astraboy

I was up for this with bells on. A chance for me to break the donut world record currently set at 22 in a minute was not something I was going to miss.
There were a number of problems I had to overcome. The first was time off work. However after a sufficient amount of shameless groveling, I managed to secure the appropriate day off. Sweet .
Secondly, although donuts are good fun, they tend to eat tyres at a phenomenal rate. A set of donut compound rims was called for. Luckily after a quick call to my mate Simon, I managed to secure a set of four Sapphire Cosworth rims complete with tyres for a mere 50 quid. Just right for a bit of destruction. Double sweet .
The night before saw me engaging in panicky preperations for the night before. After a killer day at work I arrived at home and proceeded to wash the 3-door, the Sapphire rims and the nice shiny rims I already had on. This was not helped by the fact I was doing this in the pitch dark and I was knackered. Bollox to leathering her down, She’ll dry nicely on the way to the shell garage to juice up on optimax. I decided I would bung the rims in the boot on the morning and put her to bed about 10.30. I then had me dinner and collapsed in bed at 11. I needed to be at least half awake for the coming day.
What seemed about 5 minutes later my alarm booted off and my mate Paul Palmer turned up outside my house at the frankly offensive time of 6.50. I dragged my hairy **** out of bed and got some clothes on. Still half asleep, I got the kettle on and then shoved the rims in the boot. Only two would go in so the other two went on the back seat. I Got the camcorder together and together with my “go mental” jacket I got some tools together included a can of shark energy drink I was handed as I went through waterloo the day before.
At about 7.15 we set off to the location. The location being RAF Elvington. 5 miles east of York. However, I was up for a long drive and the time soon passed as did the miles. Thankfully we were lucky on the traffic and didn’t have to cope with one queue. We soon turned off the M62 onto the B2218. What can I say about this road. Well, apart from over twenty miles long, long straights, GLF limit , tight corners, no cameras, no traffic and a huge airfield at the end of it!
We had to stop for directions but the petrol station we stopped at was 500 metres from the place so we set off again and sooon turned into the Air museum. We immediatly saw about 50 cars parked up, Bloody hell what a turnout! We raised a few eyebrows at the Pug 205s at a donut championship, but it all became clear when we got there. It was a separate track day and the Revs boys were there so we soon broke away from the pack and went to the donut arena. The arena turned out to be a concrete hardstanding about 500 metres square with two bloody great puddles in the middle. The revs boys took the initiative and started tanking through the puddles. Highly amusing to watch .
We kicked off with a few broadsides but stopped when the wheels on the back seat started flying all over the place so we moved over to where they had parked their van and got the kit out. We were greeted by the legendary Fly. those who read or have read maxy p in the last 6 years ( at least) will have appreciated his photography skills. Safe as always, Fly got on with his work and was soon reeling off the films as me and Paul jacked up the car and started taking of the rears to be replaced with the saph rims.
Thereafter We were presented with indemnity forms to fill and, to our surprise, “Revs Donut challenge 2002” tshirts. Very nice and very free. My favourite combination
The forms signed and tshirts on (as photographed by fly ) we got about with killing some rubber.
I started off with a donut but something wasn’t right. I decided on a few acceleration runs before I tried again. After that I went for another donut. I dumped it as hard as I could but she just didn’t want to swing around. I parked the back wheels in a puddle and tried It again. I Just couldn’t get them to light up straight away. I gave up and parked the 3-door. As I got out I realised what the problem was. The surface was too abrasive. It gave too much grip for the tyres to break away .
I was thinking what to do when someone else turned up. The Cruisequest crew had brought along a E36 BMW M3 to the party. Complete with some 15s to go on the back. However said 15s wouldn’t go on the back to they had to do it on original rims
Soon after he had a go he said exactly the same thing as me. The surface was too abraisive for the donut to be completed. However this wasn’t so much of a problem as the fact that we were the only ones there! Out of the 10 who said they would turn up only two had. That meant with less than 5 cars left they didn’t have a feature They said they would wait for another hour then call it quits but we were free to play if we wanted to. Oh go on then.
Donuts were out for me, so broadsides it was then. Roll along at 30 in second then boot it and the back end gracefully broke away. Hold it to the redline then correct. The correction was the most difficult bit. As the airfield was so abraisive, even the slightest wiff of lifting off made her snap straight. You needed to e lightning with taking off the lock if you wanted to avoid the tankslapper. It took some practice I can tell you.
Paul then had another go. With gracefull and powerful slides abounding, he managed to throw the car into a full opposite lock donut. Well played that man. At last she was being used how she was intended to be.
The cruisequest boys didn’t seem to care that they had to drive home on those rears and were getting In some serious donuts and broadsides too.
With the appointed hour drawing to a close we changed the tyres back to the original crossspoke rims. The saph rims were wasted. The tread had been burnt through to the beading in places and large chunks of tread were missing in others. Fly caught the evidence on film as we packed up the stuff. We were the last to leave, waving goodbye to the revs boys as we went. 200 miles later we were home. Knackered, sweaty and with smudges of rubber on faces but well happy. So what if no-one had turned up? We had had a great time killing rubber, doing broadsides, and getting it all on camcorder. On top of that it was all for free and we got a tshirt into the bargain too. What else could an astraboy ask for?

