First track day - at Castle Coombe - any advice?

[mrfunex]

Afternoon,

Just booked my first track day (in my own car - Honda S2000) for this Friday. A bit of a last minute thing due to some time off at work.

Any advice - either about the track, nearest petrol station, etc would be much appreciated!

Excited, but also bricking it!

Cheers,
Stu.

[binnerboy]

mrfunex said:

Afternoon,

Just booked my first track day (in my own car - Honda S2000) for this Friday. A bit of a last minute thing due to some time off at work.

Any advice - either about the track, nearest petrol station, etc would be much appreciated!

Excited, but also bricking it!

Cheers,
Stu.

make use of the free instruction
build up steadily for Avon Rise/Quarry (avon rise can unsettle the car just before you brake for quarry) and Tower (very little run off),
there is a petrol station right outside
enjoy yourself
regular breaks for you and the car

it is an awesome circuit, though I have only have thruxton and silverstone indy to compare it with.

[Sigmamark7]

Combe is fantastic circuit and rewards smooth driving rather than aggressive driving. The chicanes can be hard on brakes and keep your eye on your tyres and tyre pressures. As above, take advantage of the instruction early in the day and pick their brains about your tyre pressures. Food is available at the circuit, so no need to take any with you. Make sure you clear any unnecessary stuff from the car before you leave home. Short runs are kinder to you and the car, so give yourself and the car plenty of breaks and use the time to chat to those around you or blag a ride out with someone else.
Most of all, have a great day and prepare yourself for plenty of future expense, because trackdays are very addictive!

[mrfunex]

Thanks guys! Really looking forward to it!

I did an american muscle car experience at Goodwood several months ago - 5 laps in a Viper, Corvette and Mustang and have been itching to have another play ever since!

[supertouring]

Get instruction, whether free or not. Best money you will spend.

Take it easy, build up slowly during the day.

Keep an eye on the car, oil levels, pads, tyres etc.

Have fun.

[brillomaster]

make sure you do a full cooldown lap before coming in (as little braking as possible, moderate speed) to preserve brake longevity.

Also when you come in park it in gear, dont use the handbrake - the pads will deposit on the hot discs and leave deposits.

when you start the day, drop the pressures by 5psi below recommended - they will rise by about 7psi when they get warm! if possible take a tyre pressure gauge and adjust the pressures when the tyres are hot.

[BrotherMouzone]

Get a session with an instructor.

And check your oil frequently even if your car doesn't normally use a drop. 150+ track miles on vtec bounds to use some oil.

Have fun!

[D_G]

As above, if you are doing six laps use the first one/two to warm up the car and at least one to cool it. Also DON'T use the petrol station outside of the circuit.

Just have a great day and don't get hung up on being overtaken, Combe takes no prisoners if you don't respect it. It's a great circuit, I've been racing there for years.

Let us know how you get on

[Altrezia]

Combe is ace! - Have fun and be safe

[mrfunex]

So take it carefully! Wilco!

I'm definitely going to see if I can have a run with an instructor - I'm well aware that I know almost nothing about circuit driving.

I'll take a pump for the tyres and a spare litre of oil.

What's wrong with the petrol station outside the circuit? £££?

Apparently I can hire a helmet when I get there, though if the day 'clicks', I'll just buy one for myself.

[Sigmamark7]

There is not much wrong with the filling station outside the circuit, but they do know how to make money!!

[james_gt3rs]

D_G said:

Also DON'T use the petrol station outside of the circuit

I was bitten by that, over £1.50 a litre!

[QBee]

It's mostly been said. I would add my 5p's worth of be careful where there's no run-off and barriers. You can do that without compromising your day. Your standard road tyres will have far less grip than track tyres, so don't be surprised by relatively underpowered cars coming storming past you and making it round corners at unbelievable speed. Do watch your mirrors and remember which side they are supposed to overtake on, put your indicator on and let them go.

I know you will be busting to get out there, but you've got all day and it may well be damp early on, so try not to go at the first few laps like you were born to be Lewis Hamilton - spinning off on the sighting laps (half speed) will make you both unpopular and look a total tt. Don't laugh - two lads in a Peugeot 106 did just that right in front of me back in February. As the driver said to me 15 minutes later, after he had unhitched his car from the marshalls' recovery truck "I just thought I would see how slippery it was at Williams.....and found myself facing the opposite way, ten metres off the track and stuck in the mud."

