CCC test at Anglesey

General Meets + Track Day Reports
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RussT, JohnC, bDrought & myself went to Anglesey yesterday to lend some moral(?) support to Mr Admin. In fact Bri was doing a bit more - acting as a one man pit crew [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]I am sure that David/Brian will wish to post about the 2 day experience, but it was absolutely brilliant to see David’s car perform so well! It was also very gratifying to see the broad grins & hear the reactions of the the two professional drivers who were carrying out the test. They were Mark Hales of CCC fame, & Phil Bennett the BTCC driver. Dave Andrews (Emerald & CCC) was also a test driver, but with no disrespect to him, he was not as quick as the other two guys.We all also had the pleasure of being taken round the circuit by David - what a fantastic car - he was having to be very careful not to spin the rear wheels whilst accelerating out of some of the corners, which us mere mortals exit at full bore in second gear [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]Can’t wait to read the article in next month’s CCC [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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Come on David, spill the beans! How did it fare against the competition? [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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I’ve just got back home and I’m knackered !I’ll give a fuller report when I’ve got my energy back.The car didn’t shame itself, although I don’t know how it compared against the others. The data logging laps were done on a car by car basis, and there wasn’t a table anywhere of what times were recorded by each car. The Exige lapped in 49.2s if I remember rightly. However, I think my car is more suited to a track such as Donington where it can stretch it’s legs and also make most use of the Exige’s downforce through long sweeping bends.I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say online until the magazine is printed ?The Exige suffered no problems, being driven to death for 2 days by Phil and Mark, who both commented on what a great car it was, and a nice place to be (warm, dry, comfortable)Due to Brian’s good spanner work, we played with the anti-roll bar settings to suit the drivers ,which seemed to result in quicker lap times for them. In the dry, I found the “hardest” setting worked best for me.This morning the heavens opened, but in usual Angelsey tradition it cleared after lunch, the track dried out and more full-on track runs were possible.I’m not sure the drivers were that impressed with the Exiges wet handling (even with the anti roll bar on full “soft”), but then they thought the 7-type cars were pigs too (mainly due to getting soaked) The cherry on the cake was on the way home… I wanted to check the tyre pressures on the Land Rover, so I pulled into a BP station, and saw a new BMW X5, and then a new Range Rover… and both Brian and I said “Ooh, a group test”… beside the Range Rover were 5/6 people, one of which was none other than Tiff Needel, gawping at the Exige. He came over and enquired about where we’d been and what we’d been up to… Bloody nice bloke !If I hadn’t got Brian with me, no one would believe me !

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Thanks for the initial report David - it sounds like you had fun! If you’re right about your car’s lap times, and I suspect you are, 49.2 seconds is pretty damn quick. For reference, the current lap records for Anglesey are as follows:Outright (LM3000) 44.12Racing Fiesta 51.85FF1600 47.01Somebody didn’t time me last weekend doing around 52.0 in my Exige, but I was being severely hampered by understeer at that sort of pace as my car still has the anti-roll bar set to its standard setting. Now that I think I’ve got the hang of Anglesey I’m tempted to play with the setup and try it out at the LRV meeting on the 13th April (if they’ll have me!). It’ll be interesting if Russ is there as Russ and I lap Anglesey in a very similar way at similar speeds and any difference in the cars should be fairly apparent. Russ: are you planning on going if your car’s running? Rob? IAC, I look forward to the CCC article coming out! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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quote:Originally posted by Tony Whitter:Somebody didn’t time me last weekend doing around 52.0 in my Exige, but I was being severely hampered by understeer at that sort of pace as my car still has the anti-roll bar set to its standard setting.(Assuming it’s dry)If I understand things, setting the bar to a harder setting will make it more responsive but suffer from greater understeer, and setting it to softer would make it less responsive and reduce understeer. So would you have set it to soft ? The professional drivers who took my car round asked for the bar to be wound up to full stiff (and in fact wanted it more stiff than was possible). To reduce your understeer Tony, rather than change the anti-roll bar would it be better to the increase camber, retaining the responsiveness of hard anti-roll settings preferred by the pros ?

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I am booked in Tony. If things go well with the engine, I will be in the Exige.

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I Can corfirm that time saw it on my own stopwatchI had the please of a run in Mr Admins car and I found it to be very quick compared to the standard Exige which is already quickMany thanks David I really enjoyed feeling that extra power first hand [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] JohnC [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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quote:If I understand things, setting the bar to a harder setting will make it more responsive but suffer from greater understeer, and setting it to softer would make it less responsive and reduce understeer.You’re quite right David, and yes I would have preferred it set to soft, but you’re also right in that the camber will have a much greater effect than the roll bar, and that’s what I’ll go for first. The roll bar on the Exige isn’t that adjustable, and according to Dave Minter it wouldn’t make a huge difference if you took it off all together! Also, and with no disrespect whatsoever intended to the professional driver’s present on the day, Dave’s also pretty scathing about professionals who automatically crank the roll-bar stiffness up to the max because they think that’s the way to get the best out of a car. I know Trevor�s increased his camber and softened his roll bar and his car is nice and pointy, which is what I�m after, so it is possible to achieve.Trevor: if you don�t mind me asking, did you try different geo settings before settling for your current set up, and do you know what settings you�re using at the moment?

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TonyI haven’t had time to speak to Nick Whale’s today. However I did intend to find out what Camber I now have on my car, A rough idea is about 1.8deg neg @ the rear & a little more than that up front. I have no spacers in the front & I still need more camber (only using half the tyre). I have thought about having the uprights machined. I am running full soft on the roll bar but have done no comparisons with firmer settingsI do intend to fiddle around with the above at Oulton on the 26th March to see just how much difference I can detect, so I’ll keep you posted.Trevor

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Hi Trevor, thanks for the feedback. Do I gather you’ve increased the rear camber as well as the front? I thought that the rear camber was supposed to be OK as standard. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/confused.gif[/image] Do you only use you car on the track, or do you use it on public roads too, and if so how do you find it on normal roads, particularly in terms of straight line stability? TIA, Tony.

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TonyYes I’ve increased the rear camber & the trye wear is now fairly even across the tread although I’m not heavy on my rears (tyres that is)(not wanting to create opportunity for that Pesky bloke).Yes I do use my car on the road some but have never experienced pleasure from said activity, also never found it hard driving in straight lines, just keep the wheels pointing dead ahead & and try not to get upset by the fact your bouncing off the kerbs (joking), it’s fine.Trevor[This message has been edited by trevor (edited 12 March 2002).]

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Thanks again Trevor, I’ll have a play with mine before the next Anglesey and see how I get on. If your geo settings are available it might be useful… [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]Russ: Any news?

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'Fraid not - still awAIting Warranty engineer turning up!? [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image]