Good selection of Exiges at Bedford today, (8 I believe) only Mike subcummed to the dreaded noise meter.
Good to meet some other Exiges.com regulars.
Not to mention the fact my car was working VERY well with it’s new brakes and new tyres
Inervention from Mclaren on your Exige then Mark
Looked very flat and sorted from… behind
Have to agree, the day was excellent and the Exige felt right at home - by the end of the day I even remembered which corner came up next
What happened to Mike? Have to go home?
I’m a little weary of Palmer/OnTrack/EVO at the moment. I understand they got rather upset at ScoobyNet (and virtually banded them all) because a few vented at being sent home (for noise I believe). Then they’ve just decided to hang on to thousands of pounds of one of my Caterham driving directors, despite him giving OnTrack tens of thousands over the years and being one of their best customers!
I’m just worried the monopolistic corporate age is going to ruin trackdays. Long live Jonny!
Ian
Did they have an S2 there?
Ian
First of all, I was a bit fed up about the noise issue, but I am also to blame cos I do have the tiny racespeed exhaust on…
I got a static 98 Db against a limit of 101 so that was ok, and after the first two long sessions on track I got black flagged - 88 Db drive by against a limit of 87 - bummer!!!
I was given one more chance so I shot off to my BM to get the laptop and reprogrammed the Emerald to limit max revs to 7,000 (not 8,200 as normal) and they let me out again…
Hellishly difficult to drive at that limit, I have to say - all your senses tell you things are OK and halfway round the corner you have to change !!
The pirates got me again with the dreaded black spot / black hand eventually…
I still did a very big load of miles, and many thanks to Bernard and especially AndyD who took me out…
I have to say, I was very impressed by Mark’s driving - no offense to Andy, but he obviously had cold 039s against Marks hot 048s - I would have liked to watch him for longer, but alas it was only for a few corners…
Also thanks to Andy for helping me change to Pagid’s - wow fantastic…
First track day with the exige and proved 100% that the car was a great purchase.
Cannot wait until the next trackday
No offence taken Mike … how heavy are you though
Nah Mark was in another class, just prooves the point about quick an Exige can be huh
Ian,
Unfortunatly the S2 fell through but apparantly Lotus are bringing one (possibly 2) to the day we have there in May.
We did however have Maidstone Sportscars Honda Engined Elise Demonstrator there with Andy Walsh taking people for passenger laps. We also had Jeff Mileham driving his Guglielmi prepared, PTP 2.0l K-series engined Elise there taking passengers round (unfortunatly Jeff couldn’t get the car started in the morning so it was only running in the afternoon).
The noise issue is the one downside to Bedford. However as has been seen a Janspeed or similar with a Silenced Cat pipe (I’ve got the Eliseparts one) gets a car through. I failed spectacularly in Feb with 104dB static and well over on the driveby with just a CRP. (Interestingly it was 95dB yesterdfay static and 99dB on a previous visit).
After that, as I was there again a couple of weeks later I took my car along one afternoon after fitting the SCRP and they static checked it and then driveby checked it. It was interesting chatting with they guys with their corporate heads off and the fact most of the problem comes from one old woman who lives closeby. The weather also plays a big parts as apparantly on a windy day their standard Discovery broke the noise limit.
I remember reading about the Scoobynet thing and there were problems on both sides, it just got way out of hand.
The problem is nowadays that the councils strongly enfoce noise so circuits can’t take any chances or they get shut down. No matter who the organiser, I attended the 1st ever BAT day at Oakington and while the day was okay (although more work was required on the circuit), I think BAT managed 1 more day there before all days were banned. Similar thing happend with Colerne where the locals started complaining even before the 1st day took place, think Jonny managed to run one day there. Not to mention Abingdon, Bentwaters etc. Castle Coombe has huge problems as well, I was once told about the fact the council got 5 complaints from locals about the Bike racing, and how the noise was terrible, shame they didn’t read the adverts properly as the bikes were push-bikes. Just shows that no matter what the situation TDO’s and circuits can’t win!
Mike,
Sorry I didn’t take you out, you asked just after I came in, perhaps next time.
Andy,
Car was woking properly for once, so unfortuatly I can’t claim all the praise.
Castle Coombe has huge problems as well, I was once told about the fact the council got 5 complaints from locals about the Bike racing, and how the noise was terrible, shame they didn’t read the adverts properly as the bikes were push-bikes. Just shows that no matter what the situation TDO’s and circuits can’t win!
To$$ers!, and they still take their complaints seriously? That kind of people should get their balls fried!
Same thing happened at Prestwold, which was a good circuit to set the car up at and localish for me …
I can remember the last day there when it rained and the “noise police” were checking … the comment " I guess you organised the rain to keep the noise down" coming from one “person” … so I agree with Uldis … although there may have been a problem with his solution in this case
Whole noise situation is a pain, especially as some of the places used are ex-airfields where jets used to land and take off!
Also pictures from Saturday from the official photographer are up.
http://www.trackphoto.co.uk/
Andy - I’m all of 67 kilos, plus clothes…
Mark - next time, eh? I want to check out your lines !!
Noise is bad, but can you honestly say that an Exige at full chat is noise ?? Surely it is MUSIC !!
Mark - next time, eh? I want to check out your lines !!
Why? you’re not going to follow them anyhow!
BTW, I’ll up those 67Kg by 30 here
All bird-pulling Mexican beef!
Just thought I’d give him a pointer or two…
Mike - you should get some lighter clothes
Put the 048’s on today and … oh dear you really can tell a difference straight away … the steering feels “meatier” and for some reason less “understeery” …
Mmmm
Told you so…
Andy, you mentioned at Bedford that you use 5W 50 mobil 1, whereas I use 0W 40 in the same flavour…
Can anybody tell me which is better and why ??
If you use your engine in anger, it’s going to generate more heat, which thins up the oil.
The Motorsports version (thicker) keeps more stable on these higher temp ranges.
You can see the difference on the 0W 40, as it’s much thinner, water like, and the 15W 50 is not.
BTW I have been using 15W 50 for some time now. Peace of mind.
Will bw switching to Castrol 10W50 tomorrow (smells nicer)
I had assumed that the 0W - 40 was thinner but entirely adequate provided it didn’t overheat, being synthetic, and as a bonus less friction / drag = more power…
but I now assume at more risk to the engine… Bggr ?!?!?
I see that Millers do a 10W-60… would that be even better then??
�f you were running an endurance race in in Texas, or Australia, it would be something to try.
Otherwise it’s just extra friction.
Chaps
Lotus (Gavan Kershaw) recommend Castrol RS 10-60, so that’s I use. It’s not that easy to find (my local Halfords don’t stock it), but a local independent sells it for �30 per 4 litre container - or least they did, when I got some last November.