G
Guest
Guest
The season closes next weekend at Longleat. This event has a habit of being wet, but if it is dry, it is a great place to drive.
The track is up the drive of a stately home, or I should say one of the drives. Around you in the grounds are lions and camels and limas and other natural (not) UK wildlife! You don't want to spin off too far here as you may get eaten!
Nearby is Centre Parcs, and this is where a group of us are staying for a couple of days around this event.
Entered are
Paul Thompson
Roy Smart
Dave Parker
Andrew Fordyce
Roger Burston
Malcolm MacAdam
Ray Christopher
Roy Wing
Martin Weigold
Julian West (Lotus)
Well I am entered but only if they take my car with the crack in the screen. If not then I won't be driving.
If it rains, I suspect that most of the guys will not take their cars off the trailers as the paddock turns into a sea of mud!
The venue is good to watch as you can see plenty of track form a single vantage point and this just so happens to be at the bit most get wrong and spin off. Last time I was there two years ago it was a bit chaotic as it was wet and very slippery.
Tyre warming area ends with a cattle grid. This shakes your car quite a bit but then you stage and settle down. Green light and off you shoot, slightly up hill in a straight line. Bang through the gears to third and you are now going round a slight right hand curve leading up to the first tricky bit. The corner sharpens to the right deceptively and when you walk the course you think you can take it a lot faster than you actually can. However carry your momentum through this corner and there follows a very short straight. This leads you to a lovely left hand corner that seems to hang on for ever. I seem to remember it is a thrid gear corner and you play the throttle to max your speed. Now there is another straight that rises quite a bit where you just try and go as quick as you can. Not too quick though as the tightest corner now looms up very large. It is a 150 degree right hand hairpin that if you take the apex point, you are likely to ground out as the ground rises so steeply. Run about 4 feet wide and then back on the power controlling the tail slide and carry on up now what is effectively a straight (it isn't) as you go flat up through the gears to the finish line. Be careful how you lift off and brake for parc ferme as you may end up spinning as Roy did some years ago. He stayed on the black stuff which is just as well as there is a 500 foot hill side to the right you could easily go over and you won't stop till you get to the bottom!
At the top of the hill you get a superb view of the estate and house. A chance to relax and re-live that run and shiver away that wobbly moment when you were at 101 % of the grip available to your car.
If you intend to come to spectate, please bring some good shoes or boots as the grass is long and may be wet. An umbrella would be sensible too!
Hope to see you all there.
Malcolm
[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Malcolm M ]
The track is up the drive of a stately home, or I should say one of the drives. Around you in the grounds are lions and camels and limas and other natural (not) UK wildlife! You don't want to spin off too far here as you may get eaten!
Nearby is Centre Parcs, and this is where a group of us are staying for a couple of days around this event.
Entered are
Paul Thompson
Roy Smart
Dave Parker
Andrew Fordyce
Roger Burston
Malcolm MacAdam
Ray Christopher
Roy Wing
Martin Weigold
Julian West (Lotus)
Well I am entered but only if they take my car with the crack in the screen. If not then I won't be driving.
If it rains, I suspect that most of the guys will not take their cars off the trailers as the paddock turns into a sea of mud!
The venue is good to watch as you can see plenty of track form a single vantage point and this just so happens to be at the bit most get wrong and spin off. Last time I was there two years ago it was a bit chaotic as it was wet and very slippery.
Tyre warming area ends with a cattle grid. This shakes your car quite a bit but then you stage and settle down. Green light and off you shoot, slightly up hill in a straight line. Bang through the gears to third and you are now going round a slight right hand curve leading up to the first tricky bit. The corner sharpens to the right deceptively and when you walk the course you think you can take it a lot faster than you actually can. However carry your momentum through this corner and there follows a very short straight. This leads you to a lovely left hand corner that seems to hang on for ever. I seem to remember it is a thrid gear corner and you play the throttle to max your speed. Now there is another straight that rises quite a bit where you just try and go as quick as you can. Not too quick though as the tightest corner now looms up very large. It is a 150 degree right hand hairpin that if you take the apex point, you are likely to ground out as the ground rises so steeply. Run about 4 feet wide and then back on the power controlling the tail slide and carry on up now what is effectively a straight (it isn't) as you go flat up through the gears to the finish line. Be careful how you lift off and brake for parc ferme as you may end up spinning as Roy did some years ago. He stayed on the black stuff which is just as well as there is a 500 foot hill side to the right you could easily go over and you won't stop till you get to the bottom!
At the top of the hill you get a superb view of the estate and house. A chance to relax and re-live that run and shiver away that wobbly moment when you were at 101 % of the grip available to your car.
If you intend to come to spectate, please bring some good shoes or boots as the grass is long and may be wet. An umbrella would be sensible too!
Hope to see you all there.
Malcolm
[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Malcolm M ]
