As a bit of background I first bought my elise in July 2003 and owned it for 1.5 years. During that time, I was too frightened to take it on track without insurance, however I did do a track day at Crail which Lotus_Lee arranged.
That was a great day starting off dry, then a little drizzle followed by steady rain - probably ideal for a first foray on to track. The problem was that I spun it 540 degrees on one of the fastest corners (about 75/80 tuts) late in the afternoon and was heading for the only set of steel gates on the entire track! Luckily I didn't connect, but my confidence was severely dented and, if the truth be told, probably still affects me to this day. The issue wasn't so much the spin but the fact i had no idea why it happened. It must of been lift-off oversteer, but I had no recollection of lifting, which troubled me. For the remainder of the day I pretty well lost all interest and was glad to get the car home in one piece. For two or three reasons I sold the car about 4 months after that. However, the force was strong and I was frequently caught out browsing SE and being seen at Knockhill trackdays as a spectator. By a stroke of good fortune Lee decided that he was ready for an S2 Exige (good choice :thumb) and I quickly bought back "my" elise. That was exactly a year ago. At that time I had decided that I really would like to take it round KH at some point in the future, but only with the reassurance of track day cover. With my insurance duly up for renewal I set about finding the best possible deal which would also cover me for track cover. After a little bit of searching I was able to source track day cover as part of my normal cover for only £40 more than my premium last year. The only stipulation was that I must be a member of the relevant car club organising the event.
As my insurance renewal day loomed closer I set about getting all of my ducks in a row. First off was a full geo by Mark in Inverurie. As it turns out Mark advised that the car was fairly well set up for fast road all though he did make some minor adjustments. I was also pleased that when weighed, the car came in at 740kgs. Mark said that this was one of the lightest he had done - but I am sure he says that to all the boys
.The moons continued to align when Ross posted about a 2 hour track day to be hosted by the Alfa Romeo Owners Club at Knockhill on Friday 13th April (great one for the superstitious!) Timing was tight as I needed to become a member of AROC before the event. Also my new cover started at 17:00 hrs on 13th April - pretty close run thing. A bit of
email ping-pong with AROC ensued and I was registered as a member with a day to spare - top marks to Colin from AROC :thumbs.
The night before the event I decided to give the car a quick once over. Topped up the oil, checked the pressures and cleaned the windscreen. I also finally got round to replacing the dodgy blue temperature sender unit which has been playing up since I last owned the car. With that changed, I also confirmed that the cooling fan was still working.
So to the day of the event. If I am being honest, I would admit that I didn't sleep all that great on Thursday night. My mind was racing through a heap of recurring scenarios. Strangely enough, these didn't revolve round binning it but more about the car breaking. I also kept seeing a red caterham in my sleep - was this a sign of things to come?
Friday was also pretty tense. I think the last time I was this nervous may have been went I sat my driving test nearly 20 years ago. Anyway, I spent the afternoon working from home with one eye on SE2. One thing was fairly certain was that it was going to be dry.
I had a quick bite to eat before ensuring (for the 3rd time) that I had my licence, sunnies and full tank of fuel.
I left Cupar at about 4:30 and made it to KH by just after 5:15. Already there was RossB, Thinforth, Andy G, Jason and Dave Logan. There was also a fair bit of Italian machinery kicking about along with one or two jap cars. Oh, and 3 red caterhams
The steady run to KH via the M90 :blush had calmed my nerves a little and it didn't feel too different from turning up to take some pics.
The time wound round very quickly and before I knew it I was sitting in the briefing listening to Ian Forrest. He was interrupted briefly by a barefoot warrior who was trying his best to interoperate Ian's vague passing rules in a completely different manner from which they were meant
.Before I knew it, it was all over and I was sticking a dayglo orange sticker to windscreen. I climbed into my (roofless) car, pulled on my borrowed KH helmet and made my way into the pitlane.
I am not quite sure what I was expecting but it definitely was not to drive straight through the pitlane, on to the track and into the action!
By this time my heart was pumping. I seemed to have lost the use of all most all of my senses. Here I was, on my own heading into the daunting (in my head) Duffus Dip on my own with nobody to keep me right. Agrrrrgh!! I told myself to keep calm, and to take my time.
The very first thing that struck me was that I couldn't hear the car. I had no idea that I relied so much on the noise of the engine to tell me when to change gear (more of this later - if you can be arsed reading that far!).
Obviously the helmet was doing part of it's job by deadening the sound.
