Dar
15-10-06, 10:30 PM
Today was my first time ever at Donnington Park and it was fun.
Got up at 5am hitched up the trailer and had a coffee, wandered about for a while wondering why the hell I was up at this time in the morning and not in bed like the normal people do on a Sunday morning. My dad appeared and......ahh yes where off for a jolly at Donnington. So we jumped in the car and off we went at 5:45am. The journey up was uneventful, which is how I like it. We arrived at the track at about 8:15am and unloaded the car. I signed on and my mate who had booked the day had put me in the expert group!! Like I?m an expert, I?ve never even been to the place, let alone driven it. Ho hum.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton8.jpg
The first thing I noticed was that I wasn?t the only Nova there, woohoo!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton7.jpg
My mate turned up in his newly acquired cosworth, mega powerful
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton4.jpg
It?s the cars first and last trackday, it was bought as a doner car for his mental RWD Fiesta that should have been there, except the engine had other ideas. Anyway. I was just getting the car ready for its first session and who should come on over but Oli(DHDev ? Great to see you), we had a chat and I promised him a passenger ride. It was soon time for my first session, so we jumped in, lined up??and thunderbirds are go!
One(or so) lap(s) later and this happens.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton1.jpg
So back we come. Line up again and where off. What great fun! I find that playing TOCA Race Driver 3 has helped with my track knowledge(what corner is next) and my speed picks up fairly quickly, the car feels twitchy and oversteery at first but that soon settles when the heat builds up in the R888?s. With the first session under my belt I was well chuffed with how the car handled and how fast it was around the track. Session 2 was another great session that ended with the car I was following around most of the session letting me past right where I wanted to break. So I missed my breaking point and had a little wall of death run at the circane. Then I had a small ?off? at the end of the straight, ruddy hell! On the next lap I had another moment at the end of the pit straight(again!) and decided that it was time to come in. Looking at the video it looks like there must have been oil or something on the track. At the time I put it down to tyres. You can be the judge when you see the video(or maybe?.just maybe it was me?..nah). After the car had cooled for a while I found Oli, or rather he found me and so I thought it would be a good time to take him out. We jump in and off we go. Literally! At the craner curves. It only took about 30 seconds and we where in the kitty litter?****! I was only warming up the tyres! So after getting pulled out we went for a drive around the car park to shake out the gravel from under the car. Then back on the track. Woohoo!! Got a few good laps in, although my fuel starvation problem is even worse at Donnington so even with ? of a tank of fuel we pull in(A swirl pot is number 1 on my list of jobs to do). I think he enjoyed it. The last session I did was another great session and thankfully without incident.. Phew!
Here are a few more piccys of the cars
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton19.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton17.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton18.jpg
Very fast RX7 ? I couldn?t catch the bugger! Just under 400bhp apparently. The turbo was huge!! Apparently it was just a medium sized one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton15.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton14.jpg
Got up at 5am hitched up the trailer and had a coffee, wandered about for a while wondering why the hell I was up at this time in the morning and not in bed like the normal people do on a Sunday morning. My dad appeared and......ahh yes where off for a jolly at Donnington. So we jumped in the car and off we went at 5:45am. The journey up was uneventful, which is how I like it. We arrived at the track at about 8:15am and unloaded the car. I signed on and my mate who had booked the day had put me in the expert group!! Like I?m an expert, I?ve never even been to the place, let alone driven it. Ho hum.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton8.jpg
The first thing I noticed was that I wasn?t the only Nova there, woohoo!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton7.jpg
My mate turned up in his newly acquired cosworth, mega powerful
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton4.jpg
It?s the cars first and last trackday, it was bought as a doner car for his mental RWD Fiesta that should have been there, except the engine had other ideas. Anyway. I was just getting the car ready for its first session and who should come on over but Oli(DHDev ? Great to see you), we had a chat and I promised him a passenger ride. It was soon time for my first session, so we jumped in, lined up??and thunderbirds are go!
One(or so) lap(s) later and this happens.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton1.jpg
So back we come. Line up again and where off. What great fun! I find that playing TOCA Race Driver 3 has helped with my track knowledge(what corner is next) and my speed picks up fairly quickly, the car feels twitchy and oversteery at first but that soon settles when the heat builds up in the R888?s. With the first session under my belt I was well chuffed with how the car handled and how fast it was around the track. Session 2 was another great session that ended with the car I was following around most of the session letting me past right where I wanted to break. So I missed my breaking point and had a little wall of death run at the circane. Then I had a small ?off? at the end of the straight, ruddy hell! On the next lap I had another moment at the end of the pit straight(again!) and decided that it was time to come in. Looking at the video it looks like there must have been oil or something on the track. At the time I put it down to tyres. You can be the judge when you see the video(or maybe?.just maybe it was me?..nah). After the car had cooled for a while I found Oli, or rather he found me and so I thought it would be a good time to take him out. We jump in and off we go. Literally! At the craner curves. It only took about 30 seconds and we where in the kitty litter?****! I was only warming up the tyres! So after getting pulled out we went for a drive around the car park to shake out the gravel from under the car. Then back on the track. Woohoo!! Got a few good laps in, although my fuel starvation problem is even worse at Donnington so even with ? of a tank of fuel we pull in(A swirl pot is number 1 on my list of jobs to do). I think he enjoyed it. The last session I did was another great session and thankfully without incident.. Phew!
Here are a few more piccys of the cars
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton19.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton17.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton18.jpg
Very fast RX7 ? I couldn?t catch the bugger! Just under 400bhp apparently. The turbo was huge!! Apparently it was just a medium sized one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton15.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/DPursey/Donnginton14.jpg