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Chrome's Track Day


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#1 chrome diopside

chrome diopside

Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:43 PM

Hello,
 
Thought you might like to hear about my experiences yesterday and see some of the pictures.  I had the most amazing day!
 
Thanks to Dad's recent generosity, I felt able to purchase all the upgrades available to me - so in the end instead of 9 laps in 3 cars and the 2 hot laps as a passenger, I ended up with 13 laps in 4 cars - one of which was the event's guest car, the Ferrari 458 - plus the two hot laps and the full photography package, including in-car video for each drive.  So 15 laps paid for - yet I actually drove 20!   :)
 
Options for the day were Aston Martin DB9, Audi R8 V10, Nissan GTR (500bhp), Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, Porsche 911 Carrera and the aforementioned Ferrari 458 (for which a premium was payable).  There was some paperwork to complete upon arrival - I chose to take out the insurance waiver (better safe than sorry) and bought the 4 lap upgrade for the 458.  Then I had a smoke to calm my heightened nerves, lol.  At this point a matt black Ferrari drove past the admin building - we assumed it was a test car of some sort - very strange appearance - ofc turned out to be the 458!  Next was the driver's briefing and then we had to make our selections.  I knew I wanted the DB9 - not because of performance but when else am I ever going to get to drive an Aston - incredibly graceful, elegant, just jaw-droppingly beautiful car; then I chose the Nissan GTR as had heard how lairy it is - (so glad i did that!); 458 was a given and then I was a bit stumped - for some reason the Porsche didn't ever really spring to mind and I plumped for the Audi - always had a soft spot for the marque.  Then out to the pits.
 
I first had to organise the photography package - which had a good long queue, but was soon equipped with my usb dongle.
 
My buddy and I were separated at this point - apparently some doting yet demented female, so anxious to capture her husband behind the wheel, had leapt in front of the DB9 a few weeks earlier and been knocked down - luckily escaped with only a broken foot, but the insurance company had decreed that a separate area for the camera-deranged was required - drivers only near the pits.  So off Andy went with my handbag and my camera to try and take some pics for me, while I joined queues.  
 
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I went for the Audi first - it was the car I was least in awe of, V10 notwithstanding, and it made sense to me to get used to the track/flappy paddle gearbox in that one - also it had the shortest queue at that time - of my chosen cars anyway.  Turned out to be a wise choice as I didn't drive it very well and I would have hated to have wasted one of the other cars while I found my feet as it were.  Each car had a professional in the passenger seat who gave instruction.  My pro in the Audi seemed keen that I leave the car in automatic, and, as I have zero experience, I let him talk me into it.  I disgraced myself somewhat by standing too hard on the brakes, and actually had to be told to apply some welly to the throttle - first time in my entire life anyone has ever had to tell me to drive faster!!!  He did tell me to accelerate once when he meant brake, which made me laugh, but I knew to brake and he excused himself by saying he'd been doing this non-stop since 8am. (What a wonderful job!) The track itself wasn't huge; 4 bends, chicane, hairpin and two long straights to open up in.  I got round - is about the best you can say about it.  I was so busy trying not to 'overbrake', adhering to commands of 'Cone! Cone! Throttle! Brake! Off Brakes! Throttle! Cone! Cone!' that it's probably just as well I didn't have the gears to worry about too.  Either way, the pro directed me back into the pits after my three laps saying that invariably just as one was getting used to the car, it was time to hand it over.  I got myself out, grateful but daunted, thinking obviously I wasn't as decent a driver as I thought I was, and joined the queue for the DB9.
 
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I was waiting for a good half hour - it's a very popular car and they only had one Aston there - as opposed to two Lambos, two Porsches and two Nissans.  But in my head, I knew I would need more experience before taking on the superior performance cars.  The pro in the Aston was lovely - ALL the chaps were to be honest, including the chap in the Audi.  He explained to me that the Aston had been somewhat thrashed the day before and the clutch had overheated so all-in-all the organisers had stated a preference for the gears being used rather than leaving the car in auto to shift for itself.  Thus I was confronted with the dreaded flappy paddles.  Nothing loth, off we set.  He'd also explained that the Aston is a heavier car than the others, being far more of a road car than anything else, and that while it was indeed fast on the straights, you needed to set it up properly for the corners.  Tbh out of all the cars I drove, I found the DB9 handled more closely to my own style of driving than anything else - which really really helped my confidence.  Aside from dropping 3 gears instead of 2 coming through the chicane, the paddles didn't present too much of a problem.  I enjoyed the Aston very much - and did so well driving it that the pro gave me an extra lap - I was managing to hit the 'perfect' racing line.  We pulled into the pits after 4 very fun laps and he turned to shake my hand as I was getting ready to get out, at which point he realised he was still holding my usb dongle and had forgotten to plug it in to the in-car camera - I laughed!  But he very kindly, even though a new driver was being guided toward the car, took me back out onto the track for another lap so that I could get my recording.  Hence the video for the Aston is shorter than the rest.... and I got 5 laps!
 
