Cadwell Park Good Friday 21st March MSV
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Mr Fletcher
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:34 pm
- Location: wherever i'm needed
- Contact:
well now the adrenalin has started to ebb away i will try and sum up the day;
we left home at 5am to meander our way up to cadwell park , the journey was fairly uneventful, the nervous anticipation building as we got closer with the main concern being that the circuit was tight and twisty and rain was forecast.it must be something of a msv trade mark as the wind was blowing a gale (but no rain, fingers crossed) . we got unloaded and signed in, the briefing was informative without being patronising , the staff were pleasant and helpful andrea bumped into Damon Hill and said a quick hello and it was then off to the sighting laps.There was a good mixture of cars ,Radicals,caterfields ,hot hatches and some nice road going vehicles honda's,bmw's etc
We met up with tommysti and chris the co owner of their trackcar had a quick chat over coffee but unfortunatly never managed to get on track together.
Having never been to cadwell before these were going to be an important couple of laps for us to try and get some idea of the track layout . wow.. I went out and had a short stint as andrea was having some instruction which she found very helpful and informative giving her great confidence in a very short space of time.
The day was starting well there where hardly any disruptions and track etiquette along with driving standard was good.I had got myself some tyres for use in the wet so i decided to scrub these in before i needed to use them in anger , after doing a stint each we decided to leave them on as there was a good chance of rain before the day was out and we were getting a good feel for them so would know within a bit how they would perform in the wet. we stopped for a slightly early lunch as my stomach was telling me 5am was a long time ago and the car needed more fuel.
All refuelled and ready to go the spots of rain started, andrea went out first so she could be on track as it was getting wet, she had a good session and was pleased with driving in the wet , the sky was turning black and it was my turn out on track , can you be excited and scared at the same time , i couldn't smell the fear so i must have just been excited , then the heavens opened i arrived in the assembly area to be told that the circuit was closed and some fuel had been spilt on the track!
but to my relief it was only closed to recover a car . oh well here goes a deep breath and i exit the pit lane, the first bit of track through the trees was bloody slippery and i drove the rest of the lap like miss daisy building the speed and testing the grip without sailing of into the armco although my backside tried to chew lumps out of my seat a couple of times where it nipped up , it took me about five laps i think to get a very good feel for the grip available to me and i have to admit no matter how strange this may sound to some i had one of my , if not the most enjoyable driving experiences to date , it was as much from the learning point of view as the driving,in respect of having never driven the car in the wet and never at cadwell it was truely superb, a trackday i shall remember for a very long time.
that's enough of my self indulgent babbling , more's the point when are we going back...
cheers
jason
we left home at 5am to meander our way up to cadwell park , the journey was fairly uneventful, the nervous anticipation building as we got closer with the main concern being that the circuit was tight and twisty and rain was forecast.it must be something of a msv trade mark as the wind was blowing a gale (but no rain, fingers crossed) . we got unloaded and signed in, the briefing was informative without being patronising , the staff were pleasant and helpful andrea bumped into Damon Hill and said a quick hello and it was then off to the sighting laps.There was a good mixture of cars ,Radicals,caterfields ,hot hatches and some nice road going vehicles honda's,bmw's etc
We met up with tommysti and chris the co owner of their trackcar had a quick chat over coffee but unfortunatly never managed to get on track together.
Having never been to cadwell before these were going to be an important couple of laps for us to try and get some idea of the track layout . wow.. I went out and had a short stint as andrea was having some instruction which she found very helpful and informative giving her great confidence in a very short space of time.
The day was starting well there where hardly any disruptions and track etiquette along with driving standard was good.I had got myself some tyres for use in the wet so i decided to scrub these in before i needed to use them in anger , after doing a stint each we decided to leave them on as there was a good chance of rain before the day was out and we were getting a good feel for them so would know within a bit how they would perform in the wet. we stopped for a slightly early lunch as my stomach was telling me 5am was a long time ago and the car needed more fuel.
All refuelled and ready to go the spots of rain started, andrea went out first so she could be on track as it was getting wet, she had a good session and was pleased with driving in the wet , the sky was turning black and it was my turn out on track , can you be excited and scared at the same time , i couldn't smell the fear so i must have just been excited , then the heavens opened i arrived in the assembly area to be told that the circuit was closed and some fuel had been spilt on the track!
but to my relief it was only closed to recover a car . oh well here goes a deep breath and i exit the pit lane, the first bit of track through the trees was bloody slippery and i drove the rest of the lap like miss daisy building the speed and testing the grip without sailing of into the armco although my backside tried to chew lumps out of my seat a couple of times where it nipped up , it took me about five laps i think to get a very good feel for the grip available to me and i have to admit no matter how strange this may sound to some i had one of my , if not the most enjoyable driving experiences to date , it was as much from the learning point of view as the driving,in respect of having never driven the car in the wet and never at cadwell it was truely superb, a trackday i shall remember for a very long time.
that's enough of my self indulgent babbling , more's the point when are we going back...
cheers
jason
[SIGPIC] [/SIGPIC]
http://www.cuttersmachinerysales.co.uk
http://www.cuttersmachinerysales.co.uk
-
Mr Fletcher
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:34 pm
- Location: wherever i'm needed
- Contact:
yes tommy it must of been andrea ;
cheers
jason
cheers
jason
[SIGPIC] [/SIGPIC]
http://www.cuttersmachinerysales.co.uk
http://www.cuttersmachinerysales.co.uk
Well, I'm now up in Cheshire and have had a chance to review the video that we took, and consider how the car performed on the day.
Firstly, the track though. And what a track. Cadwell really does deserve the nickname mini-Nurburgring! Elevation changes galore, fantastic complex corners, some real high speed, arse clinching corners! There is very little run off in parts and where there is run off, it's dangerous and not something that you really want to ever run off in to! However after a few laps learning the track and the confidence soon built to be able to switch off the traction control. In fact, now that we are learning the car more and more, it seems our own reactions are faster than the crude traction control the Beemer provides.
