Brands Hatch 1 December?

[_Neal_]

Anyone here going to be at Brands on 1 December (with Easytrack)?

[bikerstu]

looks like a good day!

i've really done my last one for the year... need to give the car some TLC over the winter

[mallspeed]

Do you know how much it is ?

[Ian_sUK]

Its sold out, I'm on the reserve list.

[_Neal_]

bikerstu said:

looks like a good day!

i've really done my last one for the year... need to give the car some TLC over the winter

Hopefully the weather will be okay. Winter TLC (plus fiddling and hopefully the odd upgrade) for the Caterham after this one

[Nimburs]

I will be popping along to this with my camera, so anybody want any shots message me your details.

[_Neal_]

Enjoyable trackday, on probably as slippy a circuit as I've ever experienced - great for getting to know the Caterham better. Grip never really improved all day as it was so cold, and drizzled at lunch.

Well run day too, but due to the tricky conditions there were a few red flags and thus a bit of queuing. Running it in short sessions in the afternoon was a good idea.

Driving standards generally okay, only the odd clown treating it like a race, ignoring their mirrors and blue flags etc.

Roll on next year! Oh, and Nimburs, I've messaged you about photos

[sheps]

I was there on Saturday and thought it was pretty poorly run.
Far too many cars imo for a start.
At one point I was in a que for 32minutes to get out.
They changed it to sessions of around 12 minutes in the afternoon, which is not what I'd booked and payed for?
In the briefing they gave a warning of removing drivers who spun in the first hour. Really? On a track covered in ice?
The tannoy annocment they gave I thought was pretty childish.
Some chaps in our group got bkings for 'drifting'.
I think it was more likely that they were just trying to keep in a straight line.

[_Neal_]

What were you driving sheps?

sheps said:

They changed it to sessions of around 12 minutes in the afternoon, which is not what I'd booked and payed for

It was a sensible reaction, I thought - at least made sure people got a fair amount of time out there. There'd been plenty of lost time due to red flags earlier, so everyone was trying to get out at the same time, and it's a small circuit. Rather that than waiting for people to come in and having to wait 45 minutes to get out.

I agree there may have been a few too many cars on the day though, and it wasn't a cheap one either.

Entirely agree that having a go over the tannoy was childish - as far as I could see, people weren't spinning or leaving the track because they were trying to be heroes, or drive massively quickly - they were spinning because conditions were really difficult.

sheps said:

In the briefing they gave a warning of removing drivers who spun in the first hour. Really? On a track covered in ice?

I think they said if you span twice in the first hour they'd have a word with you. I don't think there was any actual ice on the track - although it was bloody slippy.

Edited by _Neal_ on Monday 3rd December 18:10

[mad4amanda]

FWIW Ithought the driving standards quite poor, people overdriving, not using mirrors, not allowing faster drivers to make progress by lifting on the straights, drivers taking the apex away from each other at the 2 LH bends Graham hill and Surtees and overtaking on the bends, several near misses for contact at paddock and Surtees. There was no ice on the track but the conditions were challenging and if you drove with a dead w=eight for a right foot yes spins were inevitable .
Whilst the numbers were large I thought the decisions were ok and several drivers could have had a much shorter day.

[sheps]

I was in a dark Purple E36 M3.
There was definately something on the track. I had an enormous 'tank slapper' at 40mph in 4th gear on the sighting laps!
I've had a lot more grip on wet days.
A friend was removed from the track for one hour for having one spin early on.

[_Neal_]

mad4amanda said:

FWIW Ithought the driving standards quite poor, people overdriving, not using mirrors, not allowing faster drivers to make progress by lifting on the straights

I definitely experienced this - not lifting was especially noticeable as it was so hard to get the power down on the exit of corners that people needed to be cooperative.

mad4amanda said:

drivers taking the apex away from each other at the 2 LH bends Graham hill and Surtees and overtaking on the bends, several near misses for contact at paddock and Surtees.

Didn't see any of this though - worrying stuff! What were you driving?

sheps said:

I was in a dark Purple E36 M3.
There was definately something on the track. I had an enormous 'tank slapper' at 40mph in 4th gear on the sighting laps!
I've had a lot more grip on wet days.
A friend was removed from the track for one hour for having one spin early on.

Sheps, I think the track had been treated - they mentioned something about an anti-ice compound at the briefing. I agree it was ridiculously slippy. R888s had far less grip than at a (wet) Snetterton a few weeks' back. That is harsh on your friend.

I remember your car - is it Mora Metallic?

[sheps]

_Neal_ said:

mad4amanda said:

FWIW Ithought the driving standards quite poor, people overdriving, not using mirrors, not allowing faster drivers to make progress by lifting on the straights

I definitely experienced this - not lifting was especially noticeable as it was so hard to get the power down on the exit of corners that people needed to be cooperative.

mad4amanda said:

drivers taking the apex away from each other at the 2 LH bends Graham hill and Surtees and overtaking on the bends, several near misses for contact at paddock and Surtees.

Didn't see any of this though - worrying stuff! What were you driving?

sheps said:

I was in a dark Purple E36 M3.
There was definately something on the track. I had an enormous 'tank slapper' at 40mph in 4th gear on the sighting laps!
I've had a lot more grip on wet days.
A friend was removed from the track for one hour for having one spin early on.

Sheps, I think the track had been treated - they mentioned something about an anti-ice compound at the briefing. I agree it was ridiculously slippy. R888s had far less grip than at a (wet) Snetterton a few weeks' back. That is harsh on your friend.

I remember your car - is it Mora Metallic?

Daytona violet.
What were you in?

Im certain there were a lot of new people on track, i too noticed it was hard to get by some because of being unable to get any decent power down. Although i didn't notice people taking corners from one another.
They mentioned in the briefing that they had put salt down. I don't think they had put it everywhere, i could only spot it at the top of Paddock.
I was using AD08's, woeful in that weather.
A friend tried normal road tyres and had similar results, he then tried a set of 'wet' tyres, giving much better results. Soft compound i guess.

[_Neal_]

sheps said:

Daytona violet.
What were you in?

Im certain there were a lot of new people on track, i too noticed it was hard to get by some because of being unable to get any decent power down. Although i didn't notice people taking corners from one another.
They mentioned in the briefing that they had put salt down. I don't think they had put it everywhere, i could only spot it at the top of Paddock.
I was using AD08's, woeful in that weather.
A friend tried normal road tyres and had similar results, he then tried a set of 'wet' tyres, giving much better results. Soft compound i guess.

I was in a blue caterham with twin white stripes - so little grip (suspect partly due to lack of weight) that I'd assumed they'd treated most of the track. Entry to Paddock actually seemed (relatively) okay in terms of grip.