Yesterdays Snetterton trackday

[Marcus01]

A very interesting track day yesterday.

Started damp and slippy, dried nicely, then blizzard after lunch.

Good to meet Ken and Andy with the Beemer.

Unfortunately my track time was curtailed do to no headlights on the Mazda racecar.

[brillomaster]

Well that was an interesting day! despite weather forcasts saying the worst (overnight snow, then sleet, rain and snow throughout the day) and it being snowing I left leamington, by the time e got to snetterton it was green fields and light cloud, thank goodness.

 

In the morning at least, the beemer was performing well - keeping up with quite a few more track oriented cars running suitable tyres and lots of camber, even on our mismatched part worns. wll be very interesting to see what the car is like on proper, matching trackday tyres! despite ambient temperatures being around 2 degrees, we did actually manage to get some warmth into the tyres and brakes by about 11am - the track was drying nicely so could put together some decent laps. Still had traction + stability controls on, but by lunchtime they were becoming more of a hindrance, so was going to turn traction control off in the afternoon.

 

However, the weather had other ideas...

 

about 1pm, the snow started... and got heavier. by 2pm, the previous green fields were completely white - it was also starting to settle off the racing line, so to start with the full course was on waved yellows - admittedely only the foolhardy few ventured out in the snow (us included - well, we'd paid our money, might as well get some driving in!) All the hard work to make a dry line in the morning wasted, the car was all over the place.

 

I have to say, without traction and stability control, we would have been pirouetting off into the scenery at every corner, it was that bad. on the tighter left hand haipins, a dab of throttle anywhere in the corner would kick the back out, and anything other than a perfectly smooth arc on the steering would result in understeer. add to that when the snow melted and left lots of standing water around, aquaplaning at 80mph on the straights, and obviously ABS'ing in every braking zone - which often meant you missed the turn in point.

 

As you can imagine, the stability light was flickering pretty much constantly, and it became a game of seeing how little intervention you could get from it - take a corner well and be suuuper smooth with the steering and throttle, and it might just blink on the exit. but get even slightly enthusiastic with any control and it would come down like an anvil. Cutting power and braking individual wheels, its really remarkable how well it works even in arctic conditions - and don't forget the technology is 15 years old now! makes you wonder how good modern systems are, would love to have had a go in something like a GTR with all systems on, see how that handles the snow!

 

all in all, a really good day - managed 179 on track miles, despite the conditions, and did not spin once (put that down to 5% driver skill, 95% stability control!) car only had two small glitches - coolant needed a little top up, and the engine decided to run on 5 cylinders for a while - I think shortly before the tcs had had enough, and decided to stop sparking a cylinder to force us to come into the pits!

 

Looking forward to the next trackday, hopefully mid February - and we're also safe in the knowledge that the conditions can't get any worse than they did on Saturday - cold, wet, snowy, running mismatched, 70% worn summer tyres!

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken]

Good overview of the day Andrew, hope we get no snow at the next trackday.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Ken

[Will370z]

Sounds very interesting lol. You better buy snow tyres next