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Next up was the Ferrari.  Didn't have to wait long at all as it turned out I was the only one in the queue with the upgrade for the 458.  Wow, what a car.  Sitting wider and lower than anything else, including the 360, and with that eerie matt-black paint job - it resembled nothing so much as a killer shark, lurking in deep water for unwary prey.  It was all black on the inside too!  After my experience with the DB9, my confidence was up and as the pro said nothing about leaving the car in auto, neither did I!  One refreshing note was that, as you might imagine, in all these cars I'd had to pull my seat closer to the pedals and had thus far been confounded by electronic gadgetry as opposed to the standard seat adjustment levers - not so in the 458 - usual bar under the front of the seat.  Which made me smile.  We gave the cars already on the track time to get past, left some room and joined the fray.  Wow.  You open the throttle and omg, that car is responsive - makes a fabulous noise too - and has an extremely tight turning circle!  I loved driving this, really really did.  The pro directed me towards the pits but when I asked if I'd had 4 laps - cos I'd had the upgrade to the upgrade as it were, he said 'oh you've got 4!', and off we went round again.  This chap was possibly the most serious of all the pros I had to deal with - on the track at least - and no wonder with such a precious vehicle.  It was 'Cone! Cone! Throttle! Cone! Third! Throttle! Fourth! Cone! Brakes! Third!' all the way round.  But again, I seemed to be doing so well, he gave me an extra lap - so I got 5!  But I let him down by screwing up my gears on a corner - dropping a Ferrari at speed into too low a gear isn't fun for anybody.  So although he gave me praise as I was exiting into the pits, I felt he was relieved to have me out.
 
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I'd deliberately left the Nissan till last.  And zOMG that car was so much fun!  Cheapest, arguably the least attractive and yet easily the best performing vehicle of the entire day.  It had the throatiest roar, too :)  The pro asked whether I wanted to leave the car in auto or switch to manual, I wasn't sure.  After screwing up in the gears in the Ferrari I mean.  I explained how the Audi had seemed sluggish about opening up on the straights and when he promised me the GTR wasn't even remotely sluggish we left the car in auto and off we went.  Wow.  Wow, wow, wow!  These pros are all Academy drivers - they teach race technique - and it shows.  But after establishing that the GTR would like the same line as the 458, I knew what to do.  Aside from a tendency to leave my foot on the brake on one particular corner - there's a pothole there which wobbled the suspension a wee bit and I think I was overcompensating,   Was very tickled with the notion that I'd caught all the other cars on the track - including the 458.  very nearly overtook the DB9 on the inside of the hairpin at one point - by accident - he'd taken much too wide a line.  I did well enough overall to be the told 'that's the perfect line, exactly how it should be driven' and again was given an extra lap.  Only realised that when directed into the pits tho - asked incredulously if I'd had 3 and was told I'd had 4 - counted the corners back on the video and I had!  Felt like it was over far too fast.
 
Andy and I headed over to the 'hot laps' queue together after this.  In a spirit of quid pro quo, I'd taken up an upgrade offer to give hot laps to a buddy so that he could at least get more experience out of the day than just holding my handbag and watching me go crazy on the track.  The website had stated that the hot laps would be either in an Ariel Atom or a Caterham 7.  As it turned out, the Atom hadn't been available for this weekend and one of the pair of Caterhams had decided to break its differential the day before - so the slack was being taken up by a 600bhp Nissan GTR.  Andy and I had been watching the screaming sideways progress of the Caterham all day and been enthusiastically looking forward to our turn in the passenger seat.  But, having just had a taste of the GTR, the notion of seeing what it could really do, driven by an expert, strongly appealed to me and that's what I did.  He didn't let me down, I was flung sideways in my seat on almost every corner and seemingly loved it so much that again, somehow, I was given an extra lap!  Andy too, chose the GTR and loved it.
 
