2007 Lotus 2-Eleven
Discussion
It was nice to see you (and the car) again at Silverstone yesterday Kyle. Shame the track conditions weren't a bit better!
I've just finished uploading the video from the 2pm session with Me, you and Eddie having fun together.
The video really doesn't do justice to how damp and greasy it was out there!
I've just finished uploading the video from the 2pm session with Me, you and Eddie having fun together.
The video really doesn't do justice to how damp and greasy it was out there!
Paul_M3 said:
It was nice to see you (and the car) again at Silverstone yesterday Kyle. Shame the track conditions weren't a bit better!
I've just finished uploading the video from the 2pm session with Me, you and Eddie having fun together.
The video really doesn't do justice to how damp and greasy it was out there!
Amazing thanks Paul! Unfortunately my GoPro had packed in by that late in the day, not sure what happened but it wasn't playing ball. It was only giving me the first file of each session, like it stopped rolling over into another file which means I pretty much just got garage -> pits -> outlap.I've just finished uploading the video from the 2pm session with Me, you and Eddie having fun together.
The video really doesn't do justice to how damp and greasy it was out there!
Double Trackday Update!
Was finally time to get back on track, twice! Had Oulton Park and Silverstone on consecutive weeks, both with Lotus on Track.
Weather for Oulton was forecast dry, but it wasn't.
Remained wet all morning and most of the afternoon, with the slightest hints of a dry line by the final session.
Wet trackdays can be treacherous at the best of times, but Oulton really is a special case. Still, the A052 tyres held up their end and kept me broadly on the black stuff with only the odd adventure onto the larger kerbs.
The morning looked much like this:
Car was going well though, was the first time to get some proper mileage on the SCS ABS system in slippery conditions, and it really was impressive. It gave heaps of confidence on the brakes and though the 2-Eleven was far from its peak braking performance, it felt safe and allowed me to attack a couple of places. Particularly the second chicane on the back straight, knowing that I had a coned run-off if I overdid it.
Though humbled by the guys on proper Avon wets, the 52's continued to impress through the morning, and knowing that they'd immediately switch on as a competent dry tyre if the line dried up was icing on the cake. I still stand by my assessment earlier in the year that AR1 feel like a more assertive dry track tyre, but no questioning the all-round ability of the Yokohamas.
The waterproof condom suit got plenty of mileage.
Puddle
Into the afternoon the pace picked up a bit and the faintest dry line appeared. Still had to be incredibly careful under the trees though!
(excellent photo by Mark Holmes. Thanks for this!)
The fabled dry line:
A random lap from the afternoon. Actually I think this may have been the final flyer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvD3m3ka9-k
Interesting to hear tyre squeal on a video. I think that's new. Perhaps a characteristic of the A052 not quite being up to sticky temps, but good enough to just about hang on!
If I remember right, this final session was a long one - close to 40 mins and was dragged out by following a Caterham of some description for the last 4-5 laps. Was great fun, and felt like we had the place to ourselves. Despite lapping somewhat similarly, it was fun to see the huge differences in performance at various points. Fair to say too that the Caterham driver had to be far more committed than I did to maintain that pace, he was frequently flying over the curbs and landing semi-sideways with a flare of sparks coming from whatever part of his chassis hit the floor. Very cool!
The day finished well, and without any real drama... except one little niggle. The car smelt a bit "petrolly". This was the first outing with the new 60litre tank so I'd convinced myself it was just maybe some residue that had been sploshed around, but it was harder and harder to ignore especially after the tank had been brimmed.
With that in mind, and with very little time before Silverstone Dave and John @seriouslylotus very kindly offered to get the car in for a very quick check.
The verdict was that the original filler pipe was probably a bit past its best. It passed any visual check, and certainly wasn't cracked or perished but it was 'hard' enough to be questionable, and John worked miracles to source a replacement. Cutting it so fine it was, that John even delivered my car straight to Silverstone for me. How is that for service?!