Real highlights of the track for me are Coppice after the start finish straight. The start of Coppice is the bottom of a valley so as you go up the valley's side into the left of Coppice you have lots of grip to make use of. It's definitely a corner where the Beemer can do more than 100mph but my balls and butt cheeks could only manage around 80 odd. Chris obviously has larger balls than me because he was taking Coppice around 10mph more than me. Through Coppice and you're into a double apex right hander of Charlies where again, the Beemer's new suspension and lightened chassis gave prodigious grip. Into Park Straight and hard on the gas all the way to a late, hard brake into Park. This is where the new brakes just beggared belief time and again. Standing on them very hard, there was massive bite and huge stopping power hauling you down from just over 100mph and into Park and Chris Curve where, yet again, the lateral G was incredible. On to the Gooseneck where we could have been much faster in the left-right transition whilst going downhill but we didn't want to push the car too hard since there's still a huge learning curve to climb.
Downhill to Mansfield where the ABS cut in every time and then a hard blat through into 4th gear (with a bit of sideways action in 2nd on the exit of Mansfield) and hard on the brakes again into the hard left and right up towards the Mountain. Over the Mountain in 2nd always made the back end sidestep and on towards Hall Bends which were tricky and wet. We had some good speed through there when it was dry, but in the afternoon when the rain came, Hall Bends required a lot of respect. Finally into the Hairpin and round Barn which I tried to stay in 3rd for, since I always found myself too high in the revs in 2nd but alas, my balls weren't big enough (again!). And that completes the most memorable circuit I've ever driven after the Ring.
On to the car. It's quite unbelievable how much difference all the work has made. Whereas I had been a bit unsure of the super high spring rates we have on the suspension, on track it all made sense. The car is now super grippy and has a slight understeer bias which is the complete opposite of how it behaves on the road. Really very surprising since it's still on road tyres. More tweaking is needed and I think we might even swap out the rear springs for shorter ones of the same rate. The new suspension provided great body control that can be further improved with a few more clicks on the dampers - we didn't get the chance to keep firming them up due to the rain. As the damper set up stands now, it's quite compliant and provides a lot of confidence. As the damper rates are increased I think the confidence may come down as the car will be quicker to snap - we shall see.
Finally, engine performance. The intake mods really make themselves noticed on track. The car pulls all the way through the revs now and there's also plenty of low down grunt for those 'funny' corners where you're just too high in the revs in 2nd.
The video still requires editing and posting. It seems both our fastest laps are the same at 1:54. There's a lot that can come off those times and we'll look forward to doing just that in June when we go back for round2!
Firstly, the track though. And what a track. Cadwell really does deserve the nickname mini-Nurburgring! Elevation changes galore, fantastic complex corners, some real high speed, arse clinching corners! There is very little run off in parts and where there is run off, it's dangerous and not something that you really want to ever run off in to! However after a few laps learning the track and the confidence soon built to be able to switch off the traction control. In fact, now that we are learning the car more and more, it seems our own reactions are faster than the crude traction control the Beemer provides.
Real highlights of the track for me are Coppice after the start finish straight. The start of Coppice is the bottom of a valley so as you go up the valley's side into the left of Coppice you have lots of grip to make use of. It's definitely a corner where the Beemer can do more than 100mph but my balls and butt cheeks could only manage around 80 odd. Chris obviously has larger balls than me because he was taking Coppice around 10mph more than me. Through Coppice and you're into a double apex right hander of Charlies where again, the Beemer's new suspension and lightened chassis gave prodigious grip. Into Park Straight and hard on the gas all the way to a late, hard brake into Park. This is where the new brakes just beggared belief time and again. Standing on them very hard, there was massive bite and huge stopping power hauling you down from just over 100mph and into Park and Chris Curve where, yet again, the lateral G was incredible. On to the Gooseneck where we could have been much faster in the left-right transition whilst going downhill but we didn't want to push the car too hard since there's still a huge learning curve to climb.
Downhill to Mansfield where the ABS cut in every time and then a hard blat through into 4th gear (with a bit of sideways action in 2nd on the exit of Mansfield) and hard on the brakes again into the hard left and right up towards the Mountain. Over the Mountain in 2nd always made the back end sidestep and on towards Hall Bends which were tricky and wet. We had some good speed through there when it was dry, but in the afternoon when the rain came, Hall Bends required a lot of respect. Finally into the Hairpin and round Barn which I tried to stay in 3rd for, since I always found myself too high in the revs in 2nd but alas, my balls weren't big enough (again!). And that completes the most memorable circuit I've ever driven after the Ring.
On to the car. It's quite unbelievable how much difference all the work has made. Whereas I had been a bit unsure of the super high spring rates we have on the suspension, on track it all made sense. The car is now super grippy and has a slight understeer bias which is the complete opposite of how it behaves on the road. Really very surprising since it's still on road tyres. More tweaking is needed and I think we might even swap out the rear springs for shorter ones of the same rate. The new suspension provided great body control that can be further improved with a few more clicks on the dampers - we didn't get the chance to keep firming them up due to the rain. As the damper set up stands now, it's quite compliant and provides a lot of confidence. As the damper rates are increased I think the confidence may come down as the car will be quicker to snap - we shall see.
Finally, engine performance. The intake mods really make themselves noticed on track. The car pulls all the way through the revs now and there's also plenty of low down grunt for those 'funny' corners where you're just too high in the revs in 2nd.
The video still requires editing and posting. It seems both our fastest laps are the same at 1:54. There's a lot that can come off those times and we'll look forward to doing just that in June when we go back for round2!