklause, but that'll have to wait until next year.
Matt proclaimed that he's not going to sell the 182 as it's just too much fun, which I'm really glad about because I'm looking forward to doing more of this.
I stuck the netball on Radio 5 Live on the way home just to see what the fuss was about. Stopped for a cheeky Burger King at the services as I was starving:
Then enjoyed a nice clear run back up the M1 with hardly any traffic because of the football:
Bliss! Evening sessions are pretty good now I've sampled one!
Matt has dropped some serious cash into this build, probably around £30k over a few years. It's basically running Pure Motorsport's entire catalogue of go faster bits. ITB's, exhaust, manifold, shifter, suspension set up etc. It's running over 200BHP. Built and looked after by Charles Gates Racing, he campaigned it in the Tricolore trophy in 2018 but has since just sat in his garage gathering dust. He's the guy I bought R20 BTG from at the beginning of this thread. It was a 'one last trackday before I either decide to use it more or sell it".
I took the afternoon off work and went to pick up the rental trailer, got home and strapped the car on, loaded some tools and tyres and headed to Donington:
It was dry when I set off, but I encountered a couple of big showers on the M1 down there. It was a sign of things to come. As usual the Disco 4 towed impeccably barely even noticing the trailer on the back. Wafted down with the AC blowing nice and cold as it was quite muggy.
Got there in good time, and offloaded the cars in the paddock. There were blue clouds above us but a dark and dense looking cloud lurked in the distance:
The sighting laps started dry, but by the end of them the rain had started and there was no letting up. I'd ambitiously packed the R888R's but decided to stick with the most 'wet' orientated tyre I currently have which are the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.
Thankfully by the time the daytime crew had packed up and left, there were a few garages left so we sought refuge together until the track opened properly after the sighting laps:
Then it was time to venture out and see how she faired. I ran the damper settings I used last time in the dry, just as a starting point. 17F, 15R, tyres set at 30psi cold. I ended up leaving everything like that for the rest of the evening because a) I couldn't be arsed crawling around on a wet floor to adjust dampers 2) they actually felt OK and D) I was having too much fun.
I'd describe the first session as 'damp':
The Cup 2s felt fine in the wet. Don't know why everyone bangs on about them being crap in the wet. Once warmed up they gripped well. Two sets of passengers both commented how surprised they were with the amount of wet weather grip.
Damp turned into wet, and wet turned into very wet as the rain kept hammering down:
I saw no reason to come in so just kept lapping and lapping, the car didn't miss a bit. Oil temps 10c cooler than the last dry day, rock solid at 90c.
Had a good ding dong with an E9X M3 (nothing in it), was passing the other Clios pretty easily. Had quite a few unexpected battles with E46 M3s, Porsche 944 (who spun twice) and a nice Z4M. Not sure what tyres they were all running but hunting them down and passing them wasn't too tricky. The only thing that really gapped me big time was a Impreza which was probably the ideal car for the conditions!
The conditions got worse:
There was a definite benefit from taking the wet line around the outside of Turn 1, I was able to drive around the outside of a few people there. The run down through Craner Curves was a bit sketchy in the wet. I'd never noticed it in the dry but there's quite a noticeable dip and change in camber just before the second kerb on the right which was pitching the rear of the car around. On a number of occasions I was having to correct a slide one way into the right hander before Craner Curves only to then have to correct in the other direction going through the left hander downhill. It's scary when it happens first time, but when you get used to it and you know it's coming, and you've built up the confidence in yourself and the car's behaviour it actually becomes enjoyable. It's exactly what I needed to 'bond' with the car in the wet, having only driven it in the dry. I'm really impressed with the way it handles and the way you can provoke the rear to come round. By the end of the evening, having to add a quarter of turn of lock to correct oversteer at the top end of 4th gear became second nature rather than a shit your pants moment.
I did have one MASSIVE moment later in the evening, again down through Craner Curves. Not sure what I was thinking but I got a bit cocky and thought to myself 'I wonder how far it will go if I don't correct this slide quickly', so I delayed my reaction by what felt like a second or two, then had an almighty panic when it went one way, then the other, and ended up with a tank slapper all the way down the hill to the Old Hairpin. It felt like an eternity, I remember thinking 'I'm gonna hit that wet grass, then pirouette right into the gravel trap and it's gonna be messy and I'll have to clean it all up' but rather than give up and slam on the brakes and accept my fate I carried on battling the tank slapper and eventually caught up with it after what felt like armfuls of lock one way and the other. God knows what the marshall must have thought. I'd love to have seen it on film.