Silverstone was more of the same in terms of track conditions, but somewhat different circumstances. It didn't rain all day, bit instead we had a very heavy lingering fog which made your face wet just from walking through the paddock, and as such the track stayed wet all day. Not even a dry line this time!
That said, as far as wet trackdays go this was FANTASTIC. I'm not sure if it had enough to wrestle the various Anglesey days off their top spot for wet trackday fun but it wasn't far off.
Again the A052 stepped up and kept me "safe", and allowed me to push on more than I've ever done before on a wet track, especially considering how high-speed much of Silverstone is.
The car lapped it up. Faster corners enjoyed a good turn-in, slight mid-corner understeer which once harnessed meant I could push right up to the limit fairly safely, with only a few occasions calling for fresh pants around Copse where I'd slightly over-do it and get a twitch of oversteer on exit.
In the slower corners I found the front end a little impatient sometimes, but could be driven around fairly easily once I got into my groove. Lead to plenty of entry oversteer once I got the braking balance right into a corner, and in most cases could be easily controlled through the corner... just... not always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX2vA_wmKxo
Regrettably, I had gopro issues in the late afternoon which is a real shame because I had some excellent laps with some other PH'ers (one perspective posted above!) and also put some pretty tidy laps together if I don't say so myself.
I think this was the session either just before, or just after lunch which I did manage to capture in full - so here's a clear lap from that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzRZ4isNp8g
(The track looks dry, but I can assure you it's not!)
I had Zach sat with me, another LoT'ers Son who was celebrating his 18th birthday. A little mistake on braking into Stowe, and the oversteer was a little excessive out of the Loop but otherwise fairly tidy.
Luffield was an interesting corner all day, sort of four wheel sliding round that. Understeer and oversteer all at once. Almost certainly something that could be driven around with a bit more talent, but I was quite enjoying it. Felt like when you take the corner between frozen aisle and menswear a bit too quickly with a Tesco trolley.
It really was a top day, so good in fact that as soon as Paul@LoT announced the Silverstone day for next year, I booked immediately.
Fuel smell sorted on the car, so the fuel filler pipe must have been the cause. The tank aside from the stink has been an excellent convenience upgrade. At both Silverstone and Oulton I refilled just once over lunch, no messing with jerry cans etc. I suspect on a dry/summer day that I'll burn through a bit more, but still - pretty nice upgrade compared to sloshing cans about every other session.
Car got a quick wash the following weekend and then pushed into the garage, potentially for quite a while.
As much as I'll miss it the Lotus, the Caterham is going to get most of my time/attention for the next year. Lotus absolutely is not going anywhere, so once I can get it up onto my ramp I'll probably give it a good clean under the arches etc, maybe get a few bits off for refurb and generally just give it a pampering. I might even get my DA polisher out!
Into next year, I may back the dampers off a bit and just enjoy it on the odd sunny weekend where I'm not Caterham'ing. I barely turned a road-mile in it this year which was a shame.
I suspect I'll get at least a couple of trackdays in, certainly once the Caterham season is finished in October but maybe a cheeky summer day to remind me what a fast car feels like!
Wooo meaningful thread update at last!
As 2025 so far has been dominated with Caterham activity, from completing the build over Christmas, IVA in January and over 20 track/test/race days so far the Lotus was semi-retired to the back of the garage.
After finishing the Croft race at the end of June, that opened up a two month summer break window where the Caterham could be shuffled to the back, and Lotus brought out to the staging area!
7 days following the Caterham race at Croft, I had a Lotus on Track trackday booked at the same circuit so wanted to get the Lotus checked over and signed off fit for action. I honestly can't remember what state I left it in after its last trackday back in November24.
First problem popped up right away:
A row of dead pixels has appeared on my ADU
(and within hours a second row appeared a few mm to the right of this one). I've already been in touch with ECUMaster via the UK Distributor RRR Engineering and it needs to go back to Poland to be fixed, which all just feels very awkward so for the moment I'll just put up with it until it gets worse.
