Went to Cadwell yesterday with fastclub. Had a ride/drive in Fastclubs Radical SR4 with Michael Vergers in the afternoon which I was really looking forward to. The Ibiza went well as usual, with the R888's performing very very well. Top tyres, SHAME the prices are excellating fast! [:^(] Open Pit Lane format, not too busy not to quiet either. Quite a few EVO's and caterfields etc. Then came the afternoon, just after lunch. The Radical was awesome.. what a great track day tool. I was a little aprehensive at first (at even fitting into it ) but that was simple enough in the drivers seat, but well snug in the passenger seat. Poor Michael Vergers sat in the extremely crampt passenger seat for so many laps.. must have hurt. (only room for your right leg on passenger side on SR4) 1st session was with me as passenger to Michael Vergers as he talked us round the track, car controls, 6spd sequential gearbox etc.. (thankfully the Quaife I previously ran did at least teach me how sequential shifting should work. What a revelation on how a pukka bike sequential works.. SWEET!). A few laps circulating round as passenger being talked round by Michael was great... he was'nt pushing things at all, but the pace was simply very fast. So much corner grip from these things.. Immence! Time to return to paddock & swap over.. and belting down. Needed a booster cushion ( ) cos I have little legs, so could work pedals ok, but downside was too close to the oh so small steering wheel. Steering wheel was as small if not smaller than a go-kart! Start engine.. push gear lever fwd into 1st, shift display says 1, and ease onto throttle off of clutch and ROAR, too many revs (feck this bike engines responsive!) and try again.. Toodle onto join track (top of mountain for those who know Cadwell) get waved to join..... Clunk... judder judder... stalled it...bugger! roll on bump it, rev it launch onto track in a flurry of revs.. (note to self... easy on the pedals dude ..) 1st couple of laps on track and the thing which hits me first is the weight of the steering.. Oh My God! How heavy? Working very hard to turn the wheel progressivley under power and at speed..Go kart sensitive but as heavy if not heavier. Top bends at Cadwell were very hard work manhandling the SR4 thru.. lots and lots of grip and a very small steering wheel which is too close to me to be comfortable. Blummin hard work. Snicking the gears up the box into 6th, slight lift on throttle, pull lever back, perfect changes, sweet as a nut... power power power, gear gear gear, superb feeling. Back down the box, heel & toe, clutch, blip blip blip, Fantastic.10,000rpm soundtrack is so addictive.. As laps progressed, Michael Vergers talking me round as my speed increased, confidence was growing... This car sticks like you konw what to a blanket! Faster you go more grip you have... (to a point!) The thing loads up hard thru the fast corners (very firm grip on the small wheel) but the car squats, and goes where you point it... wiggling a bit as I start to explore the grip. Brakes are non servo'd so big push for more stopping.. only towards the end of my 2 stints did I get to really feel they had so much more left in them than I was using.. Just started to explore the maximum grip level of the tyres on last few laps.. Stop tastic! Exploring the speed over the laps, was just getting the red shift lights on in 6th at the top straight then exploring the brakes which never failed to impress. I so luv slicks and wings and pukka race cars now. Got it slightly sideways on exiting left hander after downhill from goosneck (dont know the name sorry) from leaving the gearchange too late, being on the brakes into the corner, carrying a bit too much speed. Tail slid wide on exit, which just provoked me accelerating out of it, slide caught underpower and away we went. RWD car, rear engined, pendulum thing going on.. 1st proper rwd car I have driven on track, let alone race car, so I was happy. (no more sideways than I regularly drive the ibiza ) Finally came in after a redflag incident stopped preceedings (numpty in EVO driving without helmet!! and ignoring black flags waved at himso to you Mr Evo I cant drive for poo GO HOME MUPPET ) What a rush.. Some kind words from Michael Verger about my 1st time in the SR4. MrsB ran a clock on a couple laps with me in Radical, at 1m44s vs 1m46s in my ibiza full on Pasty mode. SR4 was so much faster in reality given time to learn. Mucho respect to the track tho, as Cadwell is not a place to crash as a Fiat Coupe turbo found out to his cost (trying to follow badger mobile. Unlucky dude.. road tyres vs track tyres ) Big thanks to Fastclub for the day and SR4 ride & drive.. Thanks Nigel Big thanks to Michael Vergers.. top bloke and superb teacher. Respect Went back straight into my ibiza and thought it must be broken... what a pile of cr4p it was to drive afterwards.. only SR4 performance in a straight line and braking. Corners optional it felt like afterwards. No turn in, no steering feel at all, honestly thought my tires were flat it felt that weird. I was stunned I had got used to SR4 driving in such a small amount of time.. and that the ibiza felt so bad for the first few laps directly afterwards. (note to self: loads of suspension work to do on ibiza to help compensate this, and mucho weight reduction) Fantastic day, enjoyed it immensely. Downside, I now need a new pair of disks as I cracked both fronts now.. Oh well. Lasted >12months maximum attack and they get thrashed. (commented by Cadwell instructor viewing how late the ibiza braked, outbraking just about everything else on track, including matching the radical under braking). "It should'nt be able to do that" was his comment to Nigel the Fastclub organiser he told me later.. LOL Nice. Top day.. www.fastclubuk.com Edited by: badger-bill
For Sale - Seat Ibiza, used to think it was fast. W Brockbank. sounds like a top day - shame about the fiat forgetting to drive at his pace not anyone else's - and sadly the Evo incident is the sort of thing that causes big trouble (imagine if there had been a crash after he ignored a black flag...)
