Castle Combe - Sat 29th May

[Mikee]

re sized files again!

[dapinky]

then chasing down a titanium seven, then falling further behind.. then giving up

I think that if you view the pictures in the order they were actually taken, it shows me gaining HUGE ground on the lightweight racing car, and sticking with it through quarry corner (if only because the brakes were getting a little warm and my braking was left till the last minute - and his was very early).

[Mikee]

Ah I see, I wandered what went wrong. I thought you may have lapped him on the blind side of the track
Do you mean this Quarry corner... I see what you mean. You must have been inhaling his fumes you were soooo close

glue.jpg

[tonny006]

Your brakes were working better in the wet morning session Dave, when you locked up and missed the chicane and let me through.
Thanks for the photos mikee,I like the way you call my car proper red.
I think you need to show the little fella how to use the toilet.

[forbes82]

then chasing down a titanium seven, then falling further behind.. then giving up

I think that if you view the pictures in the order they were actually taken, it shows me gaining HUGE ground on the lightweight racing car, and sticking with it through quarry corner (if only because the brakes were getting a little warm and my braking was left till the last minute - and his was very early).

That was my dad driving my girlfriend! He was taking it easy to try and explain racing lines ect to her, only reving to 5k or so as it was her first on track experience, your Elan was very well driven though, and looked lovely in blue. It was nice to see so many Elans on track, prior to coming i had assumed most of the other machinery would make easy work of the M100's, but it seems a well driven one can hang on well to alot of things. A surprising car at times the Elan.

Some of you may have seen me spinning the same car later in the day... Queued up for my first drive of the Caterham while the track was dry, and then as soon as i got out it started raining heavily, que me pootling round and swapping ends on the pit straight, learnt an awful lot about car control though, mainly to stick with my Elan when it gets slippy!

[Dave Eds]

Interesting day!

300 mile round trip without the track mileage.

Session 1 - extremely wet conditions - managed to pass a +2 Elan and a Europa (they gave up really so they could slow Pinky, Tony and the rest of the field down) so had the track to myself for a while until started to lap the back markers. Good to see how the car could behave with relatively little chance of damage when it did react to standing water etc.

Session 2 - parade lap in now drying conditions - piloting Phil's Esprit and managed to get the back to step out slightly on very little application of the throttle when entering the pit straight. Official photographer caught it too!

Session 3 - dryish roof down session with Phil as pax and able to concentrate more on getting the line right on each lap, rather than entering corners off line as others bottled it with a FWD flying up behind them! Thanks for your help Phil, and maybe some specific track tuition will help in the future.

Session 4 - roof had to go back up and now with young Peter Smith in the pax seat (he turned 16 for the day cos he relied on Geoff's memory not his own!). Wet session but out on my own for most of it and no real incidents except using full track width to avoid standing water, and the odd twitch when I did hit it.

Session 5 - Tom now in pax "Have you done many track days Dave?". "Think this is my third!" Wet again, but going well and pushing hard as the day draws to a close. Oh s**t - too hard! Came off at Tower and went for a spin on the grass, repositioned the apex cone for everyone else, and looked like we were heading for a huge concrete thing! Let go of the wheel and the pedals, and prayed - she sorted herself and came back on track looking like a lawn mower! Had now lost my rhythm, but the adrenaline was pumping. Next couple of laps was getting everything wrong and as I accelerated out of a chicane she went into spin mode again. Ended up backwards on the grass between the chicane and the run off, but just out of harms way as the 2 cars I'd just overtaken went past with chuckling occupants. Think Tom enjoyed it too! No harm done to the car, just the driver's pride dented a bit, but knowing the piss taking would not be long in coming.

Track now closed but time for one last incident. Phil "Come and look at these photos Dave!" "Ok, just let me knock your full cup of tea over the pair of us first mate!"

[tomac1975]

Excellent day, Phil's Esprit getting loads of attention. more than the brunette with massive tits!!

