Playday on Track - Manfield Sunday 28 Nov

[pbaron]

Playday on Track have a day booked at Manfeild on Sunday 28 Nov, can be fun day and an opportunity for anyone that has not been on a track before to give your car a thrash without risk to getting a speeding ticket.

The format for the day is simple with no pressure and you will get lots of track time.

Check out the info on their website (http://www.playdayontrack.co.nz/index.php) and if you are interested, sign up and pay, $109 for this event.

I am heading up from Wellington for this, maybe taking my son as a spectator, maybe on my own, anyone else in the club interested in making a day of it is welcome to join in, they still had spots for this on Monday when I paid up.

On top of the fee you will need a "Current License", a set of full cotton overalls (or a race suit for those that have them) and a helmet.

If anyone is keen to go and convoy up from Wellington, just sing out.

Cheers
Pierre

[nothingelsematters]

Where abouts is Manfeild? haha couldnt seem to find out.

[CANDEE]

Where abouts is Manfeild? haha couldnt seem to find out.
Its by Fielding, which is next to Palmerston north, so about 6 hours from you. :)

[VR4WGN]

hmmmm might just like this, got the brakes,got the car going,just suss suspension out now and then we are good, ill see how it goes at the end of the week maby..but question,what if youv never been on a track? i feel dumb for asking but im keen as to get some time on

[pbaron]

No big if you have never been on a track before, I have only been on once before. They give you a briefing on what you can expect, the type of driving behaviour expected of you, how and when you can pass. They split the drivers into groups based on experience etc, no pressure. Everyone has to start somewhere.

hmmmm might just like this, got the brakes,got the car going,just suss suspension out now and then we are good, ill see how it goes at the end of the week maby..but question,what if youv never been on a track? i feel dumb for asking but im keen as to get some time on

[VR4WGN]

sounds good man,i think ill sign up next week,needa get a helmet sumware( a bicycle helmet lol?)
im excited,just needa fit other suspension in first tho,as the kings are too soft.i miss my gabs

[pbaron]

Ok, a quick report on the Playday at Manfeild Sunday just gone, the day started out a little overcast but finished up a scorcher, we loaded up and left Lower Hutt at 6:30am and pulled into Manfeild at 8:30am after an uneventful trip up.

We unpacked the gear and waited for the rest of the those attending to arrive. Drivers briefing at 9:45ish followed soon after by some familiarisation laps, I had my son and a mate of his in the car for these laps.

There were around 48 cars at the start of the day split into 3 groups of 16. Each group got a 15 minute session and then a half hour rest before their next go. This format held for an hour or so after which attrition had us down to 2 groups of 16.

3 from the Wellington ClubVR4 chapter arrived around lunch time to spectate a little so a break was called and we headed off to McD's for lunch, I had got in a couple of sessions so was ready for a snack (no time is a bad time for a snack).

After a feed we headed back to the track and I got in another couple of sessions before Wynn, Jeremy and Ness headed back home. On my third session out after lunch I was experiencing some fuel surge that got progressively worse during the session, particulary on right hand sweepers. The fuel gauge was showing well over half but after the session ended I went in search of a petrol station to top up. I was very surprised to see it took 40 litres to top it up, I had only covered 170ks since filling up and 60 of those were highway on the way to the track, looks like I had used around 34 litres to cover 110 track kms, that is way up on what I burned last time at Manfeild. With excellent brakes this time I pushed it hard.

At 2:45 I went out with a driving instructor in the car with me for a set of laps, it was the best $20 I have ever spent. Prior to this I was blasting around with my son timing me at a consistent 1:38 lap time thinking I was going as hard as I could. After the first lap with the instructor onboard basically guiding me around the lap times dropped to 1:35 with the last of them just over 1:34, to see such an improvement for $20 made the whole day worthwhile.

I decided to go out for one last session at 3:15 before heading home, without the extra weight of the instructor in the car I put in a 1:32 and then a 1:31 not that I was aware of that until I came back in to load up the gear for the trip home. My son was timing an Evo 4 that was out running in the last session that was one of the locals cars, it looked a bit beat up and had a screamer pipe on it that was bloody loud but the package must have been effective as he was piloting the noisy thing around the track in 1:21s that made me look positively pedestrian.

Back in the parking area near where we were loading up was one of the days victims, an R32 GTS-T was looking a bit sad, it had blown/burst a coolant pipe somewhere near the rear of the motor and had overheated. They had nothing to fix the burst hose with and were going to try driving it home stopping frequently to fill it with water. The couple were trying to scrounge up some water containers to get them by between stops where they could fill them up.

I decided to help them out and gave them the 20lt water container I had brought up with me. When I asked them how far they had to drive they said they were heading back to Lower Hutt, so I offered to follow them back in case they got into more trouble. Well as you might have guessed, the motor was poked and they only got 10km of the way home before it gave up the ghost just coming into Sanson.

ClubVR4 to the rescue, we drove to the petrol station in Sanson, purchased a tow rope and the trusty Galant towed them to a relatives home in Paraparaumu beach at a stately 70kmh, a distance of around 100km. While there was a lot of traffic on the road heading south there was not much heading north so we did not hold up too much traffic. The couple were grateful and a little disbelieving that someone they didn't know would help them out like that, I hope it comes back around if ever I am in need.

After leaving the R32 behind we made good time heading south and had a good high speed run back over the Paekakariki hill that finished off the day nicely.

[pbaron]

Images from the day.

[pbaron]

More images.

[pbaron]

More images

[pbaron]

Last of the images and short video clip of my last session
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHQCxxLGmcE

[CANDEE]

Good to see you out there having fun Pierre. :) See we told you that you were running out of fuel.. :P We got about 200k out of our tanks before we got fuel surge last time. :)

Good to see that you towed the skyline home too. :) Looks like some more people owe you feeds.. lol

We now want to go out again, though with brakes etc..... Oh and ness was talking about donating her coupe for a project when she gets her new one. :)

[VR4WGN]

very nice Pierre,im sorry i never made it,my car is in the shop gettign the rear skirts colour matched and mirrors installed,then Muffler shop Thursday for Wastegate plumback system,but then wOF and im hoping to join you sometime and try her out, very jelous tho....

[bradc]

Did you have a go against the R34 GTR?

[pbaron]

No, he was in a different group and by the time cars thinned out and we all got mixed together he had gone.

Did you have a go against the R34 GTR?

[popin]

Nice write up Pierre, who was the fastest car outa all of em?