My Donington Trackday (with pics)

well, it was the first outing in the newly built nova, it performed well - with no major incidents... well i drove home so that was a bonus.

went out in the intermediate group as i had hadn't been on track for a couple of months

first session - literally turned up and went on track as i'd drove it there, suspension set to 14 clicks out of 28 allround. fastest lap was 1m 49s :roll:

found far too much bodyroll, and was very rear end happy.

having bought some -80mm springs from jonboy the night before, we decided to fit these for the next session, soften up the front a little, and stiffen the back, alot better - but now was producing way too much understeer despite having diff, fastest lap 1m 30.4s (fastest ever, in any car i've driven in)

third session, developed alot of stuttering coming out of corners, thought it maybe fuel pump on its way out - so fitted new one i bought from someone on here, to find it didn't work - doh! fitted first one again, just topped it up with fuel - sorted the problem

3 sessions in, killed a set of pads and disks, stopped for lunch, went to find local halfords - luckily had 2 disks left, and 1 set of ferrodo "race" pads - bought them, rushed back at 14:10, was on track by my session at 14:20 thanks to loads of help from OllyTB and Paul! cheers lads.

got lots of video footage - just getting it from camcorder now, here are some pics...

shopping list before next trackday, fuel swirl pot, decent brake disks & pads, new fuel pumps, proper tyres, higher poundage front springs!

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb01.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb02.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb03.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb04.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb05.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb06.jpg


Biggest thanks go to:
- Tom Reid - for coming down, giving advice, helping do bits and bobs
- My bro in law Bob, for the awesome pics above - cheers bud
- OllyTB, sound advice, loads of help - stripped the brakes for me for when we got back from halfords!
- Paul - again, loads of help
- everyone else that was there :)

Yehaa, TVR killing. Thats what we like to see. Sounds like some top pit crewing too chap. Excellent work!

looks great in pics

Lee - pit crew were amazing... as soon as I came in from a session, I'd get out - and that was it, car was up, wheels were off, checking everything

Tweaked a few bits - never got around to putting rear ARB on, which I wanted to do... speedo cable snapped on the way there too, which I need to get around to replacing.

Next up... Cadwell Park... or Croft...

looking good fella! The cerbera you passed lives just up the road from me!

Looking good mate, If I wasn't away I would have popped up and had a nosey as Tom said he was going and Donningtons only about 20 mins up the road from me.

Car looks well, top work fella

Ian

car's look's mint fella :thumb:

i await the vid's :D

No ever tells me when people are going down, I can hear the cars racnig round when im at home lol

Hey Oli, looks like you had a top day mate.

Glad it all went quite well.

lol love the made up plate.

Scott

cheers ste', scott :)

phil - i lost your number aggggggges ago (in your nova days) and not had it again since! i remember racing you at pod when you welded 2x steelies to get to get 10J wide slicks to fit :lol:

lmfao I still have that video somewhere, those slick were pants as I couldnt get naff all heat into them. My nova days are a long way away now.

lo lwas just goin to say swirl pot lol , but then seen it on your list :thumb:

that will stop the stutters comin out of the corners with less then half a tank of fuel

Bob's just sent me through this pic of Pauls' boss in his rear engined Mini with a Hyabusa engine in it...

[keith robinson] "treee wheels anyone" [/keith robinson]

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ure/Bobb07.jpg

:) i love pics like that.

Cool pics, glad to hear it went well.
Car looks well :)

congrats buddy glad it all went well for you and had no major incidents. she looks spot on on track aswell

just been doing some number crunching whilst going through videos... didn't realise tape had ran out for last session - doh!

here's what i've made, my camcorder doesn't go into milliseconds, only whole seconds.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...CKANALYSIS.jpg

just uploading the 1m 30 lap now, looking back - the understeer was ridiculous, but hey - another thing to sort for next trackday

my average throughout the day got better and better, but still nothing phenominal, due to problems mentioned earlier in the thread

Here is the video - only just signed up to YouTube so not sure if I've done it correctly... hope it works...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDe6y6IF6Ts

Works fine.
Sounds cool :)

Nice

quality vid :thumb:

as adam said, sounds very nice

Glad it went ok for you. I'm just down the road from donington so when mines finished i'll be able to join you. Sure i've been to donington in my old nova when you was there aswell in your old white nova, (when Total Vauxhall covered it, Feb 05) .

:thumb:

Looked a great day out, cant wait to finish my "show nova" then i can build a slag lol..


wens cadwell? iirc its not to far from me. mite go down in the Metro pmsl

another vid (now i've got the hang of it) giving a Porsche 911 RS some stick, however we found it quite amusing when he found this accelerator pedal, and the dunlop straight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-JiAIKK68

another, and last one for tonight - good bit of banter with a few cars with multiple overtakes which is always good muhahahaaa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5bXmz1poCw

Lol at the Porchelol

Sorry Porsche

Thanks for all your help on Sunday Tom, really really appreciated it! :)

PS: Still have engine mount here, will pop it up at the weekend if its cool with you, and sort you out some pennies for the speedo cable and rear arb! :)

Finally a proper video with 25FPS - sick & tired of incar vids with less.

But not only a proper vid - but a PROPER DRIVER.

Sir I salute you for not only having the power but using it round the corners AND using some proper lines.

Too many n00bs driving **** lines on track days & or with one hand make me angry …not that I could see your hands on the wheel - but I bet you were using 2 ;)

Well done I'll see you on a circuit soon

nj - do you know the red TVR Cerbera guy? or just recognise the car? (check vid)

Here is another vid (for Lee)... proper TVR hassling - manage to get by this one, unlike the Porsche vid...

Very close at 33s, 55s, 1m22, 1m43s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Ie5vvT7ag


Bit of liftoff oversteer goodness here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1JLiq6DPg

Nice vids.

quality vid's fella, nice drifting lol lol

Cool vids, nice bit of driving there.

spot on that !!! tvr guy dint know what hit him lol

i cant wait to start doing this now

Sounds like a good day was had, usual Nova drama's too.

Just an observation, but surely fitting some -80mm springs - you'd need the tracking reset? Thats why it understeered more IMO.

Yep - thats right, and lowering the front end was slowly curing it again.

But with it being a sessioned day, we only had so many times to try new bits and bobs.

By the final session (quickest) we had almost eliminated the understeer again by slowly bringing down the front end, keeping the rear stiffness the same, and softened the front by 3 clicks per side. :)

sorry for the bttt, but just got back from visiting bob, since he's spent the last 2 weeks in sri lanka (lucky git)

he said he'd had a good look through all of the images he took, and noticed some funky happenings with my car...

check out these pics

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT04.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT05.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT06.jpg

Strange thing is, only 2 of the above images are under braking, now I know I killed a set of disks & pads, but the pads still had friction material on them, it wasn't as if it was metal on metal... what could the sparks be?

Some other random shots which I liked

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT01.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT02.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...ture/ODT03.jpg

Still got the brake disc shields fitted???

Some cool pics there, im liking the rear lowness :)

Nope, removed the shields during the build... strange isn't it.

It's not that low anymore lol raised it back upto -60mm

Very strange indeed.
I cant think of much else that could spark tbh, apart from driveshaft or something.
In the 3rd pic you can see the sparks shooting up off the wheel/brake disc area.
No rubbing marks on the old caliper or anything?