Hoppy

Ian, never been a biker, then? You don't what COLD is, mate

Glad you got a shakedown at last, and that the Westie didn't disappoint.

Sounds like a great day for £50. I'll have some of that over Xmas It seems that circuits are learning economic reality.

I also had some top automotive action today with my Honda HRB 476c. This may be a new model to some of you, but it is an awesome... lawn mower

Richard.

Edited to add, Ian, don't leave it at that. How did it go? Have you got your vision back after your eyeballs got stuck to the back of your head?!

[Edited by Hoppy - 12/8/2002 8:53:46 PM]

Redkop

It is on next Sunday 15th December and also Sunday 29th December ... but just a small warning - it is fookin' freezing there!!

[Edited by Redkop - 12/9/2002 9:33:16 AM]

Redkop

Clare remember what I said about tights Plus I don't think I could have got anymore layers on anyway!

[Edited by Redkop - 12/9/2002 11:51:41 AM]

davyboy

How cool is it to wake up, see its dry, and then deciede to do a track day at one of the Countrys top circuits, which is less than an hours drive away. I got there about lunch time and inquired about costs for an afternoon only session and it only cost £50 for Clare and I to drive for the afternoon session 1.30 to 3.40ish

I never managed to take any pics so if anyone else did, then post them in here.

The 944 Turbo definately prefers the dry!

mbc

what colour was your porka? i was there in silver evo6, i got on for 50 quid too , what a bargain

mike

davyboy

Black G reg 944 turbo. Did see a silver Evo, but don't think you were on track at the same time as us.

Roll on the next dry Sunday

mbc

could be next sunday

BOB.T

Good to see you and Clare again DB

MBC, I saw you going round, the car was looking good

I had a blast just wandering round

Bob (beaten up Fiesta)

flat4

i was there, remember going round with a 944 infront/behind me for a few laps, i was in the J reg Legacy, top afternoon


kev

BOB.T

Kev, you had some nice flames out of yours

Clare

Top afternoon. I am definitely getting better Shame not so many other women have a go.

Kev, that car was smoking and flaming like nothing else. Saw you hit the green stuff a couple of times too Dave reckons those last few laps he did with you were the best he'd done all afternoon. Great fun, but like a typical woman, bloody freezing!

flat4

had a great time, minus the brakes fading after 4 or 5 laps wasn't aware of the flames though must mount the camcorder in a better place next time

my off-track excursions were totally planned, as my co-pilots can confirm, gotta try out the 4 wheel drive once in a while


kev

flat4

I would of come down the pit lane for a chat, but it was 3:30 before i knew it


kev

Clare

No problem, I know what you mean about the time. Got dark early didn't it??!!

Can't wait for next time!

DodgeT

spent the afternoon there myself, little green/yellow westfield stickered up with huge spitfire head on bonnet & back!(you'll only know what im on about if you know about skatebords!)

'twas great fun & a bargain for £50 for 2 drivers!!

saw one porka & as it come past me, the exhaust was completely glowing under the car, who needs neons!!!!!!


if anyone has any pics (specially of me!!) please post em as ive gotta get mine developed.

Redkop

Nice to see you again Dave and Clare and yet again I didn't get to say goodbye to you Next time eh?

igratton

Spit Fire - yey !!! I saw flame boy on the back of your car

I still skate a bit myself.

We were there in our XTR2 today and what a top time it was. Still have sooooo much to learn about the car but its going to be a real flying machine.

Ian
(Head and nose freezing - my visor broke off my lid - not much fun at 100+ in an open top car without a windscreen).

scooby-si

flat4 dont forget your jacket next time

flat4

coats are for wusses, i'm hard me


kev

Clare

Lynne, Dave went out for the last few laps and then we had to shoot off to collect Hollie. If we'd stayed any longer, we would have been late! Great to see you again.

Why oh why is there always someone doing 35 mph on the road from Dono to the M1? Has happened every time I've been there!

flat4

mowing your grass in December?


kev

CraigH

Will reply for Ian

We've got a huge amount to learn to drive this thing well. Was our first time on track so we were taking it v v easy.

Was amazing that taking it so slowly we were still relatively quick.

JohnF drove twice and was the fastest thing on circuit by quite a long way. There was a Radical Prosport there but they weren't on at the same time.

2nd propler lap and John did a 1.21. 1st time car has been on track so we were pretty chuffed. John reckons we'll be able to knock an easy 10secs a lap off as he was taking it easy.