Second problem was the NSF Indicator bulb had gone. Nothing major yet, and if that was to be the extent of 8 months of neglect then happy days!
I did however want to change the oil and give it a good once over, and between the racing and tinkering on the Caterham I had just run out of energy - so I took the car over to see Dave and John at Seriously Lotus. Always nice to retain a regular check-in with a specialist on the car's history regardless of my energy levels.
Oil and filter changed and everything given a good once over, which surfaced:
Minor coolant weep from the front radiator hose. Nipped up, hopefully that's that.
Minor gearbox fluid weep, suspected from the input seal. Ugh. For now it's a clean it up and keep an eye on it, but that might need to be box out again at some point.
I'm hoping it's not a pattern part seal used when the box was rebuild earlier in 2024. That would be really annoying.
Indicator bulb swapped, and front pads identified as being a little close to gone.
Probably could have got Croft out of them, but whilst here it made sense to swap them out. My first pad swap on the big brake setup so got a good couple of years out of them!
Washed and ready for the trailer.
...which was very cosy compared to having a Caterham loaded!
Onto Croft and though the forecast advertised the chance of the odd sprinkle, we had glorious weather all day and missed the brutal wind of the race weekend the previous week.
Croft trackside photos big thanks to PT. Cracking job.
This would be the first time I've ever really had back to back experience on the same track in very different cars so close together so it would be quite an interesting experiment. Obviously the Lotus would be faster, for those not aware my Caterham is Academy spec, very low power, very low grip van tyres, no rear anti-roll bar or fancy suspension etc.
What was less clear would be "which is most fun" or "do I remember how to drive this one" or based on the fact I have good data from previous years... has half a season of racing made me any quicker on a track day?!
The car immediately felt broken in almost every aspect. Steering so light it felt like the steering boss had fell apart, brakes grabby and hard to modulate, heel and toe "impossible" with the pedal layout, gearshift felt floppy and weak. Eeeek, this car didn't always feel like this did it?!
But then just a few laps in I start to get some warm fuzzy feelings returning (or is that nausea?!), and I remember that the 2-Eleven just doesn't like going slowly. Start leaning on it, get some heat into the brakes and tyres and suddenly it came alive. OK the gearshift was still sloppy and the revmatching took almost all day to relearn (and even then I constantly cocked it up) but it didn't take long for the chassis to come alive and have me grinning like an idiot.
Half way through the first session I had the car skipping and dancing through T2 and had a few lairy moments through Sunny Out as I relearned the mid-engine weight transfer, but reprogramming my brain to the new speeds didn't take long at all. With the usual caveats about parsing laptimes from GoPro footage, I got within half a second of my best time of the day within the second session, then spent the rest of the day unscaring myself into putting some consistent laps together.
Reviewing my laps against my 2024 laps, I'd changed a few things in terms of line and approach as a result of my race week and the coaching that came with that, but I'd got no braver through the Jim Clark esses (still needed a lift, which I'm not sure is 100% needed in the 2-Eleven) but gained heaps of speed through Turn 2 and carried a lot more (20kph!) through Sunny In/Out compared to last year.
The car certainly had some handling issues that I'm not sure I was facing last year, perhaps as not leaning quite so hard on the car previously. Turning into T2 on the brakes, my front suspension was really struggling and I ended up hopping across the track a little bit and had to be quite patient before powering on. It feels like maybe the rebound is too stiff, and was preventing the shock from fully expanding on each compression, eventually jacking itself down to effectively being maxed out on the front left.
The Caterham is very soft, and has tonnes of body roll so I'm maybe being overly picky - but if I had the motivation to spend time adjusting the dampers I think I could have dialled some of this out, but I was too busy chatting and being unusually social for that.
