oops
just concious that I normally put all of the credit down to the blokes with cars and I know that if the shit hit the fan in my household, I'd need 'help' from my other half regarding solving it :lol:
Arrive and Drive trackday Dec 16th~ A outsiders review
http://www.auto-genie.co.uk
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
-
Cusco Demon
- Posts: 179
- Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:32 pm
- Location: Suffolk
- Contact:
Most of you won't know of him, but thought I'd draw attention to the young lad driving the tasty Mini Cooper.
Known as Master Blacksheep over on Scoobycity, (his dad is The Black Sheep, and owns a tasty black STI), Nathan only passed his test earlier this year (but has been driving for about 2 years, which is another story! :lol: ), and this was his first time out on track.
The Coop' was perfect for the track, and seemed to humble some "bigger" cars in the bends, in true Mini style
After a couple of tentative laps, Nathan was soon hustling the Coop' at ever increasing speeds, and soon looked like a veteran that Barry "Whizzo" Williams would have been proud of!
He'll be back in February, so keep an eye out for a little black rocket nipping at your exhausts in the corners!
Known as Master Blacksheep over on Scoobycity, (his dad is The Black Sheep, and owns a tasty black STI), Nathan only passed his test earlier this year (but has been driving for about 2 years, which is another story! :lol: ), and this was his first time out on track.
The Coop' was perfect for the track, and seemed to humble some "bigger" cars in the bends, in true Mini style
After a couple of tentative laps, Nathan was soon hustling the Coop' at ever increasing speeds, and soon looked like a veteran that Barry "Whizzo" Williams would have been proud of!He'll be back in February, so keep an eye out for a little black rocket nipping at your exhausts in the corners!
Rob
MY97 UK Turbo 2000 Impreza - 304.1bhp/265lb/ft
" I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed, or numbered. My life is my own. "
MY97 UK Turbo 2000 Impreza - 304.1bhp/265lb/ft
" I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed, or numbered. My life is my own. "
What a great first track day!...absolutely loved it! :-D
I was a bit worried about taking my 'pride and joy' out on a track but this was an ideal taster...left me wanting more
Nearly cooked my brakes after only 4 laps in the first session!...managed to tweak my driving style to help them run a bit cooler,they worked much better from then on,and in the second session
Very pleased with the car,both the handling and reliability,considering the miles she has done...but I do need to upgrade the standard brakes!
She handled very well in the poor weather conditions,very forgiving and controllable in slides and very grippy in the dry line that developed during the day
Thanks to Tony for giving me a spin or two in his car :P ...very impressed with his cars power and handling
Shame there were so many problems for others,breakdowns,incidents etc and I hope you all get your cars sorted out ok
Cheers all and see you at the next one
P.S. nice pics everyone!
I was a bit worried about taking my 'pride and joy' out on a track but this was an ideal taster...left me wanting more
Nearly cooked my brakes after only 4 laps in the first session!...managed to tweak my driving style to help them run a bit cooler,they worked much better from then on,and in the second session
Very pleased with the car,both the handling and reliability,considering the miles she has done...but I do need to upgrade the standard brakes!
She handled very well in the poor weather conditions,very forgiving and controllable in slides and very grippy in the dry line that developed during the day
Thanks to Tony for giving me a spin or two in his car :P ...very impressed with his cars power and handling
Shame there were so many problems for others,breakdowns,incidents etc and I hope you all get your cars sorted out ok
Cheers all and see you at the next one
P.S. nice pics everyone!
RobCusco Demon wrote:Most of you won't know of him, but thought I'd draw attention to the young lad driving the tasty Mini Cooper.
Known as Master Blacksheep over on Scoobycity, (his dad is The Black Sheep, and owns a tasty black STI), Nathan only passed his test earlier this year (but has been driving for about 2 years, which is another story! :lol: ), and this was his first time out on track.
The Coop' was perfect for the track, and seemed to humble some "bigger" cars in the bends, in true Mini style
He'll be back in February, so keep an eye out for a little black rocket nipping at your exhausts in the corners!
I didnt say hi to him - the day seemed to fly by - but he seemed to be having a ball and had the biggest grin ... it makes you feel great inside having this much fun
Must enjoyable day
My little old Golf felt abit out of place with some of the machinery out on track today, seeing a big hairy Skyline coming up behind me down the back straight!!! SCARY!!!
It was good to have a different mixture of cars out there, not your average trackday of always looking in your mirrors for Radicals, Caterhams and Elises.
Got to mend the exhaust before next trackday and clean the front of the car from oil ( thank you Mr smokey Volvo!)
Hats off to everyone for a great day.
My little old Golf felt abit out of place with some of the machinery out on track today, seeing a big hairy Skyline coming up behind me down the back straight!!! SCARY!!!
It was good to have a different mixture of cars out there, not your average trackday of always looking in your mirrors for Radicals, Caterhams and Elises.
Got to mend the exhaust before next trackday and clean the front of the car from oil ( thank you Mr smokey Volvo!)
Hats off to everyone for a great day.
-
jungle-jim
- Posts: 2252
- Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:43 pm
- Location: naaaarwich
Sorry about the late post - I was trying to get the photos off the camera last night (4 hours later) :roll:
What a first time as far as track conditions were concerned - scary poos
The car ran well on the trip over having been checked (coolant, oil, pads, tyre pressures etc) that morning, so me and Liam arrived in plenty of time for the booking in and briefing - we even had time to get to grab breakfast and a coffee :-D
As time got on toward the 11:30 slot, the nerves built up, with mental images of me throwing it off into an Armco kamikaze style on the first corner :lol:
Thankfully I had booked the assistance of an instructor (a very wise choice in hindsight) to educate me in ways of not making skyline shaped holes in the scenery - anyway - off we set on the siting laps with the instructor Bens' first advise being "catch up with that lot in front" - where had they gone? - ah they'd be that group of small dots disappearing around Riches corner (oops - sorry to those behind :oops: ).
