Negative camber solution

Yep you will get that especially in the corners for the simple reason that racers or drivers of Caterham type stuff just don't expect anything road car based to be catching them in the bends.

My race car is blooming awful in these types of conditions, 0 traction and tip toe round the bends.

 

You black flagged for that??? Really??

I have done that a few times but never got called in! Depends who was Clerk of the course that day???

I ended up backwards once trying to avoid a blue Saxo that was binned in front of me coming up to druids and only got a calm down from a marshal which I thought was harsh seeing as that day black and blue saxos were driving like knobs that day!!!


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I did Brands early December only managed to get a couple of reasonable laps all day, so many cars on the track and not a big enough track, so easy to catch other cars up under brakes and in the corners, then hold you out on the straight, i want to do the full circuit but it is so expensive, will do it once, one day.

 

what are the costs for brands Indy and brands full?

 

Brands GP £475-£499 and Indy £139-£249

Got a full day at the ring (trackday) for £449

 

so again we end up massively overpriced in the UK. lol wow.

 

I have had more fun at Abingdon than at Brands and it's only £135 all dates

 

Whilst we are on the subject Brands is my least favourite track in the UK, not helped by the usual nightmare M25 journey to get there. Only thing I liked about going there was the Thistle hotel by the entrance. Its a shame as it could be great but everything about it is just one PITA after another.

 

On my race car I can wind off the shocks but that doesn't really seem to help much as they are GAZ units and don't do a great deal other than stop bounciness anyway. Unbolting the ARBs seems to be about the only thing that works much. No the real problem is 4 degrees -ve camber up front and no LSD out back, interestingly I hated how that car drove in the dry with a plate type LSD fitted as it just made the understeer 10x worse, really beautiful balance with the open diff but just no traction in the wet. Its a real compromise but the thing is crazy now in the dry, data logged 1.5g at 55 mph through a hairpin in that car and managed a peak of 1.63g at low speed.

The real shock for me was racing back in 2013 on well worn scrubbed Pirrelli slicks in the rain at Silverstone. Honestly I felt they worked better than Michelin Cups! The original ones. Terrifying but they did work OK up to a point, at least I could catch the car when they were going unlike the Cups which tended to lift up on the moisture and just endlessly slide. Odd that.

BTW on the Brands thing the track itself is great its everything else and I am a Londoner by birth and all that so should feel at home at the UKs #1 geezer track.

 

To be fair the high GP Brands price is simply down to supply / demand economics which are the consequence of the noise restrictions due to the proximity of the forest loop to residents. I think the UK track day market is quite competitive.

 

Brands GP is a superb circuit, it's like Oulton but more scary. Its a shame it's so rarely used for racing and trackdays. To be honest I wasn't aware it was used for trackdays until now...

 

Brands GP is one of the best tracks in the UK, similar level to Oulton, raced there countless times. That said, I couldn't care less for Indy.

Edit: back to topic?

 

It's an air field, there are parts of the track like the main runway have massive grip in the wet, you come on to it from normal tarmac with a bit of under-steer and then there is so much grip, mass's of run off, there is only one point you could have a problem.
Only down side is no garages, i was a bit sceptical about air field circuits but this one is great, they are mainly held on Fridays how are you fixed for the 24th of March ?????

 

No dry sump, very lucky with those cars that they don't require any engine modifications for racing. The newer ones, 986/996 though need a bit of everything.

You're correct it wasn't that wet. Its worth telling the story as I ended up with my car in a picture in Autosport magazine! The day was dry up to the race just not very warm, we all lined up in the assembly area and it started drizzling, harder and harder. Everyone on slicks. The one guy who had his own team dedicated to him dived into the pits on the green flag lap, the CofC gave us 2 green flag laps due the conditions but given that many where in 3 or 4 car teams or like me with Mrs NJH and a mate no real option to dive into the pits and switch to wets as I reckon it would have taken us several minutes to do the switch. That one driver was Mark Sumpter, he started from the pit lane ISTR and overtook me round the outside of Chapel which was the photograph that got into Autosport. ISTR that by the end of the first race lap proper or part way into the 2nd he was leading the race, no real contest but a nice story that weekend for the club motorsport round up. That experience convinced me and quite a few others I know that slicks have no place in club motorsport, IMHE its pretty rare to have a proper wash out race weekend but I have been to or done loads where it rains a bit at some point and as many know proper competition wets are mental fast tyres in damp conditions let along in proper rain, noting of course that anything less than significant wetness cooks them. But hey guys with their own team can afford a couple of grand a weekend on tyres.