Nothing broke, nothing fell off and nothing failed. Plus it was quick. Amazing that a pair of monkeys like Ian and me can build something like this

A few more tweaks and it will be astoundingly quick. Think with what we've done will be a match for a Radical that's for sure


Never been round the old hairpin before flat out after barely braking from Craners - is almost surreal

dingy

Got on for £25 quid for the last couple of hours, only picked the new town run about up 2 hours previous........Honda CRX's certainly do rev like **** 8600 rpm

igratton

Steve,

good on yah for taking out the CRX - revvy little b-stards how are the brakes and tyres ???

Wonder how long it will be before it has a cage in it

Appologies for the slow driving in the westi - its a lot for me to learn - but hopefully we will get there eventually (if I don't get my foot stuck under the clutch pedal LOL ) 10,000rpm + is a bit on the ears thats for sure.

Ian.

DodgeT

hey ian, we were loking at your xtr2 at the end of the day, apparently youd gone off to get some oil or something???

you just need a simpson bandit helmet (like the stig wears on top gear!) to go with that car, looks great, matt black!!

[telepathic brainwashing mode on]
take me for a spin next time
take me for a spin next time
take me for a spin next time
[telepathic brainwashing mode off]

dingy

LOL @ Cage

Its staying standard mate

I enjoyed the trip out mate, a few more laps and you will have it sorted.

Attu

I went down with scooby-si this afternoon (we were the two DGM scoobys in the car park)
I must admit it was a very good day even though it was very cold.
Some top cars there but it was far to busy for me to venture out on track, some of those porkers and that BMW touring car looked very quick.
The car that amazed me the most was the red mini with the 16v engine, that thing was mad, Oh and the black porker with the glowing exhaust....very nice.
Long time since id seen an RS200 as well, that made the trip worth it on its own.
Very good day, next time i may even venture out my self.

Andy

Ohh what hapend to Mellow ? when i got there his car was on his trailer and i never saw it on track .

Lizzywizz

"Shame not so many other women have a go"

Clare, I was driving on track today and last Sunday in Mikeesingh's scooby Much more fun when its not your own car getting a thrashing!!

Will be there again on the 29th all being well as we are only 10 mins from Donno

Lizzy

johnfelstead

A big thankyou to Ian and Craig for the priviledge of taking their XTR2 out on track for its first proper run.

I was gutted for them after the Bedford fiasco so offered to lend a hand whilst they shook the car down at Donington, not as ideal as bedford for a first ever run, but it is still a very safe circuit and as long as you dont try going quickly too early in your knowlegde of the car, there is plenty of track to learn in.

I was pretty surprised to be asked to give it the first run, I was expecting to be helping the guys throw spanners at it more than anything. Thats something i have done for a long time and have helped develop some very quick race cars in the past. It did make a lot of sense for me to drive the car though, as i know donington very well, plus i have driven similar power/weight cars many times before, i have also driven on the same tyres before, so knew how the car should feel, and also knew how to make the tyres work and get some heat into them.

Straping myself into the car today was the first time i had ever driven it, the first time i had ever driven a bike engined car too, so i was a little unsure what to expect (major understatement ).

First impresions were that the cockpit was very confined, more so than my ZEi220, but it felt right. I am not as tall as Ian and Craig so i found the gear selector too far back to be very comfortable, but being a sequencial box, this wasnt a problem as i didnt have to put any finese into selecting gear, just back and forth. The pedals felt very alian, quite diferent to any car i had driven before. The throttle when out of gear and stationary, or starting to move off is very much a hair trigger and we talked about some ways to improve this part of the control. Once moving it feels great, but on downshifts i found the throttle again a little too direct, this can be easily sorted (and being used to it would make a big diference too, but i think a slight change will make it more user friendly).

The brakes are where the car needs its biggest changes. The disks and calipers are perfect, i think a diferent choice of pads will improve feel, but the bigest stumbling block is the brake pedal and master cylinders used. This is where the car will be made much much faster and much more enjoyable to drive. Ian and Craig now have some ideas on making this work well, westfield have got this setup wrong, but it will only take a little bit of re-engineering and the car will be transformed into something you can push hard and be totaly consistent with.

What i hoped for from driving the car, was that it would be a safe setup, not ultimately its fastest, but something that wouldnt be frightening to drive and be very forgiving, giving plenty of feedback. This is what you need to get your head round driving something this diferent to any road car, and especially diferent to an Impreza, which is what Ian and Craig are used to on track.

