£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
Well then, on to Kendrew!
They have a bit of a bad reputation, but I love airfield circuits. There’s so much variation in surface, lines, speed…. And there’s loads of space to have a bit of fun. We had a great weekend all planned out – I was to head down to Pete’s after work on Friday to help with loading up, last minute checks etc, then we’d pootle off to Mazda UK on Saturday morning for their Rotary Day meet. There’d be all sorts of interesting, historic rotary cars there and I was very much looking forward to seeing the reaction our multicoloured, battered heap would get
We set off nice and early and made it all of ten miles. Unfortunately Pete’s beloved Shogun decided that hauling the car and trailer up the hill out of Romney Marsh was the last straw, whereupon it overheated spectacularly. So, bonnet up, cool down and we gently coaxed it back to the house and immediately started phoning round the local hire companies. We found a van easily enough (hooray!) but it was only available at 4pm that day (boo), so alas the Mazda meet wasn’t to be. Later investigation unearthed a blocked overflow pipe to the expansion tank, and an almost-certain diagnosis of a cracked head. New tow-car shopping is ongoing…
Still, after a pleasant afternoon feeling like a pair of loose ends (and doing our best to avoid the football) we collected the van, headed up to Lincolnshire and had a pleasant walk down to a local pub for dinner, before wandering over to the track the following morning.
Kendrew has a pretty abrasive surface so we’d held onto our R888Rs from last season especially – this was to be their last hurrah, particularly if we got a bit of play time at the end. There was a good crowd of around 60 runners, and (shock!) an interloper in our class – a very well-prepped (and, as it turned out, well-driven) breadvan Civic Type R.
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I’m not good at learning tracks, and it was a sweltering day (especially in a dark RX8 with no interior and no AC!) but we both had a lot of fun chasing each other throughout the morning. As ever, Pete was comfortably ahead as we came into the lunchbreak after a blinding 1:50.00 run put him almost a second quicker than me. Grip levels were pretty inconsistent – usually being the second driver on a run gives you an advantage, but everything was so sun-baked the tyres were overheating! The first run after lunch is usually slower, however the tyres had a chance to cool down and we both came out of the blocks with what turned out to be our fastest time of the day. Pete started off by knocking a further second-and-a-bit off his time (now 1:48.87) which did not help my nerves heading into my run! It started off a bit shakey, with more wheelspin than I was expecting heading off the line (the tyres were pretty knackered by this point) but I managed to pull everything together and knocked over 2 secs off for a fastest time of 1:48.34. I was pretty pleased with this, as I imagine you’ll tell when Pete uploads the video
The final run was terrible for us both in the end – I managed to miss 3rd gear a total of three times during the first half of the lap, then overcooked it on the final chicane and ended up scattering cones and plastic barriers everywhere. Pete’s was tidier, but no faster – the tyres really were toast by that point.
End results were really pleasing – we were first and second in the Mazda series (and a full 7 seconds clear of the MX5 in third place!), but couldn’t quite catch that pesky Civic in our Japanese Series class. Still, we gave it a good shot! Fortunately we’d also finished early, which gave us a free track for fun runs and passenger rides….
…and a set of tyres to kill…
…you can see where this is going, right?
There’s a vid to follow… suffice to say we both had a lot of fun on an empty airfield with dead tyres
And a few pics from the day:
Oh, one last thing. Everybody spent last weekend bleating about something-or-other that was 'coming home.’ I’m not entirely sure what all that fuss was about, but they were right in one sense at least. After almost 9 months residing in deepest darkest Kent, the wankel Cup is, finally, coming home
They have a bit of a bad reputation, but I love airfield circuits. There’s so much variation in surface, lines, speed…. And there’s loads of space to have a bit of fun. We had a great weekend all planned out – I was to head down to Pete’s after work on Friday to help with loading up, last minute checks etc, then we’d pootle off to Mazda UK on Saturday morning for their Rotary Day meet. There’d be all sorts of interesting, historic rotary cars there and I was very much looking forward to seeing the reaction our multicoloured, battered heap would get
We set off nice and early and made it all of ten miles. Unfortunately Pete’s beloved Shogun decided that hauling the car and trailer up the hill out of Romney Marsh was the last straw, whereupon it overheated spectacularly. So, bonnet up, cool down and we gently coaxed it back to the house and immediately started phoning round the local hire companies. We found a van easily enough (hooray!) but it was only available at 4pm that day (boo), so alas the Mazda meet wasn’t to be. Later investigation unearthed a blocked overflow pipe to the expansion tank, and an almost-certain diagnosis of a cracked head. New tow-car shopping is ongoing…
Still, after a pleasant afternoon feeling like a pair of loose ends (and doing our best to avoid the football) we collected the van, headed up to Lincolnshire and had a pleasant walk down to a local pub for dinner, before wandering over to the track the following morning.
Kendrew has a pretty abrasive surface so we’d held onto our R888Rs from last season especially – this was to be their last hurrah, particularly if we got a bit of play time at the end. There was a good crowd of around 60 runners, and (shock!) an interloper in our class – a very well-prepped (and, as it turned out, well-driven) breadvan Civic Type R.
[/url]I’m not good at learning tracks, and it was a sweltering day (especially in a dark RX8 with no interior and no AC!) but we both had a lot of fun chasing each other throughout the morning. As ever, Pete was comfortably ahead as we came into the lunchbreak after a blinding 1:50.00 run put him almost a second quicker than me. Grip levels were pretty inconsistent – usually being the second driver on a run gives you an advantage, but everything was so sun-baked the tyres were overheating! The first run after lunch is usually slower, however the tyres had a chance to cool down and we both came out of the blocks with what turned out to be our fastest time of the day. Pete started off by knocking a further second-and-a-bit off his time (now 1:48.87) which did not help my nerves heading into my run! It started off a bit shakey, with more wheelspin than I was expecting heading off the line (the tyres were pretty knackered by this point) but I managed to pull everything together and knocked over 2 secs off for a fastest time of 1:48.34. I was pretty pleased with this, as I imagine you’ll tell when Pete uploads the video
The final run was terrible for us both in the end – I managed to miss 3rd gear a total of three times during the first half of the lap, then overcooked it on the final chicane and ended up scattering cones and plastic barriers everywhere. Pete’s was tidier, but no faster – the tyres really were toast by that point.
