Carlimits day

[Salgar]

I'm super excited to be going on my first carlimits training day tomorrow! Will confirm that I have no idea how to drive, and hopefully get me a bit better.

I think I'm in for some rain too which should make it more exciting. Never done anything like this before, and have always intended doing one of these days. Hopefully after this I'll be doing track days all the time (or going back for more training)

Looks like there are only 3 of us booked which means more Andy time for me. Going with MellowMatt off these fine forums.

[Gizmo!]

Is this at North Weald? I can confirm that it's excellent low-grip conditions today... Cold and drizzly!

[Jonny671]

How was it, chap?

[Dift]

I managed to spin at 45 on the high speed bend... It's a lot to take in... Hope you had fun,

[Mellow Matt]

Jonny671 said:

How was it, chap?

It was brilliant! It was at North Weald in the pouring rain, resulting in lots of sliding and spinning

For some reason Paul's (Salgar) 5 was much more oversteery than mine on the high speed bend, which was strange. This might be down to dodgy geo on mine, or the fact he had three different tyres on his

I think the afternoon was the most fun though, as it was just a thinly veiled excuse for driving like an idiot and seeing how sideways you can go

[Jonny671]

Mellow Matt said:

Jonny671 said:

How was it, chap?

It was brilliant! It was at North Weald in the pouring rain, resulting in lots of sliding and spinning

For some reason Paul's (Salgar) 5 was much more oversteery than mine on the high speed bend, which was strange. This might be down to dodgy geo on mine, or the fact he had three different tyres on his

I think the afternoon was the most fun though, as it was just a thinly veiled excuse for driving like an idiot and seeing how sideways you can go

Does sound like alot of fun, will get along to one soon.. I seem to spend "having fun money" on the thing thats suposed to be the having fun vehicle

[Salgar]

Jonny671 said:

How was it, chap?

Was superb, it was the first time I'd done anything like this before, and thought it was about time since I'd had my mx-5 for about 9 months now.

Was raining all day which made it even more interesting. I managed to spend most of the morning facing the wrong way, but even that was entertaining as I'd never felt anything like it before. It was very satisfying when I did manage to catch the slide a few times before he taught us the trail braking method for getting round the corner. Then I spent the rest of the morning understeering.

It was very interesting having a go in MellowMatt's mx-5 just to see how different the same car can feel. Andy did laugh that I had 3 different types of tyre on (been like this since I got the car). But I left them on so that I can now change Suspension/Tyres/Have a geo setup and go back and see how different it feels. As I would have had no idea had I just done it before this.

We then did a few other things where he taught me how hamfisted and leadfooted I was, and then we did the track, which was great fun. For the most part I was trying to go as fast as possible, but sometimes the urge to keep the slide round the corner on was just too great.

Overall it was a great day for finding out about myself and the car, and even since the first time I went round the high speed bend doing a 360, I feel I've learnt a lot but still have an infinite amount more to learn.

And I can't wait for the next one! Activity day later this month anyone?

[Jonny671]

Is it kind of a free for all? You obviously are supposed to go around a set course but if you spin/slide whatever its all part of it as you're finding the limits of your car?

[Salgar]

Jonny671 said:

Is it kind of a free for all? You obviously are supposed to go around a set course but if you spin/slide whatever its all part of it as you're finding the limits of your car?

The activity day or the training day?

The activity day: Matt can tell you better but I believe the first part of the day is talking and then the high speed bend where you spend some time finding limits/spinning/trying to not spin. Then they set up 2 different 'tracks' and one at a time you do the track as fast as possible while the starter times you and you try improve on your times. You can however take this time to drift round all the corners and generally mess about which is amazingly fun. You get little to none training on the activity day as there are 25 cars instead of 4 like the training days, but it is also £45 instead of £199. I'd say it is more useful doing at least one training day first as now I know what I want to go practice at the Activity day as I have Andy Walsh in my head saying 'look round the corner not at the wall' and 'LET GO OF THE STEERING WHEEL!'

That said if you can only afford an Activity day, it's definitely worth it for how much fun it is.

[LukeBird]

I did one (with a couple of other local PHers) at Thorney Island at the end of August.
Well worth it and I definitely plan to do a few more!

Almost entirely ruined a rear set of P Zeros though!

[Salgar]

With yesterday's weather, there was no problem with tyre wear

[Tomoose85]

I agree 100% that the Carlimits days are best when its sopping wet!

I've done a couple now, but in fwd diesels!! Would definitely be up for one of the 4 people days in the not-too-distant future...

[LukeBird]

I did cross my fingers for some rain in the afternoon (to get a nice balance between wet and dry handling) but it was clear blue skies and bloody hot!! I was roasted!

[S Works]

I've done quite a few days with Andy driving Elises and am looking forward to getting the '5 up there sometime soon. For the amount of instructor & driving time you get on a 4-person day I think it's great value. In the dry you can most certainly spin with a mis-timed lift or heft of the wheel.

You can be doing that 90deg bend at 80-90mph in an Elise if you get it right, I wonder what you can do in an RS Ltd!?

Edited by S Works on Thursday 11th November 22:35

[Jezz172]

I did a Car Limits day last year in my Lotus.
Was the BEST day I've had in a car
Walshy ( the instructor ) is a legend, the man can drive like no other, even more amazing because he's normally still hungover from the night before or just hasn't stopped drinking lol

[Gizmo!]

I've really got no excuse for not doing one. It's literally just up the road from me

[Janitor]

Gizmo! said:

I've really got no excuse for not doing one. It's literally just up the road from me

Exactly! Get it on

I've done a couple in the past and would recommend to anyone / everyone

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...

[Mellow Matt]

Bit of a thread resurrection, but TimmyWimmyWoo kindly edited a video together yesterday of our day for me, so I thought I'd share it with you guys to show you what a laugh mx-5s can be (if you don't already know!).

Please excuse the view of my head, the lack of apex kissing, silly laughter, and the flailing of hands

Time to think about trackdays again

[NeoVR]

Mellow Matt said:

Bit of a thread resurrection, but TimmyWimmyWoo kindly edited a video together yesterday of our day for me, so I thought I'd share it with you guys to show you what a laugh mx-5s can be (if you don't already know!).

Please excuse the view of my head, the lack of apex kissing, silly laughter, and the flailing of hands

Time to think about trackdays again

Err... your roof seems to be faulty!!!

[Salgar]

NeoVR said:

Mellow Matt said:

Bit of a thread resurrection, but TimmyWimmyWoo kindly edited a video together yesterday of our day for me, so I thought I'd share it with you guys to show you what a laugh mx-5s can be (if you don't already know!).

Please excuse the view of my head, the lack of apex kissing, silly laughter, and the flailing of hands

Time to think about trackdays again

Err... your roof seems to be faulty!!!

The photo and the video are from 2 different days. On the video day it was raining quite hard.