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Si Dewey's first Track Day experience is brought to you to give you an idea what you too could get up to on a track day.
I'd booked the Donnington trackday, as a present for my girlfriend Emma, who had only had a few hours in my five driving around town and is a bit different from her 1.0 saxo! I thought I'd been quite clever giving her this for a xmas pressie, as obviously it meant I could have fun too ;o) The idea was she'd learn to drive the five and give her some confidence driving RWD.
However, on the friday night and chatting to kev, one of my sisters friends in Nottingham where I was staying I was wondering if I'd made a big mistake...Kev was giving me loads, saying that women cant drive, she'll trash your car etc etc... I said she'd be fine... but more of Kev later!!
Emma and I woke up at 6.30 (apparently its important for a girl to have makeup whilst on the track and under a helmet ;o), and as we were heading towards Donnington in the dark, on the icy roads, I was wondering what the hell we were doing.. c'est la vie!
We met up with about 7 other mx5s just outside the paddocks at Donnington, and I was getting excitied, but looking at some of the exotic machinery parked next to us, was a bit worreid - lotus elises, 2 exiges (including our friend mr EXIGE (more on him later) and a wonderful 340R, not to mention, kit cars with 4.9 v8 engine, racing slicks etc, Tommi Makkinen and Zero figher Evos, Cosworth engined stripped out mk2 escort, porsches boxsters and carerra turbos, capris(!!) and with the rest of car park being filled up with Scoobys with every limited edition you've ever heard about WRX STI RA, RB5's, P1s (yum yum) etc , I was wondering if our little 5's would hold their own..and wouldnt be track fodder! We were clearly the lowest powered cars there.
After the marshals track talk, I rented 2 helmets of Clive Southern, what a bloody helpful bloke he is, Clive gave us some reasurring words and was really cool all day, cheers mate nice to meet you again!
All the mx5 bods, introduced themselves to each other, and we were soon swapping tales of intrepidation, as most of us hadnt done track days before... thanks to Rob Brown (great to meet you bud!) who kindly let us his tyre inflater, which worked brilliantly, just set the tyre pressure you want, connect the air hose and leave it, every tyre was bang on 34.5 psi, perfect for the track!
At 9 o clock, the fun started!
The first group (A) went out and we watched from the pit stand, all the cars flying around the track, though they werent going full speed due to the ice, watching cars spin their wheels on a straight doing 80mph is quite amazing, thats how bad the ice was, but there was no incidents and before we knew it, we were pulling on helmets and driving through the paddock garages onto the pits and then waiting behind a row of 5's, lotuses etc... and we were off!
Emma was driving first (well it was her present ;o) I was bricking it, I didnt know what she was going to drive like or if my car would be wrecked at the end of the day... I neednt have worried! The first few laps she, was just feeling her way round the track.. a few scarey moments when faster cars come up behind you (we were being lapped by a lot of cars), you have to move to the right, indicate and let them pass.. fairly easy, apart from the right side of the track, was little used (off the racing line) and therefore was the last to thaw out, and in this first session it was ice! By the end of the session Em had gotten used to looking in her rear view mirror and was at ease with the car pushing it as far as she dare in the icy conditions, unlike someone who had come of the track and the red lights went on and we all had to finish the session until the car that spun was moved out of the gravel and the mess was cleared. Great session 1 over, my turn next ;o)
Helmets off, we all chatted about our frirst track expereinces, everyone was loving it... ahh the smell of burnt rubber and brake discs in the morning... !!!
Now it was my turn. Unlike Emma who had sensibly built up speed, being a bloke, I just went for it... oh bad bad mistake!!!! I was approaching corners too fast, off the racing lines etc.. I nearly lost the backend umpteen times and once the car drifted sideways into the gravel track.. I kept going though, my nerves and honour in tact.. just!!! Still it was giving the mx5s behind us a good laugh! I slowed down a little after a few laps of this, realising that caution was the best part of valour (or some such boll*x!).
By the next couple of sessions it was apparent that my girlfriend had obviously buggered of home and was replaced with Vicky Butler Henderson... I mean we going sideways... lots... constantly drifting sideways at speeds over 70+!! Emma had turned into some rally/touring car bod and I was bricking it!!
Example?
On the first corner at donny we were drifting around the entire corner at 70+, disbelief spread over my face as moving forwards sideways whilst looking out my passenger seat window was becoming the norm!!
I turned to Em and shouted over the squeling tyres... "Emm your taking the piss!!" She just laughed, she was concentraing on the next corner and didnt take her eyes of the track (lucky for me), she couldnt really not with craners coming up at around 100mph, feeling the weight of the cars body shift mid air as the back end goes light, then the suspension firms up hard as the power goes down and she's dropping into 3rd from about 90mph, the rev limiters beggin for mercy, but where just whooping with delight.. the weight of the car is pushing the 5 out wide, we go a little over the rumble strip, heading slightly up hill, changing upto 4th, and ready to approach a medium right hander, dropping it into 3rd, the needles waving around the 7k limit, its still a bit icy, the back end momentarily starts to move progressively from right to left, emma just floors it and corrects and were doing 80 to the next corner... theres an scooby behind us, she indicates, we move onto the ice, my trousers are turning brown, were doing 80 in ice and approaching a 65mph at most right hand corner the next which leads onto a 100mph straight, my hearts in my mouth, the scooby goes by, but doesnt leave a lot of room for the five to get back onto the racing line, we move over onto the dry stuff and brake hard, the nose dips giving us a bit more front end grip but the back starts to come out (ho hum) foot hard down, steer into it, and off again... then were doing 100mph leading upto the slowest part of the track, a tight chicane before the main straight and the pits.. doing 105 (I take a few photos of the speedo) were following the scooby, its pulled about 30yds on us just on this straight (they do about 140 apparently down here), no problem!! by the time we exit the chicane (dropping down from 90 into 3rd, then just before entering the chicane into 2nd and hitting the rev limiter) were chewing onthe scoobys rear bumper, just totally outbreaking him... then the Scooby pulls away easily on the main pit lane striaght... how much fun are we having!!!!!???