EVO muppet was ejected needless to say.. bunch of young lads with the EVO.. and I suspect he was'nt even the registered driver either. plonkers. Fiat chap was unlucky.. his 1st track day ever too. Unlucky. MrsB viewed the accident happen behind me. Said his pace into the top bends chasing me was way faster than she had seen him do on all other laps.. Learnt the hard way unfortunately for him. Shocking baptism to track day tho. I felt sorry for him. Gutted! Race car vs Road wannabie car.. shows the chasm between them. Slicks on ibiza makes it into a totally different animal, but the response and turn in on the SR4 was night and day different. I know the ibiza can be made much better and I am spurred on to do so, but what a piece of kit the SR4 is.. Oh for the lottery money to have a pukka toy like this. Great day tho. Well worth the milage and time to get there and back. Completely knackered now and wow do I ache. Mr unfit phat b'stard pays the penalty. LOL
very good write up there you should be a motoring journalist, or start your own mag or sommat! - you have a way with words! tim
Cadwell is ace fun.. shame its so far from me. Was eyeballing houses along the route Cadwell end.. (in my dreams) Little change to the circuit although the facilities do seem to have been improved slightly. Very Oulton Park feel to the toilets LOL Its an eye opener I can tell you. I luv an engine like that and g'box like that which works as you would luv.. corner grip, direction change is so go-kart(esque) but you have to remember its travelling pretty darned fast with it. Weird perspective being so low tho.. the circuit looks well different from down there. Blind brows where there were'nt any before. I have a fear this may be addictive. Got a lot of suspension work to do on the ibiza to make it turn int better. It stops well, goes well, now got to work on this going round corners thing. Hmmm. IHI power+, on Radical chassis. The SR8 must be scarey/fun to drive. ohhh yes.. get me one of them nurse.! Edited by: badger-bill
Had you been there since they've taken the trees from the Hall Bends section before Friday Bill? Yep, at least MSV are making an effort to tidy the place up, was extra grass mowing and toilet scrubbing going on last Friday when we were there, JP himself flew in at 4pm in his 'copter.
Yea last time the tree's had just been cut but it was'nt tidied up.. Neat and Tidy this time. Has changed the top section and made is safer than before but I enjoyed it when the tree's were there previously too. Prices have risen tho.. but that was inevitable I guess with JP. Still work being done by contractors building somethign or other so its work in progress. As we were leaving a British Superbike team were setting up (Vivaldi?) and let loose for some practice >5pm.. Wow! Those guys are nuts 1m32s laps from Mrs B on a couple of the boys. Some serious speed across the Hall bends section, so much faster than cars it looked like. Never seen Superbikes "on it" especially at a track like Cadwell. Great spectating. So much more interesting a track than Castle Combe is.
Some pictures from the day >> http://badger-5.com/bin/cadwell100605/ Fiat Woops Me in Radical Arial Atom Woops pictures from Pearsosphotographic Edited by: badger-bill
Wicked Write up!! I had a look round a radical with the shell off, when i was at northampton motorsport, it looked just like a large go kart. Shame about the fiat, but you gotta learn some time! Top pics. gotta get me out there.
Bill, I've always wonderd if the faster you go the more "fun" it becomes... I cant imagine that slicks and wings would be the better toy for track driving, it would almost be sterile and too uniform to be really Fun.And as the main ingredient is to have fun would an SR4 be the right tool ? Shoot me down in flames here but i can just picture an sr4 being so glued to the track it would be like sitting in a very big scalextric car, in that it has so much grip and power it would like driving in a groove preset and with no deviation - make sense ??
I think I know what you're trying to say.. but yea bollox also springs to mind too.. (no offence _ Its night and day different. Proper race car with downforce and slicks is not like a road car, alien in fact. Fun tho but of a different slant I would try and describe it as. Wrestling with the SR4 you felt "everything" that was going on, just like karts do, but faster and with downforce & gears to play with too. The 'buzz' from a 10K rpm motor behind your ear hole, and sweet changing sequential g'box, grip & turn in to die for all made for a big Cheesy Grin on my part. Those who know me well enough know I dont get excited often by these things, but the SR4 pressed my buttons. I doubt I was even 60% of the cars ability no matter how good I thought I was at the time. The envelope of car performance was a big one, and 2 shortish stints just showed me a glimse of what a proper track car (its a race car lets face it) is like to drive. As an experience is was superb.. Fandabydosey An SR4 is also mucho dinero to buy, and run one, and as I said earlier if you have one of these you are expected to be fast. (I have no idea how I manage to pass a lot of these things on track days as they are so much better than my ibiza on track.. it makes no sense.) "Fun" for me is making a shopping car go faster than most would expect along with the development over time to improve its on track performance. Buying something like an SR4 which works out of the box (at a price) is all well and good, but not for me, unless I suddenly come in to more money than I know what to do with, and in which case it would be on my shopping list of track toys. What I took out of it, was Race car chassis, bike engine combo in lightweight package makes for a big big cheesy grin. That mix of ingredients does'nt have to equal an SR4 as this guy showed #39> as this guy was slightly faster than me in my ibiza. Much as I like turbo power, I like revvy bike power more and mated to their superb sequential boxes are ace fun. As for faster = more fun.. no I probably agree that equation does'nt seem right. Fun for me on track is extracting 10/10 or more from whatever I'm in, exploring the edge of whats there. Speed is either there or not, and its only relative at the end of the day. Might seem fast to me, only to get me doors blown off by a proper fast car. IF you get the opportunity to havce a go... go for it tho. Its a wonderful experience. Edited by: badger-bill
