Day 4.
Finally, the trackday!
The weather forecast had twirled and turned and over breakfast we were discussing the real chance of a very wet day.
We arrived to the very cramped paddock in time for the rain. Many of the 24h crews were still packing up, and LoT did an utterly fantastic job of making sure this wasn’t a problem. There was a truck being loaded by robotic forklift thing almost all day, and whenever a LoT member had to pass to get to circuit, a LoT staffmember stepped in and ushered you through. It could have been a disaster tbh with all of the stuff there, but it worked out really well.
Sad
It was time to bust out the Gazebo which I’d been hauling around Europe for 4 days. The bloody thing must have been 80kg in its bag, and I had a good 30-40kg of sandbags too to weigh down the legs.
Got the bag on the floor, everyone crowded round ready to help put it up…
“Go get the covers”
“Covers? I thought they were in the bag”.
FECK! After all that, I’d just brought a frame. DOOOOOHHHHH.
I got all waterproofed up and we headed out for sighting laps. Phwoar what a circuit! I came off the track feeling like I knew less about it than I did before the sighters!
The rain stopped, and the circuit almost fully dried out during the sighting laps. Clouds lurked, so we all intended to make the most of it.
The difference 45mins makes.
My first session got under way and I had Jaik in the passenger seat. Eager to demonstrate my brakes to him which I’ve used every possible opportunity in the last 12 months to say how amazing they were.
Unfortunately, they were a long way from amazing 
My notes from my road test continued, in that the whole car was extremely grabby and when trying to lean on them at all, the rear of the car became very unstable. I started getting that pit of dread in my stomach. What had I done?!
Perhaps they still would benefit from bedding in, so I persisted albeit gently before bringing it in. In addition to the brake concerns, my GoPro also threw an SD card error which I ignored, unfortunately at my peril The day has been unfortunately undocumented on video.
Weather was still fair, so after a short turnaround, I threw Jaik the keys and let him have a session to get his thoughts.
Very odd seeing your own car trundling down the pitlane, but I was relaxed and the car was in safe hands.
Jaik returned and we compared notes. He agreed, brakes not right - and it was likely too biased to the rear.
I went out for a solo session to see if I could push past it, but nope. The faster I tried to go, the less driveable the car became - and even when not in a braking zone you felt yourself thinking about it all the way around and it just made you slow everywhere. The worst part was under partial pedal on turn-in, the rear brakes made the most horrendous noise!
I still got a fair few laps in through the morning, but I really wasn’t having much fun.
I’ve often talked about how rare the 2-Eleven is, even following the Lotus on Track circuit as closely as I do, I’ve never seen another one. That changed today though!
Over lunch we discussed options for the brakes. Could try stiffening the front dampers up a bit to try and stop so much weight transferring forwards, maybe keep some grip over the rears and allow the brakes to work. Didn’t really help.
Then after conferring with SeriouslyDave back in Blighty, we decided to try some different pads in the back.
One of the crew had brought some partially worn RS4-2 Pagid pads. A very road biased, but track capable pad which I’d used years ago in my Elise. Worth a try, but I wasn’t hopeful.
I agreed with Jaik to go out, do a session and then come in and have an instant turnaround for him. I wouldn’t give away my thoughts to him, and we’d independently make our minds up on whether we’d gone the right way or not.
That proved quite difficult, because after a 20min stint I had the worlds biggest shit eating grin. I tried to not give anything away to Jaik but there was no question, the car was infinitely more driveable. Not only that, but the brakes felt like a strong upgrade over their OEM state too.
I could lean on them, trailbrake, and though it took a few laps to regain confidence in them I could throw the anchors out before La Source at an almost impossible point and still just about make the corner. Ace.
Jaik agreed, and he had a belting session too. After getting home and pulling the SD cards, it was fascinating to compare two drivers in the same car.
