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Lydden is a pukka circuit.. Had lots of fun and wins there in the past.. Good for sideways..enjoy

Well I spent a couple of hours changing the front springs on the track car. It's much more stiffly sprung now and feels so much better than it did before. It seems to turn in much more easily and there is no roll on the front at all. I did worry that it would be far too hard for road use but it's absolutely fine and there is still a degree of compliance for riding bumps and not crashing over them. I brought the ride height down by about 40mm too.
I had to drive it the 8 miles home in rush hour traffic so didn't get much of a chance to push it to the limit, plus the fact only dickheads use the roads as race tracks, but it felt nice and planted on the roundabouts. I also did all the regular stuff like fluids and tyre pressures so that I'm just about ready to head off to Lydden at first light tomorrow. I'm taking a camera so hopefully I'll have some footage to post over the weekend.



Replaced 10'' 300lb springs with much stiffer 7'' ones.

good luck tomorrow mark!

Just back from Lydden. What an awesome circuit. It's relatively small but there's never a dull moment with plenty of quick corners and pretty short straights. My best lap was 54 seconds dead. I have no idea just how slow that is but I didn't seem to be getting in the way of anything. In fact, through one of the longer, faster right handers I was pulling away from a lot of newer, more expensive cars.

There was a great mix of cars there today, from Ford Anglias & Escorts, E36 M3's, Caterhams, Pug 205's & 206's and lots of Japanese drift cars. The whole day was done in 20 minute sessions for novice, intermediate and experienced with the drift cars having to have their own sessions. If I'm honest, they didn't do themselves any favours with their driving standards. Drifting past beached cars when red flags are being waved is never gonna go down well. Its a shame as today was Lydden first ''drift track day'' and may well be the last. Apart from that, they did put on a good show.

I am so glad I changed the front springs on my car. It was handling like a dream today and was probably the best its ever been. It felt so planted and predictable that I had the confidence to push way harder than usual. I only had one ''moment'', when I carried too much speed through the right hander at the bottom of the hill, that crosses the start line. I put the nearside rear wheel out on the circuit edge, lost grip and was lucky to save it. I'm sure it must have looked pretty heroic but it was pure luck that stopped me going off backwards into the gravel. Anyway, I'm feeling much more positive about next Saturdays sprint and fingers crossed it's as sunny as it was today!

54 seconds is pretty fast isnt it?

pretty cool!

murran wrote:54 seconds is pretty fast isnt it?

I've really got no idea tbh. I was sticking with some well sorted Escorts that had at least 40 or 50 more bhp than me so I was pretty pleased with it. I was also on the ragged edge so not sure I could have gone much quicker anyway. I can't wait for next weekends sprint but hope it stays dry.

A couple of pictures from yesterday.



You can see how flat it's cornering since the new springs were fitted.

A link to one of the photographers that was there yesterday.

*warning contains drifting*

http://lyddenhill.rubberduckdoes.com/20 ... _3996.html

Hi Mark,

Thought you might go a bit quicker than a 54s.
My first race with my car was at Lydden back in 2008 with the 2.3 (unknown power estimated 150-170bhp).
Managed a 51.7 in one race and a 52.5 in the other which had some rain. These were both running on the dunlop historic tyres rather than stickier R888's etc.
With the D-Type we are down in the 48 - 49's which is where I would expect mine to be with the S54.

From the piccies it looks like your rear geometry is ok but maybe a bit more camber up front would help.
Under full load in a corner ideally you want the wheel perpendicular to the road surface. Hope this is helpful.

If I'd not been rugby'ing on saturday's I would of popped down. Is your sprint on Sat or Sun? I'll see what my dad's up to if its the Sunday?

Ben

Edit: This maybe of use its the CTCRC Lap records for Lydden. Matt Irons was running a motronic 325i engine for this and the 320 cars are as PBMW championship on Toyo R888's.

Cheers Ben. I think the lack of power/torque in the uphill section is what hurts me compared to a 2.5 engined car. (that and a lack of talent/experience as it was my first time there & I'm a fat fecker!) I just downloaded the GPS data thing and with my best 4 sectors I got a 52.4 - I'm happier with that. I'll see if I can do a screen shot thing and post it here.
The sprint is Saturday morning if you can make it?
I definitely think a bit more camber up front would help too.

Something a bit better for you as well. when I looked though the race times for other cars at lydden. I think the track is now slower since they resurfaced it a year or two ago, maybe 0.5-1second, so you are on the money with a 52.4. You just gotta put the sectors together.

For the sprint run,
I think they start you from the pit lane exit, start the clock as you cross the start line and you do one and 3/4 flying laps to a finish on the exit of the Devils Elbow. Around 80 - 100 seconds?

I'm playing rugby in the afternoon up in Tring so doubt I'll be able to make it. I'll see if my dad wants to pop along and say hello in the D-Type.

Ben

Your right, its 1.75 laps for each run. I wish it was a bit nearer as it's a cracker of a circuit isn't it. I loved it. It's going to be a busy day with the sprint in the morning and loads of series having their final rounds in the afternoon. Should be a great mix of cars there too! I'll remember to charge the camera this time and you'll be able to see how bad I am for yourself! I'll keep an eye out for your Dads car. I'm actually going down on the Friday night and staying over nearby. It was a bit too far to drive down, do the event and then drive home again.

So how far have you got with yours now?

Been a bit of a whore with MIB today. Had to park it up for a week while Nas gets the ECU mapped for me so I can finally rev it as it begs to be revved!

wow how shiny looks good
while its sitting there put the minilites on again then whore it some more
those minilites looked awesome