I only just got to the bottom of Duffus when my mirrors were filled with a swarm of cars. I tried not to worry about them and meandered my way through to the chicane.
Ian had told us he was trying to grow a nice lawn this season and as such he had put bales of tyres at key parts of the track i.e. McIntyre's, the chicane & Clarks. I didn't really notice the ones at Clark's but the ones at the chicane appeared as continuous wall as you exited Butcher's. I found this a really daunting prospect and never really conquered the chicane during the evening.
With a sigh of relief I exited the chicane for the first time, signalled right and allowed a flood of faster drivers/cars through.
I then had 2 or 3 laps to try an acclimatise my brain to this entirely new experience. The next thing that hit me after the no sound was the smoothness of the track. I don't think I have ever driven on a road this smooth. It was fantastic. The car seemed to really love it.
After about 10 minutes I could feel my speed and my confidence building however I knew from others experience this was probably a false sense of security so decided to come in for a breather and to take stock.
By this time my head was roasting from wearing a helmet. Luckily I had thought to bring a big bottle of water with me.
I got out of the car and had I quick think about my first few laps. I realised that I was a bit like a startled rabbit out there, more or less circulating and not thinking too much about the line and speed through the various corners. Just at that Dave Logan walked by and gave a few words of encouragement. He confirmed my thoughts that I was being far too considerate and keeping too far to the right coming up the straight. This was clearly compromising my entry into Duffus.
I could really only explain my first laps as being "all at sea" but i had stuck to my guns and taken it at a steady pace and didn't try to "win the race in the first lap".
On my second run out, I felt more comfortable and begun to stop looking in my mirrors so much. I was even given a little shot of encouragement as I breezed passed my first car of the evening. I think this may have been the turning point in the evening when I realised that, even if I wasn't the best/fastest driver out there, I perhaps had one of the best cars.
I began to learn the racing line, trying to work on being smooth. I also tried to increase my bravery by putting my faith in the elises tremendous brakes by braking later into the hairpin and Duffus.
I wasn't too keen on taking too much kerb in any of the corners as I could clearly feel the changes in the surface. In hindsight this was all it was. It didn't really destabilise the car.
About half way through the night Andy (AJVX) joined me for a few passenger laps. I was able to give a few pointer and some words of encouragement. If anything, the car felt a little better balanced with a passenger, but it was probably just me getting more used to the track and the car. he encouraged me to be smoother through Butchers as previously I had been coming off the throttle and having a little confidence tap on the brakes. I am sure this must have pissed off any drivers following me.
With about 15 minutes left I came in for a P-stop and was delighted to when I reached down to feel they tyres and felt that they were pretty sticky. They also had a nice bit of burring on the edges of the tread blocks :thumb.
By this time I was now passing many of the Alfa's which was nice. My only scary moment of the night came when I was overtaking a porsche boxster coming up the straight. As I got along side it my car suddenly died. My immediate reaction was "fark, I have blown the engine!" before quickly realising that I had hit the limiter and I was simply needing to change into 4th :blush.
Other than that I never had any moments at all. The car's behaviour was impeccable. It felt extremely well balanced. The only hint of understeer came when I tried to turn in under braking for McIntyre's. I never felt any oversteer at all. The car just seemed to grip and grip. Perhaps I wasn't pushing hard enough, but I was very content with how much my speed had come on in what felt like a pretty quick 2 hours. All in all I think I did about 75 miles on track.
I now finally appreciate just how good a car this is. There is no way you can come this close to pushing the car this hard on the public roads. I was also extremely impressed with the car's straight line speed. It breezed passed the Alfa's and even when I signalled to let the 111R's passed I was needing to ease off the throttle to let them passed.
So should I have done it years ago? Possibly. Would I do it again without insurance? Probably not. I never at any time felt like I or the car was in danger, but it is great to have the comfort and reassurance provided by track cover.
I have always felt that there is a fair bit of peer pressure out there to just hang the consequence and get out on track and now that I have finally done it I can see why others encourage us to get out there and do it. I would simply say that if you fancy it but are a bit scared (terrified in my case) see if you can't get some kind of cover and give it a go. If you don't fancy it, do not feel at all pressured in to doing it. Most of us bought our cars for different reasons and it isn't compulsory to track them, but it sure is good fun
Stewart
P.S.
The car's reliability was faultless.
P.P.S
I will post up some pics shortly kindly taken by AJVX with my camera.
, and it was wet.....still it just meant I was going slower when I spun. 