Struggling with heel and toe was hurting my entry speed into Sunny In and the first left hander into the complex, but I can't really blame the car for that.
The sensation of losing grip and sliding the car was a lot less communicative than I've grown used to in the Caterham, so the first few slides were a little unnerving but nothing I couldn't cope with.
The car remained utterly incredible on the brakes, with splitter clearance judged to perfection!
The ADU captured a few longitudinal G readings of 1.7 which is about the most I've seen in this car.
I was probably trailing the brakes more than I have done previously, definitely a Caterham habit as it's the only way you can get that thing to turn, but was a little harder to judge right in the Lotus.
More front wheel hopping:
In terms of mechanical reliability, the car remained faultless all day. Not so much as a stumble or a stall in the pits. Pulled like a train (which I would probably say the same for if I took the Volvo on track after being used to the Caterhams power delivery) seemed to tolerate the temperatures just fine as the day got hotter and hotter.
I did find the Tillet B6 XL seat woefully inadequate at holding me into place after being used to the bespoke bagseat that I have in the Caterham. That's being very unfair to Tillet as they make excellent seats, but I could maybe benefit from some of the padded inserts to add a bit of grip and/or some sort of padding to take up the slack that my new slender race driver physique has created.
Going from 6pt and full cage to 4pt and... well, the sky was also quite unnerving!
I finished the day on a high, putting in a couple of fairly clean laps but they did feel a bit clumsy due to the aforementioned issue with heel and toe etc. Another trackday and I'll be back on form, but despite that the figures produced from the day were quite eye opening.
The Caterham Academy pole lap last week was a 1.38.2 (I was P2 with a 1.38.5)
My previous best Croft lap taken from video footage was a 1.32.0 achieved last year.
This week I did a best time of a 1.29.3, and was consistently in the 1.30s. Even my very first session whilst still remembering where the pedals were was better than my previous best.
So a significant improvement, and quite satisfying to know that I've gotten a little quicker even despite the clubfooted clumsiness of my feet on the brakes and throttle for much of the day.
In other Caterham terms, the pole lap for the 310R race (the pinnacle Sigma variety) was a 1.31.5, but the slick shod 420R sequential cars did a 1.24.0 which is just a little bit terrifying to think about!
A couple of clear laps in the final session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyesTMptZ4
As ever the LoT day was brilliantly run, and the driving standards across the board were fantastic. The Porsche contingent is slowly getting more and more numerous on LoT days but I personally don't have any issues with that, people move on and try other cars - typically people move from Lotus into GT Porsches or Caterhams, so I think it's great to keep these people in the family because the other alternative is that the LoT days probably can't operate anymore with just Lotus'.
In terms of how I approached the day, I definitely had a lot less track time than I would have done this time last year. I think this was both just a bit of exhaustion but also was really relishing in the social aspect of trackdaying after the seriousness of testing and racing etc. It's good to be back just having fun.
And speaking of fun... which is the most funnerist? Caterham or 2-Eleven.
Not sure, need to drive more of both!
As 2025 so far has been dominated with Caterham activity, from completing the build over Christmas, IVA in January and over 20 track/test/race days so far the Lotus was semi-retired to the back of the garage.
After finishing the Croft race at the end of June, that opened up a two month summer break window where the Caterham could be shuffled to the back, and Lotus brought out to the staging area!
7 days following the Caterham race at Croft, I had a Lotus on Track trackday booked at the same circuit so wanted to get the Lotus checked over and signed off fit for action. I honestly can't remember what state I left it in after its last trackday back in November24.
First problem popped up right away:
A row of dead pixels has appeared on my ADU
(and within hours a second row appeared a few mm to the right of this one). I've already been in touch with ECUMaster via the UK Distributor RRR Engineering and it needs to go back to Poland to be fixed, which all just feels very awkward so for the moment I'll just put up with it until it gets worse.Second problem was the NSF Indicator bulb had gone. Nothing major yet, and if that was to be the extent of 8 months of neglect then happy days!