End results were really pleasing – we were first and second in the Mazda series (and a full 7 seconds clear of the MX5 in third place!), but couldn’t quite catch that pesky Civic in our Japanese Series class. Still, we gave it a good shot! Fortunately we’d also finished early, which gave us a free track for fun runs and passenger rides….
…and a set of tyres to kill…
…you can see where this is going, right?
There’s a vid to follow… suffice to say we both had a lot of fun on an empty airfield with dead tyres
And a few pics from the day:
Oh, one last thing. Everybody spent last weekend bleating about something-or-other that was 'coming home.’ I’m not entirely sure what all that fuss was about, but they were right in one sense at least. After almost 9 months residing in deepest darkest Kent, the wankel Cup is, finally, coming home
And the aforementioned vid: 5 minutes of actual trying to be fast, followed by many tyre deaths
https://youtu.be/0nn9WXkPCHU
This car is bloody awesome
https://youtu.be/0nn9WXkPCHU
This car is bloody awesome
The summer break is well and truly over – after a six week break we’re treated to two of the best (not to mention furthest away!) tracks of the calendar: Anglesey and Croft.
There wasn’t much in the way of prep to do after Kendrew, but getting the new set of tyres on was a must. Here’s what we pulled off
Likewise, a quick bit of cabletie engineering to re-secure the undertray after a quick trip into the grass…
Anglesey was first up, and god is it a trek! Pete had to split the journey in two – after taking 5 hours to get from Kent to Oxfordshire after a very broken M25 I think he was very glad to have a break! First up, given that we’ve SORNed the RX8 now, was to find something suitable to replace the rear numberplate…
That’ll do the trick
We were both very grateful for Pete’s shiny new tow car (a 2007 Shogun, which is an absolute beast of a thing), particularly as it took a further 5.5 hours to meander our way up to Anglesey the following day. A combination of TomTom and Waze managed to get us round various bits of traffic around the M6, while managing to avoid taking the trailer down too many single track lanes.
You never quite know what you’re going to get at Anglesey, and when we arrived the previous day’s sprint (the all-marques Javelin series) was in full swing. It wasn’t raining per se, but the wind was up and there was a fine mist of sea spray being blown sideways across the track which seemed to be making things a tad tricky for the competitors! Still, we had a wander round the track, caught up with a few friends and managed to get the car through scrutineering before abandoning it in a garage for the night. The ground in the paddock was salty and slippery, and rain was forecast for the next day.
Come the next morning, fuelled by a hearty breakfast at our nearby B&B, we headed out into the inevitable rain. The track was greasy, but luckily the rain stopped pretty early on and the wind stayed strong which dried things off nicely – by the time the practice runs were over it was largely a dry track and had the decency to stay that way all day. Our main target was to beat our time set last year, which we both managed to do after the second lap, which meant we could just concentrate on having a good day. I somehow managed to set a quick time on my second run, which I spent most of the day chasing, and Pete was feeling a little out of sorts which put him about a second off the pace. I, meanwhile, had a couple of frustrating runs including a trip across the (still wet!) grass at 90-odd mph and an overcooked hairpin after an otherwise good lap (both of which are captured on YouTube forever).
Somewhat unusually we both managed our quickest times on the final run of the day – Pete’s put together an overlay which is pretty interesting to watch . These two runs finished about half a second apart, but it’s tricky to spot exactly where the time was made up (although Pete had a bit of a fuel starvation issue). Watch to the end to see my trip across the grass and a couple of other outtakes. It’s worth having the sound on for the reaction at the end of the times run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lkhkrBwDI&t=
And a quick drive-by of Pete, taken from the pit wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVOT3apk8Po
An excellent weekend all in all. The towcar was comfortable and didn’t put a foot wrong, the RX8 performed beautifully all day, and I finally managed to collect my first piece of hardware from this season
I was pleased to see we were also the fastest naturally-aspirated car of the day by a solid second-and-a-half, which given our relative weight and lack of power I was very pleased with indeed!
Not much of a break before Croft – on Sunday! The last time either of us were there we were sharing an increasingly sick Fiesta Zetec S, so it’ll be interesting to see how we fare in the RX8
There wasn’t much in the way of prep to do after Kendrew, but getting the new set of tyres on was a must. Here’s what we pulled off
Likewise, a quick bit of cabletie engineering to re-secure the undertray after a quick trip into the grass…
Anglesey was first up, and god is it a trek! Pete had to split the journey in two – after taking 5 hours to get from Kent to Oxfordshire after a very broken M25 I think he was very glad to have a break! First up, given that we’ve SORNed the RX8 now, was to find something suitable to replace the rear numberplate…
That’ll do the trick
We were both very grateful for Pete’s shiny new tow car (a 2007 Shogun, which is an absolute beast of a thing), particularly as it took a further 5.5 hours to meander our way up to Anglesey the following day. A combination of TomTom and Waze managed to get us round various bits of traffic around the M6, while managing to avoid taking the trailer down too many single track lanes.
You never quite know what you’re going to get at Anglesey, and when we arrived the previous day’s sprint (the all-marques Javelin series) was in full swing. It wasn’t raining per se, but the wind was up and there was a fine mist of sea spray being blown sideways across the track which seemed to be making things a tad tricky for the competitors! Still, we had a wander round the track, caught up with a few friends and managed to get the car through scrutineering before abandoning it in a garage for the night. The ground in the paddock was salty and slippery, and rain was forecast for the next day.
Come the next morning, fuelled by a hearty breakfast at our nearby B&B, we headed out into the inevitable rain. The track was greasy, but luckily the rain stopped pretty early on and the wind stayed strong which dried things off nicely – by the time the practice runs were over it was largely a dry track and had the decency to stay that way all day. Our main target was to beat our time set last year, which we both managed to do after the second lap, which meant we could just concentrate on having a good day. I somehow managed to set a quick time on my second run, which I spent most of the day chasing, and Pete was feeling a little out of sorts which put him about a second off the pace. I, meanwhile, had a couple of frustrating runs including a trip across the (still wet!) grass at 90-odd mph and an overcooked hairpin after an otherwise good lap (both of which are captured on YouTube forever).
