My Brands Hatch short report. A WET Trackday.

I`d never driven Brands, so when a 99 Open Pitlane Trackday was on offer from MazdaOnTrack, I thought I`d give it a go. The weather in December was always going to be a bit of a gamble, but you can learn a lot on a wet day

Stayed with Friends Thursday evening, then drove the 50minutes to Brands on Friday. It was raining. Oh, and it was Cold.

Drove into the paddock, unloaded the Golf and went to the briefing, as they get a lot of novices, they run a `novice only` session after the sighting laps for the first 20 minutes, gives those who`ve never been on track before a chance to drive without faster cars bearing down on them. Whilst that was going on, I decided to remove the Pilot Sport Cups (which are AWFUL in the wet) and fit my Silverstone 595 `wet` tyres. They are a softer compound than the Cups and have grooves to displace the water.

Whilst I was doing that, Gurds was out with the Novices...

Went out for my first laps, it was WET.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwUAsLvUrRE
[video=youtube;UwUAsLvUrRE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwUAsLvUrRE[/video]

Louise was well wrapped up and taking a few photos.


Several people were commenting how much spray the Golf throws up in the wet. I usually take this as a good sign, it means the Aero is doing something , even if its just helping to lift the water and dry the track lol



A few Yellow flags for spinners, then a Red as the RX7 put itself into the Armco shortly after this photo was taken


The camera makes it look much lighter than it was.


Went out for a session behind Gurds, but he`d had Engine Mount issues, so after `repairing` it with an exhaust clamp and jubilee clips, he was out for his first session.


I realised me following him wasn`t helping, he was concentrating on me, so I passed him, then after 10 minutes, I slowed down, let him past on the start/finish and set off to video a few laps. 2 corners later, he span...


Having FWD was certainly a big help, I could get on the power much earlier and get a good run on cars out of the corners. Obviously, a Golf has no place passing a GTR. I`m not sure what he thought I`d do when he moved over then planted his right foot in a car with over 3 times the power of my Golf


Paddock Hill wasn`t as bad as I expected, probably because we were all going so slow.


BMW with the optional `mirror removal` option ticked...


Loads of MX5`s


And RX8`s



The splitter was JUST touching at the bottom of Paddock Hill. I`d bonded some `wear bars` into the underside and they were just catching.


I know the bars were catching as they were sparking


The wet is a great opportunity to look closely at airflow. I can see the bottom of the wing still has a high pressure zone behind the wheel, my winter mods will address this. The fence I had fitted infront of the rear tyres had been removed (they were catching on kerbs at Donington), they would have helped at the back.


Had a chat with Maurice Reeves, he`d fallen and injured his wrist so wasn`t driving. Trevor was out and they were struggling for grip like everyone. He did seem interested in the Aero work I`d done to the Golf. I happened to `follow` Trevor for a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZF8PJTshM
[video=youtube;qmZF8PJTshM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZF8PJTshM[/video]

Before he span.


As Matthew was at College and Catherine had the off for `teacher training`, she had loads of passenger laps.


It was starting a dry a little.


Gary was out, this sounded lovely.


It was still slippery though.


I took Ram out for a few laps, he seemed pretty impressed with the Aero. This happened behind us, the only time I had the rear camera running too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhiTMn4axM
[video=youtube;oOhiTMn4axM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhiTMn4axM[/video]

The drift-day in the lower paddock was a bit off-putting at times, I came round Paddock Hill a couple of times and in my peripheral vision saw a car spin, took a fraction of a second to tell myself it wasn`t on the track.


After lunch, they had a 15 minute session for `experienced` trackdayers. It was for people who were happy following / being followed closely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmbZV7zUc_I
[video=youtube;EmbZV7zUc_I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmbZV7zUc_I[/video]

A drying line started forming about 3pm. I followed Gurds for a while.


The Marshalls thought he was holding me up and kept flashing the Blue Lights at him. lol


Back in front


Went out for the last 10 minutes with Catherine, still on the wets, I really could have done with something inbetween, but the Cups are no good in conditions like this where the ambient temperature is just above freezing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hxwiy2WpTI
[video=youtube;5hxwiy2WpTI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hxwiy2WpTI[/video]

Back to the paddock and loaded up onto the trailer. I`d done 167Miles, which is about 140 Laps. The car performed flawlessly. The tyres got a bit too warm at the end, but they still have another trackday in them.

Back to Steve & Helen`s for a couple of Beers and a Curry. We left early Saturday so called to see Gurds and his family

I enjoyed the Indy Circuit, some say it`s too short, but I like being able to try new lines and see the effect, a short lap means you get plenty of opportunity to do this. The conditions meant I drove a `wet` line in many places, Apex`s were very slippery, so the wide entry made much more sense.

