It wasn't the best of runs, but it gave you an idea of what it's like anyway

who would be up for doing a Bedford autodrome track day?

im getting the bug BIG time!!!!!!

Yeh im up for bedford after spa
Lots off run offs and a good beginners course

Not going to be as easy to get to, but how about trying Blyton Park

Looks like quite a good venue, run off like at Bedford and prices reasonable too. I feel like I've driven Bedford too many times now.

Alternatively, how about the new Snetterton 300 layout?

Both of the above should suit the Coops well.

hmm, Blyton looks good dave!
loads of run off... and mainly no big thngs to hit when you do come off

i think at the moment Bedford will be a good shout seeing as its a track thats semi easy to learn and fun!

i havent looked at the new Snetteron 300 lay out... will do in a moment!

tell you what, IF we do bedford, i will sort out a table at a fine italian resturant near the track for a dinner date and time to watch the track footage ect!

goo on Dave, come to bedford!!! you know its the right thing to do

I'm game for Bedford and some of your families finest cuisine afterwards

Blyton and Snetterton are MILES from me, which make a round trip in a day impossible. I did Snetterton on the first track day there since the new internal section, back in Feb. It's a cracking track. Just being in the sticks makes it a trek for most, especially us "Westsiders"

I did make a thread, but here you go guys.

Flickr - Curborough Set

Luke.

Yes, a long way for me too, just good to try new circuits. Could find a cheap B and B/Travelodge maybe?

Checked my time against the class 2 runners in the Caterham speed series. It would have made me third in 2009, about mid pack in 2010. Quite pleased with that knowing that the car is capable of faster times with a bit more practise on my part.

Just uploading a couple of clips to Youtube now.

Blow out Just as I was joining the M5 yesterday evening this happened! Heard a pop, but couldn't see or hear a problem. Car behind flashed it's lights so I pulled over to see a totally flat tyre! I'm just thankful that I don't tow at high speed and I that I bought a twin axle trailer. At least I had my jack and wheel gun, so I was on my way within 5 minutes.

The times for the Curborough Long Course - 1557 yards (0.88 miles). All cars are 20VT unless stated.

I know a couple of people were listed as sharing cars (Sandytim, MattM) - the time recording didn't record who was driving - just which car was circulating. If you know who else drove your car and which run it was, I'll create a new line for the second driver.

PorkyPaul 1.10.0 - 1.10.37 - 1.09.12 (JBT driving) - 1.10.00 - 1.09 53 - 1.10.84 - 1.09.03 - 1.09.19

MarioCirillo 1.21.31 - 1.18.38 - 1.17.16 - 1.18.34 - 1.15 75 - 1.12.771 (Sedicivalvole driving) - 1.16.97 - 1.12.35 - 1.14.57 - 1.16.53 - 1.17.13

Nigel 1.08.10 - 1.08.03 - 1.07.28 - 1.06.88 - 1.06.53

Matt_Ogram (VW Golf Mk1 1.3) 1.25.16 - 1.21.75 - 1.21.03 - 1.20.72 - 1.21.97 - 1.19.81 - 1.18.9 - 1.18.56

Marco 1.13.50 - 1.13.37 - 1.12.72 - 1.10.87 - 1.13.37 - 1.11.31 - 1.12.47

Kiran 1.12.47 - 1.21.19 - 1.17.81 - 1.14.81 - 1.15.44 - 1.16.47 - 1.14.93 - 1.14.66 - 1.12.45 - 1.13.41 - 1.13.03 - 1.13.09

Stefano Cirillo (Alfa Brera 2.4 dieseasel) 1.23.62 - 1.18.03 - 1.18.32 - 1.18.68 - 1.17.72 - 1.17.47 - 1.16.25 - 1.14.59

Kris (BMW Z4 3.0) 1.20.75 - 1.14.66 - 1.15.88 - 1.14.94 - 1.19.62 - 1.14.12 - 1.13.78

Dale (Elise S) 1.14.19 - 1.12.06 - 1.10.38 - 1.17.71 - 1.09.69 - 1.08.90 - 1.08.45 - 1.11.35 - 1.08.62 - 1.08.32 - 1.10.94

Sandytim 1.15.34 - 1.12.97 - 1.11.34 - 1.12.09 - 1.12.13 - 1.11.34 - 1.10.72 - 1.12.15 - 1.11.62 - 1.11.15 - 1.11.06 - 1.11.03 - 1.11.62

MattM 1.12.38 - 1.10.19 - 1.09.65 - 1.09.41 - 1.08.65 - 1.08.72 - 1.09.00 - 1.11.75 - 1.09.00 - 1.12.88 - 1.12.40 - 1.08.97 - 1.08.56 - 1.08.84

Phil (Clio Cup 200) 1.14.19 - 1.13.46 - 1.13.59 - 1.11.63 - 1.11.75 - 1.12.97 - 1.16.50 - 1.11.74 - 1.12.44 - 1.12.40 - 1.09.97 - 1.13.59 - 1.11.13

Alex (Saxo VTS) 1.13.94 - 1.11.56 - 1.10.09 - 1.10.91 - 1.11.41

Ecrab 1.10.37 - 1.10.29 - 1.08.72 - 1.10.97 - 1.09.53 - 1.09.72 - 1.08.72 - 1.09.87 - 1.08.44 - 1.07.04