After the heart rate spike, realising I'd recovered what was probably my biggest moment so far. I was punching the air and shouting in my helmet I FUCKING LOVE THIS CAR!
There was some kind of soccer ball match on, Team GB were playing another European team in some sort of playoff for the World Series, not sure. This was great because as all the other hooligans went off to drink Stella and sing songs about 'coming home' we basically had the track to ourselves. If there was ever a 'private track day' with me and my mate this was it. It was epic.
Eventually our time was up and we returned to the paddock to load up. Big smiles and fist bumps all round. I love the feeling that you get at the end of a track day when you and some mates have been battling, everyone is back in one piece and nothing has gone wrong. This is only improved by a cold beer and a steak from the Pistenklause, but that'll have to wait until next year.
Matt proclaimed that he's not going to sell the 182 as it's just too much fun, which I'm really glad about because I'm looking forward to doing more of this.
I stuck the netball on Radio 5 Live on the way home just to see what the fuss was about. Stopped for a cheeky Burger King at the services as I was starving:
Then enjoyed a nice clear run back up the M1 with hardly any traffic because of the football:
Bliss! Evening sessions are pretty good now I've sampled one!
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Glad you enjoyed Donington in the wet - sounds like you had much more fun than I did last year on a wet day! Really didn’t enjoy it, car felt unpredictable and I was being pushed into Craners by stuff on Dunlop wets which was uncomfortable and meant I couldn’t really build up to doing the sort of stuff you mentioned!
Just to rub it in I think my Nurburgring trip is going ahead now in September..!
In all seriousness, car is looking brilliant and it’s nice to see you’re fully enjoying it for what it is.
Just to rub it in I think my Nurburgring trip is going ahead now in September..!
In all seriousness, car is looking brilliant and it’s nice to see you’re fully enjoying it for what it is.
R20BTG
Paid Member
When giving it a post-trackday wash earlier I realised I never posted pictures of the Pure Motorsport engine mounts fitted:
They're lovely bits of kit as you'd expect. The upper engine mount is so stiff in all directions you can do away with the upper torque mount entirely. In terms of NVH, it is significantly increased over the previous Powerflex bushes. I now have a very buzzy cabin, the vibrations are transferred through the shell, through the seat mounts and into the seats and pedals. Cold starts are sometimes wince-inducing but it settles down once warm. There's no way I'd recommend these to a road going Clio that is driven regularly, my car was loud inside anyway with no sound deadening or insulation and fully stripped out, these just push it even more extreme such that even conversation becomes difficult. You've got no chance on track unless you're shouting.
For an out and out track car, they seem to be doing the job nicely.
They're lovely bits of kit as you'd expect. The upper engine mount is so stiff in all directions you can do away with the upper torque mount entirely. In terms of NVH, it is significantly increased over the previous Powerflex bushes. I now have a very buzzy cabin, the vibrations are transferred through the shell, through the seat mounts and into the seats and pedals. Cold starts are sometimes wince-inducing but it settles down once warm. There's no way I'd recommend these to a road going Clio that is driven regularly, my car was loud inside anyway with no sound deadening or insulation and fully stripped out, these just push it even more extreme such that even conversation becomes difficult. You've got no chance on track unless you're shouting.
For an out and out track car, they seem to be doing the job nicely.
RSRowe
Paid Member
R20BTG
Paid Member
Overdue blog from 28th July @ Donington. Yes other tracks are available, but it's my closest and easiest to get to. I'm gonna give it a miss for a while and drive on other tracks for a bit, getting a bit bored.
In summary, not my finest day. Read on....
Went to collect the rental trailer the day before, summer holidays are here so took my lad to the trailer place and he had a good look around:
Got home and later in the evening started loading the car up, of course it started pissing down with rain and I got soaked. British summer eh.
Got there no dramas, it was dry so decided to put the slicks on after the sighting laps. I think there had already been a red flag at this point. I was about to cause the second.
Lap 3, 4th gear I had a massive rear end snap at the Old Hairpin and entered the gravel sideways at high speed. Happened so quickly I barely remember what happened or whether I had time to react. I was beached good and proper and caused the second red flag of the day.
I got pulled out by the marshalls (after apologising profusely for being a twat). They were cool, I think the guy laughed and said that's what we're here for, it won't be the last one of the day.
I endured the tow truck ride of shame all the way down the pit lane while everyone looked up at who had caused the stoppage.
