February 9, 2004

Goodwood track day

I set off at 06:30 to Goodwood for my first track day in the Caterham. It was about as good a day as you can expect in February. The car went very well, and seemed pretty well balanced in the dry considering that it hasn't had any sort of setup at all and is still riding too high. I was seeing 125 mph at the end of the Lavant straight (rather strange for a car with a supposed 112 mph top speed - and I'd only just got into 5th gear) which felt pretty good. My newly fitted half doors did a sterling job and I am now convinced they are a perfect balance of visibility and wind protection.

I was in the 'Intermediate' group and found that I could keep up with, or even overtake, most of the tintop cars in the session in the dry - as soon as the track got wet (which is did for two sessions) everything was going past me! There was also loads of understeer which I know can be reduced by changing the front ARB for a thinner one. [EDIT: Except for the fact that there is no thinner bar than the Orange one, and you can't remove the bar completely under the Academy regs which would be the other option in the wet. The Roadsport series do allow you to remove the front ARB completely]

Steve (Grubbster) came down with his daughter and friend Dave and took some pictures.

The car is now due for its 500 mile service and a well earned oil change. Of course, I was sticking to the 5K running in rev limit all the time at Goodwood :-).

Posted by charles at February 9, 2004 3:52 PM
Comments

Charles,

You mentioned that you were getting a bit of understeer and that a thinner ARB may have helped, what colour ARB have/did you have fitted to the car?

Posted by: Simon Parfitt at February 13, 2004 7:48 AM

Hi Simon,

I had the orange ARB - i.e. the standard one with the car (although I have been told that the orange ARB supplied isn't the *real* orange ARB whatever that means!). Understeer can be reduced by changing to a thinner bar - but I made a mistake in the original post as there is no thinner bar than orange. In the Roadsport series you can remove the bar completely if you want it (i.e. in the wet).

Charles

Posted by: Charles at February 17, 2004 6:08 PM