Cadwell Park 3rd Feb 2007

[WildCards]

Cadwell Park 3rd Feb £99 Open Pit Lane (http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/cadwell-park/circuits/cadwell-park.asp)

Richy Rich and I will be going to Cadwell Park on Saturday 3rd Feb. It'd be great to see a few others there.
We'll be travelling at both ends of the day as it's not too far from me (90 miles!) I can offer a roof and floor space to anyone wanting to join us if you don't fancy shelling out for a hotel, it'll be an early start though!

Steve

[wrdmotorsport]

/rally /rally /rally /rally of we go /toycar /toycar /toycar

[SGHOM]

tempted ?? for pax laps !! /rally /rally

[barnard]

N250 FKU is getting anxious again. Not seen 5000 to 7500 RPM for a few weeks.

[BraindG]

N250 FKU is getting anxious again. Not seen 5000 to 7500 RPM for a few weeks.
Will "Ennie(250 FKU)" Be arriving on trailer again, if you go? :afro:

[barnard]

Will "Ennie(250 FKU)" Be arriving on trailer again, if you go? :afro:
Daren't risk an old banger without trailer on hand. If banger survives then trailer may come in useful for someone else ( hopefully not though).

[Spirit]

I fully intend to do Cadwell this year, but not this early......and what's more not so soon after spending a small fortune on the car.

Have a great time peeps......./rally

[WildCards]

Oops. After booking I decided to give the car a proper looking over last night. It seems I have a few jobs to do before Cadwell.

The car has no brake lights, no indicators, the exhaust manifold needs some bolts, the brakes need bleeding, i've not got a tow bar on the 306 and still no ramps for the trailer - ho hum, looks like i'm gonna be busy.

[richy rich]

Oops. After booking I decided to give the car a proper looking over last night. It seems I have a few jobs to do before Cadwell.

The car has no brake lights, no indicators, the exhaust manifold needs some bolts, the brakes need bleeding, i've not got a tow bar on the 306 and still no ramps for the trailer - ho hum, looks like i'm gonna be busy.
come on homo get on with it

ill take the van with tools in it so tow bar isn't a prob. and we can do running repairs if needed /rally

[Nutter_John]

How will you do running repairs ? will you be taking a mechanic with you as well /lol /evil

[Lillywotsername]

How will you do running repairs ? will you be taking a mechanic with you as well /lol /evil
Oooooooo You are gunna get it for that one!!!!!!!/haz /haz

[WildCards]

How will you do running repairs ? will you be taking a mechanic with you as well /lol /evil

Yeah, i've got a Haynes manual, so I think we'll be alright John.

Rich, if you come round early on the friday night we can take it for a quick spin up some farm lanes nearby.

[Lillywotsername]

Yeah, i've got a Haynes manual, so I think we'll be alright John.

Rich, if you come round early on the friday night we can take it for a quick spin up some farm lanes nearby.
He won't be there too early Steve as he will have to wait till I get home from work... He will have the kids till then

[WildCards]

goddamn it, can't you sell em or something? Bloody kids, who invented them.

[richy rich]

/haz /haz

[WildCards]

It's Saturday! This saturday everyone, 3 days people. Woohoo, I can't wait!!

Weather forecast is good (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2564) car is almost ready, i've been reading a fair bit of chatter on various forums about Cadwell and watching some videos and it looks great. I can't wait, i'm soooooo excited.

WOOHOO 3 DAYS!!

[Wouter]

Have fun guys and make sure you bring it home in one piece!

[Spirit]

Have fun guys and make sure you bring it home in one piece!

What Wouter said /rally

Can you video it Steve ?

[HJM]

Good luck Steve - have a great first outing and remember to warm those tyres up /pan


H

[richy rich]

What Wouter said /rally

Can you video it Steve ?

/rally /rally /rally /rally /bounce /bounce /bounce /woot2 /woot2



pete ill be taking my vid cam and ill try and get some footage.

[HJM]

Hey, good luck for tomorrow guys - wish we could be there but we have a big dent to support /lol

Hope you have a great day - TAKE SOME PICS please :d

J :)


/edit - I guess you are both having an early night in prep for the big day - just like we always do :inquisiti

[Physician]

Have a great day guys ....... Rich, give Steve some driving lessons please so that he can come and play on track with the big boys later in the year :thinking: /rally

[Spirit]

Have a great time guys......and don't forget the video footage Rich :iloveyou:

[psbarham]

have fun and take it easy , we still have a thick frost covering the ground here , and i'm only 50 miles from cadwel /rally /crashbangwallopsmilie

[Lillywotsername]

Just spoke to Richy.......

Waiting for the frost to clear then they are out ontrack. Didn't get the car finished till midnight last night so both tired as they were up again at 5ish.

Should be a good day though.

[WildCards]

Evenin.

What a great day! Yep, were at it until midnight last night and the car took longer than we though to sort too :p

The ramps I had bought for the trailer looked sturdy enough, but bent slightly when the car rolled onto them last night, so it took a little longer than desired to get the car on the trailer ready for this morning.

With a 7:30am sign on we were up a 5 to start out journey, we fanied about getting a plank from my dads the otherside of town and filling up with fuel before we hit the motorway. 2 hours later and we arrived at a very frosty Cadwell Park at 8am.

With the sign on and driver briefing dispatched with, we set about getting the car ready. We soon realised that we were amongst so serious track addicts, almost everyone had turned up pulling their track car behind them, they all had pretty swish trailors (which was a bit embarrasing given mine is a rust infested caravan base) and rather tasty looking hunks of metal on them.

