Snetterton Track Day 28th feb

[dynamix]

2 spaces left for this day chaps or you could just head up and spectate.

costs are £135 for the day and is split into novice/advanced sessions in the morning and open pit lane in the afternoon so can get plenty of lapping in on a good track with large amounts of run off space.

So, anyone up for it? 

[dynamix]

now full []

[paul_dyson]

Too short notice for me ... put please post again if you're doing another one ... always fancied a drive at Snetterton.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul 

[dynamix]

will do Paul - probably organising another for May time with bigpower

[Chris77]

how did it go?

much fast stuff there?

i'm going on the 26 of march, lots of 200sx going to be there

[wrx-ian]

how did it go?

much fast stuff there?

i'm going on the 26 of march, lots of 200sx going to be there

 

I`ve got a mate going that day. In his 200sx

[dynamix]

fantastic day on track - did about 100 laps in all in a mixture of puddles and sopping wet track to bone dry in the afternoon.

Plenty of spins and exotic machinery plus some of the normal stuff too - loved every second of it []

4.30 am - awoken from my light sleep by howling wind and rain against the bedroom windows
4.45 am - decided that I might aswell get up anyway as i dont want to miss my alarm going off and miss the day
5.00 am - figure i cant wait any longer for the first cup of coffee so the coffee machine wakes my wife rachel up
5.30 am - dressed and ready after the first shot of coffee and start loading the car up
5.45 am - decide i might aswell hose the car down a bit to get previous days dirt off (it was raining at the time )
6.00 am - coffee number 2 and rachel wakes up again
6.15 am - leave for snetterton deciding to fill up at Tesco's on the way as the shell garage is a gallon in the wrong direction. (I hadnt read the reports on crap fuel by then)
7.00 am - arrive at Snetterton and start unloading
7.30 am - the heavens open and it starts teaming down with rain so decide to have a coffee and a bacon roll in the restaurant (very very good )
8.00 am - sign on
8.30 am - drivers briefing from Ben, Paul and guest speaker Stuart "The Plough" Staples
9.00 am - final check on car and queue up for the first session in the rain wondering whether there would be any grip
9.10 am - set off down the pitlane and discover at the first corner that there was absolutley no grip whatsoever
9.11 am - back in as someone had spun off in the wet []
9.12 am - back out to try and figure out a way around the track in the wet when all I would get going into Sears was understeer, understeer, dab the throttle and then wild oversteer
9.20 am - look in the rear view mirror and see Gary from APT sideways in a wild way holding it on the power around Sears and smile to myself wishing it could do that
9.25 am - decide to throw the car into Sears (chosen cos of the huge run off) for some sideways action, the tail flicks out I hold it for a while and it snaps back in.... next time I will do better
10.00 am - out for second session and the puddles are fewer but grip still non-existent so playing is still in order and driving through the puddles to try and get the water to blow away. This time the sears experience proved more fruitful with a full on power slide attained and a nice smooth transition back to straight . Superb [Y] Next lap I decide in my sleep deprived wisdom to try it bigger and better than before and get it badly wrong flipping completely around and facing the oncoming traffic (but still on the tarmac ) ... that wasnt too bad. I had broken my Snetterton spinning duck and lived to tell the tale [] Times for laps continued to fall as it dried out but still some very shakey moments.

11.00 am - session 3 and loads more grip now - this is starting get seriously quick:o  With George (my trusted co-pilot) in the passenger seat and avidly watching the lap timer we knew that my record of 1.31 was going to be broken... it was down to 1.28 within a short period of time.  Had a great time catching Stuart with instructor on board, passing him, slowing down so he could pass us and then proceeded to catch him, pass him and promptly spin again coming out of the Esses and again facing the oncoming traffic parked on the little stretch of tarmac that joins the track there.. again no mud on my car []  Whilst George and I pissed ourselves laughing we composed ourselves, waited for the oil to settle down and then set off for some more flat out laps.  The chequered flag seemed to come too quickly on this session as we were having so much fun, with great brakes, fanatastic new power delivery and a dry track

11.30 am -  managed to blag myself into the novice session as I Ben Devlin was going to sit with me for a while.  Observing me for a few laps he started to give pointers as to increased speed: brake here, turn in now, straighten the steering and floor it whilst still at the apex ...eeek. Some of this was alien to me, particularly the straighten the steering part when heading for armco but worked very well when we went through the Chicane flat in 2nd sideways leaving a plume of tyre smoke for Mark Mosely (of 9 second 1/4 mile fame) to go through []



12.00 am - came in from the lapping to cool the car down as oil temperatures were a little high and opened the bonnet for a while.  Lee (IWANT1) commented on how full my oil catch can was.... ie it was FULL and overflowing coating the underside of my car with oil and drained about a litre of oil out of the sump. (Thanks mate - you have probably saved me some very expensive repairs) so went to try and figure how to drain it off so I could continue.  A sectiopn of hosepipe was donated by the very nice chaps in one of the workshop at the top of the circuit and a water bottle from Gary's garage and the oil/moisture mix was drained off, oil topped up and a quick road run to see if it was a significant problem.  The road drive did not show anything up.

1.00pm - lovely pasta and chips helps fuel me for the day - what great food there was... awesome :thumb:

2.00 pm - afternoon open pit lane started and I drove out for a few laps to see if the oil problem continued.  A few laps later I came back in to check.  The catch can had filled up halfway already.... hmm.  I topped the oil up again and drained the can and went out again this time taking it easy.  4 laps later - came back and no oil caught...hmm.

I went out again and this time took 4 hot laps - came back and the catch can was 3/4 full.  I drained it and I had now run out of spare oil so didnt top it up.  It was still about halfway between min and max levels.

The next stint of 4 laps showed a small amount of oil caught, again I drained it off thinking that this might have been stuck in the pipework and went back out.

I then took some flying laps and tried to really work it hard for half a dozen laps - and got a further 3 seconds off my best time - now 1min 25  When returning to the pit garage i checked the oil again and it seemed to be okay, catching some oil but not much.  Had to be down to the increased corner G forces and a full sump.  This was a mighty relief but gives me an issue to solve now with oil surge or similar problem at Snetterton.

4.00pm - I decided that I had pushed my luck far enough that day havign done about 100 laps give or take and being relatively incident free I would quit wanting 1 more lap rather than after 1 too many laps   so blagged a few laps off Gary at APT in his 600 bhp Evo to put my speed into perspective.  To say that car is fast is a wild understatement, the steering is crips, the handling spot on and the power deliver is relentless.  Top driving Gary and huge thanks.  I must say sorry for the rather large dent in your floor under where the brake pedal should have been on my side [] his laps of 1 min 20 were pretty impressive.

4.30 pm - Mike Payne offered to take me for some passengers laps in his recently (ie that morning:) ) prepared and mapped subaru to experience the increased power.  I have to say that it is a real punchy performer now and revs to figures that I can only dream about, each gear change welcomed by a punch in the back and a further whine of the turbo as it whistles faster and faster.  I couldnt quite see the speedo as I was too busy praying but it was going very well indeed and when finished should be a stunning track car.

Time now to pack up, change the track wheels and snotty RE070's back to my less than snotty road wheels (the same actually) and RE070's for a legal drive home.

God I hate these tyres....

I have done 15000 miles, 5 track days, 200 miles on the ring and a sprint and still they arent dead.





And all of that with loads of grip... Who needs track tyres when I have these little babies

What a great day with no damage to anyones car apart from a couple of the bigpower skylines having brake problems and a 200sx driver ignoring low oil pressure warning lights.

I will be organising a track day virgins day or evening a little later in the year if any of you are up for a gentle session or two ?? 

[alan_hanna]

That sounds awesome, and looks fantastic. Your a gent well done Sir.[]

[dynamix]

That sounds awesome, and looks fantastic. Your a gent well done Sir.[]

I just wish more of you guys would give it a go ... it is simply awesome stuff and Snetterton is a great track with a forgiving nature for novices and challenges for experienced drivers too.
 

[Chris77]

i second that snetterton is billiant, only takes a while to get to know, but once you do some of the lines are so fast, gives you a real buzz, best corners for me are riches, sears and the esses.

and its only just up the A11 for us!!

good write up!!