johns

lol, may the best driver win and not end up on the podium wearing a size 0 Time Attack outfit I'll have to make sure I keep some free space on my memory cards (ran out at Cadwell!), just in case John

Pikes peak car - looks like the batmobile! Image one of these on some Scottish gravel stages

Great write-up Scott. It sure is looking very tight overall going into the final round at Snetterton. I would expect the big power cars to have a distinct advantage on the longer straights - maybe you can borrow Andy.F's engine for a day John

Well done Scott, great result! It will be a very tense and close finish to the season now at Snetterton in a few months time.

A couple of the Lateral Performance Impreza, known as "the banana" in flight over the mountain section at Cadwell Park yesterday.

It's to stop spambots from picking up the email address and phone number from the forums. Common way of stopping them getting your details. Just to add, that if anyone has a set near Aberdeen or any way on the route south, I can also pick them up on the way down for Scott. John

That's because I haven't washed my wheels in about 3 months Arch I did actually wash them this last weekend, and 95% of the brake dust came off with just soap and a sponge. Unlike the XP8 pads I had before which had unremovable dust after a week of light commuting use!

If you aren't doing track days, or regular "very fast" road driving (ie have been happy with the standard pads), then I would stick with standard type pad materials. I went for a set of Mintex standard material brake pads from Ebay. Cost me about £32 inc P&P and they have been fine. Only once have I got them hot enough to fade on the road, and then I just eased off for a while til they cooled down. John

Uploaded a few more photos now before I start decorating

I've uploaded some of my photos to my gallery: http://www.flatoutphotography.com/gallery3...php/SIDCGTM2010 Shiny Fast In the wet with slicks on! Big smiles from the driver John

Was a great day out, weather was 99% fantastic, apart from that short shower when I was stuck at the other side of the track Massive thanks to everyone who helped out on the Saturday and Sunday to get the site set-up, and make sure the event ran very smoothly - it just wouldn't have been possible without all your efforts. The bonus fun track time for marshalls and helpers at the end was good fun, even though my passenger got a little travel sick - a big HP laserjet printer held in by the seatbelt - I'm sure I'll find all the bits eventually I'm just downloading some photos from my camera just now, so should have them uploaded later this morning. Well done to all the show and shine winners - stunning level of car preparation! Even though we aren't allowed to time these events any more, the head to head pursuits added a new dimension to the fun track use and we'll hopefully do a lot more of them next time! We'll mark lines on the track next time in the centre to make it easier to judge the winners though John

The sun is shining here Looks like it's going to be a great day!!

Was a great day despite the weather. Could have done with a few more scoobs there, but I'm sure you'll do us all proud at our next event on the 18th September. Want a big Scooby turn out for that one please A few photos to come later once I get the time to get them off the camera John

Yes, it's one of the things we do to thank the ROs for all their fine work during the year Only at Knockhill events, as the ones down south are jointly organised with other car clubs etc. For £57.50 you could have 4 hours fun at Knockhill with a Touring Car driver sitting next to you. I'm sure you could spend more than that in a pub in 4 hours (well I could anyway ) John

Phone in sick Dale As you know ROs get these events for half price anyway

£115 per car, for the whole 4 hour open pit lane session, plus unlimited free instruction if needed

Our instructor for tomorrow is touring car driver Jonny Adam. Don't miss up the opportunity to get some top notch instruction for free if you take part in the track day. John

Back in the late 90s, I did about 20 full track days on standard brakes, and those were the horrible 2 pot sliding calipers! The only upgrade was better Mintex 1155 pads. Still had a huge amount of fun, and if the conditions are damp tomorrow then brake fade isn't really an issue as you never get that much heat into them or the tyres. Generally I would get around 6 to 10 laps on a hot dry day before fade started to kick in, so then just did a cooling down lap, 15 minutes in the pits and back out again In damp conditions you can more or less stay out for as long as you want! With it being a summer event, and possibly a damp track, it could be entertaining watching people drift around the hairpin. It's not very often you get these conditions in conjunction with an empty track to explore the limits of what you and your car can do in a safe environment. John

Currently we only have around 20 cars booked up to take part tomorrow morning!! If anyone has ever wanted to try out track driving, but was too scared by a busier track, then tomorrow could well be your best (or last) opportunity! I'm not sure why there is suddenly such a low demand for spaces, maybe the date was wrong with too many other events on the same day or coming up in the near future? Maybe there just isn't the same interest in using your car to it's full extent in a safe environment without fear of speeding tickets? Maybe it's the global financial situation, and people just don't have the money available to do track days? It appears that some other track day organisers are finding the same thing, in that's it's becoming more and more difficult to get enough cars to cover the costs of hiring the track. If anyone wants to have a play on a near empty track tomorrow, then drop me an email on john@sidc.co.uk John

There's only a few slots left for taking part now on each of the dates, so if you are interested, just drop mike at GTM an email and let him know the dates you might be able to make, along with your car details.

The weekends get booked up by car clubs etc. Holding it mid week during the school holidays gives parents somewhere to go for the day with the kids for not much money and a lot of fun.

It's that time of year again, when Grampian Transport Museum in Alford runs their ever popular Performance and Supercar rides. This year, the dates are Wednesday 14th July and Wednesday 4th August The transport museum are again looking for enthusiastic owners to help them out by taking passengers around their small sprint track for a couple of laps at a time. In return, you get to see lots of happy smiling faces as you drive passengers around the track. You also get a free lunch in the cafe at 12:00, and a £35 fuel voucher which can be spent at the Shell garage less than a mile along the road. The event will run from around 1pm to 3:30pm, and they hope to have 15 cars taking part - so one group of 5 cars in use, whilst the other two groups are resting (ie you won't be going non-stop for 2.5 hours!) If you are interested, either drop me an email or contact Mike (the museum curator directly) on curator@gtm.org.uk The museum also needs these days to be well supported, so if you want some passenger rides in nice cars, all you need to do is turn up at the museum and pay the entrance fee and join the queue. I think you can queue up for rides in as many different cars as you like Some photos from last years event: Full set of images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets/72157621211493024 John

Excellent write up again Scott, though I don't think you quite expressed how hot it was there out on track!! I don't think I've seen a result that close for a while. The next round at Cadwell will ve a very interesting proposal, with a tight trechnical section with zero run-off, a few high speed straights and some very fast sweeping corners that favour the brave! John

There wouldn't be any extra cost over the normal track day cost, and you can book up in the shop. £115 for SIDC members for the whole event. Cheaper than going out by yourself with 25 laps with an instructor, plus you get an extra 3.5 hours on track as well We've already got a few members lined who are prepared to sit alongside novices for the session, and we already have an instructor booked up. We've also got a few who will go out on track during the session to give you a safe experience of faster cars on track without needing to worry about getting in their way. All you need to do is let me know you are a novice when sending me your car details, so I can slot you in for the exlcusive 30 minutes, and arrange for a regular to sit alongside you (if needed) and sort out a rota for the instructor during the event as well. Cheers John