Sorry to have missed Anglesey but....Donington on 16th Aug

General Meets + Track Day Reports
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Fun bloody tastic.Mike T and I took a last minute booking at Donnington (I could not make Anglsey due to work commitments.)I got to answer a load of questions that I had since getting the car.I was really getting worried that I had become a real old woose. The Exige is the first performance car I have had in 13 years. In days gone by I remember being able to get a new car upto and over the limit (and back again) within the first couple of days of driving. I have put 3,000 miles on mine in the last month and apart from one moment in the wet I have never been anywhere near the limit. I now know why!!! In the dry the limit is really so high that other than in second on really tight roads, you are unlikely to get the car past the limit (e.g. cornering hard in 3rd would happen upwards of the 70Mph legal limit).Highlights.Mike T followed me around for the first 1/2 doz laps or so (no reason just how we lined up). I could see him hovering over my left rear so thought, OK Mike I can see your faster so off you go. A quick indication on the start finish straight and sure enough Mike breezes past and gets into Redgate at an impressive lick, I’m about 50-100 yards behind and feel I’m near the limit. Just past the apex (and all in slooow moooootion) Mike rotates through 180+. I’m now barrelling down towards the wrong end of his car (complete with bemused; but still grinning face) and the mandatory lift sees my rear set out a good foot or so�K as luck has it(or exquisite car control in MT’s opinion), as he completes the spin he eases back to the inside leaving me enough space to continue on the racing line and past.Passed by a P1 Scoob (Reg HIPY) driven by a chap rumoured to have come 2nd in some national series. I then just circulated behind him for about 2 laps, as time went by his antics to get through the corners faster and faster, just meant he got progressively more and more sideways, bouncing over the kerbs, and throwing dirt back onto the track, and I had to back off more and more whilst the Exige just ran round like it was on rails, in the end he just failed to turn into the first part of Cranners Curves, I was going into Cranners at about 100mph so with the more grunt of the P1 I would think he was maybe at 110. Must have been exciting as he took a straight line across the grass from the first part of Cranners to the Bridge!!�K I slowed down to spectate, and was a bit worried of him coming back onto the track and collecting me on his way.All evening only one other car came past (other than the infamous MT and a host of FFs) in my first laps a Porche (not sure what variety) came past with at least 30mph more into Cranners - again on my last set of laps he went by again, and I was surprised to find how long I could hold on to him, and 2 or 3 Laps later he again through it off at Cranners (earlier in the evening his passenger was saying that they were going through Cranners at 120 so this must have been a fun experience (not).The last 1/2 Hour saw a thunderstorm (lightning and all) drenching half the circuit and leaving the other half almost dry. I couldn’t have wanted for anything more! With lots of run off areas this was a great opportunity, I never really got enough laps to really push things hard enough to see how bad things can really get but�K. I have driven a few single seaters before (F First, F Ford, F Forward, F4 and Multisports) and the Exige has the same disconcerting habit, loads of grip then nothing and then as quick as it goes, the grip all comes back again, really tricky to deal with - do nothing and wait for the thing to bite back in and if your wrong you spin - Try to catch it to quick and your into a tank slapping set of over corrections; but you do get a sense of everything going just all to light before you get to the nasty stuff, I would really love to find a proper skid pan to see if this is the way it really behaves, otherwise I will wait for another wet track day.A repeat of the Redgate incident with Mike T repeating his spin out of Mclarens.All those other road cars that your thought were well sorted good handling cars that once stuck behind you have to drop back to 4 tenths to wait to blast past.Following a number of apparently real race cars, that just go altogether wobbly through the bends that you have to back off into the corners before getting a nice clean pass on the straight.Seeing your apparently well polished road rubber, go all blobby and peeling rubber just like real race cars do (I miked my tyres before and after, with 64miles of track use I lost a reasonable 0.6mm of rubber.No real problem with Brake pedal travel.LowLightsEach set of laps I would find the indication that now was the time to pit was finding the brakes starting to judder going from 115 (GPS reading) under the Dunlop bridge to 40 for the chicane.Picked up a misfire between 5-6K, pitted and another Exige owner nonchantley said “oh yeah you’ve got the 5k2 misfire casued by the HT lead to pot number 2” I never asked if the chap was a member of this BB but a great big thanks anyway, I had no tools with me at all, he got a screwdriver undid the top cover over the leads tweaked the leads to each cylinder, hey presto no more misfire.Had one of the resident race instructors ( Rob) come out for a couple of laps to be told that all the blue and white kerbs I had assumed indicated the right clipping points were actually there for the bikes �� and I was generally on the wrong part of the circuit to go fast, at least I know that next time I should get a load more speed out of the corners ��And worst of all no AVI!!! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] I duct taped my Video to the top of the passenger seat looking straight out of the front which would have 100% caught the Mike T incident; only to find that the bloody thing did not record a single frame�K. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] It would have been priceless!Cant wait to do it all again.

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Excellent report Roy [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]I reckon we should all pick a track day that’s convenient and go en masse.

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Hippy is Ian Gratton, I’ll send him over to comment. Not sure about his 2nd in a national series - if its true there were only two competitors!

