Curborough Trackday 2010

[Howlin_Mad]

Might as well start from the top.

A mate owned a Lotus Espirit 5 years ago and the Lotus Drivers club organise an 'introduction to sprinting' trackday once a year. He wanted to drive his Lotus on a track and this seemed like an ideal opportunity and it was cheap and close. He told me about it and stated they allow passengers for £10 as long as they have a helmet too. £10 to ride in some interesting machinery when i only had a Rover 618 as a daily - can't pass that up can I!

Every year since, i have been contacted by the organiser Colin asking if i wished to participate. Every year i've said yes, and the MGB has been round (with multi-coloured panels - lol), the Auto, and now it was the turn of the V6 - finally!. Ilogik and Rich Lee have also accompanied me in the past and it's a great little track.

Now this aint a 130mph+ large sweeping bend track - it's a very tight & technical sprint track. On the videos (uploading now - got lots) it looks very slow at times - but trust me it's not. The fastest cars were crossing the finish line at 105mph, but this circuit is not about high speed if you want a fast lap, it's about constantly making sure the tyres are squealing and you are wrestling with the car to point it in the direction ready for the next apex.

We started off with only 3 laps per run, but soon went up to 5 laps per run as there were only 11 cars running. I got 7 runs in total today, so 30-35 laps. I estimate, because when you are concentrating that hard it's near impossible to figure out if you've done 4,5 or 6!! (I snook a few cheaky six lappers in on purpose to make up for the fours i got wrong )

Machinery:

Me (MR2 V6)
Wedgey (MR2 V6)
An array of Lotus Elises inc a supercharged Exige and a supercharged 111S
Caterhams (inc a lotus 7 based thing with a Honda Fireblade in it with flappy paddles)
Cosworth Turbo Westfield driven by a 3 times sprint winner (and general track guru)
A couple of Paul Matty's single seat racers
Escort Cossie tarmac rally car

If you want a passenger ride in any - just ask and jump in!

£80 for the day and i'll pay that all day long for another ride in the 300bhp Cossie Rally car. It's restricted to that from 560bhp due to rally rules and does 4.5 miles to the gallon

I managed to use £10 of petrol today. I did 11.5 miles on track.



Pics and vids & part 2 to follow.

HM

[_Al_]

Exactly the same mpg as my scooby managed at the 'Ring.. Shows you were driving properly..

[Howlin_Mad]

Wedgey On track in-car:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/ ... 185007.flv

Loving the door action

HM

[iLogik]

come on could of gone quicker ;p in car always looks so slow.

its great track for anyone thinking of going, here is my old video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_UGzufzi4I

[Howlin_Mad]

come on could of gone quicker ;p in car always looks so slow.

its great track for anyone thinking of going, here is my old video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_UGzufzi4I

Laptimes calculated from first pull away until over the finish line, and to the finish line thereafter:

Alessio: MK2 Turbo:

1) 41.18
2) 32.13
3) 31.53

Wedgey: MK2 V6 N/A Box and no sense of fear:

1) 42.91
2) 31.41
2) 31.75
3) 30.99
4) 31.09
5) 31.17


Me: MK2 V6 and crap:

1) 43.60
2) 33.35
3) 33.16
4) 32.48

I figured out my gear changes around the molehill were pointless after and dropped the times a bit keeping the engine screaming until i could turn in. Must get a better tyre/suspension setup for next year - but was taking it a bit cautious as in the vid as i didn't want to lose my front lip as any grass = £250 splitter dead instantly. Need to get some car handling tuition too somehere with an open circuit - some of the places on the course i would have pushed harder like wedgey but didn't have the confidence with such short run-off's and the suspension setup.

Can't beat the day though - i would recommend it - or a similar day to anyone. 11.5 miles on the day doesn't sound a lot, but boy does it cane your tyres and brakes - as wedgey will tell you

HM

[_Al_]

Wish there were places like that round here.. Looks like a hell of a day out.

