Discussion
nice! 
phatgixer said:
I think the most fearsome corner is Old Paddock.. It is fast (flat out from the first chicane if you're brave), has to be taken with power (lift off at your peril) and the grassy exit rushes up to the car very fast and before you know it you can be going backwards at 100mph and the armco is 10 feet away. Quarry, Camp and Tower LOOK dangerous, Old Paddock actually IS!
Old Paddock is a girl's corner now. Cast your mind back to pre-1998(?) when it was a proper balls-to-the-wall flat-out-if-you-dare corner that came several gearchanges after Quarry, as there were no nancy chicanes back then, and you were approaching at well over 100mph.
Don said:
I'll be there on 24th June. How do you think a Griff will handle the course? being a track beginner.
Edited to add: I HOPE IT STAYS DRY
Don't expect your Griff to be limpet like in the corners: It will, if anything like our Chimaera, be unsettled quite badly by the bumps through Folly and Avon Rise.
BUT - being as it has a more than adequate Power to Weight ratioI expect you will be able to enjoy some swift hoonery.
Have you had your brake fluid changed recently - worth doing if its old. DOT5 (best standard) fluid is what they stick in my Porker - see if there's a recommended fluid for the Griff.
Are you a track Newbie - or just a Combe newbie?
Sorry Don for the tardy reply, just read this. I am a track newbie, only done one before at Silverstone.
The car is being serviced 3 weeks before the track day, so the fluids are not a concern.
A question, if I may? being a newbie, would it be worth still doing the trackday in the Griff if it were pi
ing down with rain? I can imagine that this would inhibit the experience to the point of making it more fear than fun. 
groucho said:
A question, if I may? being a newbie, would it be worth still doing the trackday in the Griff if it were pi
Ahh. The wet. And Trackdays. Bloody good fun. You have to look at it differently, though. Your Griff will allow you to light up the rears at any time, basically. So approach the limit of grip slowly. Get used to the car starting to slide - and getting it back by GENTLY releasing the throttle.
THEN the fun is in throttle steering the car round every corner - slippy, slidy fun! Don't try to go quickly - just try to get the car to the edge little by little.
Remember - if you approach the limit slowly and carefully when you find it - and the car slides - there's a good chance you can get it back. If you go barrelling into the corners right away you may find not just the limit - but waaaaay over it and getting that back could well be impossible. Like I found out at my last trip to Anglesey. Oooops.
Enjoy! More fun the dry because of the speed - but don't write off the wet. Technical. But fun.
. 
I will definitely attend raining or not. Now I can see there also could be a fun side to it, in the wet. More chance to catch some slides with my camcorder.
When I did my first trackday at Silverstone the track was wet all day where it rained in the night. It didn't dry up because it was an absolutely freezing cold day at the end of November.
I only had one big spin though.
When I did my first trackday at Silverstone the track was wet all day where it rained in the night. It didn't dry up because it was an absolutely freezing cold day at the end of November.
I only had one big spin though.
TheHobbit said:
The Griff had the lap record for a production car at Combe some years ago. You'll have no problem at all. If it's the TVRCC day (I think it is), grab an instructor after a session or two and he/she will show you the lines. Enjoy!
The TVRCC track day at Castle Combe is Friday 24th June... followed, of course, by the F3/GT weekend.
We (the Wilts TVRCC region) are planning on having a get together for anyone interested, in a local pub after the track day. More details closer to the time...
Cheers,
Karl
Fancy seeing you here!!!
Lee
I have just driven CC at Japfest and took some on board footage. Its on my homepage at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stuzzer/japfest%20vids/
You may need to turn up the brightness on mediaplayer to see everything.
It was flippin wet and loads of standing water (as the Impreza driver found out on his 2nd lap, putting it in the wall!) Good fun, but would have prefered it dry.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stuzzer/japfest%20pics/Stuzzer.jpg
>> Edited by stuzzer_MX6 on Sunday 5th June 01:25
You may need to turn up the brightness on mediaplayer to see everything.
It was flippin wet and loads of standing water (as the Impreza driver found out on his 2nd lap, putting it in the wall!) Good fun, but would have prefered it dry.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stuzzer/japfest%20pics/Stuzzer.jpg
>> Edited by stuzzer_MX6 on Sunday 5th June 01:25
at the bar. Not too many though. 
Don said:
A question, if I may? being a newbie, would it be worth still doing the trackday in the Griff if it were pi
Ahh. The wet. And Trackdays. Bloody good fun. You have to look at it differently, though. Your Griff will allow you to light up the rears at any time, basically. So approach the limit of grip slowly. Get used to the car starting to slide - and getting it back by GENTLY releasing the throttle.
THEN the fun is in throttle steering the car round every corner - slippy, slidy fun! Don't try to go quickly - just try to get the car to the edge little by little.
Remember - if you approach the limit slowly and carefully when you find it - and the car slides - there's a good chance you can get it back. If you go barrelling into the corners right away you may find not just the limit - but waaaaay over it and getting that back could well be impossible. Like I found out at my last trip to Anglesey. Oooops.
Enjoy! More fun the dry because of the speed - but don't write off the wet. Technical. But fun.
And didn't it rain
It was raining so heavily you couldn,t see anything, thunder and lightening also. Spoilt the day for me, so I went home at 2.30 in a strop and sulked all the following day. I'll do a dry trackday one day.
groucho said:Pity you left early.
And didn't it rain
I'll do a dry trackday one day.
During the afternoon the track dried up nicely, after a spell of being very slippy after the rain stopped...as the briefing warned.
This was my first trackday (An interesting introduction, though not what I had hoped for! I guess they don't come much wetter!), but I was glad I stayed, as it gave me the benefit of experiencing my car's handling in highly-contrasting conditions.
Paul
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