JPSC Trackday - Llandow - 5th September

[cjt]

Just like to add my thanks to Peter and co for organising yesterday - we had a great day out, somewhat cut short by hub problems but next time.....

I would certainly sign up to another day at Llandow, living in the far South West it is one of the nearer circuits for us.

Cheers,

Chris

[jeffw]

You both look like you've taken pictures of the same session

I only got 3 session in (having driven the car 212 miles up from Kent on Friday).

First session I had a miss-fire (trapped a wire in the Megasquirt housing) which I cured in time for the 2nd session.

Second session had a great tussle with Adrian and Ian in the two R1 engined Furys. Very pleased my Zetec engined Phoenix was able to stay on the pace of the lighter (and more powerful ?) Furys. It was interesting to see where Neil & Adrian where making time on me which was braking down into the bus stop at the end of the straight, this was, I think, due to me needing to change from 4th to 3rd and then into 2nd (my synchro has gone missing on 2nd) and both of them just banging down through a sequential box. I was able to pull away slightly coming through the entrance onto the back straight and onto the main straight which is probable down to torque. Very interesting sesssion, especially when Ian half spun onto the back straight with me just behind him

Third session I had Alex in the car, who was having his first run out in a Sylva. We started the session after the Supercharged Busa Striker had been recovered and we where moving past most things nicely until I noticed the front driver side wheel was locking under braking into the farthest chicane. which was odd. So I came in and discovered I had a puncture and the tyre was pretty much flat. Proves how good these cars are if I can sling it round a track, 2 up with a punture and not really notice (or how ham-fisted I am !).

Alex went on to passenger in a number of other cars so will be interesting to see his thoughts on the different cars.

Overall the recent modifications (Quaife ATB, Pro-tech shocks, Wilwood calipers & a Rob Farley front ARB) have improved the handling of the car no end and it really feels planted on both the road and track now. Just need to get the suspension set up and corner weighted for the next track day I also have a set if Piper 285 cams and vernier pulleys to fit which should take the car upto 200BHP ish....oooh and 4 new tyres to buy after the puncture to my old set of 14" 032Rs.

My friend, Dan, with the yellow Tiger did two sessions, the 2nd of which was the first outing for Chris who was co-driving. A large hole had appeared in the bellhousing on the Duratec engined Tiger, which had to be recovered off the track. Don't know the cause yet but the car would still run afterwards. Car is being recovered this morning

Thanks to the JPSCC for arranging the day , next one needs to be at Brands which is about 185 miles closer to me than Llandow

[mdb_75]

What a great day! Me and Clare (my wife) had a brilliant day with plenty of track time too.

Thanks to everyone who organised it and it was good to meet friendly faces again!

There's some good pictures there too, sadly I didn't get around to taking any myself.

[bitsilly]

What an excellent day!
Nice to meet everyone I managed to have a chat with, really friendly bunch.
Had a few niggles with the car, but they were my fault, overfilling the dry sump system and under inflating one tyre.
The photos are superb!

Many thanks to all involved, when is next time?

Ed
(kermit green ex RGB car with roll cage).

PS I stayed on for a few late laps, as it started to rain at 4.40 and wanted to see what it was like wet. Scary, teehee!

[Crippo]

Nice to meet you all....what a friendly bunch. So many of you came over to wish me luck in Ruari's old car. Apparently its called the Widow Maker.....funny but Ruari never told me that when he it to me.
Actually I couldnt believe how well planted the car felt, especially powering out of the bottm corner onto the Runway straight over the bumps under full power. Got a few kicks but otherwise very progressive. Boy is that car fast!!!I was a little cautious through the corners but can you lean on those tyres or what?
I spent most of the time leaning on the transmission tunnel so some more supportive seats might be in order...thanks to Jeff for letting me try out his Tillet seat. Think that might be the way to go for the future and they look well hard too
Nice to meet Neil and Pete (Doesnt own a Fury R1 thats his brother ) Adrian, Alex & Rich, Justin.

Just out to sort a new bracket for the alternator now, it snapped clean in two, heard something go bang going into the bus stop and drove home with the healternator hanging onto the chassis and a fair amount of fan belt squeal!!!!

[paulhark]

Just like to add my thanks to all concerned in organising a great trackday.

Great to meet some new owners.

Just uploaded my photos to photobucket.(hope the link works).

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa29 ... /?start=20

Cheers paul.

[ruaricoles]

Hello Crispin,

Glad you enjoyed the day and the car! Also glad you got the upright sorted in time.

I never noticed a problem with lateral support from the seats though and I'm hardly fat - have you managed to get the belts properly properly tight? Or perhaps the extra padding we put in the seat backs has reduced the support there is. Thinking about it, that would make sense.

Ref. the alternator - I always thought the car could do with a smaller (and lighter) one as that one is unnecessarily enormous. (The benefit you've found being that if the tensioner breaks it can't move very far ). I don't know if there's one that will bolt straight on but there must be plenty of options.

