***TRACKDAY, Snetterton 300 Tues 14 April 2015***

[Casey]

cib24 has twisted my arm (it didn't hurt much  ) and persuaded me to post up another Snetterton event 

JAVELIN DETAILS OF THE EVENT ARE HERE: CLICK TO OPEN NEW WINDOW

The "Early Booking" price is currently showing as £139, but if you are a full (paid up) RX8OC member you can claim a 7.5% discount by using the code on THIS LINK, saving just over £10, so only £128.58. Twenty-two cars have already booked places, so the early discount may not be around for too much longer, but the discount will still apply.

If you want to know more about the day then this link will take you to the thread covering last month's Snetterton outing on the RX8 Owners Club forum:  Snetterton Feb 2015

Never done a trackday before? As on all trackdays, they are well managed and marshalled. There will be a comprehensive, compulsory, safety briefing at the start of the day for all drivers, followed by some slow “sighting laps” behind a lead car. There will be plenty of experienced trackheads present who will be only too happy give assistance to any novices. If you are very new to trackdays, or simply new to this circuit and want some additional help we should, subject to availability, be able to allocate you a "Buddy". For more details see THIS LINK

You'll also find plenty of advice and tips on these two links.

HERE, Snetterton Track Briefing
AND
HERE, more general information

This is an “Open Pit Lane” event, which means you are free to drive on the circuit when you like, for as much as you like, subject to safe numbers on circuit. If you have a standard RX-8, then expect to get do 10-15 minutes sessions on track with around 20-30 minutes to “cool-off”, else you, your engine, tyres and brakes will overheat!

Circuit Statistics:
Length: 2.99 miles
Corners: 13
Max Noise: 105dB Static, 92dB drive-by (my RX-8 with Racing Beat catback exhaust, with cat in situ, measures 88dB on the static test)

REQUIREMENTS: Helmets (if you haven't got one, they can be hired at ~£10 on the day), and you MUST bring along your driving license (both parts if you have them) for inspection.
GARAGES: Garages are available to book in advance at £30 (less 7.5% if code used). I suggest the first couple of people to book their trackday place also book a garage and indicate whether willing to share with one or two others (see my name on list below for example). If other people book their track place later they can indicate they are willing to share a part of a previously booked garage and PAY THEIR SHARE ON THE DAY (£10 for 1/3, £15 for a 1/2 garage to the person who paid). Hope that makes sense. I will keep an eye on overall numbers and try to ensure we get allocation to fit 2-3 in each one.
INSURANCE: Insurance is not compulsory, but your normal road insurance is unlikely to cover you. Please look at the separate “Trackday Insurance” thread for advice and make your own judgement.
INSTRUCTION: Will be available on the day, typically £25 for a 20-30 minute session. Buddys are FREE!
LOCAL ACCOMMODATION: Some people may want to stay locally the night before, the night after, or even both! The "usual" place is The Breckland Lodge, just 2 miles from the circuit. Else, here is a list of local accommodation CLICK HERE
EVENING MEAL AFTER THE EVENT: We usually have a bite to eat at the Breckland Lodge carvery restaurant immediately after the event so, if you don't need to rush straight off into the rush-hour traffic, add "Evening meal" to your name on the list. That way I can book a table for us all to be together.
TRACK LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS OF HOW TO GET THERE: CLICK HERE
MORE INFORMATION ON THE VENUE: CLICK HERE

QUESTIONS: That’s what I’m here for! I’ll do my best to answer any questions you post on this thread, or PM me.