Big thanks to Dave pink for a few laps and Big thanks to Dave for a few spins

[Nige]

Excellent day, Phil's Esprit getting loads of attention. more than the brunette with massive tits!!

Just when you need the "This thread is worthless without pictures" smiley it's not there any more . I guess I'm in need of my R&R.

[dapinky]

That was my dad driving my girlfriend! He was taking it easy to try and explain racing lines ect to her, only reving to 5k or so as it was her first on track experience, your Elan was very well driven though, and looked lovely in blue. It was nice to see so many Elans on track, prior to coming i had assumed most of the other machinery would make easy work of the M100's, but it seems a well driven one can hang on well to alot of things. A surprising car at times the Elan.

I assumed it wasn't being driven hard, as i was keeping up - have to say, the lines seemed okay to me - i've got it on video if you want it.

I think there is a problem with your perception and eyesight though......

....not many would agree with "well driven and looking lovely"

[surfboardfiller]

.... Note the Bin next to Pinky and the fact the bonnet is up....(that was before the real racing of the afternoon:)

He didn't take the hint as the dump valve was still in the car when he left!

I think there is a problem with your perception and eyesight though......

....not many would agree with "well driven and looking lovely"

Oh shut up! There was nothing wrong with your driving! (apart from a few corners, and a little commitment on the 1st chicane). Dave's driving got better and better throughout the session too. Both were almost as good as the Lotus cup driver, who took me out in his Scandal Green S1 Elise, well worth £25 charity donation! BRILLIANT
So I had a brilliant chauffeur driven track day:

Dave in my S1 Esprit (which would not pass the noise test ) The back is out and I'm smiling now Dave has corrected!

[MPx]

Well isnt the M100 just the best car to drive in those tricky track conditions! Easy and predictable and not nearly as botty clenching as the Esprit can be in the wet. I know some people like Texas2201 can go fast in any conditions, but amazingly I've got 3 videos of me being smooth-ish and fast-ish in the wet - actually faster than many others, whereas in my one dry session the vid shows just about everyone in the group lapping me! Hmmm...me thinks the car must be the telling factor!

The car worked perfectly. The chip was consistently boosting (to .85 I'm told) all the way down the start/finish to Quarry. The exhaust sounded good and certainly made the car at least Elise 111 quick if not 160 or better - it was a bit hard to tell comparative engine performance in the conditions cos despite, as expected, being much slower than a 260Cup Exige I got passed him in my last session cos he couldn't get around the corners! The new brakes stopped me consistently and well without drama, tho it obviously wasn't as testing as it would have been on a dry day. Overall very very happy with all those mods.

Great to see everyone. Many thanks to Pinky for providing some out-of-the-monsoon space in his tent for all the stuff from my boot. Had an excellent first session with Tony riding shotgun....good to meet you Tony. Had Peter from TLF with me for the other 3 sessions - his Esprit being off the road at the moment. Thanks for relieving me of the rest of the stand paraphenalia from Malvern Jim. Didn't get the camera out myself so thanks to Mikee for posting. I wont bore everyone with the videos....not least cos I dont know how to post video!

Cheers Mike

[kenich]

Sounds like a good day. Wish I could of been there

Would love to see the vids mike, if you get any spare time see if you can host them online if there not to big.

[texas2201]

Vimeo is a good place too host them

http://vimeo.com/10752856 for example

[surfboardfiller]

Well isnt the M100 just the best car to drive in those tricky track conditions! ....
Cheers Mike

Yeh, imagine if it was set up properly for the track too. The only thing wrong with the M100 is the weight.

[MPx]

Vimeo is a good place too host them

http://vimeo.com/10752856 for example

Thanks Martin...nice vid - brought back some memories of my tour in the truck. Of course I had nearly twice as long as you to admire the scenery! In fact I've already got an account with Photobucket so I'll use them - tho they do have a 10 min limit, I doubt anyone will miss the 3 or 4 mins I'll have to cut out of each session.