Somewhat unusually we both managed our quickest times on the final run of the day – Pete’s put together an overlay which is pretty interesting to watch . These two runs finished about half a second apart, but it’s tricky to spot exactly where the time was made up (although Pete had a bit of a fuel starvation issue). Watch to the end to see my trip across the grass and a couple of other outtakes. It’s worth having the sound on for the reaction at the end of the times run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lkhkrBwDI&t=
And a quick drive-by of Pete, taken from the pit wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVOT3apk8Po
An excellent weekend all in all. The towcar was comfortable and didn’t put a foot wrong, the RX8 performed beautifully all day, and I finally managed to collect my first piece of hardware from this season
I was pleased to see we were also the fastest naturally-aspirated car of the day by a solid second-and-a-half, which given our relative weight and lack of power I was very pleased with indeed!
Not much of a break before Croft – on Sunday! The last time either of us were there we were sharing an increasingly sick Fiesta Zetec S, so it’ll be interesting to see how we fare in the RX8
So, Croft! As said, first time we’d driven it in the RX8 and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s another fast circuit with lots of time to be made (and lost!) in the bravery stakes.
I’d managed to mix up my weekends somehow, but through some serendipitous events was due to be visiting in-law family in Middlesbrough. So, I duly trekked up on Friday evening, spent the day on the beach on Saturday and got a taxi over to the circuit on Sunday morning, where Pete was patiently waiting with the RX8 and trailer. Cue many jokes about having ‘my man’ bring the car up for me, which he managed to take in good humour
Gratuitous pic of the old M5 on a driveway in Middlesbrough:
Croft is up there as one of my favourite tracks. The whole section from the undulating braking zone into Tower through to Sunny Out is incredibly rewarding and huge fun – and yet I didn’t hit it spot on all day! I started with a good time first thing and managed to gently chip away the odd tenth here and there, eventually trimming off half a second or so on the penultimate run. I think my actual driving improved a lot during the day but heat was proving to be a real issue – double-driving the car meant thy tyres weren’t getting a chance to cool down, and it was a hot day on track that generates a lot of tyre heat through a sequence of fast corners and heavy braking zones. We tried fiddling with tyre pressures before the last run which gave us both better launch times but slower laps overall.
Still, a very successful day in all. Again we managed to be the quickest atmospheric car of the day (placed 14th and 16th overall) with barely half a second between us. Judging by the pics I’ve had back we were both pushing pretty hard
Pete’s done another excellent job with the video (note the new camera position, it’s worth watching with the volume up!). Watching this back (and with the split timing available from Javelin) it seems the difference in time was made up under brakes into Tower. It’s frustrating to watch back knowing I could have been quicker, but as ever I’ll gladly take any driving critique!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoWV9mOU-w
Since then Pete has been busy with the diet (the car, that is) – doors have been gutted, glass has come out and perspex has gone in. There’ll be more to come over winter, so watch this space!
I’d managed to mix up my weekends somehow, but through some serendipitous events was due to be visiting in-law family in Middlesbrough. So, I duly trekked up on Friday evening, spent the day on the beach on Saturday and got a taxi over to the circuit on Sunday morning, where Pete was patiently waiting with the RX8 and trailer. Cue many jokes about having ‘my man’ bring the car up for me, which he managed to take in good humour
Gratuitous pic of the old M5 on a driveway in Middlesbrough:
Croft is up there as one of my favourite tracks. The whole section from the undulating braking zone into Tower through to Sunny Out is incredibly rewarding and huge fun – and yet I didn’t hit it spot on all day! I started with a good time first thing and managed to gently chip away the odd tenth here and there, eventually trimming off half a second or so on the penultimate run. I think my actual driving improved a lot during the day but heat was proving to be a real issue – double-driving the car meant thy tyres weren’t getting a chance to cool down, and it was a hot day on track that generates a lot of tyre heat through a sequence of fast corners and heavy braking zones. We tried fiddling with tyre pressures before the last run which gave us both better launch times but slower laps overall.
Still, a very successful day in all. Again we managed to be the quickest atmospheric car of the day (placed 14th and 16th overall) with barely half a second between us. Judging by the pics I’ve had back we were both pushing pretty hard
Pete’s done another excellent job with the video (note the new camera position, it’s worth watching with the volume up!). Watching this back (and with the split timing available from Javelin) it seems the difference in time was made up under brakes into Tower. It’s frustrating to watch back knowing I could have been quicker, but as ever I’ll gladly take any driving critique!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoWV9mOU-w
Since then Pete has been busy with the diet (the car, that is) – doors have been gutted, glass has come out and perspex has gone in. There’ll be more to come over winter, so watch this space!
Don't you worry, we'll set to over winter and get set for hot-hatch chasing next year 
. Nice write up though
If anyone's wondering where I was...
r
. Nice write up though pistolpete12 said:
anyone know how to embd the video i have tried using youtube link but don't think its worked
You can't. Welcome to the nineties If anyone's wondering where I was...
rLegend83 said:
Love this thread! Wish I had the skills, time and money to use my RX8 like this (as should be!), alas I just get to enjoy her on the B roads on the way to work.
You can enter in a stock car as well... Ours was, pretty much, when we started. The class system caters for it pretty well. It's cheaper than a weekend track day too 
MikeDrop said:
Would love to hear a little more about how to enter these types of events, if you can spare the time? 
Absolutely - essentially there are two serieseseses run by Javelin, the Javelin Trackdays Sprint Series (JTSS) and the Japanese Sprint Series (JSS). The former is for all makes and models, and the latter is for (you guessed it) Japanese cars, with a 'class X' for anything else that comes along and fancies a bit of a go.Classes are based on engine size (with multipliers for forced induction, rotary etc) and spec (stock, lightly modified, heavily modified).
