Booked.
Just fancied a hoon and trying to stick to our ‘use it’ mantra.
Been out in March, April, May, June and plans July…doing pretty well 
Gonna piss down 
It was actually a great evening, very wet and slippery. Report and vids up when I get a mo…
(Pic stolen from one of the other attendees).
After a month or so of tooling around in the BMW, it was great to peel the covers off the Exige. Nearly 11-years in and this still raises my pulse, I love that car. It only took a few miles to remind myself that the M5 that I thought was quick is just a big ol’ barge, now this is a quick car!
The weatherman forecast heavy rain so after an uneventful journey I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the circuit under blue skies and warm sun. Matthew Bentley Racing is nearby so I’d invited Matt along to have a pax/drive. As Matt arrived he’d bought with him an enormous storm system that managed to deposit itself on the circuit literally the moment the cars headed out for sightings laps
The usually eclectic mix of cars had turned up to the event. Much more roadar biased than your typical trackday and no racecars of course. I actually like the mood of these EVO evenings, they are very relaxed.
Out onto circuit conditions were pretty treacherous. There’s a couple of corners where there is literally no grip and standing water in some places too. I figured it was a good time to try and get my head around the behaviour of the diff, with the car on ZZRs the night was not gonna be about going especially quick.
Now I’m a total numpty when it comes to vehicle dynamics but I’ll explain my thoughts on the impact of the diff, with the caveat that it may be utter tosh 
- Mid corner as you feed in the power the car naturally seems to want to push-on more and wash into understeer. My natural reaction is to wind off lock/power. The answer is of course MORE POWER as this bring the rear into play and understeer very quickly becomes power oversteer! In these conditions it’s a delicate game though,…fun in 3rd corners,…mildly terrifying in 4th gear sweepers.
- Being smooth is really really key. You can adjust the throttle mid corner but if you don’t do it smoothly I found the diff to be quite grabby which really unsettles the car. Don’t forget this is very wet conditions on trackday rubber putting down quite a bit of power so diff or not being smooth with the inputs is probably a good idea!
- Well executed H&T is also really important to stop the rear going all squirrelly under braking whilst downshifting.
The rain eased up and although the standing water cleared the circuit never really dried. Both Matt and I had our fun sliding around and even in these conditions the car is fiercely quick. I started pushing on and on a couple of occasions tried exploiting grip that actually was not there. I very nearly spectacularly binned it onto the straight in front of the pits when I got a proper Mr Whippy going on 
Managed to gather it up thankfully. I went out for the last session and was really enjoying chasing down a well-driven Honda S1 Elise and a glorious 993RS. I was having so much fun that I forgot to come in and hand over to Matt and then it was chequered flag time,…sorry bud.
I’ve got some vids that I’ll put up in the next day or so. I forgot to turn the camera on when Matt was driving (dammit). I’ll include my near-binning it moment and when I spun too (which I’ve not done for ages).
So we made the best of far from ideal conditions and had a lot of fun,…a great way to spend a Friday night.
Cool, look forward to my time there this time next week!
Sounds like an entertaining evening. Looking on the positive side its a good chance to find the limits on a wet track day. I always struggled in the wet with the NA Honda (actually with every Lotus!) so full respect with the power you’ve got.
Look forward to the vids Ben.
Booking my first TD in August at Bedford with MB in tow.
Thanks lads.
Yes Wes, they’re tricky in the wet and I’m a hamfist,…not a great combo
Sounds good Rob. The LOT and final EVO evenings at Bedford are both when I’m on hols else I’d go again this year.
Should get the vid up overnight, my Mac will take forever to render it…
I think I will have to go back to Bedford now I have a super quiet extra exhaust
Looking at Saturday 23rd August on the International GT circuit
Have a great time and sorry I will not be there.
Do they do static tests or is it all on the drive by?
Loved the write-up, Ben
Harsh drive by, it helps if you know where the microphones are and just happen to change gear near them 
Got caught out last time I was there when the wind changed direction and quite promptly got black flagged
Here you go lads, it finished rendering/uploading overnight :
__
The music choice is especially picked for Quo
Great vid Ben, working for that Aussie is really rubbing off on you!
Nah, he’d want me to charge you something for watching it
Glad you enjoyed the vid,…I need to get some more camera angles going on.
yeah mean take a years subscription? press your red button now to upgrade.