Having steamed up the pit straight I found myself at Riches corner and the yellow cone, turned in, and looked for the red one (where the hell was it?) - Finally I saw it, aimed at it - got it - drifted to the outside left - well that was easy - accelerate into the Sear corner, brake, yellow cone turn in, apex cone and accelerate gently and SIDEWAYS (was I giving it too much gas! - I'd hardly touched it) I rapidly came to the the conclusion that there was pretty much no grip there - nailed it down the back straight, breaking heavily under the bridge - turned into the Esses - loads of front end grip, back end a little light, kept to the left - the second turn in point came up immediately, swung in right, apexed - allowing the R32 to drift to the outside of the track on the exit, (as per instructions) - backend as light as hell, trying its best come around on me - accelerated into the bombhole, brake, turn in, apex as sweet as a nut, pushed hard into Coram curve - turn in, waited an eternity for the apex cone, finally got it, waited again to get the power on (bit daunted to be confronted by the never ending exit) leading into Russell bend - I just couldn't get the car over to the left for the turn in to Russell and missed the apex drifting well to the right - straightening things out and welling back up the pit straight - first ever lap done - and breath...... [-o<
I did the first few laps on low boost (0.9bar 340bhp ish) before deciding rather foolishly to knock it on to high (1.2bar 400bhp ish) oh boy! did Sear corner become a nightmare - it was a case of brake, turn in, apex, touch the throttle and weeeee around she comes backend all over the shop - neutralize the throttle catch the back end - give her a tiny bit more throttle and off she goes again sideways catch her - I ended up still crabbing half way down revett straight - needless to say I turned the boost down again pretty quickly in favor of control :roll:
I can highly recommend Ben as an instructor his advise was to the point and concise, when followed it led to marked improvements in my progress, despite Bens' best efforts it must have looked like I was out there to act like a mobile chicane (which is probably why no one took any photos of me out on the track - probably thought I was doing track maintenance or something like that) - I promise a lot more balls out performance on the next dry outing though - I know roughly what I'm doing in the dry honest!
Slaphead junior thoroughly enjoyed himself with 2x outings in the course cars - Thanks to everyone who helped out with him whilst I was on the track and I hope he was too big a pain in the butt.
~Mark
What a first time as far as track conditions were concerned - scary poos
The car ran well on the trip over having been checked (coolant, oil, pads, tyre pressures etc) that morning, so me and Liam arrived in plenty of time for the booking in and briefing - we even had time to get to grab breakfast and a coffee :-D
As time got on toward the 11:30 slot, the nerves built up, with mental images of me throwing it off into an Armco kamikaze style on the first corner :lol:
Thankfully I had booked the assistance of an instructor (a very wise choice in hindsight) to educate me in ways of not making skyline shaped holes in the scenery - anyway - off we set on the siting laps with the instructor Bens' first advise being "catch up with that lot in front" - where had they gone? - ah they'd be that group of small dots disappearing around Riches corner (oops - sorry to those behind :oops: ).
Having steamed up the pit straight I found myself at Riches corner and the yellow cone, turned in, and looked for the red one (where the hell was it?) - Finally I saw it, aimed at it - got it - drifted to the outside left - well that was easy - accelerate into the Sear corner, brake, yellow cone turn in, apex cone and accelerate gently and SIDEWAYS (was I giving it too much gas! - I'd hardly touched it) I rapidly came to the the conclusion that there was pretty much no grip there - nailed it down the back straight, breaking heavily under the bridge - turned into the Esses - loads of front end grip, back end a little light, kept to the left - the second turn in point came up immediately, swung in right, apexed - allowing the R32 to drift to the outside of the track on the exit, (as per instructions) - backend as light as hell, trying its best come around on me - accelerated into the bombhole, brake, turn in, apex as sweet as a nut, pushed hard into Coram curve - turn in, waited an eternity for the apex cone, finally got it, waited again to get the power on (bit daunted to be confronted by the never ending exit) leading into Russell bend - I just couldn't get the car over to the left for the turn in to Russell and missed the apex drifting well to the right - straightening things out and welling back up the pit straight - first ever lap done - and breath...... [-o<
I did the first few laps on low boost (0.9bar 340bhp ish) before deciding rather foolishly to knock it on to high (1.2bar 400bhp ish) oh boy! did Sear corner become a nightmare - it was a case of brake, turn in, apex, touch the throttle and weeeee around she comes backend all over the shop - neutralize the throttle catch the back end - give her a tiny bit more throttle and off she goes again sideways catch her - I ended up still crabbing half way down revett straight - needless to say I turned the boost down again pretty quickly in favor of control :roll:
I can highly recommend Ben as an instructor his advise was to the point and concise, when followed it led to marked improvements in my progress, despite Bens' best efforts it must have looked like I was out there to act like a mobile chicane (which is probably why no one took any photos of me out on the track - probably thought I was doing track maintenance or something like that) - I promise a lot more balls out performance on the next dry outing though - I know roughly what I'm doing in the dry honest!
Slaphead junior thoroughly enjoyed himself with 2x outings in the course cars - Thanks to everyone who helped out with him whilst I was on the track and I hope he was too big a pain in the butt.
~Mark
There's nothing that shouts "Poor Workmanship" more than wrinkles in the Gaffer tape.....
Glad you enjoyed the instruction. I've known Ben Devlin and his family for years and he will be my personal coach next year for all things automotive 
If he's quick enough to be seriously competitive in the American Le Mans series, he's quick enough to help me out too.
If he's quick enough to be seriously competitive in the American Le Mans series, he's quick enough to help me out too.http://www.auto-genie.co.uk
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing