Donny Track Day 04/12/2004

[Jimbo]

Yet another fantastic day out, these track days just seem to get better and better.

Wonderful company as always, in attendence we had Chris G, the HJMs, Physican and his "official photographer", Interlec and Rob from C-FX, BDA and myself. Thankyou one and all for your company, hope you all had a safe journey home.

Most of all a BIG thanks to Chris for getting us involved in this in the first place, and also for an excellent night last night of beer and Ring videos in the hotel! HJM and myself were so excited we wanted to drive to Germany there and then!

The trackday today was very eventful, lots of stories to come from everyone.....as it turns out I was the only VR4 NOT to have an incident , but with extemely slippy conditions I came VERY close on more than one occasion.

Most of us had goes of being passenger in other cars, but the day just went way too quickly to do all the possible configurations.

Just looking at my photos now and will post some more stories shortly....just need to crack open a beer and chill for a minute

[Jimbo]

Here we go then....didn't actually get many pictures (too busy driving!!!!), and sorry the quality isn't particular great with most of these.

1 - The CVR4 Garage :-b
2 - Chris G on a hot-lap. Derek and Rob watch in awe!
3 - Physician bagging another Porsche
4 - HJM's wheel after an "incident" :$
5 - Red lights on, somebody's gone off - a frequent occurance!

[HJM]

Just got in and echo all Jimbo's sentiments (including the one about a beer ) - yet another great day :-b

Brilliant to see everyone again and to meet Chris - thanks again Chris for the 'Ring vids on Friday night and for getting us on the track today - Heath had great fun and the car is almost still in one piece - nutter :rolleyes5

There won't be the usual rubbish HJM photos, as we forgot the camera - but I'm pretty sure there is some interesting video footage somewhere

More later !

[HJM]

Great pics - incident, what incident :$

[enigma]

We have all seen pics of VR4s, so here are some of the competition! (My VR4 ones were crap!)

[Physician]

Great day guys and gals. I'll do the video later but here are a couple of photos.

1] 08.00 sign-on in the Cafe

2] Pit lane

3] A marshall under HJM car? Oh no, I forgot they collect cones!

[Roadrunner]

A cone under Heath's car??! That could be ANY track day! :-D Only kidding m8y

[HJM]

A cone under Heath's car??! That could be ANY track day! :-D Only kidding m8y

All in the aim of entertainment and trying too hard :rolleyes5

This was my most action packed trackday - hardly had a session without incident !

Most dramatic coming offs were:

Thro' the chicane - exiting with a spinning action which resulted in clipping the permanent (thankfully flexible and non-damaging) bollards on the exit. This is where I also picked up the yellow cone. Young Rob from Custom FX was in the car and enjoyed it somewhat more than me !!!!!!!!!!

Trying to do a hot lap with Jimbo in the car (who needs AP Racing calipers - - - I do !!!) and turned in too quick at McLeans and did a 360 +++ into the kitty litter and did some reverse ploughing. Thankfully the 4WD got us out and I'd learn't my lesson !


Studying the circuit layout now - I reckon thro' the day I drifted/came off at every corner on the circuit, except for the Old Hairpin at the bottom of Dony - reckon I've got more balls than brain and as Jane says - ability !!! :rolleyes5

Having said all the above I really began to hook it all up by the end of the day, mainly thanks to Chris G's advice to use the whole width of the track. Felt sorry for the guy in the red Mark II MR2 at the end of the day who hit the tyre wall and sustained front wing and door damage. Mind you if I didn't have 4WD, Anti-Skid and AYC - I probably would have written mine off :-D Must learn to calm down at these events.

Heath

[Spirit]

At least you came away in one piece Heath and have added a few more hours to the trackday experience curve.

Pics look great and it looks like you all had a great time....can't wait to see the video

[HJM]

It was def a learning curve

We weren't the only estate car though - there was a VW Passat 2.0 petrol :rolleyes5 Mind you, the guy knew what he was doing with it and obviously had been to Dony before, I reckon :-b

We are reliving it this morning - it really was a brilliant day :-D :-D

[Physician]

It was def a learning curve

We weren't the only estate car though - there was a VW Passat 2.0 petrol :rolleyes5 Mind you, the guy knew what he was doing with it and obviously had been to Dony before, I reckon :-b

We are reliving it this morning - it really was a brilliant day :-D :-D

I've been a bit busy and it may take a while to get the video up guys - apologies. I've also found that half an hours worth of the video has been recorded at full zoom so that part is all wasted

Heath ..... that VW Passat MAY have been one of the instructors. I say that because I was following him for a lap and he was quite fast considering his engine size. He was also very good on the bends, taking the correct lines etc. He moved over for me to pass on the straight where I had more power but on the bends he really was matching me - without having the benefit of AYC nor 4 wheel drive. It all goes to show that a good driver can still take on more powerfull cars.

[Jimbo]

The track took all day of constant lapping, but still didn't completely dry out and that made it even more fun for our VR4s.

Heath and I definately tought each other a few things - I wasn't pushing hard enough into a couple of the corners, especially Mcleans until later in the day, wheras Heath was THROWING the car in, and most of the time it stuck brilliantly.....most of the time

We were all in awe of Richard's skills, and I missed the opportunity to drive round with him. We would watch on the grandstands as he gained 1/4-1/3 of a lap on almost everyone (including the Venturi and the Porsches) - track knowledge, a good technique, and a great car made him formiddable.

Chris also....whilst he's never been a driver here before, I could tell while I was fortunate enough to passenger with him that all those 486 laps of the Ring he's done have made him a very smooth and technically correct driver.....VERY VERY fast indeed. He knows that car very well.

Chris also chose a corner that nobody else had spun on to demonstrate his recovery skills Backwards over the grass on the inside of McLeans and back onto the track again....weird incident, neither of us could figure out how it happened, the car just snapped away from him on the left hand turn in running up to the corner.

Me on the other hand....well I guess I must have been Driving Miss Daisy all day not to have an "off" - I had several "moments", mostly lifting off bottling it in the Craner Curves....this approach worked quite nicely in the wet, but as it dried out I found myself drifting very wide in that corner. Could never crack the run into McLeans or Coppice either, they're both definately "late turn-in" corners, but McLeans was quite hard to line up.

Had a lot of exciting overtaking manoeuvers though. Heading up the road after the Old Hairpin, the road rises to the left and I found myself perfecting my patented "cut the corner, hard left, drift wide"-style to get past many MR2's, who in hindsight might not have been too impressed seeing my car twitch and slide across the front of them

All in all, I had two objectives today (other than to have a massive amount of fun, of course).....to start using Tip instead of full auto, and to try driving a lot smoother. Mission accomplished with Tip, and I was definately smoother as the day wore on, perhaps just not fast enough !

When's the next one then guys? :boing3:

[HJM]

Heath ..... that VW Passat MAY have been one of the instructors. I say that because I was following him for a lap and he was quite fast considering his engine size. He was also very good on the bends, taking the correct lines etc. He moved over for me to pass on the straight where I had more power but on the bends he really was matching me - without having the benefit of AYC nor 4 wheel drive. It all goes to show that a good driver can still take on more powerfull cars.

It sure does, Richard - would love to see what someone like that could do with a Legnum :-b

That would make sense, if he were an instructor, 'cos that wasn't your average VW Passat driver

[HJM]

Driving Miss Daisy

Ahem, I dont think so Jimbo Certainly not when I was out with you - but I do think your car is a lot 'tighter' than ours. I still don't know if it's your brakes, tyres, the fact that it is a saloon, newer, or that you are just a better driver than Heath ( ) but you were slinging that car around and it just stuck - it was fantastic :-D

Can't wait for the next one - watch this space :rolleyes5

[Jimbo]

We have all seen pics of VR4s, so here are some of the competition! (My VR4 ones were crap!)

Nice pics Dave That Venturi was awesome, but he just wasn't pushing it at all. Occasionally he would open up all 8 (or 12?) cylinders on the pitlane straight, and woooowww, what a noise, and it just WENT.....but then he'd be braking halfway down the the straight. We reckon he was doing some winter testing!

The Porsche and the Skyline were also a little surprising too - they didn't put up any fight at all - conditions must have just been way too slippy for them.

I thought most of those Porkers were 4wd these days?? I'm guessing this one was firmly rooted to 2 wheels

[Physician]

Well, to add and confirm what others are saying ........ the VR4 was certainly and undeniably the King in the damp conditions. Whereas the other whimps were seeking out the dry, the VR4's loved the damp patches!

You were no slouch Jimbo ...... I was trying to catch you on the final few laps but you were keeping your distance easily ........ I have a bit of video but I ran out of tape - will post it later.

Now, the VR4 sticks like glue, like shi* to a fan, like a train on rails ...........

YEA! RIGHT! (15 Mb)

http://homepage.mac.com/rgdavies2000.../don_dec04.mov

[Jimbo]

Excellent footage as always mate! Just what I needed for my day-after fix

[Physician]

It's Jimbo ! Being followed by a Severn practising his drifting.

You'll all appreciate that I didn't want to get too close to James because of his blinding brake lights.

http://homepage.mac.com/rgdavies2000...don2_dec04.mov

[Jimbo]

Nice one Rich thanks loads for that

The Caterham was having fun wasn't he?

[Physician]

Chasing down a modified MG TZ .......

http://homepage.mac.com/rgdavies2000...don3_dec04.mov