Track Day Advice

[weatherboard]

For my birthday my wife and children have brought me a session with an instructor and a TVRCC track day event in order that I can "improve" my driving skills (more like get some quick!)

Question is what would I need to do in your opinion in preparation! It has AVO's on the front and new springs on the rear.

It needs a 6000 mile service, and I was thinking of changing the brake fluid as a matter of course, but any other hints or tips would be welcome.

I was also thinking of Castle Coombe for the day - anybody driven it in a Cerb?

Cant bloody wait

Cheers

Jon

[shpub]

The car as standard will be fine. Chnaging the brake fluid to 5.1 is a good idea and costs only a few quid. Increase the tyre pressures by 10% and away you go. Castle Coombe is very strict on noise so if you have anything other than a standard exhaust, it will be difficult to meet the noise test without additional silencers which Merlin Motorsport will sell you at the circuit for about £120 a pair. It is also a daunting circuit with not much run off. To be honest, it is not one of my favourite places.

[jmh99]

Weatherboard - belated happy birthday. Haven't seen you at the Hants meets recently.

So how was it on the track day - any advice for a novice taking on Silverstone next week.

On checking the other threads it seems, the car needs little attention but what about the state of tyres & brakes etc by the end of the day ??

[dannylt]

Advice for a novice - bag an instructor, both for sighting laps if possible, but if not, as soon as possible afterwards and then maybe later in the day. Will make you far more confident, far safer, and far quicker.

The state of the tyres and brakes will depend on how much abuse you give them, but if you take it easy on your first day you should be fine.

[VYT]

weatherboard said:

I was also thinking of Castle Coombe for the day - anybody driven it in a Cerb? Cant bloody wait Cheers Jon

Jon

I took my Cerb to Castle Combe last year and the Chim a couple of years before that. It took me most of the day to be brave enough to keep the pedal to the plastic along the pit straight and through folly. However once mastered I saw 140+. Cerb had AVO's all round, I ended up with them adjusted pretty much as hard as they would go. At least in the Cerb I could pass slower cars, that was just about impossible in the Chim, (4.0ltr)
Got some brake fade on the last run of the day.
Only problem of the day was getting through the noise test. I ended up with Peninsula inserts in the tail pipes and Merlin silencers attached to the tail pipes. The car was decatted with a standard silencer.
I expect to be at CC this year in my T350. I still have the inserts and silencers for the Cerb. I'll bring them along, anybody who needs them to pass the noise limit will be welcome to borrow them.

Cheers

Bob

[gazzab]

Bolt the silencer stuff on loosely so they 'fall off by accident' just after the noise test.
Rest the brakes on the warm down laps and dont use handbrake after fast laps ie avoid warping of disks.

[darreni]

I Lurrrrve coombe, great place, not driven it in the cerb though, only the m3. As already mentioned, not a lot of run off, so take it easy.