North Weald Sprint 28th Aug

[jeffw]

Had an, unexpectedly, sunny day today at North Weald. We where using a modified track which caused all sorts of issues and meant we ended up having 3 practise runs and 3 timed runs. Lots of people wrong route during practise and I was actually FTD after first practise

My runs where
Practise 1 87.4
Practise 2 87.8
Practise 3 87.5

So obviously I wasn't learning much! The opposition in my class where down into the 84/83 secs so I need to step it up a gear.

Timed 1 86.8

An improvement but still some way off. I dropped the front tyre pressures by 2PSi to 15 and the rears to 14PSI. Went up two clicks on the rear dampers and

Timed 2 85.1
Followed by

Timed 3 84.9secs

I ended up 3rd in class (of four) and 7th overall which doesn't sound very good but...

This is the first time I've not had an issue all year plus North Weald doesn't really suit live-axle cars because of the large number of bumps.

Lee was out in the class before mine so I'll let him tell his story

Video to follow.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Was a bizzarre day, the organisers were forced to ammend the course due to the MSA ruling the last one too dangerous, so the track layout was new. Only problems were, it was different to the paperwork we had, some of the staff even were not sure of the route themselves and the convoy runs took people the wrong route so no wonder after 2 practice rund maybe 80% of people were going the wrong way!! When you got it right , I thought it was a great layout but lots of people were getting stressed to say the least... Mainly though they were not paying attention watching the others just constantly moaning until their next run which they equally f***ed up!!

I did several wrong routes myself, but mostly they were from overdriving the car trying to beat Jeff Must point out, Jeff drove really well and don't think he wrong routed at all in six runs??

Anyway, just prior to first practice I had a front ARB fitted to my car by Rob Farley who makes them, and adjusted the damping to suit. The transformation was amazing, I wish I had done in 6 years ago. Problem was for 6 years I had zero understeer and roll-oversteer at high speed, now the thing was flat through the fast stuff and awesome but understeered in the slower stuff which was new to me, trying to drive at 10/10th like that on your first go is not ideal. The ARB also made the front airbourne on North Wealds nasty bumps, and threw me off-line a few times but going into the last couple of runs I was only 0.8 seconds behind Jeffs best time. Then I span and Jeff went 1.5 seconds faster..

But I won my class ( the class below Jeffs ) and got my first ever trophy, so a good day. I don't want to ( read CAN'T AFFORD to ) start buying the super sticky tyres etc. which Jeffs class all use and give them a second or two advantage, but I feel to win regularly I will need to if the top boys turn up. But as today they stayed at home I will glady accept their trophy

[jeffw]

Video of my fastest run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FVswc2 ... ature=plcp

[greenwoo]

bloody hell, i'd have got lost too!

[Mattijs]

Awesome, Jeff! Great sound, too. What's your 0-60 time there? 1.5 seconds? Damn! And you're cornering at 1.5 G? Impressive stuff!

[DJ.]

Well done both of you

Having watched the video, it looks ridiculously bumpy, and as Mark said, I can see why people got lost!
Surely there must be a clearer way of marking out the route.

Duncan

[Furyblade_Lee]

Jeff, did not realise you got into the 84's, nice. My 87.5 matched your practice times, you saved face... Well done!

RE: the course, yes different coloured cones may help, but if you spend time to study the course then it is not too difficult. However, when the red mist comes down.... I was comfortable with the route and about 20 seconds in my car jumped out of gear. Once I got it back I lost focus, and in the technical bit I just went blank and went wrong. Sounds crazy, but that is part of the game. Some people forget that memorising the course is part of the challenge. And believe me there was a few angry stressed peeps there. One guy in particular was bang out of order being so angry i thought he was going to lamp someone. But we had fun eh Jeffrey???

[Furyblade_Lee]

Joking apart, that course is pretty much what you do on a Carlimits training day, all against the clock in the name of fun. It would probobly take Mark himself to drum up enough interest, I tried but failed but if enough people go we can get the cost somewhere between £40 and £80 for the day. Or we hijak a general day with other/differen/more cars and it is only £39. Great value, even if all you fancy is knowing what your car does when you turn hard left at 100mph......

[jeffw]

Awesome, Jeff! Great sound, too. What's your 0-60 time there? 1.5 seconds? Damn! And you're cornering at 1.5 G? Impressive stuff!

0-60 is around 3-3.5 depending on the surface and how brutal I want to be. It will do 0-100 in under 8 secs now (which is pretty quick). List 1b tyres are good for around 1.5g compared with normal road tyres which give up at 1-1.1g.

The course is easier than you would think. I did 6 runs, all with a time so no 'wrong route'. It is all about knowing where the next gate should be and looking for it. Lots of people where going through one of the gates and looking the wrong way for the next one....hence they end up seeing and going in the wrong direction.

Lee
I ended up with 84.93 and if you look at the video there is two areas where I could easily have gone faster, entry into the first chicane and the return, hi-speed, left hander. The car is capable of doing 81-82 secs on that course....I just need to drive it better.

A Carlimits Day may inspire some of you to get out and Sprint your kit cars as they where almost made for it....

[zxr400]

That is one fast car jeff,nice drive you must have a built in satnav,