Hi,

You'll have a great time!

I would use up you old tyres if you can. I'm told that some of the race teams who have to use road tyres, specifically use well worn boots.

I had my first track day in my R400k last year, and what I noticed immediately is how much faster I was than those around. NOTHING to do with me, but rather the car. People forget that track days are full of roads, the vast majority of which are heavy and slow. I g'tee you will fly past everything within a lap or so. This really helps confidence as you don't have to constantly look in your mirror.

Only advice I would give is if you take a passenger, ask them not to try and communicate with once on track, as it ends up being useless sign language that you wont understand and will make you worried about what they are trying to say.

As for 7 handling tips, I'm no expert - I have noticed that you sometimes have to come off the gas early in a corner to get the front to grip, then you can adjust everything on the throttle. Be very smooth and gentle, and gently squeeze the throttle tends to encourage the dreaded under steer.

Other than that - take plenty of water and stay off the grog the night before, its hard thirsty work out there.

It's an open-pitlane type event, so we will all be on track together rather than separated by experience. A few Caterhams of R400 pace should be flying around, subject to the weather!
I'll be in the Orange car- looking forwards to it- see you there!
Neil

Croft is a great circuit!

Take your time build up speed and confidence slowly. Try to learn the circuit in sections of say 3 or 4 four corners and then start stringing these together.
Take a decent pressure gauge for your tyres . Be gentle on the brakes and throttle also when coming off the brakes etc.

Enjoy yourself you'll have a ball.

Ps go with the old tyres, many racers would have them shaved to that tread level a caterham is a light car if driven sensibly you won't melt them.

And remember- the entrance to Hawthorn looks like a chicane but is actually a right hander; that the hairpin is even tighter than you think ;and that Clervaux and Tower apices resemble the Nile Delta when wet! Have fun- about time my R400D tried Croft again !

Please could you explain that one? I'm just sorting some finances out before I buy my first ever 7, so I'm here trying to learn as much as I can I understand understeer would cause tyre wear, but I'm not sure why understeer would be worse when you're being cautious, that seems counter-intuitive?

Cheers, Rich

I follow with the concept of countering understeer with some throttle action to cancel it with oversteer. But that would induce rear end slide to add to the front end slide, i.e. 4 wheel drift. I can see that skillful application of throttle would balance the car, but I can't figure why it would reduce front tyre wear as those tyres are still sliding? I'm just thinking theoretically having no experince yet.

Cheers, Rich

A balanced car shares the cornering force across all the tyres and is usually within the slip angles that generate maximum grip. An under-steering car can exceed these angles (on the front) producing less grip and higher wear rate for the same speed.

I don't want to labour the point as the subject can get very complex. Lets just say, the less the car slides about, the less the tyres wear - and the driver has a lot to do with that.

Edit: a terrible diagram - but hopefully you'll get the drift.

Off to exile myself now!

As a rule of thumb, many novices go too fast into slow corners and too slow into fast ones.

The feared understeer, which I also had with my "heavy" 2.0XE engine, got much better after I decided the front ARB needed to have a life of his own somewhere in a field far from my car at a Hillclimb session.

Never regretted this move.

Yes, by removing the front ARB the front softened up and hence got more grip. I should also have more body roll, but hardly noticable.
I could off course have stiffened up the rear, by stiffer springs or rear ARB, but this would in my opinion make the car unstable over bumpy and uneven roadsurfaces.
The removal of the front ARB was at the moment the quickest option, and removed the understeer.
Probably has also to do with my drivingstyle, being used to mid and rear engined cars where I tend to break the car into the corner, to have more bite on the frontwheels, a relatively stiffer rearend will then tend to more neutral to slightly oversteer.
Still have to go a long way to go to know all about the Caterham handling, so any input to put me in the right direction is very much apreciated by me. Never too old to learn and listen to good advice on these matters. We are not all seasoned Caterham trackday warriors.