Have you done a trackday on a larger circuit? How does it compare? Sprint looks a lot more intense.

[Howlin_Mad]

Wish there were places like that round here.. Looks like a hell of a day out.

Have you done a trackday on a larger circuit? How does it compare? Sprint looks a lot more intense.

Not done a larger circuit myself yet, but after speaking to a lot of the chaps there - a few had done Donnington, Silverstone etc, and preferred this as the larger tracks you sit at 40-130mph and you have plenty of time to plan ahead and smooth turn-in etc yet end up melting the brakes, but they found this much more intense and it really is lightening quick around every corner & apex constantly correcting the car until you hit the straight. Very very technical, not so bad on the brakes, but if you drive like wedgey it can be hard on the tyres!!

Scrubbed a fair whack off the n/s rear due to the hard right handers, but wedgey scrubbed practically every corner to the limit LOL

Al, there must be a sprint course near you somewhere - they are often hidden away in the unlikeliest of places. And i would highly recommend a go on a sprint circuit to anyone - the amount of times you hear groups of people chatting about one rumble strip or a fresh patch of tarmac to try on the next time they go round is great. "Not sure where you mean about the fresh patch?" "No bother - jump in and i'll show you"

Here's my "effort" - needs improvement!

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/ ... 215403.flv

HM

[iLogik]

I have done Silverstone and Mallory Park, Depends what you want, all out speed or lots of handling.

The biggest downer to curborough is track time and run off. Especially on the final sweeping corner as if you get it wrong you can go straight off into a mud bank and the mole hill is just as bad but the other corners aren't to dodgey.

Silverstone you can seriously push the car into the corners and has plenty of run off has to be my favo track.

Mallory park not much room for error not the biggest fan.

For the money involved and the stress on the car, Curb wins hands down. I did it twice with the mk2 turbo and didn't use oil or really "censored" the tyres to badly.

Mallory park my tyres pretty much melted ont he mk3 turbo and I had serious brake fade to the point that i thought my brakes had broke

[Mr_Wedge]

I put forty quids worth of petrol in on Thursday morning, by the time I got back from Curborough, the fuel light was on!

I'll take the back wheel off the car and get some photo's of the tyre, I killed it. The tyre was new, one month ago!

It was a fantastic day, so tight and twisty, you don't get time to breathe, and you haven't got a chance of counting your laps. Looking forward to doing it again.

Ian.

[Howlin_Mad]

I put forty quids worth of petrol in on Thursday morning, by the time I got back from Curborough, the fuel light was on!

I'll take the back wheel off the car and get some photo's of the tyre, I killed it. The tyre was new, one month ago!

It was a fantastic day, so tight and twisty, you don't get time to breathe, and you haven't got a chance of counting your laps. Looking forward to doing it again.

Ian.

Come on Ian, 5mpg aint bad for a V6 round that track

Was fun doing it though

Never forget after your second time round you stopped in the holding area and your back wheels were smoking. "Wow he must have caned his back brakes" i thought. Nope - the tyres were smoking and you couldn't put your hand on them they were that hot

V6 power!

HM

[mrelson101]

Are any of u guys members? as they do some track afternoons down there for members only which is normally a very good day u get 6 runs how many times round depends on how many cars attend ive joined this year and will be attending every track afternoon this year for £18 a year its very cheap enjoyable track time, looks like u all had fun wish i know it was on would have come down and watched,

Mark

[Howlin_Mad]

Some Photos:

Dull start made the track a bit damp


Toyota engines (but in different forms)


Some of the cars:


Open Top racers don't like rain!


Prey...


Wedgey at the start line:


Ready....


GO..GO..GO...!!!!!






HM

[Howlin_Mad]

Ian from round the bank:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/ ... 200152.flv

Apologies for the zoom - it's a little shaky when at max, and for when i said goodbye to Mr Caterham driving by and i forgot to film Ian

HM