johns

It's going to be far from quiet, there's only a few places left for sale in the club shop! John

I've still got two to give away in a competition in the next issue of True Grip. We'll hopefully have them at a discounted price in the club shop soon as well. John

Egger Lawson on 0115 941 5255 will provide cover. The SIDC are a recognised track day provider with them. Most insurance policies now specifically exclude track days of any sort in their cover, so if you want to be covered you'll need to take out your own cover at extra cost. I'd say that 80+% of cars on track do not take out extra insurance to go on track and just drive accordingly. Regards John

I'll be there tonight

Just a short note to say that the track event booked for Sunday 12th June is now available to purchase in the club shop. Please note that slots for our last event sold out in under 7 days, so you'll have to be quick off the mark to book a slot. Please note that the track times are from 9am to 12pm, so great value for money for only £60! John

Remember you can get free tickets for this event if you send me an e-ail with your details

Keep the requests coming in Still a few tickets remaining if anyone wants one.

Heads up everyone. I've got 20 free family tickets for the Knockhill Motorfair on the 7th/8th May. These entitle two adults and two children to get free entry on one of the two days. If you want one, then all you have to do is to send me an email (not a PM please) with the following details: Name, Full Postal Address SIDC Membership number/expiry date Number of people you can go with[1] The first 20 replies will get a free entry ticket posted to them next week. Cheers John [1] If you plan to go with someone else, then please consider sharing a ticket. There's little point in two single people going with a ticket each if it means someone else with a family possibly loses out.

Some bad news I'm afriad. Knockhill have just been on the phone. Due to the size of the event this year, and the timetable pressure, they have had to cancel the track time However, those who agreed to put their car on track will not lose out - Knockhill have kindly agreed to offer them a free voucher for a Hot Marques event this year. We've also managed to get a bit more display space as well, so we can now get 6 cars on display. I'll be contacting all the people individually shortly to let them know. Cheers John

Dave, have a word with Ronnie at Wheels Around. He can get any tyre you want from full slick to fully legal road tyre and everything in between. Free fitting at our Knockhill events as well! The Pirelli things that Del tried at the last event were very good. I tried the Dunlops. They were probably closer to a road tyre than a track tyre, but offered more grip, better feedback, still enough tread to clear standing water. They weren't that great on a greasy surface, but you can't expect them to be brilliant in every department. John

Ciaran, are you flying at 6:15 or checking in at 6:15 ? Generally check-in is 60 minutes before flying though it may be less for the fixed wing. Broomfield House (for the fixed wing) is just before the main airport terminal building. Don't forget your passport either, you'll need this for identification and in case your flight gets diverted to Norway if the weather is bad (very rare though)! John

Just to let everyone know. We've tracked down Spooks who is the current custodian of the banner and flags. He'll be home in time for this event so the banner and flags will be available at the Crail event. Might need to to arrange someone to collect them from the Edinburgh area, and return them again (Willie will be the next custodian who will store them in his office, which means they'll always be available for events, even if Willie himself isn't around). John

It's any time

We got the 10% discount for some "informal" promotion within the club (ie this post etc). There may be scope for additional discount, but only if we could get say about 20 - 30 people interested in doing it on one day. That way they would get enough instructors in for a full day and keep them busy, instead of just having a few instructors busy for an hour or two. My thoughts are that it would take a lot of work to organise and co-ordinate getting everyone happy for one day of training only to save a few more pounds per person. It's perhaps far better to let small groups go together or even individuals when it best suits them and they are still making a saving John

Sorry, the list price is about £90 I think, so you'll be getting it for around £81. Not a huge saving, but still worth having

Knockhill have offered SIDC members 10% off the list price of their one to one performance driver training packages. This is where you do 25 laps in your own car around Knockhill with a fully qualified instructor. They'll teach you all about your car's braking & handling in a safe environment (there's a 90% chance you'll be the only car on track at the time!). They'll teach you all you need to know about fast driving, the best way to apporach & turn into corners, when to apply the power, when to apply the brakes, looking ahead on the track instead of just 50 yards ahead of you etc. This is ideal for Impreza owners who want to leanr lots more about their cars, and to explore more of the available performance, but who don't necessarily want to do track events. You'll start off slowly so you can learn/feel what the car is doing, and gradually pick up speed over the course of a number of laps. I believe you do about half the laps in one session, have a break for a while to relax and think about everything you've been told so far, before going out for the rest of the laps to fine tune things and to possibly cover some more advanced techniques. They are happy to accept group bookings for this sort of training, where a few people can arrive at the same time and do the training at the same time. You just need to find a suitable date and time that you can all make it and Knockhill have slots available. They can also do on the road training as well - again on a one to one basis. All you need to do is to phone Knockhill on 01383 723337 and ask to speak to Rita who knows the score. Just state you are an SIDC member and you'll get 10% off the price John

Great day, thanks to Dave for organising it Sorry we were a bit late, but the traffic at the bridge held us up for 40 minutes.... Not sure what happened in the final, as I started in 6th, passed a few people at the first corner incident, was only passed by two people during the race but passed a few others but ended up in 9th place ? I ache quite a bit today, and have some lovely bruises on my right hip and ribs. I hit someone who spun off at the corner after the finish line during one of the heats (nothing I could do to avoid it!). Thought I'd broken my ribs as I have done before at one of these, but thankfully they just seem to be bruised. Must try and lose some weight for the next event, as I'm sure I'll eventually manage to break the 1 minute mark which I've never done yet! Cheers John

Dave, potentially got someone who is up for it though can't confirm until, tomorrow (he's got a frozen shoulder at the moment!). I've given him your contact details and he'll get in touch. He'll probably come along tomorrow anyway and can pay on the day. John

If you fancy helping out an marshalling on a stage, then you can get direct access to the stage, park up, get access to places (for great photos) mere spectators can't. Call Ian Robertson on 07813 688889 and tell him I sent you. Experienced preferred, but not essential.

Dave, I might be slightly late in arriving due to unusual circumstances - we've got a delivery of ready mixed concrete arriving for wall foundations at 9:30am (builders on site from 7:30am). I've got to pay the concrete man when he arrives and if he's late in arriving, then I might be slightly late (as will my neighbour Alan who is travelling with me). I'm not sure if all 16 are out on track at the same time, but if not, can you put us down such that our first race isn't the first one if you follow what I mean We've been waiting 7 months to get a builder sorted out and the concrete was only ordered this morning after confirmation last night that they'll be ready for it on Saturday. John

We have been invited to attend, but only spaces for two cars so far. We'll be looking for two nicely prepared cars with owners who are willing to spend all day talking about their car/the club/the various events we do. In return, you'll get free entry for the weekend. Don't think there will be a chance to drive your car on track this year. John

John Banks used to do re-mapping, but he's given it up now. Andy Forrest would be your best bet. John

I think you may find that the car has been supplied FOC to the police for a year or so. The police will just pick up the running costs for the car (ie fuel/servicing). Subaru have supplied the police forces around the UK with demo cars for the past few years. Quite a few forces now have them as high speed pursuit cars. John

Last time I was up you could get Shell Super/Optimax at Contin as well, though it was quite pricy! I just took a couple of bottles of Octane Booster with me, but only once did I need to fill up with "standard" fuel and use the Octane booster. John

Also try Gavin at Wallace Performance. I got my last set of DS2500s for £130 from him with SIDC discount. I'm on my 2nd set now. I find they are a bit dustier than the OEM pads, but work well without noise. Better fade resistance than the OEM pads. I'm going to try the EBC Ceramic Red Stuff pads next time around (different from the normal red stuff). SHould be about the sme price and apparently very good performance. John