Cadwell Park Track Day

[T9 man]

Hi guys, just thought I would share my day with you yesterday as I was at Cadwell Park circuit in Lincolnshire. What a marvellous day out it was too.
Drove up on Friday afternoon with her indoors and stayed at a lovely pub hotel called The Royal Oak Splash in Little Cawthorpe, highly recommended btw if anyone is ever in that neck of the woods.
Enjoyed a couple bottles of ice cold Crabbies ginger beer in the beer garden before we hopped in a taxi and went to the social get together bbq at the circuit for 7pm.

Lots of good food and a few more cold ones with plenty of laughs and chatter thrown in.

Arrived back at the circuit for 7.30am for the signing on, track briefing and exhaust sound check. I failed the sound check! then while I selected a gear to leave the paddock, my little bottom lip started to quiver and a small tear was emerging from the corner of me eye, this chaps walks over. "How much is it over Don? he says to the scrutineers, "4 DB over" was the reply. He walks around the back lies down on the floor and looks at the exhaust system and said "It's ok he's had this one made by Simpson's let the poor sod go" He gets up walks round to me and said nice one mate never seen one on a road car before, enjoy your day" I could have kissed him but thought better of it.

This was the first time since all of the works were done on the beast in the summer that I have had a chance to put my foot down in anger. It was ruddy marvellous! The old girl never missed a beat and I must say it felt great to embarrass a few chaps who were in a Porsche, Evo, Subaru and TVR's.

After the first 4 laps I came off the track to let the brakes cool down and check the old girl over. I had quite a few people come over to see what the hell it was I had under the bonnet. I used the NOS once and switched it off; as fast as it kicked in it was time for me to brake, another time another place I suppose!
I let her indoors have a go behind the wheel for two laps and she drove it just like Miss Daisy! But bless her at least she had a go!
All in all an absolutely marvellous day out, that is it for this year now with regards to track days, roll on 2012 and the installation of the AWD system.

Some pics!

 

[obi_waynne]

Sounds like you had quite a blast. Are you going to do anything about the exhaust as most tracks have a db limit.
I read about a butterfly switch you can have to help silence the exhaust in redline magazine a few months ago.

4bd is quite a bit over as if is a logarithmic scale iirc.

 

[T9 man]

Sounds like you had quite a blast. Are you going to do anything about the exhaust as most tracks have a db limit.
I read about a butterfly switch you can have to help silence the exhaust in redline magazine a few months ago.

4bd is quite a bit over as if is a logarithmic scale iirc.

I think I will leave it until next year and see what it sounds like! Since the exhaust was built, the inside pipe has become coated quite nicely with carbon and is much less boomy?? :blink: than before! As I am going to have the exhaust redone anyway due to the AWD being fitted, that would be an ideal time to address the issue

 

[T9 man]

A few more pics!

Whoops!

Easy tiger!

The importance of a keen eye and track day insurance!

Her indoors with me on a fast lap!

 

[jarrus]

AWD!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

Why am I not supprised? That car must be pretty bombastic mate.....
You running that new engine now? does it lag much with the GT30?

 

[T9 man]

AWD!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

Why am I not supprised? That car must be pretty bombastic mate.....
You running that new engine now? does it lag much with the GT30?

It did when I first had to run the engine in for a 1000 miles young J.
I was running on a "milk float remap " to prevent me from doing anything silly to the engine while everything was bedding in. The turbo lag was tortuous! in fact I would have struggled against a milk float in a traffic light drag race :embarrest:
But then after a whole day at the garage, blowing in different tweaked versions of the race map and after the initial engine checks and oil change had been done; the old girl was just how I expected her to be but x2 :bigsmile:

Everything on the race engine was geared around the GT30 and my NOS kit, the GT30 is just about the biggest turbo that I can get fitted into the gap. This was then further altered dramatically internally with some clever spools and angles and clip something or another (no idea what that means!) :embarrest: to reduce the lag considerably to make it much more usable lower down the rev range.

The AWD was always going to be done to lay all that power down a little better. The system will be coming off a Saab Turbo X but will have further trick tweaks done to it by a guru boffin genius at MapTun next year. This is why I am prepared to go to Sweden next year with the beast if further engine tuning and software works to the AWD control system has to be done in-house. With luck though I might get away with tweaks and stuff downloaded into the garage gizmo that plugs into the ECU.

 

[Prince]

Looks like great fun mate! I'm hoping to get out for a few next year myself.

 

[T9 man]

Looks like great fun mate! I'm hoping to get out for a few next year myself.

Please do mate it is immense fun! make sure you take out some track day insurance though Prince, mine was £68.98 for the day with a £250 excess.
There are some prized tools on these track days who still think it's a race track as opposed to just driving fast and having fun.
Some of the muppets thought they were obviously protected by the force! I saw 4 accidents with lots of damage, track closed for a total of 75 minutes throughout the course of the day. Mercifully no one was hurt just peoples pride and their cars! Look at http://www.circuit-days.co.uk/ for various track days for the 2012 calender, open pit lane is the best one to go for if at all possible.

 

[Prince]

Please do mate it is immense fun! make sure you take out some track day insurance though Prince, mine was £68.98 for the day with a £250 excess.
There are some prized tools on these track days who still think it's a race track as opposed to just driving fast and having fun.
Some of the muppets thought they were obviously protected by the force! I saw 4 accidents with lots of damage, track closed for a total of 75 minutes throughout the course of the day. Mercifully no one was hurt just peoples pride and their cars! Look at http://www.circuit-days.co.uk/ for various track days for the 2012 calender, open pit lane is the best one to go for if at all possible.

Thanks for that mate! I will have a good look into it for next year (after the 'charger is fitted).