;o)
Couple of highlights of the day!
Me following a lotus elise 160, gordon bell driving hard behind us, doing 100+mph following the 160, as we appoach the chicane before the main striaght... and thought the elise had straightline advantage I knew I was going to reel the sucker in under braking.... how good are my EBC greenstuff pads/slotted moss discs (brembo) and s/s lines? ;o) I started braking about 20m before the elise... and even then as Gordon will testify, I had to lockup tyres smoking to stop from hitting this slow elise ;o), fantastic... having spoke to everyone, I can tell you the mx5 beats everything hands down on braking....there was NOTHING we couldnt outbreak on the track, scoobys, evos, modded kit cars, lotus 340r, exiges etc.. the lot... speed wise the mx5 didnt dissapoint me either surprisingly enough, the reason being, is that it handles so well (I mean these things handle brilliantly, and when the backend goes, its gently and progressive, unlike the capris, lotus and mgfs (sorry mate ;o)., when their back ends go, your lucky to catch them, hence we passed them on the grass on many occaisions ;o) I waved to the MGF guy who was with us, he said himself, the mgf handles well,but it was hard to catch once it did go, nice guy, and Ive gotta say that going down the straights, we were pretty much equal, with the mgf having a slight edge over us in our 1.6, mind you he was driving by his self, so with the weight advantage who knows, the
handling also quite equal, (with the 5 being more forgiving) not sure about the braking though ;o)
Having some great times, trying to keep up with fellow 5er's, gordon bell for one, good driver! Behind him a few times, as he corrected after some hairy moments, fantastic to watch!
Meeting all the guys, and learning so much about these wonderful cars. They are bomb proof! Down the home straight, I panicked a little as I had to move over at 100mph, I missed my gears and forced it into 2nd!!! EEkkkkk! Only for a 1/10th of a second though! We all drove the cars HARD all day, my 5 spent most of its day hovering around 7k revs, going sideways, braking hard (never seen so much brake dust on my alloys!) and all without complaint, engine overheating, brakes fading etc... compared to the scooby drivers etc who seemed to be fiddling constantly, incidentally the scoobys had to come in every so often to cool their brakes! ;o)
Other stuff! Mr Exige! Well after hearing everyones problems with this guy, and the rude stuff he said about us 5 drivers on the lotus website I was pleasantly surprised by him in the morning, he was courtesous when he overtook and I thought was alright. However on our 5th session in the afternoon, he overtook us as we were approaching a corner at 70mph (sharp right hander coming upto a long striaght), just before the corner, forcing us wide, of the racing line and into the ice, he flew by us missing us by a foot, very scarey as I was the passenger.. if it hadnt have been for Emma noticing him in her side mirror, she would have took the driving line which was hers, and he would have smashed intot the side of us, Im sorry but this is just dangerous and unnecesary especially as were then onto a long straight, where he could have overtaken safely, You'd have thought someone with such a nice motor would be a bit more careful. Mr Exige you need to listen to the marshalls instructions in the morning, as you totally ignored them in that instance.
Walking round seeing all the cool modded cars, Skyline Gtrs, porsches etc. Cool.
Passing a porsche speedster, numerous lotus elise, outbreaking everything.
I think you have to work harder in a 5 to overtake anyone, than in say a scooby, you dont have their power, so cant rely on just flooring it on striaghts, you have to be carrying more speed through corners and outbreaking people etc... Cant wait to get my 5 turboed and some decent suspension sorted out and surprise some of these performance cars ;o) Though breaking and handling are more important onthe track than hp I think.
Anyway enough of my ramblings... as you can gather Emma and I had a great day, finished by having a photo shoot with the other 5's.
Oh yeah our friend Kev, the gobby guy who'd been giving us loads, he and some of my relatives turned up in the afternoon to watch. I passed him the helmet and took him out for a spin... I said Id take it easy on the first lap to warm the car/tyres/me up... he went very quiet, by lap 2, going sideways round corners, he'd gone a very pale corner, locked his door and was transfixed on the road... when I dropped him off, he murmurred thanks ;o)
Great to see all the MX-5 supporters who came down for the day, you really made it special guys, thanks.
Whens the next one?
Lets get more women driving.. Emma incidentally lapped donny at 1.39, beating my 1.40 (she got an extra session though ;o) i was just happy to lap fast than smoking dick in the morning session ;o) (sorry rich had to get that one in there... you still the man!) Rob brown was fastest with a 1.38.5.. nice one bud!
Everyone should do this, its a great safe way to learn how to drive at speed and learn the limits of yourself and your 5... you wont believe how much these limits are I promise!
Take care.
Si 'Hans Christan Anderson' Dewey
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