bernmc
28-08-2006, 09:15 AM
Well, you bunch of big girl's blouses missed a great day. Such a pity there weren't any VR4's there - I'd have like to see how they performed, and maybe grabbed a ride....
My wife and I went down the night before - bit of a scrabble as I only got home from work after 6pm. 150 miles down to sheepland (Yay - :smitten:).
We'd intended to spend Saturday night in Wales too, but sadly Rip-Off-Britain has filtered through to the valleys. 95 quid for a tacky hotel room (The Bear Hotel, Cowbridge), and we still had to share the bed with a beetle :o! We packed our bags and checked out Saturday morning.
Not an auspicious start :speechles .
Llandow is quite a small circuit - just under a mile long. This means it's perfect for track-day virgins like the wife & I - you never get up to silly speeds. I never got higher than 4th gear all day (Z will do 125mph in 4th, with two gears still to go)..
Very friendly, relaxed bunch of marshals too - whole emphasis is on having fun safely.
We were split into three groups for the morning session - novice, intermediate and advanced. We were both novices, which meant we had to share the track time during the 15 minute sessions. We split the first one, then did one whole session each - total of three sessions in the morning, which is not bad. Marshals kept things running smoothly, so no time wasted.
There's always a plonka or two isn't there... 1st session out - supposed to be finding our feet, all novices, and a bloke in a dark blue skyline spins it! Recovers, and comes blasting up behind us - I let him through as quickly as I could - my policy is to stay well away from blokes like that (on the road too). Half a lap later, and I passed him again - he'd spotted a patch of daisies on the infield that he wanted to take a close look at :thinking: :)!
My wife was very anxious. Used to have a 2l Hyundai Coupe, never been near a track before... so a big step for her. Started off the day saying things like 'oooh, you're making the tyres squeal' and ended up with 'why won't these buggers get out of my way???!!!' (They’re men darling - their egos wouldn't survive if they let you by!)
My second morning session out, and I was getting into the swing of things... the Z is absolutely fantastic on track. When I saw the list of cars attending the day, I thought we'd be Skyline fodder. No way! Was blatting along behind another blue skyline (R33 turbo I think) (cue jaws music), and gaining on him in the twisties when...tadaaaaa, he spins off. Ho-hum! He disappeared into the pits briefly to lick his wounds, but rejoined again.. right behind me sadly.
I got stuck behind a carefully driven Ultima (new toy I think) and was waiting for the straight to overtake like a good boy. That big blue skyline bobbing about all over my 4rse again - so I stayed behind the ultima and let him through, then overtook the ultima. Back into the twisty bit, and the Z is gaining on the skyline rapidly again when... can you guess what happened next...?
Twirly twirly twirly spinning blue skyline :thinking: . My 'oops, ha ha, you silly fool' turned rapidly into 'oh f@#$ you poor bugger' as his spin took him straight into the barrier! Smashed rear quarter, crumpled front bumper, bent the bonnet and re-routed his intercooler piping! My wife had some less complimentary thjings to say about his driving ;). Sad thing is he was going to be trading his car in with Hyeline for an R34… guess not eh.
Afternoon was open pit – max 10 cars on track at any time, but there was never any waiting. Very good for us newbies again – we could choose times when the track was relatively empty.
Had some great fun with a roll-caged Renault 5 turbo which was very quick in the twisty bits.
Fastest drivers on the day were two EVO VIII FQ 300’s – a sliver one and a black one. Silver chap turned up with a white van full of tyres, and half a dozen chavs and hoodies as a pit crew. Seemed to think he should be the fastest chap on track, and couldn’t accept that the other guy, who was much smoother, was faster. Nice to watch them going at it though. Silver boy eventually spun off and damaged his car despite being black-flagged earlier in the day.
We had a great time, and the Z never frightened us once. I'd fitted Ferodo DS2500’s and changed the brake fluid to RBF600 earlier in the week (funnily enough, the rear pads are exactly the same as the EVO brembo pads). Never had even the slightest brake fade. Only stopped by the tyres getting too hot and squishy – should have been running higher pressures I think.
All the niggly worries I’ve had with the Z on the road disappeared on track – I’ve found it quite difficult to drive smoothly. Brakes with OEM brembo pads frightened me a couple of times. Heel & toeing difficult to do smoothly. All perfect on tack – the car is made for it! Start driving hard and everything just works!
Plonka that I am, I forgot to take my camera /Grrr so I don't have any pics yet. I've asked a chap who was snapping away to email me copies of his photos, so I'll put them up if they're any good.
My wife and I went down the night before - bit of a scrabble as I only got home from work after 6pm. 150 miles down to sheepland (Yay - :smitten:).
We'd intended to spend Saturday night in Wales too, but sadly Rip-Off-Britain has filtered through to the valleys. 95 quid for a tacky hotel room (The Bear Hotel, Cowbridge), and we still had to share the bed with a beetle :o! We packed our bags and checked out Saturday morning.
Not an auspicious start :speechles .
Llandow is quite a small circuit - just under a mile long. This means it's perfect for track-day virgins like the wife & I - you never get up to silly speeds. I never got higher than 4th gear all day (Z will do 125mph in 4th, with two gears still to go)..
Very friendly, relaxed bunch of marshals too - whole emphasis is on having fun safely.
We were split into three groups for the morning session - novice, intermediate and advanced. We were both novices, which meant we had to share the track time during the 15 minute sessions. We split the first one, then did one whole session each - total of three sessions in the morning, which is not bad. Marshals kept things running smoothly, so no time wasted.
There's always a plonka or two isn't there... 1st session out - supposed to be finding our feet, all novices, and a bloke in a dark blue skyline spins it! Recovers, and comes blasting up behind us - I let him through as quickly as I could - my policy is to stay well away from blokes like that (on the road too). Half a lap later, and I passed him again - he'd spotted a patch of daisies on the infield that he wanted to take a close look at :thinking: :)!
My wife was very anxious. Used to have a 2l Hyundai Coupe, never been near a track before... so a big step for her. Started off the day saying things like 'oooh, you're making the tyres squeal' and ended up with 'why won't these buggers get out of my way???!!!' (They’re men darling - their egos wouldn't survive if they let you by!)
My second morning session out, and I was getting into the swing of things... the Z is absolutely fantastic on track. When I saw the list of cars attending the day, I thought we'd be Skyline fodder. No way! Was blatting along behind another blue skyline (R33 turbo I think) (cue jaws music), and gaining on him in the twisties when...tadaaaaa, he spins off. Ho-hum! He disappeared into the pits briefly to lick his wounds, but rejoined again.. right behind me sadly.
I got stuck behind a carefully driven Ultima (new toy I think) and was waiting for the straight to overtake like a good boy. That big blue skyline bobbing about all over my 4rse again - so I stayed behind the ultima and let him through, then overtook the ultima. Back into the twisty bit, and the Z is gaining on the skyline rapidly again when... can you guess what happened next...?
Twirly twirly twirly spinning blue skyline :thinking: . My 'oops, ha ha, you silly fool' turned rapidly into 'oh f@#$ you poor bugger' as his spin took him straight into the barrier! Smashed rear quarter, crumpled front bumper, bent the bonnet and re-routed his intercooler piping! My wife had some less complimentary thjings to say about his driving ;). Sad thing is he was going to be trading his car in with Hyeline for an R34… guess not eh.
Afternoon was open pit – max 10 cars on track at any time, but there was never any waiting. Very good for us newbies again – we could choose times when the track was relatively empty.
Had some great fun with a roll-caged Renault 5 turbo which was very quick in the twisty bits.
Fastest drivers on the day were two EVO VIII FQ 300’s – a sliver one and a black one. Silver chap turned up with a white van full of tyres, and half a dozen chavs and hoodies as a pit crew. Seemed to think he should be the fastest chap on track, and couldn’t accept that the other guy, who was much smoother, was faster. Nice to watch them going at it though. Silver boy eventually spun off and damaged his car despite being black-flagged earlier in the day.
We had a great time, and the Z never frightened us once. I'd fitted Ferodo DS2500’s and changed the brake fluid to RBF600 earlier in the week (funnily enough, the rear pads are exactly the same as the EVO brembo pads). Never had even the slightest brake fade. Only stopped by the tyres getting too hot and squishy – should have been running higher pressures I think.
All the niggly worries I’ve had with the Z on the road disappeared on track – I’ve found it quite difficult to drive smoothly. Brakes with OEM brembo pads frightened me a couple of times. Heel & toeing difficult to do smoothly. All perfect on tack – the car is made for it! Start driving hard and everything just works!
Plonka that I am, I forgot to take my camera /Grrr so I don't have any pics yet. I've asked a chap who was snapping away to email me copies of his photos, so I'll put them up if they're any good.