June 17, 2004
Castle Combe Test
Well, my first test day - an afternoon at Castle Combe. The R400s were in the morning, so I was out with (mainly) Formula Fords in the afternoon! My particular session was a bit of a mixture - two R400s, a GT car, couple of saloons.....
Bit scary I must admit. Had no idea where to park up but managed to find somewhere out of the way. I couldn't find where to sign on and didn't really want to ask (typical bloke!) but eventually saw Andy Billett who was noise checking. When I went to sign on I saw Mike Blackadder from Roadsport B who came over and introduced himself. He got a call on Wednesday asking if he wanted to race in the R400s at the weekend!!!
Got my lap timer running - best was a 1.25.82. This seems not too bad given that the sprint winner last year was 1.14 odd; it's not the full circuit (stops well before Camp) but is from a standing start. Highest (bike computer) speed was on the run down to Quarry, with around 110.5 mph.
My best 5 lap times were (courtesy of downloadable lap timer!)
20 1.25.82
23 1.25.95
22 1.26.10
19 1.26.73
21 1.26.87
Worst lap was a 1.43.28 with an off at Bobbies. Spent a lot of time in the first few sessions just looking in my mirrors!
Charles,
How did you find the Mintex 1144 pads? Are they an improvment over the standard item?
Posted by: Simon at June 29, 2004 8:05 AMThey were still bedding in, but I think have created a slightly firmer pedal and have a little more bite. Speaking to Nick Potter, the main advantage of the 1144 pads is that they work for longer than a couple of track days as they don't glaze over. They're pretty cheap too and you can change them in 10 minutes!
Posted by: Charles Elliott at June 29, 2004 11:10 AMCharles,
If I remember correctly during your build diary you mention that you purchased a Performance Meter. I have been thinking of getting hold of one of these, possibly a GPS based version and was wondering if you had found yours to be of any use. Also I guess that you are not allowed to use these at trackdays, but they are fine at testdays, is this correct?
Andy.
Andy,
Yes, I bought a second hand AP-22. I've played with it a bit, but it's only really good for measuring standing starts as it can only derive speed and distance from acceleration so any errors are cumulative.
I do fancy a Race Technology DL1 but they're a lot of money :-)
Posted by: Charles Elliott at July 5, 2004 2:14 PM