Another trip report!
Last weekend saw the years second CGTI event at Curborough. having had such a great day back in May, I didn't waste any time in booking on again.
The weekend started off well. i had almost nothing to do to the car apart from wash it and fill it with fuel.
A quick spanner check, and one replaced bolt in the splitter mounting:
And a new gearbox speed sensor, this time hidden away inside an OE protective pouch.
The old sensor went brittle due to heat exposure, and the plug snapped off. hopefully the OE heat resistant pouch should stop this happening again.
With all prep done, it was nice to have a relaxed evening for a change, and load the car in my own time, not rushing like usual:
With that done, Jardo and Luke arrived for a bit of a lads evening in. Tori ****** us an awesome Roast.
Jardo, being Jardo, didn't want a roast, so he had a pizza instead! brickwall
After several bottles of £1 IPA from Sainsburys, and some dodgy looking cider, Alarms were set for 0530 and off to bed.
We hit the road at 6am, it was a crisp morning, but it looked like the sun was going to come out later on
Jardo was trying his best to look butch:
But if we're honest, he looked more french:
I have no idea who created the above pic, but it did make me laugh :lol:
We arrived at Curborough, and said hello to all the usual faces, Gurds, Ram, Alex, and the other ASN (Audi-sport) lads Joe and Daz.
After the briefing, it was time to que up:
We started the morning on the new figure of 8 loop, but after just 2 runs we had a chat with the organisers, and they said that Gurds and I could just do the original B loop if we wanted to. This soon caught on, and within the first hour, everyone had switched back to the original B loop!
the figure of 8 is OK, but it just doesn't flow so well, and didn't seem to suit anyones cars or gearing. The corners don't work well running both ways through the cross over, the kerb positions arn't quite right, and it's a more dangerous route too, with one potential failure path leading into the trees, and another leading into the exit entrance gate and the spectators.
Back on the B loop, things were going well.
I had a careful first few runs, trying to get some heat into the tyres by being very aggressive on the outlap, and trying to pick the braking point for the hairpin. This seemed harder than last time, i spent most of the day trying to find that perfect braking point, and I only feel I got it right once or twice.
As you fly down the straight, the corner is totally blind and you can't see the turn in point at all.
If you brake when you first see it, you're already too late and you'll miss the corner. So typically, it's a game of dares, waiting it out until the last minute, then as you're on the brakes you tend to realise mid way if you've braked too early or not and adjust brake pressure accordingly!
I had a couple of good runs before lunch which felt sweet. Conditions were just right before lunch, with the air still fairly cool and crisp suiting the forced induction engines.
At lunch I had a quick look at the data collected so far, and was pleased to see that I had managed to shave 0.3s off my previous personal best, and that my last 3 runs had all been within 0.3s of each other, and ALL faster than my PB from the previous event.
Clearly, ideal conditions, and compounding experience were working well, as was the car
A couple of the lads had a bit of a track walk at lunch to take a closer look at some of the corners. Sadly, i missed this, as i was too busy enjoying a cheese and ham sandwich and socialising!
In the afternoon, the heat rose and many people started suffering from a lack of traction.
i found my front tyres had risen from 26psi, up to just over 30. I let them back down, and instantly found considerably more grip and stability. I think i'd somehow super heated them on one extremely aggressive outlap!
I took several passengers out in the afternoon, Joes mate Wilson had been blasting around in a 530i all morning, so was keen to see how it felt in something perhaps a little more suited to the tight track. He seemed to enjoy it
As a bit of a thank you for doing all the timing, Alex, Gurds and I all took Dex's friend Ruth out for a lap. I don't think she'd done anything like it before and seemed to really enjoy it. She's also the only person to have been in all 3 of our cars, so it'd be interesting to know how they compare from the passengers seat!
I took Ram out for a lap, which was great fun. He was telling me what he used as a brake marker for the first corner (discussed above). i hadn't spotted it, and Ram did say ''I shouldn't have told you, you'll try and look for it now''
needless to say, down the main straight, I was looking as hard as I could for this brake marker.
Could I see it?
Bol*ocks could I?!
by the time I realised I'd obviously missed it, it was far too late.
Que - much pedal stamping and locking up trying to scrub speed for the bend.
I JUST made it round the corner, coming inches away from an excursion onto the grass - Much laughing followed from both of us :lol: D'oh!
Enough text for the minute, a few pictures. I'll write more later.
Sadly, the award for 'best picture ever' goes to Gurds!
Alex's car was looking great too on it's new wheels. They really suit it very well:
