SIDC at Knockhill - Saturday 17th September

[Shug]

I'm bring a couple of friends along with me, one will be an extra driver in my car. Would be great if people could give them some pax laps

Stephen

(Unfortunatley Tut, none of them are female!)

Don't be shy. I'll be there with the mighty shugmobile (ti S1 with black wheels) and I'll be mooching about with my shiny red helmet. Feel free to give it a rub for a pax

[sja]

Cheers Shug

[David]

A good day and lucky with the weather - thanks John

It was a bit too busy for the really quick times but we were circulating in the sub minute once it dried up. Enjoyed the session at the end when things were turning wet - with two up, and a full tank of fuel, the tyres were working hard and getting nice and hot - the challenge was to keep them that way as the rain got heavier! The rain won in the end

I post some video later.

[JohnStewart]

Glad you all seemed to enjoy it, despite the frustration of the red flags. I've never seen a session with so many before. I think I counted 7 in total. The first was for a screwdriver that fell out of someone's car at the hairpin, 3 were for cars that spun off, but then managed to get going again after the red flag, a couple were for technical problems with cars (the first long red flag a car's engine cut out going over Duffus), and another was to recover a Scooby that had made it to the safe area at the chicane behind the marshals post. They waited 20 minutes or so to see if the track was going to close again before calling a red flag and recovering it. Glad to say after a repair it made it back out on track again.

The weather was a lot kinder than was forecast - I expected heavy rain for most of the session, but we had a good two hours plus of a dry track, with the first hour having just a wet track and thankfully no more rain, and it rained about 30 minutes before the end for 15 minutes.

Photos can be vewied here: http://www.flatoutphotography.com/gallery3/KH0911 - feel free to post up/link to any photos.

John

[Digital]

Apologies all for the (lengthy) second red flag, I lost all power going up the main straight and had to be recovered back to the paddock. The first red flag I've been responsible for in 6 years of trackdays, really sorry for everyone that was affected, felt really bad for the time it took to get the track cleared.

A big thanks as ever to John for the organisation, and an equally big thanks to everyone who helped me out with the car. Think I might be sticking to a nice reliable Lotus for future trackdays...

[Modena Scotland]

Thanks for organising the TD. It was good to see you. Great photos as always.

[Modena Scotland]

Jamie, is your Exige ok? I didn't know........

[Digital]

Jamie, is your Exige ok? I didn't know........

Exige was tucked up safely at home, it was the Clio that let me down... Nothing too major thankfully, bit worrying after only having that engine fitted less than 1000 miles ago though!

[Modena Scotland]

Forgot about the Exige...... you told me you were tracking the Clio. My R26.R had a problem too (check injector warning message - car in the limp mode). Bl**dy French cars!

[Rusty]

Had a great time catching up with folk and being out as pax,
Hope your car is mass!

John, photos are great but now for the annoying question, did you get any of me driving n3?
Cheers

[JohnStewart]

Had a great time catching up with folk and being out as pax,
Hope your car is mass!

John, photos are great but now for the annoying question, did you get any of me driving n3?
Cheers

Thanks - I think I did get you. The photos are displayed in chronological order, so look for ones of Tut's car towards the end. I didn't upload all my photos, so will have a look to see if there's any more around the time that could be you.

John

[Shug]

Great wee day that. Was nice just to be on track as a punter and get a full event at it. A lot of the tracktime I've had in the Shugmobile over the past few years, I've been making sure that paxes got out and the like, or I was organising stuff at the same time. Was good to get 4 hours just being a punter!