So off we poped from the pit garage (ian strapped in as passenger), only to be stopped at the pit exit by the flag marshal, i wish i had ignored him because he then stood behind me and i couldnt see if it was OK or not to go, i could see the odd wave in the mirror, but he wasnt exactly helping! LOL Eventually i decided to go and this is where i found the car most dificult to drive, setting off from a standing start . If you touch the throttle it wants to rev its ***** off, if you dont its very easy to stall. I managed to get us going after a few tries and then headed out onto the track for the first time. The car felt fabulous, it ran straight, went up the box with ease and the brake pedal seemed to have the desired effect, it just didnt give any feedback though. So by the entry to the first corner i already felt at home and knew what to be careful of and what to try and explore. It was then a fairly gingerly run down craner curves, very much just cruising to make sure the car felt balanced in the mid craner direction changes. By the time i had reached the old hairpin i was thinking, wow, this things a bit special.

From the old haipin onwards it was just a case of lets see what this car can do, so i started to drive it quite a bit harder, still with plenty in reserve, but over the next couple of laps i started to explore how it would handle full power corner exits and higher speed direction changes. Where i really wanted to see how it would cope, was through swantz corner, the corner between the old hairpin and McLanes. In a heavy saloon car, it isnt a particularly interesting corner, but in a lightweigh car that can accelerate hard out of the old hairpin, it's a nasty bugger when you start to push hard. There is a bump right on the racing line, that tries to kick the back end out whilst you are fully loaded up, it was always a case of apply slight oposite lock in my old westie and keep the power on and just let it slide, so i was hoping the XTR2 would give the same signals, i was mostly hoping that being mid engined it wouldnt give a nasty snap oversteer, but would be progresive.

So third lap i decided it was time to see how the car felt when it was unsettled, so took swantz much faster, but still not using the whole track. The back end did exactly what i hoped it would, a very slight slide, but it was very nicely poised, much nicer than my ZEi was. The guys at tollbar racing had done a great job of setting the car up to be driver friendly, it was very neutral and predictable, most importantly it felt safe and wasnt doing anything unexpected or to quickly. It's a great starting setup.

A couple of laps more and it was a case of just drive the car as fast as i wanted, just watch the brakes as they dont give any real feedback and arnt consistent. I was braking probably 2/3rds too soon, to make sure nothing silly hapened. Just from changes to the brakes i could find 7 or 8 seconds a lap i believe. I was very gentle out of the chicane onto the pits straight too, as this is the only place at dono i feel to be dangerous and not give much room to correct mistakes. However, even being very gentle, it still caried more speed than most cars, it's just in a diferent league to a saloon car.

So that was the first run over. I was expecting that to be my driving done for the day, but craig wanted to see how the car felt at speed from the passenger seat, so i was forced to do it all again.

I started out much faster this time, still only 80% of what the car can achieve i believe, but it was no longer being ginger down craner, it was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th flat all the way from the pits exit. I chickened out taking craner flat in top, i didnt want to risk anything, Craig and Ian havent driven the car yet. But there is no doubt at all, this car will take craner flat in 6th, its fantastic. I did 5 laps then at a fairly good pace, still wimping out on the braking points, but everwhere else driving it pretty quickly. I didnt really take much notice of what we passed, but there wasnt anything on track at the time that could live with it, including some well sorted race westfields and Porsches on slicks. I think it was an eye opener to craig in particular, as Ian had riden in my westie before, and that was a very quick car too.

The thing that the guys will soon get over, is the mental bagage they have about corner grip from driving their Impreza's, the XTR2 is a completely diferent animal in that respect, feedback is much higher and corner grip is masively higher too. For a first run on track, this car is superb, it's got a lovely balance and is spot on to start to learn with. It can be fine tuned to be a lot quicker through the corners, but that will make it more on edge, so for now, its setup well to get to know.

Ian and Craig have done an amazing job building this car. It is the first customer XTR2 to be built, without a build manual, or much information to fall back on. For someone with experience of building wesfields or race cars, that would be a great achievment. For this to be achieved by two enthusiasts who have never done anything remotely like this before, is truly amazing thing to have taken on and completed. It works, thats for sure!

Thanks again guys, to ask me to give the car its first track run is very special. One guy asked me in the pits, who are you, if they want you to drive it first? Thats when i realised how priveledged i was.

XTR2, i like it a lot.

Simon220

Is donny open all weekend every weekend then?

I only live about 25mins away.

I was there on the saturday and throughly enjoyed it, especially flying round in the Tomcat Racer.

£50 for the afternnon sounds like a rigth bargain.

Cheers

Si