***TRACKDAY, Brands Hatch, Monday, 9th Dec***

[C J R]

Fantastic photo\'s Tony. Well done.
 
Like the flame spitting RX8, although it now has a appropriate engine in it :Giggle :Giggle :Giggle :Giggle FD\'s rule (well when they work)
 
Looks like everyone had a great day.
 
Chris

[rote8]

Great day again in even greater company. Sorry to only of had a very brief natter to both yourself Tony and also to Jim on turning up. I was having so much fun on track that I clocked about 150 miles on the day my most ever, and so eventually the brakes paid for it, sparks and smoke it would appear from what I have been told, although the braking efficiency wasn\'t impaired otherwise I would have been off at Paddock/Druids/Clearways take your choice.

Good to see Clive out there in what has all the makings of an epic car, when the niggles are ironed out, and a good from effort from Karim and Jay on the day.

[Casey]

What a brilliant day; people, weather, track conditions and the meal afterwards combined to make an excellent day out. Thank you to all those who supported the event and had fun on the track, plus those who just came along to watch and have a chat. One of the best trackdays yet from my perspective. Thank you also to the volunteer Buddys for helping out at the start of the day.

Like Rote8, I was having so much fun on track that I, too only had brief chats with most people. I seemed to have missed talking to Tony completely (sorry Tony; I did try and find you to get your car on the grid at lunchtime but couldn\'t find you :o) and only spoke to Jim very briefly. It was really good of Jim to turn up unexpectedly with the great beaming smile of his, even though he was clearly gutted not to be out on track with us. Look forward to being out with you next year Jim

I managed several laps of sub 61 seconds, but still failed to clock that elusive sub 60 second lap :Hammer . No “live” timing was done, simply analysis after each session. Conann managed to show (or was that scare?) me how to gain an extra second or two, mostly through Paddock Hill bend, but I don’t have his skill (aka balls) to pull it off (yet!).

Having mainly RX-8’s, MX-5’s (and GT-86 of course   ) made for a very “balanced” set of cars on track, nothing was insanely fast (until Clive gets the race car tuned that is :Laugh ) so not too much of a problem with having to constantly look in the mirror.

Talking of Clive’s race car; what a beast  :mmmm ! It looks and sounds gorgeous:mmmm:mmmm. A lot of effort has gone into that car by a lot of people â€" congratulations to them all  :Thumbsup! . Mating a turboed RX-7 engine mechanically and electronically to an RX-8 chassis and ECU is no mean feat. It was great to see it out on track (and lap it a few times :Giggle ), but I’m sure it will be monstrous once all the tuning and gremlins have been sorted.

I’m relieved to report that no-one in our group had any “offs” or contact incidents (at least that I am aware of). Tempting fate, I’ve done 34 trackdays now and all I’ve done is abuse countless brake pads, a few sets of disks, burned loads of rubber, consumed masses of oil……… and one slightly buckled wheel, courtesy of some rather aggressive red and white kerbing on a corner exit at Oulton Park (and that was all NickD’s fault as he was urging me on  :Giggle ).

I\'m still as thrilled now (maybe addicted is the correct word   ) by how well the RX-8 behaves in the corners on track. Even with the greasy conditions at "Clearways" in the morning, the car would just give a warning "twitch" to communicate you were on the limit and it was easily corrected (mostly by the DSC :o)

That’s it for me for a few months; I’ll be looking into possible trackdays for next year, but doubt I’ll be out again until March, but you never know…….

[clive]

Huge thanks to Malcolm for organising everything yesterday, excellent day out with so many excellent people in attendance.

Sorry if I did not get to talk to all of you but obviously I was a little preoccupied with the first outing for the new race car
Could I ask that if anyone has pictures or video of the car that they post up everything they have as this will help me see what was going on from outside the car.