Off to the photo booth to get the pics sorted out.  Apparently I had more pics taken that day than anyone else!  Must have been all those extra laps. :)  For the print, I chose one where I'm actually smiling, (instead of anxiously aiming at the blue cone on the inside of the hairpin bend), in the 458 - looks STUNNING (the car, not me) and is above, amongst others.  We left Ingliston feeling very privileged and happy, least I sure did.
 
(On the way home tho, he did  feel compelled to keep pointing out the differences in my little Coupe's handling compared to the GTR tho.  I pointed out that my car probably has about 112 bhp compared to the Nissan's 600, so that was hardly a fair comparison.) 
 
Fabulous, fabulous day.  I really loved it.  Best birthday present.  Ever.



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#2 Sancho

Sancho

Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:46 PM

OMG I'm so jealous. Looks like it was a blast. Good for you. :)


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#3 Carenthor Loon

Carenthor Loon

Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:59 PM

Very jealous, especially of the 458 - glad you enjoyed it all so much! :)
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#4 chrome diopside

chrome diopside

Posted 30 September 2013 - 05:38 PM

Was fabulous, can't recommend the experience highly enough.  

 

I do think though, that if I ever do anything like this again, I'd go for a proper 'track day' rather than an 'experience'.  It would have been nice to have more track and more time in the cars.  Knockhill offers days like that - less exotic vehicle, but far more emphasis on the actual driving - is a fair bit more expensive though.

 

And yeah, that Ferrari was amazing.  Truly was a 'once in a lifetime' experience. :D




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#5 DaDutchDude

DaDutchDude

Posted 30 September 2013 - 06:15 PM

Sounds awesome :)

 

Did you have trouble driving home calmly after an experience like that? I remember back when I went go carting every once in a while, I always struggled to drive back home in a somewhat 'normal' way, instead punching the pedals and making the tires squeal around corners.


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#6 Hsu Li

Hsu Li

Posted 30 September 2013 - 06:18 PM

I don't drive but I am still jealous :)


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#7 chrome diopside

chrome diopside

Posted 30 September 2013 - 06:39 PM

Sounds awesome :)

 

Did you have trouble driving home calmly after an experience like that? I remember back when I went go carting every once in a while, I always struggled to drive back home in a somewhat 'normal' way, instead punching the pedals and making the tires squeal around corners.

 

I didn't leave Edinburgh till 9pm, so tbh the road north was more or less clear.  I tried very hard to keep the speed under 80mph - in the new coupe, am very aware that the shape of the car means am more likely to be noticed.  Also at night, a lurking cop car would see my approaching headlights coming from a long way away and be able to guage my speed pretty accurately.  For the most part, so long as not doing anything silly, Highland cops are content to let you get on with it below 80.

 

Had a little bit of excitement on the country roads after turning off the A9 tho.  My route home means leaving the major road at Aviemore, northeast to Grantown, over the Spey and a really very twisty road east by northeast from there.  Just as I was approaching Grantown I realised something was coming up fast behind me - I'd overtaken a few things by this point so took me a while to realise these headlights belonged to a faster car - and in the street lights beside the bridge I caught sight of another small, low coupe.  So, I thought I'd have some fun and try to show off my newly honed skills.  Tbh I thought I was doing pretty well, was sticking to a steady 70 in the straights and taking corners at 55-65mph - got to remember was pitch black and after 11pm by this point.  The coupe stayed well back and wasn't crowding me so I thought I was doing ok.  But eventually I came to a stretch I recognised, and, knowing there was a good long straight in front of me, pulled to the side, indicated and slowed down to let him past.  Which is when I discovered it wasn't the MR2 I'd thought it was but a Lotus Exige.  And whoosh he was gone.  Next time I caught sight of him he was at the top of a hill on the other side of the glen I was just starting to descend.  Lol.  My little coupe isn't really all that quick.  Hope I didn't hold him up too much!

 

:)




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#8 Sever Aldaria

Sever Aldaria

Posted 30 September 2013 - 07:28 PM

Awesome experience! Highly recommend a track day in a less than super car because, although those super cars are amazing, the time spent with them goes by just too fast compared to a full day in the same car which really lets you learn the car and get faster and faster each time. :)


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#9 Othran

Othran

Posted 30 September 2013 - 08:46 PM

If you ever get the chance then the two to do in England are Brands Hatch (great fun, feels like you're up and down like a rollercoaster) and Silverstone, which last I checked was a lot harder to get booked into.

 

I have fond memories of going around Brands Hatch in a single-seat "Formula Ford" (as was) racing car. Sadly we were limited to 6000rpm - you'd get black flagged if you went above that - but even so that was like 0-60mph in 3 seconds with your bum 150mm above the road.

