Donny Update,
The LoT Summer Donny Evening sits alongside Anglesey and Croft in the ‘unmissable’ category for my schedule. Except Croft which I am missing this year, due to a clash with Spa 
My very first Donny Evening was an absolutely torrential day, cars falling off the track on the sighting laps sort of thing. Ever since, it has been high 20’s or even high 30’s every time we’ve been. It’s a great place to top the tan up and get some laps done.
I never used to be a fan of evening trackdays, felt like poor value for money and were over as quick as they began, but I’m coming around to them. On the right track on the right day, they’re brilliant - you get some intense sessions in and pack up right around the time exhaustion is kicking in anyway.
I was pretty fresh off the back of a full day at Donny (albeit sessioned) last month, so had recent memory of the place and had identified the big areas for improvement. Getting out for the first session was a bit of a rush, had a passenger in waiting, numberplate was still on, trying to undo it next to a roasting hot backbox, etc etc. Ended up going out on balloon tyres and it was a bit sketchy.
I had a problem shifting into fourth when coming down through the gears. It seemed to pass as quickly as it occurred so thought not much of it (until later).
Once I settled down and got all my checks in order, the laps started coming together nicely. After ditching my passengers it was time for my first “1-up” laps of Donny National so I could start optimising a bit.
Only change I’d made since last time was the Tilletts and I’d stiffened my front ARB up. I’d made some handling notes/observations at Blyton and wanted to see what impact the ARB would have on those. The old ‘rule of thumb’ that going stiff at one end improves grip at the other is a bit too generic I find on the Lotus, it has different impact through different phases of the corner - but ultimately the difference between fully soft and fully stiff is still pretty marginal.
I was really enjoying the seats and the new seating position. Need to remember to empty my pockets though because having a phone in my pocket makes a snug fit an uncomfortable one…
Intake Air Temps are usually an area for concern at these hot Donny evenings, last year on the Intercooled car it felt so slow I’m pretty sure an NA car would have walked past it. This year the performance drop was minimal, but still getting high enough IATs to get me into the low 60’s which correlates to 1.5degrees of pulled timing plus the passive impact of the warmer, less dense air coming in for boost.
The evening progressed without much drama, only thing of note being that I sprayed vpower all over the pit garage when opening my jerry can, covering my car, my belongings and the belongings of my garage-mate with it. (Sorry again Jamie). I guess it had pressurised on the trailer and I should have made more effort to keep it in the shade, lesson learned.
The laps trickled on, getting faster and faster, and braver and braver. I came into the evening wanting to improve three areas:
- Redgate entry speed
- Hollywood/Craners bravery
- Abusing the curbs and trusting the compliance of the car more through the final chicane
For #1 I struggled for the first half of the day, then got some passenger laps with Seriously Dave in his 3-Eleven (incredible bit of kit) who gave me a different approach to think about. I think I made a bit of progress after that, but it still feels like a corner I’m over slowing for, but end up losing the rear if I try to carry a single mph more.
For #2 I did OK, I think. But the car can still do more! My GPS minimum speed was only low 90s at Craners last time I came. I need to remind myself that on the stock dials that would probably read as 105 so need to be careful comparing with other people on YT etc, but still it was way too slow.
This week I was over 100mph every time, and as high as 108mph on one particular lap… but I then absolutely filled my pants and pretty much gave up the lap after that 
This is a comparison from last month, two ‘average’ laps:
I probably gained most by keeping it pinned longer through Hollywood rather than Craners itself.
I suspect my car would be 120+ on a fully flat approach through Craners, whether it can do that or not… I’m really not sure, doubt I’ll ever find out but it’s fun to think about.
#3 was pretty easy to be honest, The curbs on the final chicane are way flatter than I first thought and providing you avoid the little sausage things, you can just turn in and take the rest of it flat, which I did.
As the sun gets lower, our favourite photographer James Roberts Photo - Professional motorsport and automotive photographer gets all arty and we get some pretty cool shots.
I had a small frustration on track, pretty much for the full evening in which traffic was just… annoying. It was not the fault of any individual, but it felt like lap after lap I’d get the whole track to myself for 80% of the way around and then a car would just magically appear at the worst possible time. The pit release system at Donny always feels a bit ‘free for all’ to me, the light stays green all the time and cars are just allowed out onto the track which really compromises entry to Redgate if you’re on a hot one, and then due to the layout you’re likely to be following that car all the way around Craners/Old Hairpin etc before you can get by. When that happens 3-4 laps in a row it gets a bit annoying.
It was just unlucky though, as LoT numbers were characteristically low. The track was far from crowded.
The day ended 2 mins early with a redflag, I was cursing because once again I was on “a good one” and something happened to spoil it. As it happens, it was a good friend sat beached in the gravel so I did feel a bit bad, for about 5 seconds before the mockery began.
Trundled into the pits to call the day a success, had a natter, took some photos and started packing up.
When I came to move the car, I had a very floppy gearstick. No resistance at all, and certainly not selecting any gears. Uh oh…!
A quick inspection suggested that the linkage on top of the gearbox had fallen apart, so hopefully it’s nothing fatal to the box and hopefully is an easy fix. It’s an aftermarket linkage (LETSLA) so there’s a chance a bolt has backed out of it or something. Need to get familiar with how they bolt together so hopefully it can be easily put right.
Amazing that it survived the track and chose it’s moment to just flop apart as I pulled into the pits… BUT that’s my third day-stopping issue after 3 hours of track time this year so far.
ECU shenanigans at Blyton, brake discs at the second Blyton, and this issue at Donny.
Not a success rate I’m proud of, needs to improve.
Pushed into the trailer (thanks boys) and homeward bound, via KFC.
Couple of video clips, almost the same and nothing particularly interesting or dramatic:
2 Clearest laps from penultimate session: (1) Lotus 2-Eleven at Donington Park - YouTube
2 Clearest laps from final session: (1) Lotus 2-Eleven at Donington Park - YouTube
Only notable change between these sessions is that I started short shifting into fifth on the Schwantz(?) Straight/Curve thing. For earlier sessions I was hitting the limiter here in fourth and using that as my cue to gently lift off for McLeans. In fifth I found I could actually keep it pinned around the whole curve and then slam on for McLeans. This was gaining my huge laptime gains, BUT I could never carry it through a full lap, as I always hit traffic shortly after.
End result from retrospective video/log review is that I gained 3 secs from last month, but my virtual best lap if adding together all my best sectors could have netted me an extra 2.