I did however want to change the oil and give it a good once over, and between the racing and tinkering on the Caterham I had just run out of energy - so I took the car over to see Dave and John at Seriously Lotus. Always nice to retain a regular check-in with a specialist on the car's history regardless of my energy levels.
Oil and filter changed and everything given a good once over, which surfaced:
Minor coolant weep from the front radiator hose. Nipped up, hopefully that's that.
Minor gearbox fluid weep, suspected from the input seal. Ugh. For now it's a clean it up and keep an eye on it, but that might need to be box out again at some point.
I'm hoping it's not a pattern part seal used when the box was rebuild earlier in 2024. That would be really annoying.
Indicator bulb swapped, and front pads identified as being a little close to gone.
Probably could have got Croft out of them, but whilst here it made sense to swap them out. My first pad swap on the big brake setup so got a good couple of years out of them!
Washed and ready for the trailer.
...which was very cosy compared to having a Caterham loaded!
Onto Croft and though the forecast advertised the chance of the odd sprinkle, we had glorious weather all day and missed the brutal wind of the race weekend the previous week.
Croft trackside photos big thanks to PT. Cracking job.
This would be the first time I've ever really had back to back experience on the same track in very different cars so close together so it would be quite an interesting experiment. Obviously the Lotus would be faster, for those not aware my Caterham is Academy spec, very low power, very low grip van tyres, no rear anti-roll bar or fancy suspension etc.
What was less clear would be "which is most fun" or "do I remember how to drive this one" or based on the fact I have good data from previous years... has half a season of racing made me any quicker on a track day?!
The car immediately felt broken in almost every aspect. Steering so light it felt like the steering boss had fell apart, brakes grabby and hard to modulate, heel and toe "impossible" with the pedal layout, gearshift felt floppy and weak. Eeeek, this car didn't always feel like this did it?!
But then just a few laps in I start to get some warm fuzzy feelings returning (or is that nausea?!), and I remember that the 2-Eleven just doesn't like going slowly. Start leaning on it, get some heat into the brakes and tyres and suddenly it came alive. OK the gearshift was still sloppy and the revmatching took almost all day to relearn (and even then I constantly cocked it up) but it didn't take long for the chassis to come alive and have me grinning like an idiot.
Half way through the first session I had the car skipping and dancing through T2 and had a few lairy moments through Sunny Out as I relearned the mid-engine weight transfer, but reprogramming my brain to the new speeds didn't take long at all. With the usual caveats about parsing laptimes from GoPro footage, I got within half a second of my best time of the day within the second session, then spent the rest of the day unscaring myself into putting some consistent laps together.
Reviewing my laps against my 2024 laps, I'd changed a few things in terms of line and approach as a result of my race week and the coaching that came with that, but I'd got no braver through the Jim Clark esses (still needed a lift, which I'm not sure is 100% needed in the 2-Eleven) but gained heaps of speed through Turn 2 and carried a lot more (20kph!) through Sunny In/Out compared to last year.
The car certainly had some handling issues that I'm not sure I was facing last year, perhaps as not leaning quite so hard on the car previously. Turning into T2 on the brakes, my front suspension was really struggling and I ended up hopping across the track a little bit and had to be quite patient before powering on. It feels like maybe the rebound is too stiff, and was preventing the shock from fully expanding on each compression, eventually jacking itself down to effectively being maxed out on the front left.
The Caterham is very soft, and has tonnes of body roll so I'm maybe being overly picky - but if I had the motivation to spend time adjusting the dampers I think I could have dialled some of this out, but I was too busy chatting and being unusually social for that.
Struggling with heel and toe was hurting my entry speed into Sunny In and the first left hander into the complex, but I can't really blame the car for that.
The sensation of losing grip and sliding the car was a lot less communicative than I've grown used to in the Caterham, so the first few slides were a little unnerving but nothing I couldn't cope with.
