***TRACKDAY SERIES - Oulton Park, Wed 17th Nov***

[Casey]

Well, just got back home, having stayed an extra night in Tarporley. Glad I did, I could never have driven the 4+ hours home after a day on track which required intense concentration due to the conditions!

Grateful thanks to all the rotary guys (and girls!) who came along to make this a very enjoyable event. Despite the atrocious weather, everyone I spoke to seemed to be having a good time on the day (despite some of us having soggy socks for much of it). The company and food both nights at the Tarporley "Rising Sun" pub (how appropriate!) was excellent:Thumbs-up

"The Crown" was not as good as I had hoped (and what\'s with no marmalade for breakfast 2 days running!), but at least my bed was very comfortable and the room quiet.

Special thanks to Pip for the "Pip\'s tips" during the Pace laps, and to Nick D for invaluable tuition later in the day. My in car video (I\'ll try and process and post some later) showed I went from 3m00sec laps to consistently doing 2m47sec by the end of the day. Crap times, but as least I did improve! No idea what times Clive was achieving but, as usual, he was really flying and showed just what an 8 can do with a skillful driver at the wheel.

What a great circuit! I now now what everyone was saying about being careful at Druids. Greasy was an understatement throughout that corner. Even way past the 2nd apex there were undulations on the track to the left side which punished over exhuberant application of power.

I think I eventually managed to at least say hello to everyone during the day, except I seemed to have missed Grant somehow - apologies Grant:o

Great to say a brief hello to Matt and hear his superb 3 rotor on track, what a beautiful sound :god

I\'m definately going to get Oulton onto the trackday event calendar next year, hopefully during the summer when we  might just get a dry track to play on.

I\'m looking forward to seeing many of you again in a few weeks time at the final trackday event of the year at Brands Hatch. Last time I looked there were a few places still available due to cancellations......

[shaunwil]

Lets try a bit more curb :Giggle

Shaun

[CrissyUK]

I was by far the slowest and couldn\'t get the grip at all with my current tyres. Seem to get better in the last 1/2hr but was not the ideal weather !

No Shaun, I was the slowest as I wasn\'t in either of my cars and had to learn how to drive NickD\'s awesome MX5 as well as learning a very wet circuit. Remember that it took me over 4 hours to notice the lake by the "lakeside straight-ish bend"!!  :rollin  And I thought it was chivalrous of you to hang on behind me for a while before taking off on the straight after the hairpin.  :Thumbs-up
 
I still enjoyed the day very much and eventually found the courage to boot it in places but never all the way round as my heart sank every time I saw someone in the armco or in the kitty litter.
 
I didn\'t think Clive was out on the track yesterday but then realized that I had just blinked and missed him going past me    I would have loved to see him take on one of the Lamborghini\'s but I probably blinked again and missed all that action too!!  :Laugh
 
Let\'s hope for better weather next time, it\'s such an awesome track that I\'d gladly do the 450+ miles round trip again just to have another go.
 
\'till next time...

[HypoThermia]

Not a lot to add really, had an excellent day at a superb circuit

The amount of rain coming down through the day did seem to decrease and the puddles of standing water seemed to get smaller, but the track never dried out. A big thanks to Nick for the tuition on the circuit and I did enjoy chasing down some of the other cars on the circuit (when I wasn\'t being caught myself). My own measurements came out at around 2 min 45 for some consistent laps in the early afternoon.

Great to catch up with some old friends, new, and not seen for 3 years

I didn\'t take any pics of cars on the circuit, but here are some of the professionally taken ones from Xtreme Sports Photography.

[Casey]

^^^ Nice pics Ian!

OK, short 2 lap video, doing 2.46-2.47, my best of the day inthe wet conditions.

Excuse the soundtrack :o:o ; me driving, Nick D advising.

[DR SCHNITZEL]

Ohh tomorrow at Oulton for me wish id gone on this day. It feels like Xmas now. )

[marcusd666]

Just wanted to say thanks for a great day and it was nice to meet up again.

Thanks to Shaun for giving me some great passenger time really enjoyed going round and your FD is coming on really well can\'t wait to see it in the dry.

Also big thanks to Matt for having time to take me out in the 20b! OMG what a car the sound and the way it pulls you have got a great machine there hats off to you.