Felt like this:
Anyway, back to the paddock to lick my wounds, check the car and work out WTF happened. Took me 2 hours to get all the gravel out from underneath the car:
Because I entered the gravel sideways (and was lucky not to roll), the force had jammed a load of pebbles between the edge of the rim and the tyre bead. Rather than faff around and risk damaging the wheels further I took off the slicks and spent the rest of the day on the R888R.
A guy came over to me in the paddock and said 'I think I might have that on video, I was on my cool down lap when you came past me before Craner Curves'. We swapped details and a few days later he dropped me a line with the footage. This was filmed from a Honda S2000 on his cool down lap:
www.dropbox.com
My analysis... My normal turn in point at Craner Curves is the second kerb on the right. You can see the S2000 is right at this point as I pass him at 0:24. I'm then a full car's width over to the left compared to where I should be. I manage to take the left hander of Craner flat in 5th but because my entry wasn't the usual line, I carve a wider arc to the right than I should have done. I think this does two things, it means my entry to the Old Hairpin is also compromised (I should be further over to the left under braking and down shift) which then means I got my reference points wrong and I turn in too fast at too acute and angle. The front end felt OK, after three laps the fronts were turned on and gave me some good turn in, but I think the rears weren't warm enough at this point. The S2000 driver did say that he thought there may have been coolant down there from the earlier red flag, but I think that was more of an ego-saving suggestion. I think driver error.
I'm too far into the distance on the footage to make it out clearly, but I remember a slight slide one way (rear end sliding left on turn in) which I must have tried to correct, but then followed by a big snap right which I clearly didn't manage to catch. The car almost does a full 180 as I spin into the gravel at high speed. The gravel did its job by slowing me down and I didn't make it across to the barrier (thankfully). There was a split second where I thought it was going to roll over, but it didn't.
No real damage, I've chipped the windscreen where a pebble flew up. I've got a bit of gravel rash on the side skirt and what was left of the front left arch liner was damaged beyond saving, so I've ripped that out and now going arch liner-less. A pebble got trapped between the caliper and disc and scored the disc all the way round:
I made the decision that this was driveable for the rest of the day, but I replaced them a few days later anyway.
The spin knocked my confidence a bit, and I didn't enjoy the session before lunch after I'd cleaned the car up. I was conscious of it happening again so only did a handful of laps before lunch in case there was a mechanical issue I'd missed. The car felt OK, but I wasn't firing on all cylinders so took an early lunch in the canteen.
I munched on my lunch and peered out of the window and contemplated throwing my toys out of the pram and going home. Then I had a word with myself and decided to go and have a chin wag with Alex (Instagram @howe_s1) who I'd been chatting on Instagram with. He was in a garage on his own and it was really nice to meet him. After the chat we strapped up and went out together for a session. Him chasing me, me chasing him, carving through the field together. It was great, and I felt I could really trust him in close proximity, I really enjoyed it. His 197 is lovely and well set up. I reckon he was a bit quicker than me over a lap but we managed to stay together for a while. The cars were pretty evenly matched most of the time. It helped my mood no end!
Around 3.30pm is where the RS4 shenanigans started (pasted from another thread):
There was some crazy bastard in an RS4 that got black flagged, came in for a chat, told the marshals to fuck off then went back out again. He ignored the black flags and just stayed out. They red flagged the session and all cars came in apart from him and he stayed out lapping on his own just ignoring the marshals. Apparently the marshals were in the process of getting the recovery truck parked across the track to block him. He then came off the track and left the venue. Madness.
I went for one last session just as this was unfolding and ended up sitting in a queue in the pit lane under red flag conditions. It didn't show signs of moving so I called it a day and drove back to the trailer. I wasn't really feeling another session, it felt like one of those 'just one more session' instances that ends up in an incident, so I decided not to bother and quit while I was ahead. I'd already survived a mild scare, no point in tempting fate with another one. I started packing up about 4pm.
Chucked the car in the garage to be dealt with later, wasn't in the mood for it. Had dinner with the wife and kids and just chilled with the dog who lifted my mood.
In summary, not my finest day. Read on....
Went to collect the rental trailer the day before, summer holidays are here so took my lad to the trailer place and he had a good look around:
Got home and later in the evening started loading the car up, of course it started pissing down with rain and I got soaked. British summer eh.
Got there no dramas, it was dry so decided to put the slicks on after the sighting laps. I think there had already been a red flag at this point. I was about to cause the second.
Lap 3, 4th gear I had a massive rear end snap at the Old Hairpin and entered the gravel sideways at high speed. Happened so quickly I barely remember what happened or whether I had time to react. I was beached good and proper and caused the second red flag of the day.
I got pulled out by the marshalls (after apologising profusely for being a twat). They were cool, I think the guy laughed and said that's what we're here for, it won't be the last one of the day.
