Kent/E Sussex dawn run - Sun 25th February

Kent/E Sussex dawn run - Sun 25th February

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kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Thursday 11th January 2018
quotequote all
Following on from the regular Kent run thread, as I had a spare 5 minutes I thought I'd try and put something together.

Proposed date: Sunday 25th February
Proposed time: 06:30 meet for a 06:45 depart (sunrise @ 06:52)
Meeting point: Toby Carvery, Badgers Mount (opposite the Polhill Garden Centre, just off J4 M25 - TN14 7AD)

The intention is to try and get the run complete and be sitting down for breakfast before the hoards of OAP's in Honda Jazz' begin to clog the roads.

The proposed route incorporates a wide variety of roads and the Hindhead tunnel and should take ~2.5 hour to see us sitting down for breakfast at the Devil's Punchbowl before 9:30am smile - for obvious reasons I'll send the route on by PM before the date which can be exported to a phone/sat nav to follow on the day.

As needs to be said, I personally abide by all 30/40/most 50mph speed limits and will likely look to overtake any traffic where possible and safe to do so, please drive within the limits of your car and ability, I'd rather not have people binning cars into hedges. I will build in stopping/re-group points along the way to minimise "any keep up at any cost" pressures.

If your interested please reply below smile

1 - Kiethton (Kieran) - Lotus Exige or BMW M135i if raining


Edited by kiethton on Thursday 11th January 15:55

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Thursday 11th January 2018
quotequote all
Too Drunk to Funk said:
Christmas Day?

Have you invented a time machine?
Oops.....should have read February....now corrected smile

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Friday 12th January 2018
quotequote all
Big E 118 said:
I should be up for this, I'll add my name to the list nearer to the date if I can make it nearer the time. Might be a mate or two with me as well.

OP, if you want a good cafe not so far west this place is good, one of my usual stops: https://goo.gl/maps/A9FbAjamv3A2
Thanks for that - only plan to head west was to make the tunnel - that stop would be a pretty good re-group point in a draft route so may work for people to stop/go on from as they please smile

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Saturday 13th January 2018
quotequote all
Little dependent on how long we stop for lunch but I'd like to be back before 11am

K

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2018
quotequote all
Weather is actually looking decent according to Accuweather's long-view

I'm hoping to finalise the route over the next few weeks so any more pointers for bits you're especially fond of/re-group points welcome smile

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Friday 26th January 2018
quotequote all
Drones are fine by me, just wish I was talented enough to use mine without fear of crashing the thing!

Separately I've spent a little time refining the route, taking on board things that have been said above and via screening through a few people that are down to attend.

ATM total mileage is ~150 miles with a total estimated driving time of 3-3.5 hours so we're looking at being back to Polhill for ~11am after allowing some time for Breakfast.

Of course people are welcome to peel off when convenient.

I've only pencilled in 2 re-group points over the whole route; Ditching Beacon car park and Billy's on the road (breakfast) - shouldn't be that necessary to have too many given everybody should have the google route directions which I'll circulate the week before.


kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Tuesday 13th February 2018
quotequote all
Perfect, MR2 should be good fun!

My intention is to send out the proposed route via PM late this week/early next with an exported backup that I can text to people on the morning.

I've split the route into a few manageable sections, when opened google maps allows you export to your phone (the option is on the left hand side, within the white bar) keeping the plotted route - you may need the app for this.

If there are any issues/you can't receive PM's please email me your phone number and I'll send them on via Whatsapp/text ahead of time.

For the early meet - Polhill itself may have the barriers in effect across the entrance, in this case we'll use the Toby Carvery car park opposite, look forward to seeing all there smile

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
quotequote all
Hi all,

Everybody should now have a copy of the proposed route, any issues please let me know.

A couple of people don't permit PM's - Rossi/Junky - please send me one and I'll send it over.

Looking forward to it - may even give it a dry run this weekend!

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Sunday 18th February 2018
quotequote all
Let's hope there is space in the car park!

Fingers crossed it'll be ok, else we'll have to look elsewhere.

klan8456 said:
Wow this is looking like quite the turnout. How is the road quality on the route? I'm running KW Clubsports and would prefer not to need new kidneys afterwards if possible...
I regularly drive the first 35 miles or so (planning to do so later this afternoon too) in my exige and they aren't too bad, the occasional rut etc but know where you're coming from.