The car remained utterly incredible on the brakes, with splitter clearance judged to perfection!
The ADU captured a few longitudinal G readings of 1.7 which is about the most I've seen in this car.
I was probably trailing the brakes more than I have done previously, definitely a Caterham habit as it's the only way you can get that thing to turn, but was a little harder to judge right in the Lotus.
More front wheel hopping:
In terms of mechanical reliability, the car remained faultless all day. Not so much as a stumble or a stall in the pits. Pulled like a train (which I would probably say the same for if I took the Volvo on track after being used to the Caterhams power delivery) seemed to tolerate the temperatures just fine as the day got hotter and hotter.
I did find the Tillet B6 XL seat woefully inadequate at holding me into place after being used to the bespoke bagseat that I have in the Caterham. That's being very unfair to Tillet as they make excellent seats, but I could maybe benefit from some of the padded inserts to add a bit of grip and/or some sort of padding to take up the slack that my new slender race driver physique has created.
Going from 6pt and full cage to 4pt and... well, the sky was also quite unnerving!
I finished the day on a high, putting in a couple of fairly clean laps but they did feel a bit clumsy due to the aforementioned issue with heel and toe etc. Another trackday and I'll be back on form, but despite that the figures produced from the day were quite eye opening.
The Caterham Academy pole lap last week was a 1.38.2 (I was P2 with a 1.38.5)
My previous best Croft lap taken from video footage was a 1.32.0 achieved last year.
This week I did a best time of a 1.29.3, and was consistently in the 1.30s. Even my very first session whilst still remembering where the pedals were was better than my previous best.
So a significant improvement, and quite satisfying to know that I've gotten a little quicker even despite the clubfooted clumsiness of my feet on the brakes and throttle for much of the day.
In other Caterham terms, the pole lap for the 310R race (the pinnacle Sigma variety) was a 1.31.5, but the slick shod 420R sequential cars did a 1.24.0 which is just a little bit terrifying to think about!
A couple of clear laps in the final session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyesTMptZ4
As ever the LoT day was brilliantly run, and the driving standards across the board were fantastic. The Porsche contingent is slowly getting more and more numerous on LoT days but I personally don't have any issues with that, people move on and try other cars - typically people move from Lotus into GT Porsches or Caterhams, so I think it's great to keep these people in the family because the other alternative is that the LoT days probably can't operate anymore with just Lotus'.
In terms of how I approached the day, I definitely had a lot less track time than I would have done this time last year. I think this was both just a bit of exhaustion but also was really relishing in the social aspect of trackdaying after the seriousness of testing and racing etc. It's good to be back just having fun.
And speaking of fun... which is the most funnerist? Caterham or 2-Eleven.
Not sure, need to drive more of both!
Fonzey said:
Finally, Anglesey weekend had arrived!
As I've done a couple of times now, I tried to shoehorn in a family weekend away to coincide with this because we love North Wales and it kills two birds with one slate.
So trailer and Volvo loaded up with tools, geo strings, dolls, books, beach stuff, beer, cereal, etc etc.
We headed over on Saturday morning for the trackday on the Monday.
The weather was turbulent throughout the weekend, spots of bright glorious sun punctuated by stormlike wind and rain. Really was anyone's guess how it would be on track, but based on the last three years of May Anglesey trackdays we suspected it would be torrential... as usual.
I'll skip the holiday snaps*, but lovely weekend all in - nice waterfall walk and explored the glorious beach of Harlech amongst a few other things. Soon enough it was time to head to the circuit.
On the ~1hr drive from the airBnB to the circuit I had fog, sun, storms and maybe even a bit of hail. So still none the wiser as to how the day would go.
Got unloaded in the rain, and just ahead of the sighting laps the track looked like this.
There was no photographer at the circuit and I was pretty weak at taking photos so relying on video to capture this day best I can.