For those who've not done a Club Lotus "fast driving" day, its not quite the same as a normal track day. Overtaking is by consent only when the bloke in front indicates left, and must be completed on a straight before the braking cone for the next corner. That makes it a bit sedate for some but ideal for non-competitive types like me. Its excellent as a first track session for people cos normal track days always tend to attract the budding Lewis Hamiltons with added aggression which can be intimidating 'til you're used to it.

One disappointment on the camera. I tri-suckered it to the windscreen which meant it pointed down by 40degrees and I had to have it on its super wide angle setting to see the track. Thats all fine, but it does make all the other cars look like they're miles away when in fact it was all a lot closer and more exciting in real life.

Here's my first session with Tony in the ejector seat. I'll put the others up when I get time.
http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345 ... 010Pt1.flv

[texas2201]

very good clean lines - that was my mate Ian in the purple Esprit

[uk08462]

.

[uk08462]

For those who've not done a Club Lotus "fast driving" day, its not quite the same as a normal track day. Overtaking is by consent only when the bloke in front indicates left, and must be completed on a straight before the braking cone for the next corner. That makes it a bit sedate for some but ideal for non-competitive types like me. Its excellent as a first track session for people cos normal track days always tend to attract the budding Lewis Hamiltons with added aggression which can be intimidating 'til you're used to it.

Pity that yellow Elise didn't follow the rules... I was about to turn in towards the blue apex cone at Tower and found the clown on my inside coming through. If I had not given him room I'd have done a Vettel - my pace on the day did not draw any other comparisons however. Green Lotus don’t seem to be that fast this year!

I hope I didn't get in anybody else's way. Off to Hethel to learn how to drive it properly, after getting some decent tyres for the wet first.

[tonny006]

[quote="Here's my first session with Tony in the ejector seat. I'll put the others up when I get time.
http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345 ... 010Pt1.flv[/quote]

Thanks for the pax ride Mike,it was good to see how another car compares to mine.Your car felt very responsive from where i was and you had good smooth lines even in that terrible weather.
Here is a video from one of my sessions,i don't know what happened to if as the quality is crap.I will try and host it somewhere else and see if it will be any better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hYypg-aCHE

Cheers
Tony

[MPx]

Here's my second session, the first of three with Peter (Peter_England99 on TLF) as passenger. This was the one dry slot in the day just after lunch. Very telling that I went from being relatively quick in the other sessions to getting lapped by nearly everybody just by that change in conditions. Also need to apologise to the Type 26 closely followed by Martin who I think I held up for 1/2 a lap more than I should. (Hmmm, so that knocks me off my holier-than-thou perch! ) My only excuse is that I'd already passed a yellow baby Elan and initially I thought it was the same one and not a much quicker one!

http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345/MPxSite/CastleCombe2010/?action=view&current=CC2010Pt2.flv

My third session was after another deluge. Not raining but some surface water and very greasy from Quarry round to Tower. A sister yellow M100 spun at the Esses chicane (saw him facing us as we approached on the second lap). I had to get out of the throttle quite a bit til we got past - apologies for my impatience. The wide angle looks like we were miles apart...but we weren't

http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345/MPxSite/CastleCombe2010/?action=view&current=CC2010Pt3.flv

Session 4 was pretty much straight after 3 at the end of the afternoon so still very slippery at the back of the circuit. I had a 260Cup Exige up my exhaust pipes right from the pit lane so immediately let him go at Quarry. But despite the bravado he wasn't that quick....tho he wasn't going to let me back past . I raced closer than I should for a couple of laps (not that it looks it on the wide angle), but I backed off for 1/2 a lap when it was clear he wasn't going to yield. Stangely enough he let me straight past when I caught him back up two laps later.

http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345/MPxSite/CastleCombe2010/?action=view&current=CC2010Pt4.flv

It really was agreat fun - a few more of you should try it!