MCMike 1.12.78 - 1.12.44 - 1.18.00 - 1.10.31 - 1.11.06

Theresa 1.26.34 - 1.20.18 - 1.18.60 - 1.27.28 - 1.20.41

Hovedan (20v VIS) 1.20.84 - 1.17.43 - 1.15.97 (Flea driving) - 1.20.10 - 1.19.78 - 1.16.69 (Flea driving) - 1.18.47 - 1.16.09 - 1.16.00

Luke (Micra SS) 1.20.93 - 1.18.69 - 1.16.00 - 1.16.97 - 1.15.87 (Flea driving)

Chrissy (Seat Leon Cupra R) 1.16.75 - 1.14.16 - 1.13.37 - 1.14.22 - 1.11.41 (Flea driving)

Mayzon 1.12.91 - 1.12.60 - 1.13.35 - 1.10.66

Fishy_Dave (Caterham 1.6) 1.08.97 - 1.08.03 - 1.07.38 - 1.08.66 - 1.06.78 - 1.08.19 - 1.07.09 - 1.06.09 - 1.07.35 - 1.05.56

I'll play with some stats later, but just for amusement, we managed 177 runs yesterday - a total of 156.58 miles of enthusiastic driving

is that not just a normal day driving for you Nigel?

LOL - not any more - yesterday, I was using petrol that I put in the tank on 18 April - I still have well over quarter of a tank left - I've gone from two tanks a week to one tank per two months

Have given up trying to upload to YouTube today, so here is the clip of me taking Marcos girl around on Vimeo instead (sorry, I never asked her name!). Here

Mrs Marco20vt is just fine mate!

or Sam

lol

Dave that video is brilliant!

you look like Mr cool when doing that lap!!

Seems not having my 9 stone brother in the car gave me an extra 2 seconds

Anyway here are some random shots from the day, I lost any inspiration to shoot after the car started smoking





Also a quick vid, the format the camera shoots the video in is pig to work with, which ment I couldn't edit it down!

VIDEO

OK - time for some stats....

Note that I've removed the times where it was known that someone else was driving a car (ie all of Flea's laps and also Nick's lap in Mario's car) If anyone wants any more laps removing, just let me know.

First one is potentially the most interesting. This is a colour-map of each person's times, with red for the worst time, and green for the best, with varying shades inbetween. You can clearly see that most people (correctly) took it easy for the first run, then got better all day. A couple of people had a slow run in the middle, probably due to the rain shower just after lunch.



The second graphic is the variance between the best and worst times, shown as standard deviation - i.e. the best value is the lowest. Huge respect to PorkyPaul for such consistency - just 1.81 seconds between his best and worst times.



Next is the number of runs - MattM seems to take this crown, although I have a feeling that someone else was driving his car for a few of the laps.



And finally (unless I can think of some more!) - the total time on track



The final values are telling - if someone had approached you and said "do you want some time on track - £25 for 15 minutes?" - you would probably say 'no' thinking it was bad value (ie £100 per hour)

However, I defy anyone to say that yesterday wasn't a great day out for the money, even for those that travelled a long distance. The best value though has to go to my son, who had a brilliant day in his 60bhp Golf 1.3, all paid for by me (including his lunch!) That's what parents are for, I suppose....

Lovely pic, thanks, have used that as my new desktop

Marco - I think I may have found your tracking problem - the camber on your nearside front wheel is way off - looks like a degree or two of positive

No worrys Dave, if you want the full res one just pm me your email.

Or alternatively you can buy it for the price of a new turbo

That makes for interesting reading, good stuff. Their were some good consistant times there, some big improvements for some during the day too. How many were first timers Nigel?

Not sure - I know there were a few trackday virgins, but not sure who they were

Hovedan (20v VIS) 1.20.84 - 1.17.43 - 1.15.97 (Flea driving) - 1.20.10 - 1.19.78 - 1.16.69 (Flea driving) - 1.18.47 - 1.16.09 - 1.16.00

Very important amendment to your stats Nigel

Just processing some video of a few folk...

Great breakdown Nigel

Sounds like a great day - sorry that I had to earn some money and miss it.

Letting Flea and JBT drive your cars sounds very .....

Just spotted something else quite interesting - on the colour-map, look at Fishy_Dave's first five runs compared with my first five - apart from one blip (where I suspect Dave had a passenger) our times were VERY similar, even the degrees of improvement were very closely matched.

Perhaps if I'd done ten runs like Dave, instead of my measly five, I'd have caught up....

You have driven there before mind Nigel, it was my first time I did notice that too, interesting stuff. I can recall that my first lap was quite an interesting experience, not totally sure what was around the next bend or how slippery things were.

Maybe if you hadn't had month old fuel as we mentioned, that must have lost an octane or two.

I'd have liked to have seen what times you could have set driving my car mate.

Some wierd and wonderful camera angles there Martin, but that last pic of mine is great. New desktop pic for me!

Those pics prove my VIS comes up ok in photos, and it hadn't been washed beforehand like a couple of resprayed tarts boudoirs I could mention

T - looks fit to appear in AutoItalia sometime soon