This was session #1, still damp so tiptoeing around but already could tell that the A052 tyres were better than anything I'd ever driven before in the wet.
https://youtu.be/Vem_KYtlKSY
The front would understeer as expected into the hairpin etc, but get hard on the power and where I'd previously enjoy a nice little slide out, the rear just gripped up and fired me off. Though I was a bit underwhelmed with the feel of A052 in the dry compared to a traditional 'semi slick', it's clear that they have a lot of potential and warm up really quickly.
Unfortunately my new love for the A052 would go no further, as on a later lap I had a bit of a weird moment going into the final corner onto the pit straight, checked the TPMS and could see that I had a deflating OSR.
Doh.
This meant on with the AR1s which at this point in their life are very, very worn. They've done the best part of 20 trackdays across two cars now so this was almost certainly going to be their send-off.
The track now looked like this.
The AR1's felt immediately familiar but notably slower to warm up compared to the 52s. I'd actually say they had LESS grip in the dry when warming up than the A052 had in the wet! But once they got going, they gave me the direct feel I'd been missing from the Yokos, clearly past their best but the sliding was fun, predictable and controllable.
I'd stuck a gopro in my footwell to try and give me something to learn from with my releasing of brake pressure during rev matching. Getting the footwell gopro to stay recording for a session was harder than anticipated, so ended up only with one mid-morning session where I could sync a clip up. Shame, but still gives me some useful footage to study later.
https://youtu.be/QLKawHoc4-U?feature=shared
I spent the morning building the speed up and enjoying how playful the car could be at certain corners. The lap started all well behaved, tiptoe it into T1 so as to not ruin the lap before it had started, then the banked hairpin of T2 giving seemingly unlimited grip it was hard to know the limits.
When you've only ever done wet laps at Anglesey Church corner is a bit of a mental block because it has zero grip in the wet, so relearning this was the main topic of the day. Early in the day it was dab of brakes and glide it in, later in the day it was just a generous lift in fourth before rolling it in. Feels like there's always something left on the table, until suddenly there's not.
After this the lap gets fun, keeping it pinned into the "not straight" kink and up the hill before impossibly heavy braking for rocket, rear of the car goes very light on the right hander and then again towards peel fighting for grip on entry and mid corner.
Braking down hill was something that required more bravery throughout the day, but then the hairpin at the end of the GP straight is where most of the fun could be had.
Absolutely adore this circuit and the 2-Eleven felt properly on top of it.
All too soon it was lunch time.
After eating (outside! At Anglesey!!) it was back to work and kept gradually building up and changing a few bits here and there, but for all my improvements in technique/line/etc - the car was starting to struggle with the rear tyres getting less and less tolerant of the abuse.
It was really, really good fun though.
This is a bit of a longer clip but gives a good jist of the day. Low traffic, blue skies and a few skids.
https://youtu.be/XogfVjG9FfE?feature=shared
No mechanical issues (tyre aside) to report and the 2-Eleven felt relentless all day. ABS intervention seemed at an all time low (I'd moved bias forward a bit since Blyton) but in retrospect after checking data it was still intervening on the rear a bit - so still some balance to move forwards I think.
The Schlep home was a tiring one, but the buzz from one of the best trackdays in memory carried me through most if it.
Hard to think what could put a downer on this anytime soon!
I recognise that trailer, I am sure that you bought it off a mate of mine near Donington Park. Definitely his old one.As I've done a couple of times now, I tried to shoehorn in a family weekend away to coincide with this because we love North Wales and it kills two birds with one slate.
So trailer and Volvo loaded up with tools, geo strings, dolls, books, beach stuff, beer, cereal, etc etc.
We headed over on Saturday morning for the trackday on the Monday.
The weather was turbulent throughout the weekend, spots of bright glorious sun punctuated by stormlike wind and rain. Really was anyone's guess how it would be on track, but based on the last three years of May Anglesey trackdays we suspected it would be torrential... as usual.
