Yeah don’t worry John the nearest the M5 will get to tye circuit is outside the pit garage.
Decided sod it and hired a BatCat…and packed lots waterproofs and changes of clothes 
Arghhh NO !! that’s not right …
How many Exigers now in BAT cats ?? - have a sideways time all of you …
Three Andy and sideways we were…
Enjoyed a few beers and a curry with Sean, Tim, Gary & Ben last night and caught up with everyone else this morning, great seeing you too fella’s.
Weather certainly could have been worse, intermittent rain, wind & sun but nothing that put a halt to the day. The BaT cats have a tendency to understeer in the wet like nothing I’ve ever known. The wind didn’t help especially at Coppice. Jonny advised me to trial brake which helped. As did a tiny bit of induced oversteer but in the wet its mental, catchable but every now and then you just completely miss it. I think every corner on every wet lap we were all sideways and the tyres just lit up everywhere so short shifting on the straights and easy does it was the best way for me to get the most out of the car. All of that and the wind buffeting my helmet was just a complete sensory overload but huge fun. I did witness the most awesome drift almost the length of Coppice by Ben that would have made Dave P very proud indeed. Unfortunately it couldn’t be repeated, lol on the next lap he span but his face had a grin from ear to ear. Just for clarity, I span at Redgate a lap later Oviously sharing with Sean we didn’t get to tussle but I was assured he was having monster fun when I witnessed a him black flagged for repeatedly spinning 
In the dry, the R300 is a weapon, it’s absolutely fantastic. It took a few laps to following Tom’s advice to go a gear higher at Redgate, McLeans & Coppice but using 4th rather than 3rd is bang on. You can really nail it with some very communicative oversteer, not something I can hold yet but practice will make perfect I’m sure.
Great seeing everyone, great day, throughly enjoyable despite some very strange weather 
Sounds fab fun. Glad you all had a great day.
It was a good day - great to see everyone again as well as a few new faces.
A very odd day for weather. The difference between driving Donny wet, or Donny dry is immense, & for me the challenge of it swinging from one to the other every hour & a half was interesting!!!
I’m definitely a ‘dry’ man, that’s for sure. 
Looked interesting on track! Wet, dry, wet, dry, wet…
was good to meet you C1RVY.
Not quite sure how I managed to sit in the freezing grandstand for half a hour and take a hundred or so photos on the camera.
Will try and get a few posted once I’ve been through them and deleted the majority of blurry ones. 
Right heres a link to the gallery
and a few of my favourites
Kieran
I notice the 2-11 was only seen in the dry!
Hey Kieran, what are ya, Anti-Caterham
Just looked at the Bat pics
Nice one Ben 
Yeah was an awesome day. As I said earlier, there was indeed a lot of sideways and some going backwards. They are complete weapons in the dry, but so much more physically difficult to drive fast than a Lotus. In the wet, there is just no traction at all and the lock stops come all too soon. Trying to keep up with Ben in the afternoon proved too much for me and I span off three times in the space of two laps. I was trying to show boat a bit I guess. I slept for ten hours last night, I was wrecked!
Normally I grimace a bit at the cost of an unsilenced day at the start of winter but I have to say I enjoyed yesterday, as well as ending up needing the unsilenced bit as I’ve destroyed my zorst (I needed to wear plugs and defenders on the way back to stop my brain melting in the buzz!).
Somehow I ended up on circuit at the start of the day on my own after the sighting laps for several minutes (kindly making a dry line for everybody else). That put me 5mins ahead of everybody else and boy did it show in terms of pace.
Now, I’m not sure one Exige left the circuit all day…that can’t be said for Exigers, those wearing a Caterham (you don’t really get in to them). Right at the end of the day (having witnessed one of them blacked flagged for, in his words, trying to workout out the transition from under to oversteer…or other such cobblers) Ben was out in his BatCat and tried to follow me but the spray was so bad he had to drop right back, but not before he gave me an image I won’t forget by appearing completely (as in 90o) sideways through my spray.
Hahaha 
No honest.
Here’s a few I took…catherham only content Photo Storage
Good to see you Kieran & very slick camera work too.
Cheers for sharing them & hope to catch you soon
Simon
It was a great day, the driving conditions at times were not fantastic. The whole exiges.com driving crew drove brilliantly. Can’t be said for the two non-BAT Caterhams that decided to mate with each other going down craners straight on the warmup lap following a red flag!
It was good to have a chat with Jonny, pleased you got on better with the Caterham, I am sure you can master it in the wet. Pleased the advice helped, more than happy to assist if I can.
Still in awe of Mr Garthwaite’s Lotus, certainly a move on from the Mk1 Golf GTI I remember him piloting a fair few years ago.
Thanks again to Mark, Simon and Taff a great bunch of friends who have come about through Exige’s.
Planning for Anglesey now next Easter, but just got the matter of an 8 hour endurance race for War Heroes this November first! If any Exige guys are anywhere near or fancy a weekend of racing give me a shout, the kettle is always on and the ice box full for beer!
Tom
That’s a great offer Tom, the very best of luck mate.