I`ll certainly do it again, hopefully in the dry next time

 

nice save at 12.12 on the penultimate video haha.

whats the score with the blue lights then? i noticed they are on/off or flashing? is it just a warning system for drivers of potential hazards behind them?

 

I missed the sighting lap so went out with the novices instead.

This was a lot of fun! Really REALLY wet and cold. But hey, good chance to learn extreme driving.

The tyres (Federal RS-R) refused to warm up so braking and turning duties were shocking in my car. I don't think I brake that early on public roads I ended up inducing the 'spin' with my handbrake as I locked up my brakes Although it was more of a slide

Got some footage too, will sort it out when I get a chance.

Always nice to do trackdays with people you know. Thanks for popping bye.

Gurds

 

Definitely impressed with the aero work Nige!

That mk2 grips very hard around corners, and the grip in the wet is crazy!

Thanks for the pax laps, really enjoyed them!


Gurds,

the "spin" was definitely more of a slide, quick thinking and a good catch saved us from the gravel!

When the track started drying up your pace went up massively!

Can't wait for the next time out with you boys, dry laps ftw though me thinks!

Ram

 

Cheers Ram.

Here is the vid from the slide lol

[video=youtube;sWo_2j6XAW0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWo_2j6XAW0&feature=youtube_gdata[/video]

Gurds

 

excellent work and good effort at sticking with it in the wet, I always lack the motivation to get out in the wet!

I have paid a lot of attention to your build thread and am in awe of the work carried out and the attention to detail. One question though, is when you discuss the small high pressure zones and little aero tweaks, surely the time gained will be in the tenths of seconds if that, where as if you were to invest in driver training (no criticism of your driving at all, even the best drivers require training) would you not notice a more significant drop in lap times, which in turn would allow you to notice the more minimal changes to aero.

Its just a thought, and please dont take offence to it its not how its intended.

 

Absolutely . Put a `professional` driver in my car and he`ll be faster than me. I`d like to think he wouldn`t, but I`m not big headed enough to think that`s actually what would happen lol

Like many on here, a big part of the whole trackday `thing` is developing the car. Like a lot of us, I put a low value on my time, I get enjoyment out of experimenting and tinkering, I`ve learned a massive amount along the way. Its one of the reasons I`ve left the engine alone, I know that`s not the limiting factor and I don`t want to just throw power at it to `go faster`. The Aero has given me a lot more confidence when driving, as my wet laps at Brands show.Things like evacuating the high pressure from the wheel well helps with brake cooling, allowing me to stick with stock calipers and disks.

 

A Blue light means `someone behind you is faster, please be a nice chap and let them past when convenient`.
I took the flashing blue to mean "The person behind you has been sat on your ar5e for too long, get out of the fekking way and learn to use your mirrors "
lol

 

Fair play to you, makes a lot of sense. We are all guilty of it to some respect, i know there are many mods on my car that will gain milli seconds when there are seconds to come out of me as a driver.

i have to admit the are some aero mods id like to try before the start of next season, just need to get the car running first!

 

Good to see the flying tomato back out on track. Great report too!

 

Looks like you guys had a great time, I would have loved to have been there, Brands is nice and close for me, however, I just cannot get the time of work. I will try and get to Donny in Feb if any of you are around?

 

Thanks for the write up Nige, i really enjoy reading them.

 

haha fair play

 

Just waiting to hear back from Garry, I may run the car as is ATM (current engine) and see how she goes or I may try and get her up to a dyno for some tweaking before hand, but that means bringing her out of winter hibernation early! the miss is very much up for Donny so I would imagine we will be in a hotel on the Saturday evening.

 

You need to get it fixed ! You`ll be mighty frustrated if you don`t.

As I said, you need to get a compression test done first.

 

Yep the compression test will be done soon! Then I can plan the next move...

 

That looked fun! Great videos, and it looks like the car corners really well - although we could tell mere from seeing your hands on the wheel
Brands can be frustrating on trackdays because it is so short - with the traffic and all.

Nige, have you considered (I am sure you have) putting vents on the top of the front wings to release to positive pressure that builds in the arches?

 

Its the first incar I`ve posted where you can`t see my hands

I`ll be totally remodelling the wings / vents over the winter

 

awesome development on your car nige , credit to you

gurds .. glad to hear your cars up and running again

right tyres on a wet day is every thing imo , chickened out of the last track day as it was absolutly p i ss in down , my tyre choice was 4 bald r 888 s or mix them with 2 wets , but i didn ,t like the combination last time out on track , so i got plenty of power just no rubber at the mo

brill right up and vids guys .