 

Almost as much fun was the "hot hatchback" (can't remember what it was - some turbo lunacy) which you were allowed to redline while you learned the track prior to driving the single-seater. I scared myself witless at Druids Corner as the car went onto 2 wheels and the guy just laughed and said "that could have gone better, try hitting the apex next time". Was a surprisingly relaxing day after that.

 

In a different vein I can also recommend the off-road driving days. A combined rally/offroad day is good fun.

 

Edit - and if you want an awesome drive reasonably nearby you for your "little coupe" then the A835 from Ullapool to Loch Garve is the best road I know. You get moor, forest, mountain and an incredible rollercoaster road along Loch Garve. There's a nice wee pub/restaurant at the bottom of the dam (Aultguish I think) which is worth a lunchtime stop - or was anyway. Just time it so you're not competing with ferry traffic on the road.

 

Edit 2 - needless to say the only inhibiting factors to speed on most of that section of road are corners and sheep ;)


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#10 chrome diopside

chrome diopside

Posted 01 October 2013 - 09:30 AM

Edit - and if you want an awesome drive reasonably nearby you for your "little coupe" then the A835 from Ullapool to Loch Garve is the best road I know. You get moor, forest, mountain and an incredible rollercoaster road along Loch Garve. There's a nice wee pub/restaurant at the bottom of the dam (Aultguish I think) which is worth a lunchtime stop - or was anyway. Just time it so you're not competing with ferry traffic on the road.

 

Edit 2 - needless to say the only inhibiting factors to speed on most of that section of road are corners and sheep ;)

 

I have driven that road!  Tbh anything north or west of Inverness is a stunning drive.  Am usually so busy glorying in our incredibly beautiful Highland landscape that the speed of the car isn't the main priority.

 

Speaking of sheep, think hairiest drive I had in recent memory was trying to catch the (last for two days) ferry out of Stornoway and realising, down near the bottom of Harris, that we'd got the time wrong and were going to be late.  My boyfriend at the time just looked at me, closed his eyes and said 'do what you have to do'.  We absolutely had to make the boat because he was in the RAF and if he hadn't been on base first thing on the Monday morning, he'd have been in big trouble.  So I threw the car up the road.  No fences, sheep everydamnwhere and hundreds of twisty corners.  Was lots of fun!  I managed not to kill anything and we made the boat.  He on the other hand, this big 'man' who'd taken the ferry from Ullapool two nights previously in a Force 9 without any ill effects, proceeded to get out of the car and vomit.  I felt much better about having been sick as a dog in the Force 3 I'd taken the boat in.  :D




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#11 Othran

Othran

Posted 01 October 2013 - 09:56 AM

Lewis is where I come from - until the early 1980s there were no speed limits up there as no speed signs existed anywhere on the islands. That (technically) meant that the normal UK speed limits where there's no signage didn't apply which was rather amusing. Went back in the mid 1990s to find a roundabout out at the Caberfeidh and I nearly crashed I was laughing so much, nobody had the remotest idea what to do at the roundabout. Was funny the first few times then it was "get on with it FFS!". Now there's EU-funded bilingual signs bloody everywhere :rolleyes:

 

I've seen the scenery on the A835 dozens of times and I usually have a drive of around 700 miles ahead, so for me speed is the priority. 40 minutes to Inverness is about the best I've managed but you really need to know the road around Garve and on the drop into Ullapool or you'll be having a close look at the trees. There's usually a couple of young lads killed on that road each year. Oh and the top tip is park up and get a meal/drink when you get off the ferry*, let the traffic thin out a bit as you'll just spend all your time stuck behind a HGV or (gods damn them to hell) a caravan. If you give it 30-40 minutes then you'll catch the HGVs going south around about the Black Isle, just before the bridge into Inverness - its all dual carriageway there (or at least straight single) so you can blitz past them.

 

I haven't been up that way for 5 years now since my dad died so there's probably more cameras around :(

 

*unless of course you used to work for CalMac (like me) and can blag your way to the right position for getting off first, if you're on the mezzanine cardeck then abandon all hope and get a meal in Ullapool :D

 

Edit - oh and if you hit a sheep at more than 50mph there's a good chance your car will be a write-off, you can usually predict which way the stupid sods will move though.

 

Edit2 - heh its got an entry on the SABRE Wiki, http://www.sabre-roa....php?title=A835


Today's word is :

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