A club members recent track day experience
Hi All
Just wanted to let you know what a brilliant track day I had at Keevil recently and better still the event raised over £1000 for Beds Autism an Autism Charity. Ed & Natasha at Motorsport Events (MSE) took a reduced rate of £69 from the drivers for the day with everyone making a cash donation of £20 to the charity when signing on. The event was fully booked with the maximum of 40 drivers keen to take to the track.
The layout was MSE’s usual Keevil track layout which is a good blend of fast and slow corners, 2 second gear hairpins and a few long straights where you could really get the power down. For those of you who may not know my car has the 143BHP 1.8VVC K Series engine which is completely standard apart from a cold air intake through a K&N panel filter inside the standard airbox. On the exhaust side it has the standard Marlin exhaust with an additional silencer in place of the cat. These 2 things combined help the airflow through the engine and may add a few extra BHP but nothing has been done to modify the engine from the standard factory settings.
The day started wet and I arrived on my TOYO 888 track tyres with both F&R anti roll bars set to medium stiffness. I had to decide whether to disconnect the ARB’s and fit road tyres or leave it as it was and hope that the track would dry out. I decided to take the easy option by leaving things as they were but softened off the dampers and increased the tyre pressures slightly. By midday the track was drying rapidly which turned to warm sunshine in the afternoon which helped to justify my laziness. I took it very easy in the morning through the standing water on my track tyres and as I pushed a bit harder I managed to take out a couple of cones for which I received a gentle telling off from Ed.
During the lunch break a number of people came to look at my car as they has never seen one before and I had a few positive comments on how quick I was going and how good it sounded. I should point out that I have had the suspension extensively modified for track use which although usable on the road certainly compromises comfort as you now feel every bump you hit. After lunch the track was now completely dry and I had reset the dampers and tyre pressures to a fully dry set up. From that point on nothing overtook me for the rest of the day with the single exception of a bight orange Porsche 911 GT3 Turbo. I had some interesting dices with many stripped and modified high powered Japanese turbocharged cars including Subarus, Skylines and an RX7. None of the Caterhams or Westfields could stay with me which was very satisfying as most of them had more power. There were however 2 notable and very satisfying overtaking moments.
A few places along in the paddock was a chap with a Lotus Exige with the latest Toyota 220BHP engine in 650Kg which he was delighted to tell everyone about. On the one occasion that we were out on track together I managed to catch and overtake him although that was more to do with his lack of speed through the corners as he was clearly quicker down the straights. Once past I managed to pull away due to my quicker overall lap time. Back in the paddock he came over and asked what engine I had expecting something with big power, when I told him that it was only 143BHP you could clearly see his jaw drop and justified my extra speed by the lightness of my car. Actually the difference between the weight of our cars was only 20Kgs but he did not speak to me again after that and as Dave Cooper said to me “you should not be able to live with something like that”.
On one of my out laps I had been overtaken by a Striker which had been trailered to the circuit and was surprisingly rapid. As soon as everything was warmed up I set off in pursuit and was slowly reeling him in but I was having to drive to the limit. Once we hit some slower cars I pulled up to the back of him, he then was shown the Blue Flag meaning faster car behind and had to pull over to let me past, I then pulled away albeit very slowly. When back in the paddock he revealed that he had a 1.8 SUPERCHARGED Nissan engine under the bonnet and that the car was for track use and not road legal – Another satisfying moment.
I had the pleasure of taking the 2 people from the charity out in my car Jeff and Emma. Emma had never been in a fast car on track before and I gave her a ride she would not forget, although terrified she was also very excited (I thought that was being next to me) and got out of the car with an ear to ear grin.
So another track day where I drove the car to the circuit, thrashed it all day and drove it home again. If you want to experience my car for yourself have a chat with Terry to see if you can book a ride with either myself or Mark at the Totalkitcar Show at Brands Hatch on the 2nd June.
See You There
Best Regards
A very happy 5EXi owner