Brands Hatch track day review
Discussion
First time posting for a while, hoping to make this more of a regular thing as I get back into track days after a 2 year break 
So on Thursday I was at Brands Hatch with my long suffering Caterham. It's a 2002 car with around 95k miles on it, originally a basic Roadsport but has since become much more track focused and closer to an R300. The engine's a 1.6 K Series with forged pistons, Supersport cams on verniers, uprated valve springs, a bit of head work, Jenvey throttle bodies, and an Emerald K6. It's putting out 154hp with the airbox fitted (a must for somewhere like Brands), and 163hp on just a filter. It's a really fun engine, loves to rev, and sounds great too. The chassis is running some fairly trick suspension and the brakes and tyres are identical to a top spec Caterham 420R race car.
The last time I did a track day the engine was without the Jenveys and ECU so it was making something in the region of 135-140hp after being freshly rebuilt by Dave Andrews, and the car was still shod with Yoko A048s on 6x13s all round. I'm always chasing lap times wherever I go and at Brands I was doing around the 54.5 second mark fairly consistently. Not too shabby, but I knew at the time both the car and me had more to give - so I've added power, grip, and cajones!
This time, with the help of a VBOX and the analysis software, I was able to push on and begin to extract quite a bit more from the car. It goes without saying that timing/data logging on track days is a bit of a grey area so I'll just leave it at that. My best lap was a 53.1 and my ideal lap (i.e. all of my best sectors) was a 52.89, which is starting to get quite close to the ultimate potential for the car at the moment. So I'm pretty pleased with that, although as always I look back and can immediately see areas to improve. Paddock, Surtees, and Clearways - these were where I was making the biggest chunks of time by either changing style or being braver.
For example, with the Caterham I've always previously felt the need to give it a dab of left-foot brake to get it turned into Surtees. But I noticed most other drivers were not braking at all, so I gave that a go and just by lifting and turning in a bit more aggressively I could make the apex and carry a bundle more speed towards McLaren. With Paddock I was finding I could brake later and harder to help rotate towards the apex, but had to be careful not to lock the front right over the initial little ripples in the tarmac in the braking zone. And Clearways - she's a cruel mistress. Any time I turned in slightly too early I would run a little wide and really struggle for grip, almost running into the gravel at one point.
With all of that said and done I can't recommend Brands enough. It's such a fun circuit no matter what you're driving. I'm doing Silverstone GP tomorrow which is going to be a big challenge but I have my target so I'll be giving it my all
There's a short video with my favourite laps here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jolTdf_TNE8
And just for fun, here's where I nearly binned it at Surtees
https://twitter.com/SimonHoade/status/926193388889...
Cheers!
So on Thursday I was at Brands Hatch with my long suffering Caterham. It's a 2002 car with around 95k miles on it, originally a basic Roadsport but has since become much more track focused and closer to an R300. The engine's a 1.6 K Series with forged pistons, Supersport cams on verniers, uprated valve springs, a bit of head work, Jenvey throttle bodies, and an Emerald K6. It's putting out 154hp with the airbox fitted (a must for somewhere like Brands), and 163hp on just a filter. It's a really fun engine, loves to rev, and sounds great too. The chassis is running some fairly trick suspension and the brakes and tyres are identical to a top spec Caterham 420R race car.
The last time I did a track day the engine was without the Jenveys and ECU so it was making something in the region of 135-140hp after being freshly rebuilt by Dave Andrews, and the car was still shod with Yoko A048s on 6x13s all round. I'm always chasing lap times wherever I go and at Brands I was doing around the 54.5 second mark fairly consistently. Not too shabby, but I knew at the time both the car and me had more to give - so I've added power, grip, and cajones!
This time, with the help of a VBOX and the analysis software, I was able to push on and begin to extract quite a bit more from the car. It goes without saying that timing/data logging on track days is a bit of a grey area so I'll just leave it at that. My best lap was a 53.1 and my ideal lap (i.e. all of my best sectors) was a 52.89, which is starting to get quite close to the ultimate potential for the car at the moment. So I'm pretty pleased with that, although as always I look back and can immediately see areas to improve. Paddock, Surtees, and Clearways - these were where I was making the biggest chunks of time by either changing style or being braver.
For example, with the Caterham I've always previously felt the need to give it a dab of left-foot brake to get it turned into Surtees. But I noticed most other drivers were not braking at all, so I gave that a go and just by lifting and turning in a bit more aggressively I could make the apex and carry a bundle more speed towards McLaren. With Paddock I was finding I could brake later and harder to help rotate towards the apex, but had to be careful not to lock the front right over the initial little ripples in the tarmac in the braking zone. And Clearways - she's a cruel mistress. Any time I turned in slightly too early I would run a little wide and really struggle for grip, almost running into the gravel at one point.
With all of that said and done I can't recommend Brands enough. It's such a fun circuit no matter what you're driving. I'm doing Silverstone GP tomorrow which is going to be a big challenge but I have my target so I'll be giving it my all
There's a short video with my favourite laps here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jolTdf_TNE8
And just for fun, here's where I nearly binned it at Surtees
https://twitter.com/SimonHoade/status/926193388889...
Cheers!
Thanks FST, I was admiring your car as well, lots of nice Freestyle bits on there, very quick too! I was pushing hard to catch you and keep up, massively over driving the car in the process and over heating my tyres!! What sort of power are you running?
Those few laps were a blast but yes unfortunately I had an issue:
https://imgur.com/qrIFZLg
I'll upload the lap where we were quite close and send you a link. I got my head on straight for the last session and did a lap some 5 seconds quicker than what we were doing
Those few laps were a blast but yes unfortunately I had an issue:
https://imgur.com/qrIFZLg
I'll upload the lap where we were quite close and send you a link. I got my head on straight for the last session and did a lap some 5 seconds quicker than what we were doing
Ah yes - and I was just using those laps to warm up my tyres... 😬
But my car is a Duratec with supposedly 250hp so I really take my hat off to you...
Yes do please send a link of any footage - would be great to see it. Thanks!
Meanwhile I couldn't follow the link you posted in response to my query about your issue.... (maybe cos I'm on iPhone at the moment?)
But my car is a Duratec with supposedly 250hp so I really take my hat off to you...
Yes do please send a link of any footage - would be great to see it. Thanks!
Meanwhile I couldn't follow the link you posted in response to my query about your issue.... (maybe cos I'm on iPhone at the moment?)
Gassing Station | Track Days | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff