Silverstone 26th June....
- Thread starter Big Dave
- Start date
frogisland
New member
Lets hope for dry one....although there are some interesting lines for the wet [
]
JP
]JP
frogisland
New member
Superb trackday! What a variety of experience was had; warm, perfectly dry in the morning with sticky track tyres, very wet for a few hours with road tyres, then dry with road tyres.
Silverstone South is a great circuit, very fast straights and corners, a tight left with a slow right but flowing out into one fast corner. A couple of chicanes - one of which is right/left then immediately a fourth gear right, get the car straight, down into third then onto a long fifth gear straight. This last chicane is fantastic fun, get the preceding right hand corner correct and you can go through at 80-90 mph straightlining the two corners by using about a metre of the rumble strips. The right hand side of the car gets thrown up inthe air, then the left does the same, get the car back down on all four and cut the next immediate right hand by 50-60 cm whilst fighting with all the imbalance that is going through the car. Fantastic. The circuit really does suit these cars; fast corners, torque and power for the long straights...not forgetting you need some great brakes also.
Had my 18" DZ02's on in the morning - performed well, although the circuit is hard on the front left tyre. They do not wear as well as my D01J's, but was happy with the grip. Was also surprised with the Pagid Yellows i use (on Big Reds) - have always preferred Blues, the bite has never been quite there with the Yellows...until now. Flippin heck - braked early into one of the chicanes, realised early on, let off marginally, carried too much speed forward and had to stamp on the brakes - nearly went through the windscreeen! I think the speed of the circuit and the long high speed braking had really warmed the brakes up, they were pretty hot - much more than i have experienced at Donington or Oulton for example. I found that i could knock 25-30% off my braking distance - very scary trying to get used to it, especially trying to gauge exactly at what point i neede to brake - and it had to be hard! I did get in wrong a couple of times, perhaps braked a metre too late and it caused big problems, tried to turn in, could feel the back end coming around to say hello and found i had to 'coast' to try to gain it back in! Oh, nearly forgot, Scandanavian flicks! Oh yes, quick left flick then turn right into the chicane -worked well to get the back end to sit down and grip.......until later
Well, then it rained, really rained, so we were back on road tyres. Not to worry, with no rubber in the suspension (rose jointed + solid bushes), how hard can this be.....very. Took half a dozen laps to build up confidence....then saw Dave facing the wrong way - laughed at him - probably as a result of over ambitious power sliding []. Got around to the same corner on the next lap.....and did the same []. I always find the wet days good for getting to know the car, your and its limits, new lines off the racing lines with more grip, finding the grip and braking limits.....and of course a few power slides (although they always feel more extreme sat in the driver seat than they look as a spectator). I've just read on another forum that some guy in an e36 M3 went home when it rained. He said something about it being slippy, and not being able to learn much in these conditions - i certainly learnt a huge amount; control, composure, consistency, smoothness. He is obviously a driving God []
By mid afternoon the circuit started to dry out, come 3.30pm it was about 90% dry. Well, well, well, never realised you could have so much fun on road tyres. Me chasing Dave, Dave chasing me. Both pushing the car to its absolute limits; massive understeer, massive oversteer, four wheel drifting mid corner, reduced grip under braking, turning in too fast, back ends all over the place. All controlled of course []. Oh and the Scandanavian flicks.....now on road tyres it was more of a cross with Stig Blomqvist an d JP going into too fast (forgetting i did not have the grip of the DZ02's [8|]) resulting in something Mr Bean would perform.....with Dave behind me making the same mistake. I was all over the place, but kept the car under some control and got through the chicane.....however, all i could hear was trye screeching - first time i have seen Dave in all three mirrors! (not that i usually see him in any mirrors [])
All in all an absolutely great day. Thoroughly enjoyed it - and with great company (we are very similar in speed on circuit and tend to know how each other reacts.....although we would both argue the other has some interesting lines[]). Would highly recommend Silverstone South, and would perhaps put it intothe top three circuits purely out of sheer enjoyment and the suitablility of the 68. (despite it being short - around 1.40? minutes and no garages - did we say it rained...alot)
Myself and Dave may look at going again later in the Autumn if anyone cares to join.
All the best
JP
Silverstone South is a great circuit, very fast straights and corners, a tight left with a slow right but flowing out into one fast corner. A couple of chicanes - one of which is right/left then immediately a fourth gear right, get the car straight, down into third then onto a long fifth gear straight. This last chicane is fantastic fun, get the preceding right hand corner correct and you can go through at 80-90 mph straightlining the two corners by using about a metre of the rumble strips. The right hand side of the car gets thrown up inthe air, then the left does the same, get the car back down on all four and cut the next immediate right hand by 50-60 cm whilst fighting with all the imbalance that is going through the car. Fantastic. The circuit really does suit these cars; fast corners, torque and power for the long straights...not forgetting you need some great brakes also.
