2014-01-19 Elvington Airfield Trackday
8:30am arrived at the track in the pouring rain :/ so much for british weather. transferred stuff over to the support car and had to change shoes from the pooling floor.
signed in. fitted only internal cameras cos external ones will just get soaked.
tyres start at FR 6.25mm, RR 3.25mm, RL 4.5mm, FL 6.25mm, set to 3bars, oil topped up and all dampers left at full soft to begin with.
some guys were still working on their cars in the heavy rain, one was fitting friggin R888 semis!?
no way am I working in the bare rain.
9am Briefing
9:30am Sighting lap
engine has cooled so needs warming. little confusion as to when we should begin queuing watching other cars around.
wipe all the condensation @1.30
sound check whilst queuing @5.15
long wait was killing but soon began @8.15
rain eased abit but alot of spray near cars and loads of pool that'll pull the steering aside. track is quite roomy and studying the track layout beforehand has helped me remember the route.
initially testing the amount of traction & grip whilst cold n slow and was quite grippy.
9:47am Check car
after the sighting lap warmed things up, I check it over.
tried the needle temp probe but reading near 11-13c no point measuring em all cos its basically cold tyres.
reduced the 3.20bar front and 3.10bar rear warm pressures to the 3bar it was balanced for.
removed the plugs and lets assess the cylinders, nope they're still the same semi damp condition as before :/
9:53am 1st run
all dampers at full soft, with dad in passenger seat, healthy 6.5mm front toyos and half worn mixed tyres at the back.
so lets go for the first run in the wet
take her steady to warm up the brakes n tyres. brake pedal on first application with the pulsar calipers feels quite deep, begins to rest just slightly below the throttle so brakings abit tricky without pressing the throttle too.
@2.20 opening the taps, it gets quite fast down the straights almost 110mph
@2.45 braking earlier before the blue cones to get a feel for how much the brakes slow down. on first application the pedal feels firm but lacks bite from the pads even if I press harder.
@2.50 I reapplied the brakes to basically pump more fluid into the calipers. this had raised the pedal braking point for better heeling, made it feel firmer and for some reason the brakes now work alot harder
handling felt stable at initial slow pace. the fast right turn before the long straight is very wet and the car always understeers there whenever there's the slightest pool so have to feather the throttle.
@4.50 when I got through the first sections in 2nd, although the higher torque from the revs give good acceleration briefly before going to 3rd and straight back into 2nd for the next turn, it seem to upset the balance abit in most cases.
@7.55 began trying 3rd gear through the first section which seemed stabler at first but when you hear the wheels going over some jolting steps in the airfield tarmac @8.00 with left steering and WOT, the shock in the wet had unsettled the rear thinner tyres and engaged a mid corner drift
@9.10 trying the entire first section in 3rd gear and carefully feeding the power feels alot stabler
@10.40 going too aggressive on the trail braking really upsets the rear balance
10.30am 2nd run
rear dampers full soft, front dampers 10clicks harder to see if it reduces the mid corner oversteer, no passenger so weight should be lighter n balanced.
tyres have only worn slightly to FR 6mm, RR 3mm, RL 3.5mm, FL 6mm.
@3.20 with no passenger and slightly harder fron damper, the mid corner handling is alot more balanced
@4.08 end of the straight with lighter weight n braking too hard and one of the tyres going over the tarmac black butumin locked the wheels briefly
@4.55 going over that runway strip still nudges it sideways abit
@6.00 my wiper gives up so going back to the pits was interesting with almost no vision
checked the wipers and the motor/linkage balljoint is abit worn loose hence popped off. just popped back on and hope they work long enough and replace em soon.
10.58am 3rd run
same settings and just refine the braking n handling limits on a clear track
@5.05 finding the limits of the wet braking
@6.10 the rough tarmac at a fast right hand unsettles the back
@11.00 braked abit took late at the beginning of the first section, changed down n braked harder to slow down enough but this really upset her and was a handful. was wondering, the photographer was right at the exit trajectory of the mid corner if someone was to skid off bet he got a pic of a drifting k11 there
@11.20 turned the steering too much n too early for the exit corner, straighten a milisec to catch the mini slide, judging the trajectory mid corner I reapplied even more steering n power to make the turn going that fast (else it'll reach the grass) but the combo of the bump upsetting the rear tyres and the high inertia of so much steering angle and power made it begin to spin left so again lots of power countersteer
check tyres and the FL was really low, pumped it but few secs later it was down again, got a big leak.
then I realised that tyre had actually been punctured before and the small screw that I had fitted had flung out at high speed and the leak resumed.
urm but I don't have any spare screws and don't wanna swap over prematurely to one or more of the good set of toyo's cos I wanna wear out these bad sets together and leave the good balanced set for later on or for the road.
was considering using the green slime stuff but that might unbalance the wheel. looking around I figure I'll use the woodscrews from my laser alignment jig since thats never gonna be used tday. that sealed it.
almost out of fuel anyway so went out to refuel, new batteries and get screws from BQ and back for lunch.