EDIT: just seen Pete has beaten me to it
but - if it helps, and assuming you're looking to run the Eunos, you'll be in class J11/12 if it's a naturally aspirated 1.8 or J13/14 if it's a 1.6. Feel free to drop either of us a PM if you'd like any more info. There's also a round of the Jap series at Snetterton the last weekend of October if you fancy a go Fastdruid said:
Bah. Might be fun but the MPS is a bit heavy and soft...yet while standard also too big an engine and AWD which fits into the J5 "up to 400hp". 
The Mondeo entering in the X2 would probably have more chance.
Give it a go anyway - the fun isn't necessarily being competitive in class, just set your first time for the day and see how much you can beat it. We often end up in battles with people in other classes who happen to be of a similar pace to us, whilst being completely outgunned in our own class (such as last year - Lotus Exige, anyone?). The Mondeo entering in the X2 would probably have more chance. The trophies are cheap and nasty anyway
Not a hugely exciting update after Pete’s epic weekend of sprinting success, but we did manage to get up to Donington last weekend for a trackday. It was a good opportunity to test out a few things – firstly, to see if my new (to me!) tow-car could realistically look after us for a weekend away!
Fortunately the answer is yes – the 1500 quid golden dream machine did rather well for itself. Which was a relief
Second, and third, was for me to drive the car after its recent crash diet, and try out some second-hand R888s we’d bought to use as general track-day tyres.
It’s fair to say the day didn’t start all that smoothly, with our previous fuelling problems rearing their heads early on. I’d not even got the car off the trailer before it cut out, and half an hour fiddling with our ever-growing stash of spare relays finally got us up and running…. Only to find on the sighting laps that the high-pressure fuel pump wasn’t running and we were hitting the proverbial power brick-wall at about 4k rpm. We eventually got out onto a still-wet track for a short while, dodging unbelievable amounts of traffic and some pretty terrible track etiquette, before the inevitable red-flag and the madness started all over again.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. There were a glorious couple of hours late morning when a dry line had appeared, we were mercifully free of red flags and all hundred-odd cars hadn’t been let out of the pits into the same f
king traffic jam. Again. What a track it is! We’ll have some vid coming soon, but heading down Craner Curves flat in 4th is a glorious feeling
Fuelling aside, the RX8 performed admirably and racked up around 80 laps during the day (almost as many as an entire season of sprinting!) without complaint. It rained after lunch which slowed things slightly (and brought out the red flags as more and more corners became decorated with the bumpers of Honda Civics), and after a couple of spins (me), a hard launch over the sausage curbs (Pete) and running out of fuel (both of us) we called it a day.
Plans for winter are still building, but we’ve got a nice list to get started with…
We’ll be aiming to run in the Japanese Sprint Series again next year – with any luck I’ll be able to manage all of the rounds this time – with occasional dips into the Javelin Sprint Series when dates allow. I reckon we’ve got about 4 months to get all of the above sorted, hopefully with a track day or two as a shake down. Best get cracking!
As ever, have some obligatory pics from the latest track outing. Until next time!
Fortunately the answer is yes – the 1500 quid golden dream machine did rather well for itself. Which was a relief
Second, and third, was for me to drive the car after its recent crash diet, and try out some second-hand R888s we’d bought to use as general track-day tyres.
It’s fair to say the day didn’t start all that smoothly, with our previous fuelling problems rearing their heads early on. I’d not even got the car off the trailer before it cut out, and half an hour fiddling with our ever-growing stash of spare relays finally got us up and running…. Only to find on the sighting laps that the high-pressure fuel pump wasn’t running and we were hitting the proverbial power brick-wall at about 4k rpm. We eventually got out onto a still-wet track for a short while, dodging unbelievable amounts of traffic and some pretty terrible track etiquette, before the inevitable red-flag and the madness started all over again.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. There were a glorious couple of hours late morning when a dry line had appeared, we were mercifully free of red flags and all hundred-odd cars hadn’t been let out of the pits into the same f
king traffic jam. Again. What a track it is! We’ll have some vid coming soon, but heading down Craner Curves flat in 4th is a glorious feeling Fuelling aside, the RX8 performed admirably and racked up around 80 laps during the day (almost as many as an entire season of sprinting!) without complaint. It rained after lunch which slowed things slightly (and brought out the red flags as more and more corners became decorated with the bumpers of Honda Civics), and after a couple of spins (me), a hard launch over the sausage curbs (Pete) and running out of fuel (both of us) we called it a day.
Plans for winter are still building, but we’ve got a nice list to get started with…
- Replace clutch with 6-paddle competition clutch (already purchased)
- Lightweight flywheel and counterweight (already purchased)
- Front and rear adjustable anti-roll bars (already purchased)
- More weight saving (there’s a lot of wiring in there doing not a lot!)
- Front splitter and (possibly) flat floor
- Repair the inevitable sill rust
- Fit adjustable rear suspension arms
- Wheel spacers
We’ll be aiming to run in the Japanese Sprint Series again next year – with any luck I’ll be able to manage all of the rounds this time – with occasional dips into the Javelin Sprint Series when dates allow. I reckon we’ve got about 4 months to get all of the above sorted, hopefully with a track day or two as a shake down. Best get cracking!
As ever, have some obligatory pics from the latest track outing. Until next time!
We managed to pick up a set of Uniroyal Rainsport 3 before Cadwell, and I'm very glad we did.... it was a tad wet!
I've never really got my head around Cadwell Park before - it was always wet on sprint events, and I've never done a trackday before. Fortunately we managed to book onto the quietest trackday I've ever seen - only 25 cars - so we both got plenty of laps in and I feel much more comfortable with the circuit. Car ran beautifully all day, and I have to say I'm absolutely astonished by how much grip the Rainsprouts have!
If anyone fancies watching a few of our laps (well, it's Friday and you're probably all killing time before the weekend!)...
Mine:
https://youtu.be/rqpmEIF6Z9I
Pete's
https://youtu.be/dcLqBqZXdcc
As ever, any critique very welcome
...and in other news, we've booked onto a trackday at Spa in April! Best make sure it's still working then
I've never really got my head around Cadwell Park before - it was always wet on sprint events, and I've never done a trackday before. Fortunately we managed to book onto the quietest trackday I've ever seen - only 25 cars - so we both got plenty of laps in and I feel much more comfortable with the circuit. Car ran beautifully all day, and I have to say I'm absolutely astonished by how much grip the Rainsprouts have!