I'll skip the holiday snaps*, but lovely weekend all in - nice waterfall walk and explored the glorious beach of Harlech amongst a few other things. Soon enough it was time to head to the circuit.
- this was cool though
On the ~1hr drive from the airBnB to the circuit I had fog, sun, storms and maybe even a bit of hail. So still none the wiser as to how the day would go.
Got unloaded in the rain, and just ahead of the sighting laps the track looked like this.
There was no photographer at the circuit and I was pretty weak at taking photos so relying on video to capture this day best I can.
This was session #1, still damp so tiptoeing around but already could tell that the A052 tyres were better than anything I'd ever driven before in the wet.
https://youtu.be/Vem_KYtlKSY
The front would understeer as expected into the hairpin etc, but get hard on the power and where I'd previously enjoy a nice little slide out, the rear just gripped up and fired me off. Though I was a bit underwhelmed with the feel of A052 in the dry compared to a traditional 'semi slick', it's clear that they have a lot of potential and warm up really quickly.
Unfortunately my new love for the A052 would go no further, as on a later lap I had a bit of a weird moment going into the final corner onto the pit straight, checked the TPMS and could see that I had a deflating OSR.
Doh.
This meant on with the AR1s which at this point in their life are very, very worn. They've done the best part of 20 trackdays across two cars now so this was almost certainly going to be their send-off.
The track now looked like this.
The AR1's felt immediately familiar but notably slower to warm up compared to the 52s. I'd actually say they had LESS grip in the dry when warming up than the A052 had in the wet! But once they got going, they gave me the direct feel I'd been missing from the Yokos, clearly past their best but the sliding was fun, predictable and controllable.
I'd stuck a gopro in my footwell to try and give me something to learn from with my releasing of brake pressure during rev matching. Getting the footwell gopro to stay recording for a session was harder than anticipated, so ended up only with one mid-morning session where I could sync a clip up. Shame, but still gives me some useful footage to study later.
https://youtu.be/QLKawHoc4-U?feature=shared
I spent the morning building the speed up and enjoying how playful the car could be at certain corners. The lap started all well behaved, tiptoe it into T1 so as to not ruin the lap before it had started, then the banked hairpin of T2 giving seemingly unlimited grip it was hard to know the limits.
When you've only ever done wet laps at Anglesey Church corner is a bit of a mental block because it has zero grip in the wet, so relearning this was the main topic of the day. Early in the day it was dab of brakes and glide it in, later in the day it was just a generous lift in fourth before rolling it in. Feels like there's always something left on the table, until suddenly there's not.
After this the lap gets fun, keeping it pinned into the "not straight" kink and up the hill before impossibly heavy braking for rocket, rear of the car goes very light on the right hander and then again towards peel fighting for grip on entry and mid corner.
Braking down hill was something that required more bravery throughout the day, but then the hairpin at the end of the GP straight is where most of the fun could be had.
Absolutely adore this circuit and the 2-Eleven felt properly on top of it.
All too soon it was lunch time.
After eating (outside! At Anglesey!!) it was back to work and kept gradually building up and changing a few bits here and there, but for all my improvements in technique/line/etc - the car was starting to struggle with the rear tyres getting less and less tolerant of the abuse.
It was really, really good fun though.
This is a bit of a longer clip but gives a good jist of the day. Low traffic, blue skies and a few skids.
https://youtu.be/XogfVjG9FfE?feature=shared
No mechanical issues (tyre aside) to report and the 2-Eleven felt relentless all day. ABS intervention seemed at an all time low (I'd moved bias forward a bit since Blyton) but in retrospect after checking data it was still intervening on the rear a bit - so still some balance to move forwards I think.
The Schlep home was a tiring one, but the buzz from one of the best trackdays in memory carried me through most if it.
Hard to think what could put a downer on this anytime soon!
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