Chrome's Track Day
#1
Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:43 PM
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#2
Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:46 PM
OMG I'm so jealous. Looks like it was a blast. Good for you.
Fight to win, always.
Just don't be dicks about it, as usual.
glepp
#3
Posted 30 September 2013 - 04:59 PM
CCP Wrangler
#4
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.
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#5
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
Posted 30 September 2013 - 06:18 PM
I don't drive but I am still jealous
#7
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
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.
Local dropped by one
#9
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
MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.
#10
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.
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#11
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
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
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
MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.