So, jardo took some pics on my GoPro style ebay camera, these were set at 8mp and shrunk down loads, it also does a 12mp picture, but I didn't realise we'd be using it to take a few pics!
Parked up in the pits:
Nige's SuperGolf:
Some familiar machinery in the pits:
After Dads second session, Rich and I were chatting about his 135i (mapped, 420bhp, 500lbft) and I mentioned how much I'd love to go in it one day. To my surprise, he threw me the keys and said to take it for a spin!
I don't need telling twice with an offer like that! What an awesome car. So much torque it's unreal. Hugely impressive. Thanks Rich!
Our session time came around again, and we headed out. The track was a bit warmer, and I felt there was much more grip on the outlap. I was half way round my outlap when Al Clark came screaming past in his gt3, so I decided that was enough tyre warming, switched to full boost, and gave chase.
For one corner
Not totally thinking about the ~60bhp I'd just switched on, a little too much throttle too soon out of the chicane saw the car push wide, just enough to drop 2 wheels behind the kerbs, but what wasn't apparent was the enormous crater just behind the kerbs that we fell into!
The noise was horrific, the splitter banging on the serrated kerbs and doing what sounded like all manner of horrible damage. I limped round the rest of the lap, and came in, scared I'd damaged something badly
To my surprise, only 1 woodscrew on the air dam had been torn away, and the brake duct trumpet had sprung loose.
A screw from Nige and some duct tape, and 5 minutes later it was all well and good again. Only, being a sessioned day, we had to wait another our until our session time again. ARgh. so frustrating!
One more session before lunch and Dad let me drive to try and get back into it asap. The car felt good, although I didn't feel I was totally up to pace, it was smoking a bit (to be investigated), and I had issues shutting my drivers door thanks to a faulty latch that reared it's head on Saturday morning as we tried to leave! Nothing major, but I think a combination of small things, as well an apprehension about Goodwood following a troublesome first visit 2 years ago, had stopped me from going quite as well as I'd hoped to.
Lunch was good, lots of chatting and looking around all the other cars, catching up with friends, and intorucing Victoria to more people.
Dad drove the first session after lunch, and was going really well. He seemed to be getting into it really nicely and was learning the lines. Goodwood is a very fast circuit, and takes huge commitment for a quick lap, something I felt I never quite cracked on Saturday.
I went out for a session with Nige, in front and behind swapping places. It was great fun, and the cars are in theory very evenly matched, but on the day Nige definitely had a better handle on the track, and the quicker pace over a lap.
Here is a rear facing video from that session, filmed on my ebay camera. The sound quality is poor, because I had it in the water proof case. I hadn't realised these kill sound quality so much, so will be running it in the open case when using it in car next.
After that session, I had a good long chat with Nige and Tom (Smudger), and we all agreed I'd been braking too early, and not hard enough. This is pretty unusual for me, as braking is usually one of my stronger points, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't happening on Saturday and I couldn't string together a good lap.
I went out with their comments in mind, and Dad instantly commented that I was braking MUCH harder.
With the harder braking came increased confidence, and with that came later braking, and the laps got faster and faster, and the car started to feel really good.
Sadly, after 3 laps going fairly well, the Speedo suddenly dropped off without warning. The fuel gauge started going crazy, and I developed a top end missfire above about 6k.
All very odd!
We cruised around for another lap, slowly, and aside from the speedo, the engine felt fine. I opened it up once more, only to find as I reached the first corner there was a noticable lack of grip and something felt quite unstable.
We decided to call it quits, and instantly headed back into the pits.
It soon became apparent what was wrong!
4 or 5 trackdays on that set I think, around 700 track miles, so I think they've done REALLY well. That explains the instability and lack of front end grip on my last lap, althought it looked fine before we went out, so it's definitely worth checking these things EVERY single session.
As for the speedo / fuel gauge / missfire, I found when I popped the bonnet that the speed sensor plug had gone brittle and spanned off!
I bodged the plug back on over the broken sensor terminals, and everything was fine again, steady fuel gauge, working speedo, and no missfire!
So, some sort of summary? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. a tough one.
If I'm honest, I'm a little dissappointed in myself. I thought I'd be faster, and I wasn't.
Something just doesn't quite click for me at Goodwood, and it's a most unusual feeling! I just never quite felt like I was really going as well as I should be. not BADLY, just not quite where I expected to be. In the last session I was braking MUCH later, and feeling 10x more on it, but it was sadly ended early.
The Ace Engineering days at Goodwood are fantastic, and great value for Goodwood, but sharing the car on the sessioned days just doesn't get either of us enough seat time to make it worth while, and doing trackdays without Dad isn't an option. This is OUR thing, not mine. We do it all together
Still a cracking day, just the highlight for us was the social side of it, seeing friends, chatting to new people, rather than the usual highlight which is the driving.
I've got one or two things to address on the car, and a smoke issue to investigate, but hopefully it should all be 100% before Curborough in early september