Etiquette was great as usual - perhaps a few too many straight line heroes, whilst not an issue, there were some that didn't pay much attention to the briefing - stopping in the corner, then dutifully moving to the right, but then planting it on the straight and hoofing away. Laws of physics dictating that you'd need an extra hundred horsepower to pass on pure grunt if leaving the last corner at the same pace as the overtakee. For once, I listened to my own advice and just took a run through the pits to get out in a different bit of traffic - not really worth moaning at the marshalls, was never really that much of a hassle, with it being a longer day. No harm done, but would be nice if folks listened to briefings now and again

The car did great - felt a little down on power, but that might just have been the proximity of so much grunt in the other cars present! Handling wise, probably the best that the Shugmobile has ever been. Totally adjustable, with that S1 trait of rotating round the front axle - you could run it in hot, with no understeer whatsoever and then balance the line perfectly on the throttle - felt bloody lovely. The only thing that let it down towards the end, was when it got proper hot I started to get a rumbling vibration which I took to be a wheel bearing on its way out. Got home and my exhaust is at an odd angle, so I'm wondering if it's actually been an engine steady bar letting go. Time to get the tray off today and have a look at the damage... Bah.

Thanks again John - great day and some cracking photos in there too. Might actually buy one or two

[StiflerMR2]

Thanks for running another great day John, very glad you at least broke even as the SIDC days are the best of the bunch, it'd be a real shame if they had to stop.

Thanks to Mass as always, enjoyed the R26.R a great deal, it's great to see Renaults unique ethos in making a FWD car as quick as possible

Finally, great photos John, loving the white R26R bouncing over the sausages

[tut]

Somebody asked me when I was leaving to drive home if I could remember the last time that this happened.

Bussed down on Friday to pick up N3 after three weeks with Craig, stayed with Robin and swapped war stories over several G&T's, had my usual half Peking duck take away which is the best ever whilst Robin ate his tofu, and went to bed at a sensible time. The car was transformed after Craig had finished with it, tried a couple of spurts on the way to KH at many tuts and it was very stable and running straight. Had this unusual chemical smell, but turned out it was because the windscreen washers were working for the first time. All lights worked, temp guage had numbers on it, exhaust was not flapping or leaking, but best of all was the car starting so quickly every time and so powerful that it made me jump. He had sorted out the wiring and fitted a new earth to the gearbox. Seems that nothing fazes them now, and I love the way the mechanics who have worked on N1 and N3 come out to chat and seem quite proud of what they have achieved

Had a great session on track, half wet and half dry, the mix of used 48R's on the front and new R1R's at the rear worked well in the wet, and did not go off in the dry. Only problem was I had left the MMC's on the front for the first time on track as the forecast was heavy rain, but when it dried out I melted the discs. Did not affect me getting out for the whole four hours though as they still worked in a fashion as I had new pads on. Took lots of pax out, and Rusty finally got his shot at the wheel. First time in an Elise on Track so N3 not the ideal car, but he built up the speed as he got used to it, just put down the power a little soon coming out of Clarkes and managed a few spins but kept in on the tarmac and straight off again.

Fortunately most of the reds coincided with me coming in to change pax, and I don't think one involved an Elise. Track etiquette was fine for me but that is because most recognise the car and with the extra power I do not have Shug's problem on the straights. The racing Mini's were a bit reluctant at first and were very fast through the corners and inclined to race each other, but a foot off their bumpers and they were fine after that. Car was going so well that I was not passed all day unless I wanted to be, but I prefer following an equally quick car so had some good sessions swapping places.

A bit of work to do before next Friday, both front callipers need replacing as the pin holes are enlarged, I have one new one but the other was put on N1. I will fit two used Geary discs and either Pagid 14's or CL RC5's. Learnt my lesson with the RC6's after they wrecked the EBC discs.

SIDC and Amp3 will be the only KH ones that I do from now on, so lets hope for continued support from S_E for John, preferably with early booking rather than last minute. Don't forget that if you book and then can not make you will get a credit for the next one, so nothing lost. Plus the more Elises hopefully the less red flags as we did not have one at Tut Towers.

tut

[robin]

Tut, there is no sign of remnant duck carcass ... so either you've taken it with you or I'll smell it in a couple of weeks

Cheers,
Robin