If anyone fancies watching a few of our laps (well, it's Friday and you're probably all killing time before the weekend!)...
Mine:
https://youtu.be/rqpmEIF6Z9I
Pete's
https://youtu.be/dcLqBqZXdcc
As ever, any critique very welcome
...and in other news, we've booked onto a trackday at Spa in April! Best make sure it's still working then
Ok, it’s absolutely about time we had an update here! The RX8 languished on its trailer for several weeks over Christmas before we got our act together and got stuck into the one job we’ve been putting off for some time… changing the clutch. I’d picked up a six-paddle clutch and lightweight flywheel/counterweight several months ago which we’d had sitting around for a while, and after and estimated 250-ish 6,000rpm launches we weren’t getting as much clutch bite as we used to
Suffice to say this was a bd of a job, mostly because every single nut and bolt we came to was rusty and we were constantly fighting the bd thing. I also completely failed to take any photos, apart from this one where we finally had the gearbox split away from the car:
2019-02-22_09-28-43 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Still, it’s in and back together. Not a job I’d like to repeat!
At the same time we fitted some Whiteline adjustable ARBs to keep the body roll in check. Naturally two of the bolts snapped so also needed drilling out.
A little nervous about our new setup, and nervous about the car in general after we managed to flood it over winter (followed by lots of smoke – we’re still undecided as to whether this is due to the flooding or the small shards of metal we pulled off the sparkplugs when deflooding it…
) we needed a ‘test’ track day before hauling it all the way over to Spa next month. Enter Brands Hatch – Pete’s local circuit, and somewhere I’ve visited often but never driven.
So we got the Jeep loaded up and off we went!
2019-02-22_09-29-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-02-22_09-29-18 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
The day wasn’t without issue, which is precisely why we wanted to do it. The new clutch feels good and certainly bites well (the chirrup from the rear tyres if you mis-heel-and-toe certainly confirms this!) but the pedal didn’t feel great, and a quick attempt at bleeding any air out ended up with us losing the pedal altogether. After much fiddling, pumping and nipple-playing (sorry) we managed to get it back to how it had been that morning – that is to say, not great, but serviceable. We’ll get a new slave cylinder on there before Spa, certainly.
Brands is a brilliant little track though, and the car was running well otherwise. The New ARBs had made more of a difference than I thought possible, and the car is now really playful on the limit (we’ll ignore my brief trip into the gravel ). We took a few people out for passenger laps, which is always entertaining (for us, at least!). Although Pete managed to make somebody throw up, which I thought was quite impressive. In a helmet. And a balaclava. I’ll just let you think about that….
2019-02-22_09-47-04 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-02-22_09-47-17 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
The end of the day had its own drama as well – we suddenly started getting complete cuts in power, and with half an hour left of track-time and no more fuel we were left wondering if it was fuel starvation or something more sinister. Cue some frantic running around the remaining attendees frantically trying to buy some fuel, we managed to get hold of 20 litres and I was ordered to go out and do “as many laps as they’ll let you” to rule out any other issues. Fortunately all was well, and that last 15 minute session at the end of the day, with the whole track to myself, was glorious (apart the ever-lingering whiff of vomit…).
So, home, and we left it for as long as we could doing its best flying-fish impression while we air it out
2019-02-22_09-29-32 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Suffice to say this was a b
d of a job, mostly because every single nut and bolt we came to was rusty and we were constantly fighting the bd thing. I also completely failed to take any photos, apart from this one where we finally had the gearbox split away from the car:2019-02-22_09-28-43 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrStill, it’s in and back together. Not a job I’d like to repeat!
At the same time we fitted some Whiteline adjustable ARBs to keep the body roll in check. Naturally two of the bolts snapped so also needed drilling out.
A little nervous about our new setup, and nervous about the car in general after we managed to flood it over winter (followed by lots of smoke – we’re still undecided as to whether this is due to the flooding or the small shards of metal we pulled off the sparkplugs when deflooding it…
) we needed a ‘test’ track day before hauling it all the way over to Spa next month. Enter Brands Hatch – Pete’s local circuit, and somewhere I’ve visited often but never driven.So we got the Jeep loaded up and off we went!
2019-02-22_09-29-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-02-22_09-29-18 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrThe day wasn’t without issue, which is precisely why we wanted to do it. The new clutch feels good and certainly bites well (the chirrup from the rear tyres if you mis-heel-and-toe certainly confirms this!) but the pedal didn’t feel great, and a quick attempt at bleeding any air out ended up with us losing the pedal altogether. After much fiddling, pumping and nipple-playing (sorry) we managed to get it back to how it had been that morning – that is to say, not great, but serviceable. We’ll get a new slave cylinder on there before Spa, certainly.
Brands is a brilliant little track though, and the car was running well otherwise. The New ARBs had made more of a difference than I thought possible, and the car is now really playful on the limit (we’ll ignore my brief trip into the gravel
). We took a few people out for passenger laps, which is always entertaining (for us, at least!). Although Pete managed to make somebody throw up, which I thought was quite impressive. In a helmet. And a balaclava. I’ll just let you think about that….2019-02-22_09-47-04 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-02-22_09-47-17 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrThe end of the day had its own drama as well – we suddenly started getting complete cuts in power, and with half an hour left of track-time and no more fuel we were left wondering if it was fuel starvation or something more sinister. Cue some frantic running around the remaining attendees frantically trying to buy some fuel, we managed to get hold of 20 litres and I was ordered to go out and do “as many laps as they’ll let you” to rule out any other issues. Fortunately all was well, and that last 15 minute session at the end of the day, with the whole track to myself, was glorious (apart the ever-lingering whiff of vomit…).
So, home, and we left it for as long as we could doing its best flying-fish impression while we air it out
2019-02-22_09-29-32 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrIt’s safe to say we’re well and truly out of the winter doldrums now – and the Racecat’s last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic! We had a few bits to repair after Brands (not least giving the vomit-stained passenger seat a good clean!) and Pete got stuck in straight away in swapping over the faulty clutch slave cylinder and fitting a new set of EBC Yellows. We had a pretty special treat lined up for our plucky little car – and for once it didn’t involve Pete (who lives in the arse end of Kent) traipsing round the M25 to get to a circuit.