Anyway, the officials demanded everyone take part in a sightin lap, where everyone drives in close proximity behind a pace car getting the line, noting the turn in and apex cones etc and I opted to drive this. We came in and took some sound advice from a rather wise looking chap and let the nobs go out and warm the track up for us, and get whatever metal bent as they desired. As grip was minimal and the track cold we dicided to up the tire pressures and swap the front wheels for a grippier pair I had taken along.

Rich set out for his first taste of the 205. After twenty minutes of skittshness on the uber hard 45PSi tires we heard a worrying rumble, so we came in. After close inspection we found that we had lost 2 nuts from both front wheels and the remaining two where fairly loose, lucky eh? Rich set about tightening everything up only to find the threads had partially stripped in both hubs /Grrr

Luckily, I had taken a tin of bolts with us with shich Richy painstakingly (Sp?)managed to repair all the threads in the hubs, tighten eveything up, lift the front suspension slightly as the wheels were rubbing on turn in and we were away... except they called for lunch, as some numpty had come off and was awarded a red flag for the rest of us.

With lunch out of the way I was chomping at the bit to get the car out on track in anger and was almost first in the queue for the afternoons proceedings. No sooner had we done a lap had some spoon in a Fiat Tipo on slicks spun the car into the tire wall in the forest section. Red flag.

Off the track and back into the queue and we set out again, with lower tire pressures, the car was a different animal, handled well and gave very positive feedback.

During the afternoon we buggered about with the front suspension slightly and tried to get out on track as much as possible, but on Richy's second go, on his first lap out what did he do? he spun it on cold tires /pan Now don't get me wrong, all day we were both fighting the back end on some of the still damp patches, but we always managed to tame the slide, but on this occasion Rich couldn't hold it. Unfortunately, the car also stalled, which due to a flat battery (We had been junp starting it all day) meant we had to be red flagged and towed back to the paddock, at which point I saw fit to royally take the pi55 out of Rich for his poor driving ability, dspite what some members hear may think, I am the better FWD driver :afro:

Anyway, toward the end of the day the car suffered from overheating issues, is was popping and banging a goodun and really stuttering on the power out of the tighter corners.

All day we covered 93 miles between us and only used 3/4 tank of fuel, a small top up of oil to be on the safe side and a dribbling of water, not bad for a 18 year old car on 148,000 miles eh?

Where the age and mileage did show though was the performance, the lack of weight helped considerably but I certainly think alot of it's original 115 ponies left the stable some years ago, it was pretty nippy up to about 80mph using the first three gears, 4th would squeeze another 10/15 out but fifth added no more and I think that was about top. Just aswell Cadwell isn't a fast course I spose.

As for the track, I found it very technical, the forest section was where most people had their off's and it's easy to see why, negative cambers all over the place and some very small bumpy braking zones before tight 90 degree corners made it difficult to pass though at speed, although the rest of the track can be done at 60/70mph plus, which is nice. The faciltlies aren't great, although what they have got is good, clean and well staffed. They didn't bother with a sound check and the officials were quite relaxed, I will definately go again.

As for pix, Rich took a few of the car but we were both too busy enjoying ourselves for anything more i'm afraid. Pete, during the briefing we were told the only cameras allowed would be fixed ones, if we were spotted using a handlehld it was instant removal from the course, so we didn't risk it.

[richy rich]

hi all just got home and i'm knackered 10 hours sleep in since wednesday night.


a very good day /rally ill tell you more in the morning I'm falling asleep writing this.:zzz: :zzz:

[HJM]

Good to see you guys had an entertaining day - now consider yourselves officially 'hooked' - welcome to the Dark Side :pimp2:

Now get that trailer sorted and drag it over to Germany !

H

[WildCards]

Need to fit the other engine and sort a few problems out before I even think about Gemany. I'll fettle the 1.6 and run a few more trackdays this year, then look at the Mi fit in the winter I think.

/EDIT - This is one of the better videos i've found that shows the circuit well - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fB5WsqLvMc The track seems to have more grip than yesterday though.

[Jimbo]

Good write-up Steve, sounds like we have a new track day addict.

Cmon Richy mate - tell me what's wrong with my car so I can start doing trackdays again, I'm getting the "shakes" now.

[Spirit]

Excellent review of the day Steve, and good to hear you both not only had a fun day but also made it in one piece.

So, was the track as good as I hope it is ? Techical you say.......I like that !

[WildCards]

You have to think about it certainly. The lines aren't obvious but it's a track worth practicing I reckon.

[barnard]

Sounds like a good day despite the odd "hiccup". Well done, chaps.

[richy rich]

what a day./rally /rally /rally

ive been a track day addict since the first time out at silerstone(cadwell so much a better track) but not been getting as much of a fix id like.

her is the pics ive taken not many as i we where to busy and having to much fun./rally /rally

[WildCards]

Cheers Rich.

Pic 01 - the car
Pic 02 - the car again
Pic 03 - Mr professional trackdayer's Hummer H2 with alot of extra bits. He claimed the supercharged 6.0 V8 kicked out around 550bhp and propelled all 3 tonnes of it to 60 in under 6.5 seconds. As much as I don't like them, there was something cool about it in the flesh.
Pic 04 - Paddock entrance to the track
Pic 05 - The bit before the paddock entrance to the track
Pic 06 - A very sorted RX7. The guy was out in this all day, he turned up with 12 20L jerry cans and used about 4/5 we thought. It had a massive single turbo conversion and the chap claimed it was running 348bhp at the wheels. Needless to say it was running rings around everyone on the day.