Keep some space and you'll be able to avoid the majority. The roads are a complete mix but don't think I've included any really small/narrow roads, all should accommodate 2 way traffic without too much issue.

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Sunday 18th February 2018
quotequote all
So spent the afternoon getting the car ready for next weekend, going to be good fun!




And the back-up got the full treatment too!


kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Monday 19th February 2018
quotequote all
No worries, mine often does the same!

Weather still looking good, similar to last saturday according to Accuweather - lets hope it stays that way!

1 - Kiethton (Kieran) - Lotus Exige or BMW M135i if raining
2 - TDTF (Russell) - Old Mercedes or an MR2 depending on various things.
3 - Sparks 85 (Ben) - M3 CS
4 - Sparks 85's brother (Sam) - Mini Clubman
5 - 7184c - Cayman
6 - CLCRocky - BMW M135i
7 - CSully94 (Callum) - Porsche 991
8 - Rossi1-BMW e36 328i Sport (Might be with ZM Roadster also)
9 - Dalto123 - Lotus Elise
10 - Red Devil - MR2
11 - Ghiblicup - GT4 or JCW if it's like today
12 - Del mar - something Italian
13- padc1 (Spencer) - TVR or M3 CSL
14 - Ash-gt - Astra VXR
15 - gtidriver BMW 125i
16 - seyre- Audi S3
17 - Junky - 981 Cayman
18- Hol - EvoColt or Meg R26
19 - Mav281 - BMW M4
20 - NiceCupOfTea - BMW 330 Touring / BMW 323 convertible / Saab 900 T16S
21 - nosuchuser - e36 328i
22 - Ryanchan - 981 Cayman
23 - Newnameneeded - Audi R8

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
quotequote all
Indeed, done a few of them in the Exige (on R888's!) but still enjoy it - can't push as much/until tyres are warm for obvious reasons - sure it'll all be ok though smile

ETA looking at a few other places on the route it's saying 1* so may be a little warmer than the headline suggests

Edited by kiethton on Wednesday 21st February 13:59

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
quotequote all
Could do, I'm happy to give it a go if others are?

Guess we could always call it off if it becomes/looks too bad and re-organise for a month or 2's time?

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
quotequote all
Maybe if people like it we can have a re-run then smile

I'm still going to give the exige a run this weekend, at the end of the day with everybody having the route people can go at their own pace. One of my most fun drives was the first half day of my HPC course, ~0* around Oxfordshire and the car was fine, even after the recent snow, just have to drive appropriately as the R888's just don't get hot enough

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
NewNameNeeded said:
kiethton said:
Hi all,

Everybody should now have a copy of the proposed route, any issues please let me know.
Any chance you can resend please? I don't seem to have receive it. Thanks!
Should be with you - send me a PM if not and I'll forward that way

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
If it's any help I'm out a little early for golf this morning and all the roads I've come across have been bone dry with no visible ice, including a large uncovered car park

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
See all tomorrow at the Toby Carvery (opposite Polhill) at 6:30

Plan is to leave to start at 6:45 so if any issues please let me know on (zero)7502333659

K

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
quotequote all
Thanks to all those that made it out this morning, apologies for shooting from breakfast!

Glad you made it back ok too phil!

Maybe better waiting until the weathers a little warmer to the next one....although ok in the majority there were a few arse clench moments!!!

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Monday 26th February 2018
quotequote all
Yeah it was mainly that corner TBH - LH bend, off camber and slush ice invisible until your on it, coupled with an oncoming car - no idea how I got round on the R888's tbh, even kept it vaguely straight!

Anybody got any pictures? I decided against it considering the (poor) quality of my phone!

kiethton

Original Poster:

13,896 posts

180 months

Monday 26th February 2018
quotequote all
This was the plan (ex-the accidental diversions I took) and part 3 we didn't have time/traffic would have killed

Part 1:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Polhill+Garden+C...

Part 2:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Ditchling+Beacon...

Part 3:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Billy's+on+the+R...