[clive]

Many thanks to all who came along to Oulton and Malcolm for getting this up and running,

I had a really good day yesterday finding the track was quicker than I thought initialy, despite appalling rain I found myself hitting 9400 on 3 sections in 4th each lap, needing to feather out the throttle on the pit straight as the diff gearing was wrong to shift to 5th, mind you I have always liked the wet as it\'s a great equalizer, seemed quite bizzare though overtaking Lambo\'s and outdraging Scoobys, Evo\'s and "race cars" out of chicanes in a 2 wheel drive RX-8 though !! :Giggle

That said though the credit must go to essentialy having "wets" fitted with my Yoko Sports, the traction control and stability control system of the RX-8,that I exploited fully rather than the slow old git waggling the steering wheel  :3Confused

As an aside Malcolm and myself instigated this years "track day season" not only for the track driving, but also the social side of things and found it great to not only spend time with members the night before and at the track but also to catch up with  people like Dave Nixon, Bob Monkhouse and Pip (WGT) etc, proving the worth of this type of "Rotary event" as a great opportunity for Rotary enthusiasts just to get together.

Here is a pic of Matts tripple to show just how wet it was !

[Grant Monkhouse]

I had a really good time too. So did my brother Gary. He went out a lot more than me as I was too busy talking. We managed to make my brothers fd gear box go from being bareable to drive with to absolutely nackered! Stopped early so that he could drive home in it.

We will definately be coming to another track day next year, don\'t think we will make brands due to work!

Sorry for not speaking to everyone but I did speak to as many people as I could and about my rx4 which I\'m happy people are really interested in.

Must say a big thankyou to Clive for taking me around the track as a passenger. All I can day is that when Clive asked me if I was alright on one of the laps I said " yes absolutely brilliant apart from my cheek bones hurting from smiling from leaving the pit to leaving the track"!!!!!

[mattfduk]

Thanks for the kind words about mine, shame it was so wet as I hate driving in the wet!!!!
 
Pip did a proper job of showing the car off though :3gears-lh

[DR SCHNITZEL]

I was ther today in the wet and i must say i have never been so scared. those eagle F1s didnt give me much confidence at all. I was going sideways down the start finish at 80-90+mph as the track was drying. i think i want my stock ports back. wicked fun though apart from druids and getting black flagged for being a noisy ass.
 
+1 for going back on a dry day.

[C J R]

I was ther today in the wet and i must say i have never been so scared. those eagle F1s didnt give me much confidence at all.
 
Interesting...I was running on Eagle F1\'s too and found I had very little grip anywhere round the track, despite raising and lowering tyre pressures.
 
I\'ll be changing tyre and hopefully wheel width next year so I hope for more grip (if its wet) lol.

[DR SCHNITZEL]

I was with the Mitsubishi Lancer Register MLR group. A few of the guys there running Evos with Proxies and wings with 500 brake were saying they found the track too scary. A good few evos went off. I stayed on the track all day with my twitching arse and huge exhaust fireballs. Id like to say it was down to my pure driving skill but it was more like i was going slower than everyone through the corners and i was lucky.
 
The evos ruled that track. I couldnt really keep close. Having said that there was some serious serious machines there. Its a hard track compared to Anglesey. Where are the straights? Rear wheels lighting up after druids over the humps.
 
To be fair to the rotary though on the start/finish straight. I put lengths between myself and a hayabusa kit car and a GTR.
 
Druids is a horrible corner. all the cars were doing 40 through there even the GTR and the Evos. I dont think ive been on a corner that slippy on a public road.
 
There was only about 30 minutes around 3 to 3.30 pm where the track started to dry and i would dare hit the blind hump before cascades at high speed.
 
Our day didnt start until 11 because of dense fog.
 
Right i need a huge rear wing and some toyos

[DR SCHNITZEL]

CJ how wide are you going?

[clive]

Right i need a huge rear wing and some toyos

Not cheap but have a look at Yokohama Sports I say this because I was supprised at the grip I found from these at both Oulton and Mallory and was turning into the very slippery double apex after the bridge at 96/97 mph,

I am now on my 4th set of tyres on the RX-8 in the search for a tyre that suits me and the car, tried 040 & 050 Bridgestones plus Falkens and couldn\'t get the feel I wanted.

I have always felt the FI is better than the Toyo\'s so if you don\'t like the F1\'s, personaly I think you will waste money.

Yes I have an RX-8 but know from my FD\'s that both have very similar balance and handling characteristics, indeed look under the front of an FE and an FD and you will find its the same type of double wishbone/ strut/ roll bar  suspension

Hope this helps

BTW was that you in the black wide body FD ?