Sean, 10 hours here too, I was totally bolloxed mate.
So about my car. I bought Jonny’s 46mm Ohlins just because I was thinking of trying a different damper, they came up for sale and everyone seems to rate them. Some adjustments were required so they went off to a well known Ohlins fettler…who then sat on them for a protracted period, not good. When they eventually came back,…well they were still not right. Matt did his best with them but ultimately although he could get a driveable setup it was not where he would have wanted and thus not where I would have wanted. So on the day before the trackday (that I’d been looking forward to for weeks) I had to pull my car I had a sulk for an hour or so and then thought sod it, I’m gonna hire a BatCat. A couple of emails to Mr Leroux…sorted.
Tue morning we assembled at Donny after a wet and windy night,…sounds like wind woke up Jonny who was sharing a room with Sean So for the second time this year I dropped into a BatCat and belted up and headed out onto the Donny tarmac. The circuit was wet and greasy and rather embarrassingly I span at Coppice on the sighting lap…what a muppet 
Like Ian, I then went straight out but this time built up speed and confidence in the challenging conditions slowly.
Like Sean said, the R300 is really different to a Lotus on circuit. In some ways its like the dynamics are amplified in the Caterham. Trail-braking to get some weight over the nose at turn-in in the Lotus; you need more in the 7. Giving it some gas to bring the rear into play on exiting a corner in the Lotus; you’ll get more of a reaction/angle in the 7. But sitting over the rear-axle with all the controls so immediate and the feedback instantaneous, well it kinda of demands that you push harder and find that limit. Those times when you get it right though is exceptionally rewarding. Brake really late and carry lots of brakes into the corner don’t go in too hot or it will just want to push on, as you wind off the lock and feed in the power just get that perfect smear of oversteer as you exit 
In the dry(ish) its quite a physical car to hussle around but properly quick. A bit more power and sticky tyres,…wow that would be something else.
I really enjoyed being on circuit and had a good hammer round with most of the lads at some point in the day. I really do like being on circuit with people I know and trust. Of course I always had my eyes peeled for the one of the lads in the No2 BatCat 
and naturally it was a bit like Caterham Academy at times There was one lap where I was trying to keep up with Will (and failing of course) but traffic allowed me to catch him up at the bottom of Craner’s and we both exited Old Hairpin with a good 20-25 degrees in unison
The final session of the day it was sluicing down and alas my BatCat had lost its starter-motor so the Bat lads gave me a bump-start and reminded me not to spin and stall it…no pressure then 
Like Jonny mentioned, the wind and rain in a R300 with no windscreen (in a hurricane) is something else. The rain was really sluicing down and I yielded to Ian and tried to keep up with him but my problem seeing where I was going. Visor down : nope can’t see a fooking thing 
Visor up : ow ow ow rain fooking hurts at 100mph 
Yup as Ian recalls it ended up with a spin out of Coppice,…but shit as I come through 360 degrees I realise I’ve stalled it…manage to straighten it up in the right direction and have just enough forward momentum to hook 2nd dump the clutch and get it going again I figure I’m not gonna better that and come straight in and call it a day. Journey home was shit due to an accident on the M25 and took 4hours, thankfully the '39 is a cosseting place to be, especially compared to the R300. Absolutely exhausted today, it felt like I’d spent the day yesterday wrestling a bear or summat.
Great to see everyone as usual. I think top prize for commitment should go to Gary for his epic drive down, really enjoyed the couple of laps we shared bud. Also good to meet Victor Hang and his fantastic sequential-geared S2 which looked great and was going really well. If you’re reading this Victor then I hope you’ll join us at an event in the future. My only regret (apart from not having my car of course) was that we were down one end of the pitlane with everyone else up the other end. Cheers lads
Fantastic day. Trick for me was to go out just as the rain looked like it was easing then build up on a dying track. There were a couple of times it was nearly dry as long as you stayed on line, at least for some of the circuit. Immediately after lunch was particularly interesting as track seemed dryish but no dry line. Clear the Caterham boys were developing their fast twitch reactions. Lot of red flags but don’t think we were too bothered as most of it was mild exuberance rather than people being numlties.
Not sure how much track time I got but managed to do 50 litres in the morning so not too long in the garage. Unfortunately car started running a bit rough in in the mid range early afternoon so called it a day and headed home. Car was actually seeming a bit better once home but clear its not quite right. Either fuel or electrics problem, we’ll see. Can’t imagine it’s too serious.
Not sure if any of you made it for a curry in the end. Seemed that the previous nights puking, farting, snoring, etc might dampen the enthusiasm. 
I think there was summat wrong with you boat dude Stuart was in charge and told us the marshals came on the radio and said ‘your number2 caterham seems to have lost the ability to go around corners’
Wow there is a blast from the past!!!. Reminding me of the Golf makes me think the older I get the faster I use to be…
Those golf days were 1995 1996 1997 good time I have to say (The old girl is still on the go)
How did you know of me back then?
Thanks for the comments about the Lotus, I’m still getting to grips with it but I have to say it makes me smile every time I use it, even in the wet at Donnington!!