I endured the tow truck ride of shame all the way down the pit lane while everyone looked up at who had caused the stoppage.
Felt like this:
Anyway, back to the paddock to lick my wounds, check the car and work out WTF happened. Took me 2 hours to get all the gravel out from underneath the car:
Because I entered the gravel sideways (and was lucky not to roll), the force had jammed a load of pebbles between the edge of the rim and the tyre bead. Rather than faff around and risk damaging the wheels further I took off the slicks and spent the rest of the day on the R888R.
A guy came over to me in the paddock and said 'I think I might have that on video, I was on my cool down lap when you came past me before Craner Curves'. We swapped details and a few days later he dropped me a line with the footage. This was filmed from a Honda S2000 on his cool down lap:
Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life
My analysis... My normal turn in point at Craner Curves is the second kerb on the right. You can see the S2000 is right at this point as I pass him at 0:24. I'm then a full car's width over to the left compared to where I should be. I manage to take the left hander of Craner flat in 5th but because my entry wasn't the usual line, I carve a wider arc to the right than I should have done. I think this does two things, it means my entry to the Old Hairpin is also compromised (I should be further over to the left under braking and down shift) which then means I got my reference points wrong and I turn in too fast at too acute and angle. The front end felt OK, after three laps the fronts were turned on and gave me some good turn in, but I think the rears weren't warm enough at this point. The S2000 driver did say that he thought there may have been coolant down there from the earlier red flag, but I think that was more of an ego-saving suggestion. I think driver error.
I'm too far into the distance on the footage to make it out clearly, but I remember a slight slide one way (rear end sliding left on turn in) which I must have tried to correct, but then followed by a big snap right which I clearly didn't manage to catch. The car almost does a full 180 as I spin into the gravel at high speed. The gravel did its job by slowing me down and I didn't make it across to the barrier (thankfully). There was a split second where I thought it was going to roll over, but it didn't.
No real damage, I've chipped the windscreen where a pebble flew up. I've got a bit of gravel rash on the side skirt and what was left of the front left arch liner was damaged beyond saving, so I've ripped that out and now going arch liner-less. A pebble got trapped between the caliper and disc and scored the disc all the way round:
I made the decision that this was driveable for the rest of the day, but I replaced them a few days later anyway.
The spin knocked my confidence a bit, and I didn't enjoy the session before lunch after I'd cleaned the car up. I was conscious of it happening again so only did a handful of laps before lunch in case there was a mechanical issue I'd missed. The car felt OK, but I wasn't firing on all cylinders so took an early lunch in the canteen.
I munched on my lunch and peered out of the window and contemplated throwing my toys out of the pram and going home. Then I had a word with myself and decided to go and have a chin wag with Alex (Instagram @howe_s1) who I'd been chatting on Instagram with. He was in a garage on his own and it was really nice to meet him. After the chat we strapped up and went out together for a session. Him chasing me, me chasing him, carving through the field together. It was great, and I felt I could really trust him in close proximity, I really enjoyed it. His 197 is lovely and well set up. I reckon he was a bit quicker than me over a lap but we managed to stay together for a while. The cars were pretty evenly matched most of the time. It helped my mood no end!
Around 3.30pm is where the RS4 shenanigans started (pasted from another thread):
There was some crazy bastard in an RS4 that got black flagged, came in for a chat, told the marshals to fuck off then went back out again. He ignored the black flags and just stayed out. They red flagged the session and all cars came in apart from him and he stayed out lapping on his own just ignoring the marshals. Apparently the marshals were in the process of getting the recovery truck parked across the track to block him. He then came off the track and left the venue. Madness.
I went for one last session just as this was unfolding and ended up sitting in a queue in the pit lane under red flag conditions. It didn't show signs of moving so I called it a day and drove back to the trailer. I wasn't really feeling another session, it felt like one of those 'just one more session' instances that ends up in an incident, so I decided not to bother and quit while I was ahead. I'd already survived a mild scare, no point in tempting fate with another one. I started packing up about 4pm.
Chucked the car in the garage to be dealt with later, wasn't in the mood for it. Had dinner with the wife and kids and just chilled with the dog who lifted my mood.
@IainMac Seen similar at Donnington yesterday. I would tend to agree unfortunately the S2000 was exactly where you needed to be for the start of craner curves and then it compromised you for old hairpin. Plenty of red flags yesterday. The gravel traps seemed popular all around the track.
I have enjoyed reading your build thread and your updates.
I have enjoyed reading your build thread and your updates.
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