BOB.T

Nice one matey, sounds like you had a whole heap of fun

You should of said, I'm only an hour away from York, I'd of come for a watch

Are you doing USC again this year? Dunno if I'll bother after getting mi beer nicked last time, grr[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Bob

yoza

Good lad

David_Wallis

too much abrasion


Lightweight...

Stop fannying around and get your **** out

David

lefos-WRX

Nice one!

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Astraboy

What a top day here is the picture of your tyres after I had finished my powerslides and opposite lock donuts Looks cool on camera mate. I am waiting to see if any other pictures turn up now especially the "action" shots when revs were getting me to do big powerslides past that big puddle on massive opposite lock Thanks for the day out mate

[Edited by paulpalmer - 27/05/2002 10:51:09]

CrisPDuk

Boys, Boys.

It isn't Big, and it isn't Clever.



But I bet it was F**king good fun!


He who dies with the best toys,


Is still wormfood!

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Crispduk

Oh yes it was f*cking good fun an airfield, 1 other car, tyres to be thrashed and a 280 bhp rear wheel drive cossie What would you do? powerslide heaven

edited coz I can't spell

[Edited by paulpalmer - 27/05/2002 13:25:45]

^Qwerty^

I could **** you off and tell you that I live at the bottom of that road (Howden), but I wont Its been quoted once or twice in bike magazines as one of the best roads in Britain. I must say I find it a bit rough in places in the car, but don't notice it so much on the bike. Did you manage to get airborne off the little humpback bridge?
I was working at Elvington for two days last month on a Corporate Hospitality day. Very nice is was too. "do you mind if I blast up and down the runway in my car?", "no help yourself" "Can I have a blast around the course you've setup", "no help yourself" "can I have a go in your cars please", "yes of course you can" !!!! Hopefully I'll get to *work* at other events held here in the future.



[Edited by ^Qwerty^ - 5/30/2002 10:47:45 AM]

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Qwerty

We played safe over the humpback bridge because the car was low enough as it was with 4 alloys in the back & I couldn't picture astraboy jumping bridges in his mint cossie either you should have heard the video footage when the donut record holder hit a puddle in his car i think it goes "you C*NT!" LOL when you cross the railway line it was a bit dodgey too there was lots of mud and **** all over the road too so we took it fairly easy. Top road and I just wish I had my integrale with me at the time

astraboy

Yeah that road was fantastic. Apart from a few corners which had been torn up by the tractors the surface was sweet. That humpback was a bit of a surprise too. I was thinking "Oh yeah 40 will be fine for this....OH sh*t! *slams on anchors*"
Oh yeah about that guy driving MY cossie through a foot of water. I said it was an ex concours car and then he does that.that
astraboy.