Had my 18" DZ02's on in the morning - performed well, although the circuit is hard on the front left tyre. They do not wear as well as my D01J's, but was happy with the grip. Was also surprised with the Pagid Yellows i use (on Big Reds) - have always preferred Blues, the bite has never been quite there with the Yellows...until now. Flippin heck - braked early into one of the chicanes, realised early on, let off marginally, carried too much speed forward and had to stamp on the brakes - nearly went through the windscreeen! I think the speed of the circuit and the long high speed braking had really warmed the brakes up, they were pretty hot - much more than i have experienced at Donington or Oulton for example. I found that i could knock 25-30% off my braking distance - very scary trying to get used to it, especially trying to gauge exactly at what point i neede to brake - and it had to be hard! I did get in wrong a couple of times, perhaps braked a metre too late and it caused big problems, tried to turn in, could feel the back end coming around to say hello and found i had to 'coast' to try to gain it back in! Oh, nearly forgot, Scandanavian flicks! Oh yes, quick left flick then turn right into the chicane -worked well to get the back end to sit down and grip.......until later
Well, then it rained, really rained, so we were back on road tyres. Not to worry, with no rubber in the suspension (rose jointed + solid bushes), how hard can this be.....very. Took half a dozen laps to build up confidence....then saw Dave facing the wrong way - laughed at him - probably as a result of over ambitious power sliding [
]. Got around to the same corner on the next lap.....and did the same []. I always find the wet days good for getting to know the car, your and its limits, new lines off the racing lines with more grip, finding the grip and braking limits.....and of course a few power slides (although they always feel more extreme sat in the driver seat than they look as a spectator). I've just read on another forum that some guy in an e36 M3 went home when it rained. He said something about it being slippy, and not being able to learn much in these conditions - i certainly learnt a huge amount; control, composure, consistency, smoothness. He is obviously a driving God []By mid afternoon the circuit started to dry out, come 3.30pm it was about 90% dry. Well, well, well, never realised you could have so much fun on road tyres. Me chasing Dave, Dave chasing me. Both pushing the car to its absolute limits; massive understeer, massive oversteer, four wheel drifting mid corner, reduced grip under braking, turning in too fast, back ends all over the place. All controlled of course [
]. Oh and the Scandanavian flicks.....now on road tyres it was more of a cross with Stig Blomqvist an d JP going into too fast (forgetting i did not have the grip of the DZ02's [8|]) resulting in something Mr Bean would perform.....with Dave behind me making the same mistake. I was all over the place, but kept the car under some control and got through the chicane.....however, all i could hear was trye screeching - first time i have seen Dave in all three mirrors! (not that i usually see him in any mirrors [])All in all an absolutely great day. Thoroughly enjoyed it - and with great company (we are very similar in speed on circuit and tend to know how each other reacts.....although we would both argue the other has some interesting lines[
]). Would highly recommend Silverstone South, and would perhaps put it intothe top three circuits purely out of sheer enjoyment and the suitablility of the 68. (despite it being short - around 1.40? minutes and no garages - did we say it rained...alot)Myself and Dave may look at going again later in the Autumn if anyone cares to join.
All the best
JP
Paz
New member
Quality post JP, I spoke to Dave on Saturday and I got the impression he thoroughly enjoyed himself.
I've only done one trackday in my 68 and am still very green with rwd but I'd love to try a quick circuit later in the year.
I'll be at Castle Combe on July 25th, though it's a VW/Audi day they're letting Porsche's on too if anyone fancies it.
http://www.autometrix.co.uk/trackdays.html
I've only done one trackday in my 68 and am still very green with rwd but I'd love to try a quick circuit later in the year.
I'll be at Castle Combe on July 25th, though it's a VW/Audi day they're letting Porsche's on too if anyone fancies it.
http://www.autometrix.co.uk/trackdays.html
Big Dave
New member
Well JP. Looks like theres nothing more to add...
Yes it was a great day...LOTS of finding the cars limits , in a controled manner, of course...[][][8|].
Whats all this about "(not that i usually see him in any mirrors [])". Thats because im always in front...[][][][][][]...
Why oh why do people go home when it rains.. That is sometimes the best time...
I was actually driving the car round using just my fingertips, as ive heard some " well respected race driver" talk about finess + not using strong inputs in the wet....It "seemed" to work, some of the time, [spins not include],,,after all "we" are still learning...
I think this track layout as Jason says, REALY suits our cars, especially the fast chicane before heading back onto hangar straight.. FABULOUS...[8D][][8D][][8D][].
Heres to the next one....[][][][]
Yes it was a great day...LOTS of finding the cars limits , in a controled manner, of course...[
][][8|].Whats all this about "(not that i usually see him in any mirrors [
])". Thats because im always in front...[][][][][][]...Why oh why do people go home when it rains.. That is sometimes the best time...
I was actually driving the car round using just my fingertips, as ive heard some " well respected race driver" talk about finess + not using strong inputs in the wet....It "seemed" to work, some of the time, [spins not include],,,after all "we" are still learning...
I think this track layout as Jason says, REALY suits our cars, especially the fast chicane before heading back onto hangar straight.. FABULOUS...[8D][
][8D][][8D][].Heres to the next one....[
][][][]
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