My takeaway was that I was shocked and impressed in how quickly Jaik adapted to another car and how close we were both over a total lap. However the big shock was how differently we achieved the very similar overall times. We both clearly started learning a couple of corners each, but different to each other. Fascinating stuff, had this been a test day with proper timing etc, it would have been a magnificent way to knock chunks and chunks of time off of both drivers, so you can see why race teams try to get other drivers in their cars as often as possible.
With the braking issues behind me, I could focus a bit more on the laps. Eau Rouge was a beast of a corner, you fly into it at what feels like much too fast, then half way up you’re considering a downchange because the 2ZZ is wheezing away in fifth! I think the fastest way up there for me would be a brakeless downshift on entry, then pin it in fourth, but having the confidence to snatch fourth smoothly right on entry was causing me to leave way too much on the table so I eventually abandoned that in favour of keeping in fifth, lifting on entry and then getting on the power as soon as I dared. I was very slow up there though, easily my weakest corner.
I really enjoyed the flowing few corners around Les Combes. Entry from Kemmel was faster than you think, then you could just balance the throttle through them. The downhill hairpin thing just afterwards was awful. Loads of patience needed, just not a fun corner.
Jamie was by all accounts stringing some great laps together in my old Exige. I really don’t do passenger laps, but feel like I missed out by not seeing his interpretation of the track.
Pouhon was lots of fun, easily taken much faster than I did - but the feeling of turning into a corner in fifth, and pinning it fairly early was novel and extremely exciting.
Pif-paf/Fagnes I felt like I didn’t really “get it”. I think the entry is slower than you think, but whenenever taking it slowly it felt too slow.
The long sweeping back section into Blanchimont was good, but this was a bit of a turkey shoot in a 4cyl car. Lots of mirror watching here for the many powerful Porsche cars in attendance which would subsequently slow me down into and through the bus stop chicane and onto La Source again.
I won’t pretend I did anywhere near a good lap, but it was still massively enjoyable. It’s a circuit where you are just in awe of the scenery and the occasion of just being there. I had similar vibes at Silverstone last November. Chucking the car around almost becomes secondary.
The weather remained stunning all day after the damp sighting laps.
For what would be my last session, I made an ECU tweak to give me a bit more power on the straights. 5th and 6th gears in this setup are not particularly vulnerable, unlike 3/4. With that in mind, I altered my config to give full throttle in 5th and 6th but keep it pegged at 65% in 3 and 4. That would mean ~270bhp in 3/4 and ~300 in 5th and 6th. Useless at most British circuits, but a pretty handy help for a GP circuit.
My next session was a long one, too long. First few laps involved a lot of traffic, so I just chilled out and found myself a grove. Then I just found myself unable to come into the pits, lap after lap.
I ended up with a 30min session so not too extreme, but long enough for me. My ECU changes hadn’t quite worked as I intended - but I knew exactly what to sort out. It was 17:15 ad it was stumps at 18:00, so after Jaik politely turned down one last session I got ready for a good one to finish.
Errr… what’s that?
Bugger! CV Joint split, made a right mess.
Oh well, end of day. Yet another niggle preventing a flawless day in 2023 but on balance, after how I felt at lunch time - it was a cracking afternoon.
No Drama from the other boys either, all cars performed brilliantly and lots of fun was had all round. Chris was shaking his Honda down after a massive rebuild, so the fact it did so well is a credit to him.
All too soon, it was time to pack up.
Cheesy team photo. We’d picked up a 9th at some point, Andrew in his Alpine. These Alpines were seriously quick at Spa, they must be slippery buggers because they didn’t half sneak up on you on the straight bits!
The rest of the trip was mainly food, beer and lack of sleep.
We stopped off for a quick shopping trip at a Motorsporty shop in Stavelot. Very cool, combining my two passions nicely:
Then it was to the ferry. Drive back to Rotterdam was a chore, but we got there in one piece.
Hull beckons. Home sweet home.
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