Best wishes,

Ruari

[Ian Kelly]

Great day, thanks to all involved in organising. It was my second day at llandow, and I was pleased that the atmosphere was as good as last time and there were no major incidents while I was on track. Everyone was patient and there didn't seem to be any dangerous overtakes going on.

I was getting a little high speed understeer, which I need to look at, and my 3 year old A048's weren't at their best (and certainly aren't now!!), but overall I was pleased that after 3k road miles I seem to be mostly getting to grips with the cars limits. Apart from one ''exciting'' moment coming onto the back straight, were I only just avoided a high speed spin, the car was great. Had a great few laps with Adrian and Jeff, highly entertaining. I need to take some brave pills though, the number of times I braked late (in my mind) and then had to come back off the pedal as I slowed down way quicker than I thought was possible. Did it a couple of times with Alex in, approaching the chicane.

Not sure who I'd give my 'engine noise of the day' award too, it's a close call between the R1 Riot, the 'charged Striker, or the green Phoenix RGB car. I think the green Phoenix just clinches it, what a great sounding car!!

Cracking day, look forward to the next one. Thanks again.

Ian

[jeffw]

Sorry Ian, I called you Neil...all changed now. You did have a few 'incidents' running wide onto the straights which looked to be power-on understeer.

[AlexH]

I`d just like to say thank you to all the people who took me out on track; Neil, Jeff, Justin, Ian and of course Rich who was driving to me and from the event in his elise. (also thank you to Pete for organising the event and not T-boning Rich when we got a bit more than a little out of shape on the entry to the back straight in the elise!)

I had an absolutely brilliant day, exactly what I needed to sort out in my minds eye what I want from a car, and to sort out which types of car i`d enjoy driving.

Neil, as I said the mojo looks much prettier in the flesh, quite shockingly so and it goes very, very well. I did think we were grass bound at one moment at the start, which was amusing but a very nice car that took me a bit by surprise if i`m honest.

Jeff, the car felt very assured in your hands, which was just amazing given the condition of that tyre! I`m glad you got back ok as I didn’t get chance to say goodbye as Justin took me out. My first aero screen experience and it shocked me how much air flow is deflected over your head. Goes very well, mondeo power has never felt so good.

Justin, my first bec experience and Justin was kind enough to show me what its like pulling from low revs, as well as the dizzy 10k heights- which was very informative. The car goes very well and Justin is quite brave too, i`m sure we came close to losing a wing mirror to a cone on the chicane! Great fun and the noise was great. Full screen made it very pleasant too. Doesn’t give his car enough credit I think.

Ian took me out for my last passenger ride, and I just came back grinning like a kid who had been given a giant gob stopper the size of a tennis ball.. As he’s already said he could brake later into the chicane but that’s a question for his own sanity as you’re not hanging about when you approach that corner, and at the end of the day its nice to all go home in one piece. There was also a very nice bit of control exiting the bus stop when we had a spraying of rain and it got a bit (replace with quite a bit ) sideways, good fun and it illustrated that you could get the car back when it was quite a bit out of shape. Noise and pull are just something else in a bec.

So, drum roll please, the conclusion I have come to…..

Is that i`d honestly enjoy driving any of the variants (I must admit I was hoping the day would put a definite spin on spec i`d like, but it didn’t as I enjoyed all of the various combinations so much!)

I do however have wish list (which is never going to be fulfilled and a compromise will be sought)

I would prefer to stick with the engine in the front, I just feel its got a bit more forgiveness to the driver, and as i`ll be a novice I think that’s a good place to start.

I would prefer a phoenix body, the rear end is very tidy- it’s a wish though, so if it does not happen its not the end of the world- its not as if i`ll sit and admire the car much, its for driving.

I would prefer a full screen, hand on heart the aero screen works really well, better than i`d ever imagined, but a full screen makes it somewhat civilised whereby the wife may actually sit in it, if only once where various expeltives will be released into the atmosphere.

Now the tricky bit- engine. Its the same old story here of bike vs car power. The bec’s ‘feel’ more nimble and the experience of screaming to 10k just excites the soul, gearchanges are very slick and taken in a very short order. The R1 engine delivers an experience that’s rather amusing but the torque you have in a car engine is great though, and the price of a consumable mondeo engine is also appealing too. I feel the torque might be handy for getting out of trouble, but jeff didnt show me any examples of that behavior. Pace wise there isn’t much in it, as the owners have experienced on track, and I think i`d be happy to live with either. The bec goes on the wish list for now due to the gearchanges and the noise, but its not a definite spec choice.

Therefore come winter/spring time i`ll guess i`ll be looking for a compromise of the above in a ‘sorted’ car that’s seen some action, suitable for some road use, provides good value and has hopefully been fettled with. Thanks all, its blown away silly ideas of buying a TVR cerbera instead!

Thanks

Alex

Aplogies for the largest post ever.