Well, that was interesting
I'll have to add photos tomorrow but hopefully this text will give you a flavour of things ahead.
I arrived about 11am to find Gary and Dan huddled around the Evo 9 race car I mentioned above; the one I had incorrectly called a 7. The car had been in Gary's for various bits of Motec trickery and was being tested before the owner's next race 'oop north' in a week or so.
The assembled cars were about as disparate as any single day I have seen at Snetterton. Loads of Evo's, Honda Civics everywhere due to their Cup double header, a few Lotuii (?) and even an old Ferrari 308 warhorse was there. Add in a few Caterham type things, a Seat Leon SuperCopa, Ronnie Amis's Cosworth and a V8 MGB and you can see the variety of cars all competing for line, corner space and general Snett tarmac. There was a break in track duties for a bit so I wandered over to see the Civics up close, as they are something that a couple of people I know are very interested in racing next year.
Out of about 15 cars in that area of paddock, I saw everything from a near fast road spec car up to what looked like a refugee from Tskuba! Basic eg6 1.6's with bolt in cages through to a turbocharged DC2 engined CRX (although that's competing in TA). It was like high revving heaven! I met with a guy who has his very first race tomorrow, after several seasons of trackdays and he was absolutely bricking it
We talked about his car, he explained the openness of the available modifications within that series and he was really open and honest about costs.
When they went out on circuit, they went really well. Bloody flat through the corners and really quite quick on the straights (185hp in a car that weighs 1050kgs with the driver and ballast so they should do). I will be having another bloody good snout around them tomorrow and with trackday versions for sale from sub 2k you never know.............
I returned to garage 17 to find the Evo 9 needing parts and somehow these bits were being shipped immediately for delivery to the track so that they could be fitted, enabling the poorly race car to get back out there for further testing!! Unreal customer service I thought. This break in action for APT was all the excuse Gary needed to dash 25 miles across Norfolk to collect his own car in the APT lorry, and then return to the track for a bit of a hoon
A pretty quick checkover and the car was loaded up, and hossed back to the circuit.
We arrived to see that the gearchange cable had been delivered but further complications meant that Gary & Dan needed more parts before they could get the near 700hp '9' out on track, so with no time wasted Gary got his '7' noise tested and took the '9' race guy out for a guided tour of the track, the lines and all things EVO
One or two laps of APT terror, and they returned to the pits, the passenger stumbled out looking green and beckoned his son to get in! Gary was grinning as they swapped over and then roared off for another few laps. I spoke to the race guy and he commented that although the specs should be very similar, he thought that Gary's car drove and behaved completely differently; far more stable, loads more torque and Gary's driving was way more confident, assured and trusting in his car.
Another red flag incident stopped play, I think it was Bo Nielsen's TA Astra @ Coram, and this allowed time for another walk up and down the pitlane, and a chat to a guy with a gorgeous 300zx with a NOS bottle in the back that would have looked about right in max1 or BigFil's car!! An immense car with such a brutal exhaust noise.....
I popped back to see Dave Rowe perving around Gary's EVO in the pitlane. For those that don't know, Dave built the immense
S1 Audi Quattro that was everywhere online recently and will, he assures me, be christened next year at some point. It was pretty mad to think that here was Dave Rowe, an Aussie mapping legend getting down on his hands and knees to look around Gary's Evo, and he was asking loads of questions about diffs, wide track options and canards! I guess I am a bit complacent about Gary's knowledge and skills when I've known him as long as I have, but seeing Dave getting really animated about the car was a kick up the arse for me (Still, at least I cleaned the car during the week
and have kept the team fed and watered in recent times!)
I got to meet some interesting people today; racers, TA wannabe's and proper clever motorsport people and I also caught up with James Spicer, new duty manager for the track, and an old mate Mark who is now full time at the track on the marshalling and safety side of things.
The paddock was filling nicely, the drift boys had started to do their thing on the main track, and the TA staff were putting up the last of the merchandise. The weather had started to get wet and windy, and I cried off leaving Gary and Dan to work out how three race cars would go into one race lorry! I suspect that the lads will still be at the circuit now, and they'll be buying even more diesel before the days out!
I've got permission to use the circuits WIFI tomorrow, so as long I remember my laptop and camera, I should be able to get some pics, times and gossip
Havent found how to get the evo in tho!
