johns

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

A few Lotus owners have been in touch about running a beginners only session as part of the track day on Saturday 10th July from 9am to 1pm.

The proposal is that between 9:20am and 9:50am (after the driver's briefing and warm up groups), that the track will only be open to beginners (first timers, or only done a couple of events). Regulars can sit alongside as passengers, offering advice on lines, reminders to look in mirrors etc but there will also be a Knockhill instructor available to use free of charge throughout the whole event (might have to limit him to 3 or 4 laps at a time so he can get around as many cars as possible).

After about 15 minutes, one or two regulars will go out on track driving at about 80 - 90%, to give the beginners experience of being caught and overtaken etc. With about 5 to 10 minutes to go, another few regulars will go out on track, giving experience of a busier track, and some faster cars etc. We will also recommend that beginners come into the pits at least once during the session, to get used to leaving the track, and joining an open track by using the lights.

After that it will be the usual open pit lane, and everyone can go on track when they like for as long as they like.

If we get around 10 people confirmed (I think there are 5 to 7 Lotus owners already), then it will make this viable.

John

As you may be aware, it is the SIDC Scottish national day at Grampian Transport Museum in Alford in just under two weeks from now on Sunday 1tth July.

Last year we had the guys from the local round table come along and provide a BBQ for us. They are a volunteer organisation though, and this year they can't get enough individuals free on the Sunday to put on a BBQ for us again.

So the position we are in means that we are looking for either a group to provide the catering, with profits ging to charity, or even a humble burger van that is free on the day.

I'm swamped at work just now, so don't have the time to look or phone around, so I'm turning to the wider community to help us out here. I'm sure there is someone one here in Scottish Scoobies who knows someone who could help out

Please note that we don't charge companies anything to attend on the day (ie all profits are theirs to do with as they please)

Many thanks in advance

John

I'm getting there slowly with the pics. I suffered a memory card failure and lost a whole batch of shots and have been spending time trying to recover some of them with limited success. It might have been something to do with the heat, as it was 32 in the shade with track temps closer to 50!!! Quite a few cars failed to finish the event due to the heat.

Anyway, here's a few shots from the event:

Scott during morning warm up:

Fee on the entry to Druids

Paul in the Badger:

Gav doing his thing in the banana:

More are being slowly added to the gallery at http://www.flatoutphotography.com/gallery3...x.php/TA2010-BH

John

You will have to book up for the SIDC track event on the 10th July

Open pit lane, so no sessions to worry about. There are some very quick and interesting cars booked on already, but still plenty of spaces left. Les than 20 people booked on so far - ideal for those who like an empty track to play on!

John

Yes, T&C are still the Subaru parts supplier in the Aberdeen area.

I've never been on safari, but at a guess you should probably work in Aperture Priority mode (Av for Canon models) around f4 to f5.6 or lower so you can isolate the object from the background and get as high a shutter speed as possible. At dusk/early morning, you'll need to bump up the ISO to 400 or higher to get a reasonable shutter speed, but drop it down to 100 during the day when the light will be much stronger. Use a lens hood on your lenses to try and cut down lens flare from the sun.

I would guess you might need a couple of lenses, one for bigger things close up (Rhinos etc), and a longer one for more pointy teethed beasts from a safe distance. I've heard of some people taking a beanbag with them so they can rest the camera/lens on the side of the vehicle to get sharper shots.

I would take at least 3 batteries with me, and loads of memory cards. You can get non-manufacturer batteries for around £10 or less for most models of camera, and memoery cards are quite cheap. The holiday will be a once in a lifetime experience and won't be cheap, and it would be awful to miss out on some great shots because your battery died or you ran out of space on a memory card. It would cost you £10 - £20 for another memory card before you go, but thousands if you have to go on the holiday again!

I would also take a rocket blower with me to keep the camera and lenses free from dust and sand as much as possible without having to wipe (and potentially scratch) them.

Another cool drifting video I watched yesterday: http://vimeo.com/12196170

Nice to see the action from the inside!

This morning, I drove my standard SpecD to the top of a mountain!

The view from the top

Cairn at the top. If you look very closely at the top right of the picture, you will see what looks like a gap in the small trees - that's my car parked up!

The view looking east, and yes we were up in the clouds!

Same view as the first photo, but with the Scooby bonnet in shot

View from where I parked, looking over to the cairn

Given the rather rough nature of the road (there aren't that many that take you right to the top of a mountain!), I reckon I might have been the first Impreza to drive up there.

John

It's hard to tell from the clip. Any rattling/knocking noise like that isn't a good sound. I have heard a car like that before which had suffered big end failure. Sounds a bit too rattly to be piston slap to me.

Nice write-up Scott. Hope you get the brakes all sorted in time for Brands

John

I'm heading down to Brands as well, I'll drive it for you

Looking good. Will you have it ready and run in properly in time for Brands Hatch at the end of next month?

Welcome Sal,

you'll be within a reasonable journey time of Aberdeen - well compared to your usual commutes!

Hopefully catch up with you at some point.

John

Overall crime levels in Aberdeen and shire are very low, and as mentioned above you just need to avoid a few areas.

I would say the first thing to find out is where your offices are based. If it's in Altens area, then I would recommend somewhere south of the city live Cove, Muchalls down to Stonehaven area for an easy daily commute. Alternatively the west end of the city would be a safe bet, though a bit pricier.

If your company is based in the Bridge of Don area, then maybe somewhere further out like Balmedie (close to the beach) out to Newburgh.

If you are going to be based in Dyce, then somewhere like Kintore or Inverurie would be perfect for a 15 minute commute in the mornings.

Virtually all the houses for sale (and rent) in the Aberdeen area can be found on www.aspc.co.uk

I would recommend renting a nice house somwwhere for say 3 to 6 months until you get to know your way around the city, do some exploring and find the sort of places you would like to live. This will give you enough time to have a good look at dozens of houses for sale.

John

Got your PM OK - I'll go and look on Saturday morning for you

Hill Climb - yes they do still run it, and Dale is right there was one just over a week ago. Great day out for not much money

John

I pass this place twice a day, but at 8am and 6pm, so it is always closed. Cars are on the forecourt though. Probably the earliest I could look during opening hours would be Saturday morning, so I could have a good look inside, hear it running and take it for a test drive etc.

I've only got my car at work once more this week (car share on alternate days) and have a meeting that day, otherwise I could have picked you up one lunchtime to have a look over it. If next week isn't too late, then thats an option.

Cheers

John

Here's a couple of my photos.

John

Great shots everyone. Neil - love the subtle substitution of the sponsor name with your flickr link

Very well done guys. Tremendous effort. Cars were looking superb - a very high standard of preparation