 

What about 28th April
i have Oulton on the 18th and 20th is Silverstone and then you want me to do Brands on the 24th

 

I don't know you might get away with it
I ended up chasing a track prepped Z4m in the wet around there, we had a great time about 15 laps in total and we wern't black flagged or told off and we were going for it

 

Are you doing Silverstone 20 Feb btw ?

 

Me yes, can't wait, having a practice at Oulton on the 18th not been on track since my engine change and remap

 

Hi Ian, yes I know you're coming, bloody long way for you though. Wondering if git man is though?

 

It will depend if his Chav mate is going, he needs a hand to hold

All trackdays are a long way for me, Castle Combe is my closest and that is 144 miles an over night every trackday

 

You choose one from here and let me know, i'll hold your hand

http://www.on-track.co.uk/cgi-bin/eventSearch.cgi

 

I use it all the time, it's great to find days at tracks or tracks for certain days, well worth having to hand

 

Hi Sam, never did enough or had a good enough go at it for a season sadly but my racing was spread thinly over 4 years.
2010 - CSCC Future Classics, 3 race weekends but had 3x mechanical failures which spoiled it.
2011 - 1x race weekend as an invitation into the Porsche Club (PCGB) Championship rounds (3x races) at Silverstone over the Britcar weekend, that was mega and part of one of those races is the youtube vid I have linked a few times. That got me hooked as the car made it through all 3 races so I entered properly for 2012, ISTR I would have picked up a couple of podiums in class that weekend if I wasn't an invitation.
2012 - Crashed out of the first PCGB Championship round at Brands (proper big 90 mph into armco job), £5k and a few months later I had my car back but that was that for 2012
2013 - Entered again as the organisers felt sorry for me so I didn't have to pay the crazy £550 reg fee for the championship. Didn't get to race at Brands as over-subscribed so just did the Friday testing. Did the weekend at Silverstone (2x races) as described above. Then got fed up with the costs and disillusioned with it all really. At least my car was rock solid reliable by then though. The real highlight for me that year was getting one to one tuition with a guy who held a lot of the lap records in a car like mine and the 968 before the Championship went to newer cars and slicks. He struggled to better my times eventually finding a few tenths on average and 1.3s gap comparing fastest laps. That gave me a massive confidence boost that I really needed.
2014-2015 Bought a house, minor miracle I still have my race car as it looked certain I would have to sell to put into the house but somehow managed to scrabble together the deposit.
2016 - Lazy b'stard that didn't do anything not even a track day.

From 2009 through 2013 I was a bit of a race weekend and race team groupie as well, quite a few test days and track days in between it all but haven't really done much of anything since. Very tempted to make a comeback this year or at least get back into the car proper and attack 2018.

Looking back I don't feel sad about any of it, its hard to justify the spend to be frank to be an also ran but a friend put it perfectly, he said many people dream about racing a Porsche, you actually did it (not very well if I am honest but yeah I did it).

 

When I was at Brands last Friday it was quite quiet so there wasn't too much congestion but I've done it on a Saturday and it was really busy. I didn't realise they did trackdays on the GP circuit, it's one of my favourite tracks on the computer. I was playing it last night on Project Cars with my Oculus Rift (VR Headset) and my steering wheel and pedals. Obviously you don't get the same feedback as actually being in a car.

 

Yeh I am there on the Sunday! [emoji51] so fingers crossed will not be that busy but I think it may be a busy one!!!! Though I am there just as shakedown and put some miles in her before the season!


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