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quote:Originally posted by Admin5:Excellent report Roy [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]I reckon we should all pick a track day that’s convenient and go en masse.nice one, Roy…David, my word…

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quote:Originally posted by Admin5:Excellent report Roy [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]I reckon we should all pick a track day that’s convenient and go en masse.Ill 2nd that!Kee [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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Hi There [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]I did pass an exige at one point early on during the evening…and did have a few sideways moments…but the guy in charge of the car whilst it was on the grass was David Wood. Dave finished 2nd in last years Grp N. Showroon class rally championship. As much as david loves grass his shortcut at crainer was totally unexpected as my front right tyre decided to blow at 120mph !!!fortunately the car is well and i took my other set of 18" wheels so we could continue on. Still…I was driving a little more carefully as a blowout at that speed tends to make you think a little bit harder.I am far more behaved than you would think…just ask howard [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]regardsIan.see pictures and writeup on the scoobynet bbs at: http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/Forum20/HTML/000264.html

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Ian,Good to hear that there was no real damage, I think it must have been David who passed me (in traffic down the backstraight- thats my excuse anyway [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]) as I followed him round before the off.David gave the Kerbs quite a lot of stick in the Lap leading up to the blowout I would’t be surprised if that had something to do with it. My GPS log showed me at 97mph before I backed off to 60 as it happened. Now if only I had had the damnn video recorder running I would have had another customer…

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Ian, Bruno, Keenan quote:I reckon we should all pick a track day that’s convenient and go en masse.100% I will be there (work commitments allowing). A Thursday evening session at Donington is easy for me; but sooner or later I must get to Cadwell - to my mind the best track in the UK How many more can we get?

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quote:but sooner or later I must get to Cadwell - to my mind the best track in the UK How many more can we get?Count me in, arrival of new tyres permitting, especially if it’s Cadwell. In fact, Cadwell’s a great idea; some of you folks have yet to experience a man’s circuit! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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I quite fancied Cadwell until I saw the video of a lap that is available here : http://www.gee-fin.racingdrivers.co.uk/index.html There is not much run off anywhere ![This message has been edited by Rod (edited 22 August 2001).]

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quote:There is not much run off anywhere !Interesting video, although to be honest it doesn’t even start to give you an idea of the thrill of driving the UK’s mini-Nurburgring. Two of the corners at Cadwell are world famous WOW! corners, but unless you know which ones I bet you can’t tell from that video. As for run-off, I’ve raced there a few times and done one or two track days there, and most of the places where people tend to go off don’t tend to result in damage. During the track days that I’ve done there I’ve only known one guy damage his car, and he was pushing rather hard, some said a bit too hard. The run-off areas that matter are actually better than they appear in the video, although obviously like any circuit you can be unlucky. So, let’s do Cadwell! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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I have kept a look out but can’t find any track days offered at Cadwell.But I could not resist the temptation and am booking for another evening session at Donington on the 6th Sept �105 in advance or �115 on the day.Any other takers?

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quote:I have kept a look out but can’t find any track days offered at Cadwell.I’ve asked Octagon Motorsport (the owners of Cadwell, previously called Brands Hatch Leisure) to let me know the dates of forthcoming track days at Cadwell. As soon as they respond I’ll post it here… [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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quote:Originally posted by X111GED:I have kept a look out but can’t find any track days offered at Cadwell.But I could not resist the temptation and am booking for another evening session at Donington on the 6th Sept �105 in advance or �115 on the day.Any other takers?Would love to but I’d never get on the curcuit with the silly noise levels. Sorry Kee [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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quote:Originally posted by Keenan Perrin: Would love to but I’d never get on the curcuit with the silly noise levels. Sorry Kee [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]Donington are one of the most lenient tracks out there.My de-cat/190/Supersports Exige had no problems at Donington last time.Get yerself along there Kee. It’s a great place.

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quote:Originally posted by Admin5: Donington are one of the most lenient tracks out there.My de-cat/190/Supersports Exige had no problems at Donington last time.Get yerself along there Kee. It’s a great place.I was at Donington a few weeks ago, and there were some caterhams that were being bought in and told to “back off” down the main straight.

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quote: I was at Donington a few weeks ago, and there were some caterhams that were being bought in and told to “back off” down the main straight.I’ve actually been chucked off Donnington for noise, not just told to “back off”. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image] However, there are no noise restrictions at Cadwell! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] (OK, if you’re going to split hairs, MSA limits, i.e. motorsport limits, apply)

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quote:I’ve actually been chucked off Donnington for noise, not just told to “back off”. However, there are no noise restrictions at Cadwell! (OK, if you’re going to split hairs, MSA limits, i.e. motorsport limits, apply)I have the Same Spec e.g. No CAT SS Exhaust and 190 Conversion. And had no Problems. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/confused.gif[/image]Tony, Were you throne out with the same spec and with the 98DB trackside measurement?I went into race control and asked how they enforced the 98DB limit. Just on the Start finish straight and on the Pit wall they have a microphone station that relays to race control, where they continously plot out the reading. Apparently they quite often have the local council visit to inspect the trace so I got the impresion that there was not a question of some people being less tolerant than others. Being on the oposite side of the track to where you exit the Esses you pass this flat in second, They had commented that they had no-one over the limit on the evening. I would have thought that 98Db measured like this would be less stringent than 105Db with 3/4 max revs at 1Meter (I have seen some really “quiet” race cars fail a scrutineering on this)There were 3 other Exiges on the night all the same spec and to my knowledge no one was cautioned. I even wonder if wind direction could influence the reading.Kee If this were a deciding factor for you I would happily contact the chaps at Track Zone and get them to comment.

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Roy, I’m sorry, I should have said, I wasn’t driving my Exige at the time. This was some time ago, and the car I was driving was 102 DB at tick-over! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image] The race director apparently rang the circuit controller up from his home 5 miles away and shouted down the phone something to the effect “I don’t know what the ******g hell is going round, but get it off, NOW!” Oops! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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Ohhh I see you failed the 5 Mile, cant hear myself think test, most impressive [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]What was it?Cheers,Roy