Don't be shy, walk up to complete strangers and have a chat when you aren't out on track. You will probably be out on track for less than half the time. People love to talk about their cars, track days are a great breaker of barriers.
Blag passenger rides with the better drivers/cars. Most will be happy to take you for a few laps, watch their lines and braking points - I still remember my trip around Bedford Autodrome in PetrolTed's Porsche GT3 back in March. I never thought anyone could get round that chicane at that speed. I went out in my TVR straight after.....and didn't .

By the way, my last track day we had rain for more than half the day and i still managed to use over £100 worth of fuel - so make sure you have adequate means of payment with you.

Good luck, enjoy and go home with an intact car.

[D_G]

james_gt3rs said:

D_G said:

Also DON'T use the petrol station outside of the circuit

I was bitten by that, over £1.50 a litre!

My issue was a fill up at lunchtime a good few years back, during the afternoon I was suffering a misfire and lack of top end power. Didn't think too much of it at the time, during the next few weeks of tracking down the problem I discovered the injectors had a fine brown silt in them, the fuel filter was also full up. I changed the injectors, cleaned the tank, fitted a new filter and it's been fine since. The car was perfect before the fill up so you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to find the cause.

[james_gt3rs]

D_G said:

My issue was a fill up at lunchtime a good few years back, during the afternoon I was suffering a misfire and lack of top end power. Didn't think too much of it at the time, during the next few weeks of tracking down the problem I discovered the injectors had a fine brown silt in them, the fuel filter was also full up. I changed the injectors, cleaned the tank, fitted a new filter and it's been fine since. The car was perfect before the fill up so you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to find the cause.

I was OK. The car was a standard MR2 so probably quite tolerant of most fuels. Or you had a bad batch? Good enough reason to avoid it completely though.

[Dakkon]

Great fast circuit, but treat avon rise and quarry with a bit of respect, seen a lot of cars bin it at Quarry over the years.

[spaximus]

my advice is at the briefing make your self known to the instructors there, normally for anyone who has not driven there before they will go out on your first run to make sure you are okay. If you can get some tuition later get it as you will learn a lot more after a session out there. David Da Costa is very good
Overtaking is down to others to do safely so don't worry about being slow, just be aware of the other cars in your mirrors, in fact better to go slow until you get the hang of it and don't be tempted to follow too close or use others brake lights to judge stopping distances.
Once you have done a couple of session build up your speed and make sure you get all your braking done in a straight line as the faster you go the more important that becomes.
Drink plenty, you will get hot and dehydration is common on track days, if it is remotely warm.

If you watch the clip below it is a pretty quick S2000 who has good lines, I am in the Westfield in front of him, and you will get to see the circuit well. Have fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeNCJ9b3DnA

[mrfunex]

Excellent advice all - thanks! Bed for me - early start tomorrow - ill post back here when I'm done!

[jaisharma]

Some good advice here. Be wary of quarry ........

[mrfunex]

Well, what an excellent day!

After a silly early alarm to get to the circuit for the 07:30 start, the car park appeared to be full of relatively normal cars. Until the serious people arrived! Lots of kit cars on trailers etc. Noise testing was a walk in the park (only 80dB of a 100dB limit!), then the safety briefing. A really relaxed and nice atmosphere.

I first went out at 9:45 with the novice group - especially for people who'd never been on track before. After 10 laps or so, I came in, had a bacon butty, then went out again with an instructor. Thanks to everyone who recommended tuition - it really helped to teach me the lines and helped me to be a bit smoother. Tuition was also FREE! Bonus!

I went out 4 more times, for about 15 minutes each during the day. I felt after 12 or so minutes my tyres were becoming a bit soft and it was getting more difficult to clip the apexes! I found it easier to perfect the line if I left the car in 4th the entire time. Only on the last two sessions did I use 3rd for the slow stuff.

Met some great people, and got a ride round the track in a TVR Griff 500, owned by another newbie to track days.

It seemed the most popular petrol station was the Sainsbury's one in Chippenham - about 5 miles away - as it had their version of the high octane stuff. I say this, as the availability of petrol was a bit of a worry for me yesterday.

Things I found out:

- The S2000 isn't as twitchy as reputation would suggest. As long as you're not a complete hooligan with it, it's got a lot of grip even on normal road tyres and plenty of drive out of the corners.
- All previous thoughts about supercharging it have gone out of the window. I now want stickier tyres, stiffer suspension and bigger brakes!
- My hands get extremely sweaty (ooh-err!) - may have to invest in gloves
- Tuition is FREE at Combe!
- Everyone I stopped to talk to was really friendly.
- Just because the car behind you looks like a standard Citroen Xsara, doesn't mean it's not a LOT faster than you!
- (Luckily) you don't have to be anywhere near the fastest driver out there to have fun!

I'm hooked!