Nick Graves

It's really not that different from driving on the autobahn, merely twistier.

You just have to be very awake and after a few laps, you bloody are very awake!

Yes - adrenalin IS brown!

Daytona-Dave

2nd track day complete, it slat it down all morning so booked an instructor for some help on a very wet Oulton, had a very good 20min session and really enjoyed it although at some points it was like having Ron in the car, power power power it was interesting how the instructor from my first track day had different lines through Shell a corner i seem to have a different line for each lap,

a few laps in the wet with the instructor,


During dinner it stopped raining and soon started to dry out and i managed to go a little faster than my first track day,

A few laps in the dry with a Lotus Exige

djchocice

Looks like another good one Ray, difficult conditions on the wet session and look pretty busy out on track as well.

I need to do Oulton again, I've done Anglesey twice since the changes to mine but need to get to Oulton to truly realise how significant the changes are on track.

Daytona-Dave

We had a great day i was a bit worried about the wet conditions and how you read about the S being tail happy at the best of times let alone at Oulton in the wet but it all turned out OK in the end, there seemed a lot of traffic but it was a session day and i had to wait for my instructor so i ended up near the back of the queue was i thought would play in my favour as i wouldn't have to keep letting everyone passed but it didn't take long to realise i wasn't as slow as i thought i'd be and by the end of the 20min session i had passed everyone in front of me and even ended up passing a few twice, this all changed in the dry sessions when the M135's a clio with mad max at the wheel and Rhauri in his Caterham found they're footing other than that i was very pleased with how me and Lee in his S2000 coped

earl's_f20c

Last lap vid, chase shot from Daytona Daves


As Dave says it turned out to be a fantastic day after a very soggy start!!

It's true I'd fallen out of love with my S2000, I drive a lovely big leather Auto armchair Accord in the week and was starting to hate the hassle discomfort of buckets and firm suspension.
Depending on how the day went I was going to think about returning it to standard......

Despite being an experienced passenger at Oulton only driving laps I'd done was a 1 x 20 minute taster session and that was 5 years ago on a nice dry summer day.
Seeing the lashing rain while listening to the safety briefing I wasn't in the mood to eat!!

My S has changed somewhat over the 5 years, mainly due to competing in a sprint championship last year with Daytona Dave and Dr Mike Sudds, but my only real trackday has been at Blyton Park last year.
So now I have KW V3 suspension, some decent Mugen buckets, a 6 point harness, and I think best of all (for the track anyway if not the motorway) a 4.6 diff.]
I do have an AEM with an NA tune but that's mainly for popping noises haha.

Ray started out on his Rainsport 3 tyres which are a fantastic choice, I was on Toyo R1R all round with the rears virtually brand new (140 miles on them!).
I was amazed at how quick our S's were in the wet, we were overtaking a lot of cars that should strictly have been quicker.

The main problem I had in the wet was trying to turn in going too fast and the car pushing on - so that's my bad not the cars!
It did over rotate at Hissys as I put the power down too soon but I just stopped it going off, by flapping my hands at the wheel
But it didn't feel dangherous or like it was going to kill me at speed in the wet so by the time the instructor sat in with me I felt fairly comfortable.

Instruction session was very intense, I was sweating my balls off by the end!! He was working me like a bitch lap after lap, roll off the gas, where to brake, stop braking turn in, on the power..and repeat!!!
...learned a lot and it was plain to see afterwards where others were losing out; not using the width of the track etc
Maybe this was the reason we only had to let a couple of cars past all day, even played with an Exige despite him being an experienced trackdayer.

The sun came out and Dave rang his lackie Sudds to fetch his dry set up Yokohama A053 wheels down to Oulton !!! Some people have it all!!
I carried on using the R1Rs which are amazing in the rain and very good in the dry - up to a point as they tend to overheat eventually, but 20 mins is perfect with them.
By the end of the day I was exiting corners on the rumble strips and not worrying,

Jolly good fun all round, I've come a long way from screaming like a girl in LoveGroovers S all those years ago....

Can't say enough for the R1R tyres - especially for road use, they cope so well in the rain and grip like R888 in the dry (until they melt anyway)

Think I'll be keeping my mods for now, it all makes sense on track