If you are unfamiliar with the track, here is a taster, taken from my dashcam last month. Choose 1080p for better quality;

NAMES - TBC

• Ranjan (Ranjan)- Trackday Booked, Garage Booked - can share with 1 or 2 others. Evening Meal
• casey (Malcolm) - Trackday Booked, Garage Booked - can share with 1 or 2 others. Evening Meal
• cib24 (Roy) - Trackday Booked - No Evening Meal
• GSB/TDU (Nigel) - Trackday Booked - Evening Meal[/color]
• rameshr (Ramesh) - Trackday Booked, sharing garage with casey. Evening Meal
• WildMan10 + Feathers (Ian & Anne) - Trackday Booked, sharing garage with casey. Evening Meal +1
• SAS (Scott) - Trackday Booked - No Evening Meal
• Bulldog (Mike)
• Liam22 (Liam)

TO KEEP THIS THREAD AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE, PLEASE POST UP IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, WHETHER YOU HAVE BOOKED YOUR PLACE (AND A GARAGE), AND IF YOU WANT TO STAY FOR A MEAL AFTERWARDS. NO NEED TO QUOTE THIS FIRST POST - THE EVENTS TEAM WILL KEEP IT UPDATED.

[Casey]

  bump - not long to go for this one, anyone else joining us for some track fun 

[Casey]

So, a smaller group than usual for this outing to Snetterton, but what a fabulous day for us! Blue sky all day, temp of 20 degrees and a light, cool breeze made it the perfect weather for a trackday 

Thanks to everyone who came along to enjoy themselves on track and to Charliek and tractorboy for popping in to say hello too. Nice pics charliek, but none of my car   

The day hadn't sold out, so absolutely no queuing at all in the morning session, just a little in the afternoon, solely due to 4 or 5 red flags, which were all dealt with quickly. Even when the queued cars were let out, no-one was ever held back due to track capacity limits. One red flag incident involved some prat who left a jacket in their open top car and it blew out onto the main straight  :shock:  I encountered it when overtaking a Civic and had to "adjust" my line at 100mph to miss it - a red flag appeared seconds later.

What a collection of cars too  - very few "road" cars were evident, but the track etiquette was some of the best I've encountered. I had a Radical approach me at a zillion miles an hour several times during the day and I indicated that I was happy for him to overtake, but on both occasions he tucked in behind and left it until the next straight to overtake. To name a few cars I saw - Atoms, a Crossbow, Porsches, race prepped BMW's, some really fast Clios, Caterhams, Lotus 7's, Elises, Exiges and a really fast Sierra Cosworth (which shot past me in a pm session and sadly then "died" in front of me). I guess it's the start of the race season for many, and an opportunity to do some cheap "testing".

In my very first session of the day I went out behind a very distinctive, matt black Lotus Exige with two red "Viper strips" that I'd earlier seen being trailered onto the circuit with a "S" Euro sticker (Sweden). Very strangely, I was keeping up with him and he let me by (even more odd!) and he then proceeded to follow me for the entire session at a decent distance. I thought nothing more of it until a guy (I'm guessing in his 60's) sought me out in the garage to say thankyou and to shake my hand. I seems it was the first time he'd been to Snetterton and was pleased to be able to follow me to see the lines I was taking  I've no idea how he had decided to follow my lines and not someone else's, but nice to chat to him.

I also sought out the garage of a very quick race prepped VW Beetle that I encountered on track. I came up behind him and followed him for a while as we were quite closely matched. He then let me past and I found I had a very slight edge over several complete laps that followed. The VW had a non-standard engine, only 140bhp, but apart from the chassis and roll cage, all the bodywork was fibreglass, weighing in at around 700kg! They were testing for an endurance race series and needed to lap at 2m20s to be competitive, needing to find ~10 seconds on the times they were getting.

I enjoyed my "traditional" tussles with Harrizone on track, plus a passenger ride in SAS's s/charged RX-8. WOW    , the noise and the "punch" out of the corners was awesome. I could only manage a peak of 118 mph down the back straight, whereas SAS was easily hitting 125!

I was buddy to rameshr and was delighted to see the enormous progress he made on his first trackday outing (several "diff locking" brown trouser moments) to much smoother lapping when I went back out with him later in the day.

Roll on Croft next month; although I'll need new tyres - my Federals were completely shot on this, their 6th full trackday, plus about 3k road miles. They were certainly not performing at their best; I reckon they were costing me about 2-3 seconds per lap as the "new" grip" just wasn't there. But huge fun none the less!

Despite the worn Federals, I managed a time of 2m29.7s. Not as quick as with fresh tyres, but happy enough

When running, use the "cogwheel" to select 1080p quality