Yep, we were off to Spa! Oh yes, and it was 5 days before sprinting season starts. What could possibly go wrong…?
We loaded the Shogun up with as many parts, spares, tools as we could possibly think of, gave the RX8 a quick start and run up to temp to make sure it still worked, and trundled off to the tunnel. The whole journey was pretty perfect actually – the train was on time, the roads were clear and (being a Sunday) there were minimal lorries on the autoroute. Shunning the overpriced hotels we’d booked into an AirBNB in a local village – with space for the trailer – so we parked up, unhitched and went in search of the nearest Carrefour and some lovely Belgian beer
2019-04-08_01-44-52 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
I know you all want to hear about the track day, but humour me for a minute – Spa itself really is rather charming (and there was some nice metal hanging around as well!). Well worth a visit.
2019-04-08_01-45-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-45-23 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-45-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-45-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-45-51 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-46-28 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Suitably stocked with steak and beer (not to mention 80 litres in jerry cans full of the finest Belgian 98 RON) we headed back to our rented house, fed and watered ourselves and got an early night ready for the big day.
And what a day it was! Bright, sunny, dry and with temperatures in the teens we really couldn’t have hoped for a better day. Our first job was to swap the Rainsports out for the R888s! I was expecting Spa to be a great track, but nothing really prepared me for what a phenomenal place it really is. There was some really very serious machinery there on the day, and we were woefully out-gunned in a straight line, but overall we held our own remarkably well. The faithful old thing really does cling on in the corners, and we often found ourselves catching stuff up in the corners that had come rocketing past on the never-ending back straight a minute before.
Driving standards were very good overall, though, with particular kudos to the chap in an R35 GTR who let me pass after Pouhon, then sat behind me all the way up Eau Rouge and along the back straight so he wouldn’t have to let me passed again the next lap.
Both Pete and I had loads of fun, as evidenced by the fact we managed 240 miles on track and got through 150l of fuel The car ran like a top all day despite getting full enthusiastic use and never really being given the chance to cool down. We both – after many laps of psyching ourselves up – managed on the last runs of the day to take both Eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners flat out at the top of 4th gear – an experience that will really stay with me.
Sadly the cameras were only running for the first few runs of the day, but here’s a few laps of mine from mid-morning. Skip the first 6-7 minutes once I’ve cleared the yellow flags and traffic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXJufojBP80&t=...
And a few pics from the track itself:
2019-04-08_01-46-55 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-47-00 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-47-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-47-26 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-47-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-47-48 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
These held up remarkably well:
2019-04-08_01-47-57 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-48-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-48-34 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-49-05 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-49-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-08_01-46-17 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
And done. What an experience. Four days later, we were off to Cadwell Park for the first sprint of the 2019 season. Stay tuned…
Yep, we were off to Spa! Oh yes, and it was 5 days before sprinting season starts. What could possibly go wrong…?
We loaded the Shogun up with as many parts, spares, tools as we could possibly think of, gave the RX8 a quick start and run up to temp to make sure it still worked, and trundled off to the tunnel. The whole journey was pretty perfect actually – the train was on time, the roads were clear and (being a Sunday) there were minimal lorries on the autoroute. Shunning the overpriced hotels we’d booked into an AirBNB in a local village – with space for the trailer – so we parked up, unhitched and went in search of the nearest Carrefour and some lovely Belgian beer
2019-04-08_01-44-52 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrI know you all want to hear about the track day, but humour me for a minute – Spa itself really is rather charming (and there was some nice metal hanging around as well!). Well worth a visit.
2019-04-08_01-45-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-45-23 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-45-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-45-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-45-51 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-46-28 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrSuitably stocked with steak and beer (not to mention 80 litres in jerry cans full of the finest Belgian 98 RON) we headed back to our rented house, fed and watered ourselves and got an early night ready for the big day.
And what a day it was! Bright, sunny, dry and with temperatures in the teens we really couldn’t have hoped for a better day. Our first job was to swap the Rainsports out for the R888s! I was expecting Spa to be a great track, but nothing really prepared me for what a phenomenal place it really is. There was some really very serious machinery there on the day, and we were woefully out-gunned in a straight line, but overall we held our own remarkably well. The faithful old thing really does cling on in the corners, and we often found ourselves catching stuff up in the corners that had come rocketing past on the never-ending back straight a minute before.
Driving standards were very good overall, though, with particular kudos to the chap in an R35 GTR who let me pass after Pouhon, then sat behind me all the way up Eau Rouge and along the back straight so he wouldn’t have to let me passed again the next lap.
Both Pete and I had loads of fun, as evidenced by the fact we managed 240 miles on track and got through 150l of fuel
The car ran like a top all day despite getting full enthusiastic use and never really being given the chance to cool down. We both – after many laps of psyching ourselves up – managed on the last runs of the day to take both Eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners flat out at the top of 4th gear – an experience that will really stay with me. Sadly the cameras were only running for the first few runs of the day, but here’s a few laps of mine from mid-morning. Skip the first 6-7 minutes once I’ve cleared the yellow flags and traffic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXJufojBP80&t=...
And a few pics from the track itself:
2019-04-08_01-46-55 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-47-00 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-47-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-47-26 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-47-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-47-48 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrThese held up remarkably well:
2019-04-08_01-47-57 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-48-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-48-34 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-49-05 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-49-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-08_01-46-17 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrAnd done. What an experience. Four days later, we were off to Cadwell Park for the first sprint of the 2019 season. Stay tuned…
From European exotica to the cold, damp greyness of the North East – that’s right, sprinting season is back!
Pete didn’t even bother unloading the towcar and trailer after Spa – after arriving home on Tuesday afternoon he was heading off again Friday morning. Good thing we didn’t break anything in Belgium
Ever since I’ve started doing this I have never, ever got my head around Cadwell Park. It’s Pete’s favourite circuit, he’s always beaten me here, but I was hoping that the track day we did in November would stand me in good stead now I’d managed to get a decent number of laps under my belt. I should also note I have never, ever driven Cadwell in the dry, so we dutifully swapped onto the Rainsports before loading up to come home from Spa.
We also had that new 6-paddle clutch and lightweight flywheel to think about. It had been perfectly well behaved the week before, but neither of us had an opportunity to properly launch the car and only had one practice run each to get to grips!
2019-04-11_10-48-22 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
The morning of the sprint was – unbelievably – dry, but very cold, grey and windy. It made the conditions a little unpredictable from the outset, which unfortunately led to a couple of big offs from other competitors (no injuries, fortunately). Our new clutch took a bit of getting used to, but we soon settled on a far-more-sensible 4k rpm launch which gave the best results. Pete and I both had pretty good runs first thing, before Pete (the swine!) took a solid second off me on run two. The weather started playing silly buggers with us at this point – while it never really rained, the temps dropped and there was a lot of very fine moisture in the air that made the track decidedly greasy. My third run was 6 seconds down, and the next run ended up with me going backwards through the Gooseneck at over 80mph (an experience that certainly wakes you up! ).
Fifth run started out well, and felt really good…. Right until the point I caught up with the competitor in front of me before the end of the lap . This gave me a re-run, but sadly no advantage from warm tyres – someone had dropped coolant all around Park which took half an hour or so to clear up. Still, I managed to knock .8 of a second off which was enough to better Pete’s best run so far, which I was pretty happy about
The final run was pretty identical for me and – sadly – slower for Pete as the threatened rain closed in. So that was it – I’d finally broken my Cadwell Park curse and started the season off with a class win, and fastest naturally aspirated car of the day!
2019-04-11_10-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2019-04-11_10-48-53 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
We’ve got a few weeks to wait until Three Sisters, followed fairly quickly by Anglesey. The car seems to be largely behaving (if I’m honest, none of us ever expected it to last this long!) but the clutch bite point was getting quite high by the end of the day. We were also struggling a bit with brakes all day, which we’ve put down to cooking and glazing the pads at Spa. They’ll get a bit of a fettle soon with any luck.
2019-04-11_12-00-23 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Vids to follow once Pete is back from a much needed holiday. In the meantime, here’s his run around Spa to keep you entertained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0rNkaPkZ0&t=...
Pete didn’t even bother unloading the towcar and trailer after Spa – after arriving home on Tuesday afternoon he was heading off again Friday morning. Good thing we didn’t break anything in Belgium
Ever since I’ve started doing this I have never, ever got my head around Cadwell Park. It’s Pete’s favourite circuit, he’s always beaten me here, but I was hoping that the track day we did in November would stand me in good stead now I’d managed to get a decent number of laps under my belt. I should also note I have never, ever driven Cadwell in the dry, so we dutifully swapped onto the Rainsports before loading up to come home from Spa.
We also had that new 6-paddle clutch and lightweight flywheel to think about. It had been perfectly well behaved the week before, but neither of us had an opportunity to properly launch the car and only had one practice run each to get to grips!
2019-04-11_10-48-22 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrThe morning of the sprint was – unbelievably – dry, but very cold, grey and windy. It made the conditions a little unpredictable from the outset, which unfortunately led to a couple of big offs from other competitors (no injuries, fortunately). Our new clutch took a bit of getting used to, but we soon settled on a far-more-sensible 4k rpm launch which gave the best results. Pete and I both had pretty good runs first thing, before Pete (the swine!) took a solid second off me on run two. The weather started playing silly buggers with us at this point – while it never really rained, the temps dropped and there was a lot of very fine moisture in the air that made the track decidedly greasy. My third run was 6 seconds down, and the next run ended up with me going backwards through the Gooseneck at over 80mph (an experience that certainly wakes you up!
). Fifth run started out well, and felt really good…. Right until the point I caught up with the competitor in front of me before the end of the lap
. This gave me a re-run, but sadly no advantage from warm tyres – someone had dropped coolant all around Park which took half an hour or so to clear up. Still, I managed to knock .8 of a second off which was enough to better Pete’s best run so far, which I was pretty happy about The final run was pretty identical for me and – sadly – slower for Pete as the threatened rain closed in. So that was it – I’d finally broken my Cadwell Park curse and started the season off with a class win, and fastest naturally aspirated car of the day!
2019-04-11_10-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2019-04-11_10-48-53 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrWe’ve got a few weeks to wait until Three Sisters, followed fairly quickly by Anglesey. The car seems to be largely behaving (if I’m honest, none of us ever expected it to last this long!) but the clutch bite point was getting quite high by the end of the day. We were also struggling a bit with brakes all day, which we’ve put down to cooking and glazing the pads at Spa. They’ll get a bit of a fettle soon with any luck.
2019-04-11_12-00-23 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrVids to follow once Pete is back from a much needed holiday. In the meantime, here’s his run around Spa to keep you entertained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0rNkaPkZ0&t=...
And here's the vid. Again, considering how close we are we have pretty different driving styles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8T-eL7cMFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8T-eL7cMFY
…and we’re back! It was a pretty quick turnaround from Cadwell, but Pete still managed to fit a new clutch master cylinder and bleed the system through after our worries at the previous round. Fortunately is seems to have done the trick, as neither of us really fancy pulling the gearbox off again.
Three Sisters is a pretty different track to Cadwell – it’s basically a kart circuit, so even with a double-lap sprint layout it’s only just over a mile. It’s short, twisty, narrow, frantic and there’s very little run-off if you do get something wrong (as a couple of competitors unfortunately found out). There’s very little semblance of a racing line, so most corners are approached by standing on the brakes, throwing it in, nailing the throttle and hoping for the best
The little MX5s should have been in their element here, but for such a lardy car I was really impressed with our results. Pete and I managed 9th and 10th overall, fasted naturally-aspirated car of the day, and P1 and P2 of the Mazda Sprint Series. Not bad going really!
Couple of pics of the day:
And a drive-by and in-car video. Hitting the limiter at 10k rpm is all part of the fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3-ofipZRng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXZfVxeSDA
Next weekend is a biggy – Javelin are Anglesey, running the Javelin Sprint Series on Saturday, and the Japanese Sprint Series on Sunday. We’re, unusually, in a big class for the former event, so it’ll be interesting to see if we can keep the hot hatch boys and girls at bay!
