***TRACKDAY, Cadwell, Thurs, 30 May***

[shaunwil]

Just packing stuff into tow car, cars on trailer (what a faff) and having a brew before I set off !

Cya at the hotel !

Shaun

[samoht]

Well, I\'m out.

I took my car down to Jason two weeks ago for an FMIC and various other work with the aim of it being track-ready for tomorrow.  However due to his Datalogit PFC connectors either not being compatible with my Apexi and/or not working reliably, having fitted the parts he was unable to finish mapping it or to investigate why the second turbo often doesn\'t come in.

I\'m *gutted* to be missing out on my first MRC trackday, I was really looking forward to it.  However, I\'m not blaming anyone, it\'s just bad luck.

FWIW, the previous time I was at Cadwell, it was early December and we didn\'t get out on track til 11am as they were trying to melt the ice.  Needless to say, it was very slippery all day - yet I had a great time in my S13.  So, I\'d say it is at least as much fun wet as dry !

Hope you all have a great time, and I hope I am lucky enough to get to join you in future.

[shaunwil]

Just got home, dropped car off the trailer and got it ready to drop off in morning !

Thankyou for a great couple of days. Wasn\'t all that quick but at least the weather stayed dry. Not very warm and the fog was fun at the end of the day.

Completely shot !

Shaun

[C J R]

Guys. thanks for making today a great day. Malcolm, thanks for organising. Jim, glad to hear you got home okay.
 
Putting \'running in\' miles on the FD is fun at track speeds ! Other than a slight oil injector leak, the FD behaved all day and the new engine/porting/mapping were a revelation.
 
Hope you all get home safe.
Chris

[Casey]

Thanks to everyone who came along to support this event and provided some brilliant company and passenger rides :Thumbs-up

My brief report for the day;

Despite dire weather forecasts of anything from “Noah’s Ark required” to light rain all day, even up to the evening before this event, the weather actually kept dry for the entire day. That\'s if you discount the mist at the end of the day and the very slight drizzle at times, which was not even enough to bother using the wipers. It was darned cold and windy for the time of year though

The result was a damp track to start the day, drying quickly to a good level of grip around the whole track by late morning and through the rest of the day.

The only downer on the day was Jim’s (lennycarloff) forced retirement due to a black flag on the first sighting lap  :2eek . We found a coolant leak from the water pump (RX-7 FC T2) which could not be sufficiently fixed to allow Jim to get out on track at all. Luckily, it wasn’t so severe that Jim was prevented from driving home safely. Also sad that samoht from the MRC wasn’t able to make it along at all, due to a last minute mapping issue with his RX-7 FD.

I had some excellent RX-8 passenger rides with Ian.M and Bigpete â€" they must have both been putting in some very fast times, had we been doing any live timing, which we weren’t of course (trackday rules). I went out with Pete late in the day and was especially impressed as this was his first time out at Cadwell (and the lucky blighter lives only 45 minutes from this awesome track   ). Of course, I put his performance entirely down to me taking him around as a passenger early in the day to show him how to drive the circuit properly   . Seriously though, Pete was driving the circuit as though he’d driven it many times before. It’s was also a relief to Pete that changing the whole back subframe on the car had solved a weird handling problem he’d been experiencing.

Arnie_O was distracted throughout the day by texts, updating him on the arrival of his new baby â€" I’ll let him explain that in his own time :Laugh:Laugh

I went out in CJR\'s car, which he is keeping off boost until his new setup is fully mapped. What a beast, sounds and feels fantastic, even though CJR was short-shifting to keep the engine tame. When this car is fully "unleashed" it will be amazing :mmmm.

Everyone had a big smile on their faces throughout the day and seemed to be really enjoying themselves, even when wrapped up in multiple layers in the pit area. It was actually a relief to go out on track to get warmed up  

I was exceptionally pleased (and surprised) with the way my car handled on the Falken FK452 tyres. They were very grippy and gave good feedback through the steering wheel, plus lots of noise to warn you when they were at their limit. Pushing them hard on 15 minute sessions did result in increasing understeer, but nothing dramatic. Everything was very progressive and easily corrected with small steering inputs. The surprising thing was analysing my video footage for laptimes this morning. My best times at Cadwell previously were 1m55s in damp conditions (Sept 2012) and also 1m55s in dry conditions (June 2011, on Federal track tyres). Put those results down to my increasing experience at this circuit and confidence in the car in damp conditions. However, yesterday, I put in a series of very consistent 1m53s and 1m54s laps (so best yet) on a clear track on my last (misty) session of the day. I\'m very pleased with those tracktimes on “budget” Falken tyres. I’ll post up some video later…..

Next trackday for me - Japfest 2 at Donington on Sunday, July 7 - see some of you there  

[Casey]

Video clip of most of my last session of the day (7 laps); getting misty and most people packing up, so see how empty the track is! Happy with very consistent laptimes, all 1m53s or 1m54s  

Will try to post up some video clips earlier in the day when passing/being passed by other cars....

[lennycarloff]

Wow.  How consistent are you malcom. Thanks for the day out , sorry we left early but not being able to get out on track tuck the shine off a bit. Ordered new part so will be up and running again soon

[Casey]

Jim, just glad you, Heidi (and the car!) got home OK. A real shame that problem with the water pump had to appear on your sighting lap  Hope it turns out to be a simple (and cheap) fix. Good to see you both though, as always.

[Casey]

Final "compilation" video of several sessions, some taken from my low res camera by my rearview mirror, some from a HD camera on nearside foglight position on front bumper. Use the gearwheel on the youtube screen (bottom right) to select HD to get best quality on the foglight camera. Got some of you captured on these clips if you look carefully!

[shaunwil]

Wow.  How consistent are you malcom. Thanks for the day out , sorry we left early but not being able to get out on track tuck the shine off a bit. Ordered new part so will be up and running again soon

Glad you got home in one piece. Can fully understand not getting to run on the day but once your sorted the car will be back out strong and fast as ever.

I\'ll try and upload me getting cross at the guy in the carrera 4s that flatly refused to get out of the way through the corners then nailed it in the straights !

Shaun

[shaunwil]

Just been looking at the video (and uploading) and all I\'d been getting is 2:06, but I seem to have got stuck behind stuff and moved out of the way of guys behind quite a bit.

Need the diff to go back in to see just what the difference it will make.

Shaun

[shaunwil]

Here we go :





Sound isn\'t too good, not that bad considering its just velcro\'d onto the bumper :Giggle

Shaun