bernmc Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Well, you bunch of big girl's blouses missed a great day. Big disappointment that there weren't any other Z's there - I'd hoped to meat a few of you (You're all going into the black book now :|) My wife and I went down the night before - bit of a scrabble as I only got home from work after 6pm. 150 miles down to sheepland. We'd intended to spend Saturday night in Wales too, but sadly Rip-Off-Britain has filtered through to the valleys. 95 quid for a tacky hotel room (The Bear Hotel, Cowbridge), and we still had to share the bed with a beetle ! We packed our bags and checked out Saturday morning. Not an auspicious start . Llandow is quite a small circuit - just under a mile long. This means it's perfect for track-day virgins like the wife & I - you never get up to silly speeds. I never got higher than 4th gear all day. Very friendly, relaxed bunch of marshals too - whole emphasis is on having fun safely. We were split into three groups for the morning session - novice, intermediate and advanced. We were both novices, which meant we had to share the track time of 15 minute sessions. We split the first one, then did one whole session each - total of three sessions in the morning, which is not bad. Marshals kept things running smoothly, so no time wasted. There's always a plonka or two isn't there... 1st session out - supposed to be finding our feet, all novices, and a bloke in a dark blue skyline spins it! Recovers, and comes blasting up behind us - I let him through as quickly as I could - my policy is to stay well away from blokes like that (on the road too). Half a lap later, and I passed him again - he'd spotted a patch of daisies on the infield that he wanted to take a close look at ! My wife was very anxious. Used to have a 2l Hyundai Coupe, never been near a track before... started off the day saying things like 'oooh, you're making the tyres squeal' and ended up with 'why won't these buggers get out of my way???!!!' (They’re men darling - their egos wouldn't survive if they let you by!) My second morning session out, and I was getting into the swing of things... the Z is absolutely fantastic on track. When I saw the list of cars attending the day, I thought we'd be Skyline fodder. No way! Was blatting along behind another blue skyline (R33 turbo I think) (cue jaws music), and gaining on him in the twisties when...tadaaaaa, he spins off. Ho-hum! He disappeared into the pits briefly to lick his wounds, but rejoined again.. right behind me sadly. I got stuck behind a carefully driven Ultima (new toy I think) and was waiting for the straight to overtake like a good boy. Big blue skyline bobbing about all over my 4rse again - so I stayed behind the ultima and let him through, then overtook the ultima. Back into the twisty bit, and the Z is gaining on the skyline rapidly again when... can you guess what happened next...? Twirly twirly twirly spinning blue skyline. My 'oops, ha ha, you silly fool' turned rapidly into 'oh f@#$ you poor bugger' as his spin took him straight into the barrier! Smashed rear quarter, crumpled front bumper, bent the bonnet and re-routed his intercooler piping! My wife had some less complimentary thjings to say about his driving . Sad thing is he was going to be trading his car in with Hyeline for an R34… guess not eh. Afternoon was open pit – max 10 cars on track at any time, but there was never any waiting. Very good for us newbies again – we could choose times when the track was relatively empty. Had some great fun with a roll-caged Renault 5 turbo which was very quick in the twisty bits. Fastest drivers on the day were two EVO VIII FQ 300’s – a sliver one and a black one. Silver chap turned up with a white van full of tyres, and half a dozen chavs and hoodies as a pit crew. Seemed to think he should be the fastest chap on track, and couldn’t accept that the other guy, who was much smoother, was faster. Nice to watch them going at it though. Silver boy eventually spun and damaged his car off despite being black-flagged earlier in the day. We had a great time, and the Z never frightened us once. Glad I fitted the DS2500’s and changed the brake fluid to RBF600. Never had even the slightest brake fade. Only stopped by the tyres getting too hot and squishy – should have been running higher pressures I think. All the niggly worries I’ve had on the road disappeared on track – I’ve found the Z quite difficult to drive smoothly. Brakes with OEM brembo pads frightened me a couple of times. Heel & toeing difficult to do smoothly. All perfect on tack – the car is made for it! Start driving hard and everything just works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lomoto Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 nice to hear that The Z can cut it on the track as well as being a good looker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbaker8130 Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 "Llandow is quite a small circuit - just under a mile long. This means it's perfect for track-day virgins like the wife & I - you never get up to silly speeds. I never got higher than 4th gear all day. " The Zed'll do 125mph in 4th I never got higher than 4th at Brands Hatch. (Indy) Sounds like a great time! Glad you enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanel Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Only stopped by the tyres getting too hot and squishy – should have been running higher pressures I think. Glad to hear that you had fun. Sounds like a good day. Bit worrying to hear that some people were hitting the wall. Must have been a little silly to manage that. Would agree about the trye pressure thing. When I did the Andy Walsh driving day I was told that in the Z because the tyres are meant for the road and not track use, that you should raise the trye pressure when playing on the track. The main reason for this is so that you don't wear out the tryes on the outer edges, which you do when you go round lots of corners very quickly and instead only wears the middle 3/4 of the tyre. I was surprised at how much he told me to raise the tyre pressure but it worked and didn't have too much of an impact on performance and handling. I was told to take the tyre pressure to the maximum that the tryes would take, which on the standard Bridgestones is 50 PSI (rather than the normal 35PSI). Would advise anyone that is going to one of these types of day to raise their tyre pressure to the maximum allowed by the tyre. Will save you money on new tyres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 great report Bernmc! it's so true what you say about drivers making all the difference: if you can't drive, you can be sitting in a Veyron but you won't be going that fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernmc Posted August 28, 2006 Author Share Posted August 28, 2006 Some pics at last From the skyline boys - Jameski & Robopope: Evo VIII Highly Trained Chav Pit Crew try to come to terms with the fact that there is an alloy wheel nearby which they won't be nicking: Evo's battle it out... silver one won't be in front for long! Little R5 Turbo stops to take a pee: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.