Three Sisters is a pretty different track to Cadwell – it’s basically a kart circuit, so even with a double-lap sprint layout it’s only just over a mile. It’s short, twisty, narrow, frantic and there’s very little run-off if you do get something wrong (as a couple of competitors unfortunately found out). There’s very little semblance of a racing line, so most corners are approached by standing on the brakes, throwing it in, nailing the throttle and hoping for the best
The little MX5s should have been in their element here, but for such a lardy car I was really impressed with our results. Pete and I managed 9th and 10th overall, fasted naturally-aspirated car of the day, and P1 and P2 of the Mazda Sprint Series. Not bad going really!
Couple of pics of the day:
And a drive-by and in-car video. Hitting the limiter at 10k rpm is all part of the fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3-ofipZRng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXZfVxeSDA
Next weekend is a biggy – Javelin are Anglesey, running the Javelin Sprint Series on Saturday, and the Japanese Sprint Series on Sunday. We’re, unusually, in a big class for the former event, so it’ll be interesting to see if we can keep the hot hatch boys and girls at bay!
Blimey, plenty to catch up on! Anglesey, aside from being a real bloody trek from anywhere sensible, is always a great event. Making it a double-header (Javelin and Japanese series) means we could make the most of the weekend, including a nice little AirBNB out in the middle of nowhere to keep costs down!
Typically both days started off wet, drying towards the end of the day, so for two consecutive events the end result came down to the last run. We had fun getting there though, with spins from both of us and a couple of entertaining trips across the grass
Whilst clearing a nice chunk of grass out for the underside of the car we also discovered that the front ARB mount had managed to detach itself. Now I’m not saying this is why I fell off the circuit…
Day 1 went to me, and day 2 to Pete after I put too much pressure on myself and stuffed up my last run! Still, it was nice playing in a bigger class for a change during the Javelin event, during which we managed a respectable 2nd and 4th out of six, followed by 13th and 14th overall the next day out of the usual Japanese SS runners. Seems to be pretty consistently where we sit here!
After a month’s hiatus we then headed up to RAF Cottesmore (AKA Kendrew Barracks) for a very different sort of event. Kendrew is always a lot of fun, using the airfield support roads and main runway on a coned out course feels almost like a rally stage. Most competitors (me included!) were still learning the track by mid afternoon, and the long grass surrounding the track made navigating even trickier. This also meant that any expedition off-track was a messy affair – as I found out after putting two wheels off ended up with a hay-bale’s worth of fodder attached to the bottom of the car which caught fire briefly
The surface at Kendrew is also very abrasive, so we opted to use our old R888 track-day tyres for the first couple of runs. It turns out this was less than ideal, so we switched to the newer R888Rs and immediately went 3 seconds quicker
Sadly – for the first time ever – we didn’t get all of our runs in. Last year we had to replace a rear suspension arm after I sort of crashed the car a bit, and we took the opportunity to swap in an adjustable Japspeed unit with some fancy rose joints. Naturally this is the bit that failed as I came through the last (very tight!) chicane, banged down into first and floored it over the finish line. Poor Pete only managed one run on the R888Rs as a result, but we still managed a top 15 placing on what is very much a power-orientated circuit!
Interestingly, as a neat demonstration of our power disadvantage, there was a speed trap rigged just before the braking point on the main runway. Our top speed along here was a dizzying 113mph, compared to 174mph (!) for the leading Fensport GT86R, 132mph for the MX5 turbo that’s trouncing us in the Mazda series, and 130mph by the Civic Type R that we somehow managed to beat
Blyton next up. Should be interesting, I’ve not driven there for two years! We’ve also picked up a new set of tyres, and are trying something different this time:
A new set of Yoko A052s. Looking forward to trying them out…
Typically both days started off wet, drying towards the end of the day, so for two consecutive events the end result came down to the last run. We had fun getting there though, with spins from both of us and a couple of entertaining trips across the grass
Whilst clearing a nice chunk of grass out for the underside of the car we also discovered that the front ARB mount had managed to detach itself. Now I’m not saying this is why I fell off the circuit…
Day 1 went to me, and day 2 to Pete after I put too much pressure on myself and stuffed up my last run! Still, it was nice playing in a bigger class for a change during the Javelin event, during which we managed a respectable 2nd and 4th out of six, followed by 13th and 14th overall the next day out of the usual Japanese SS runners. Seems to be pretty consistently where we sit here!
After a month’s hiatus we then headed up to RAF Cottesmore (AKA Kendrew Barracks) for a very different sort of event. Kendrew is always a lot of fun, using the airfield support roads and main runway on a coned out course feels almost like a rally stage. Most competitors (me included!) were still learning the track by mid afternoon, and the long grass surrounding the track made navigating even trickier. This also meant that any expedition off-track was a messy affair – as I found out after putting two wheels off ended up with a hay-bale’s worth of fodder attached to the bottom of the car which caught fire briefly
The surface at Kendrew is also very abrasive, so we opted to use our old R888 track-day tyres for the first couple of runs. It turns out this was less than ideal, so we switched to the newer R888Rs and immediately went 3 seconds quicker
Sadly – for the first time ever – we didn’t get all of our runs in. Last year we had to replace a rear suspension arm after I sort of crashed the car a bit, and we took the opportunity to swap in an adjustable Japspeed unit with some fancy rose joints. Naturally this is the bit that failed as I came through the last (very tight!) chicane, banged down into first and floored it over the finish line. Poor Pete only managed one run on the R888Rs as a result, but we still managed a top 15 placing on what is very much a power-orientated circuit!
Interestingly, as a neat demonstration of our power disadvantage, there was a speed trap rigged just before the braking point on the main runway. Our top speed along here was a dizzying 113mph, compared to 174mph (!) for the leading Fensport GT86R, 132mph for the MX5 turbo that’s trouncing us in the Mazda series, and 130mph by the Civic Type R that we somehow managed to beat
Blyton next up. Should be interesting, I’ve not driven there for two years! We’ve also picked up a new set of tyres, and are trying something different this time:
A new set of Yoko A052s. Looking forward to trying them out…
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