Wet wet wet...

Hi.

Here are a few 'action shots' from a couple of weeks ago at Bedford.

This is from one of my initial 'installation laps' with Calum Lockie - before I took off the wheel centres at Phil's suggestion. I think he was trying to tell me that bouncing off the kerbs could've left me with a few missing bits at the end of the day...



The Toyos were surprisingly good in what were sometimes really wet conditions.





Even over the kerbs...



Over the summer I need to find out how they, and the rest of the car, cope with my ham-fisted over-enthusiasm in the dry!

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

At last, some photos...

Hi.

Some time ago, I promised to post a few pictures of the interior of the car, so that you can see where the money's gone. But first, I can't resist a picture of the outside of the car again, just to show you that a couple of track days and numerous off-track excursions haven't ruined its pretty face!



I still think it's a fantastic looking car, and the cage and seats make it look even better. I must say, the seats aren't all that comfortable for road use - the 'wings' really hold your shoulders into the seat, and manoeuvring with the harness done up is pretty tricky - you certainly can't look over your shoulder! But it's purposeful, and slotting yourself into the car through the roll cage certainly gives a sense of occasion! Luckily, Steve was able to fit the seats using the existing runners, so it's at least possible to move the seat backwards and forwards. I find that for road use I like it a bit further back than on the track. And it's much better now that the driver's seat has been lowered a couple of centimetres - I'm not banging my head on the roll cage any more!



Speaking of the cage, I'm really glad I decided to have it painted the same colour as the bodywork - it cost a little bit extra, but I think it makes it look more integral.

One thing that surprised me is that the Toyo tyres look so much better than standard road tyres, and in combination with a bit more camber on the front wheels, I think they make the car look a lot more purposeful. Here's my best attempt at a shot of the car showing the tyre tread pattern...



Lastly, another thing that impressed me about Steve's work is the ignition cut-off switch. I expected a great big red handle, but he fitted this discrete switch on the panel next to the driver's side windscreen wiper, which is almost unnoticeable unless you're looking for it.



So, all in all I'm really happy with the car. Okay, it's not quite powerful enough, and it's not particularly comfortable for long journeys on the road, but that wasn't the point of it. As a car that I'm proud to own and which I can learn racecraft in, I think it's pretty much perfect.

Now I'll have to think about what to do with it over the Summer...

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

Oversteer is good for the soul...

Hi.

Saturday started with a rude alarm call at 4.30am. I'm not much of a morning person, but the thought of a day on the track made it a little easier to shake myself awake as the clock radio blared Radio 1 in my right ear.

The problems earlier in the week had meant that I needed to go to Bedford via Daventry, and to get to the track by eight necessitated the obscenely early, and dark, and wet, start to the day.

Steve Guglielmi had found that rather than a wheel bearing or CV joint, the problem with the car was nothing more than a sticking handbrake, which he had freed off, and which seemed fine on the run to Bedford. He had also fitted a set of scrubbed Toyo R888 tyres, which apparently are a good all-round track and road tyre. They felt reassuringly grippy on the wet roads to Bedford, and the persistent rain of the early morning was helpfully starting to ease off as I reached the circuit. Having said that, the dark clouds and biting wind didn't do much to make the Autodrome an inviting venue!

In fact, my early start hadn't really been early enough - I got to the track around 8.30, just in time for signing on, attending the briefing, applying my allocated number stickers, and checking the tyre pressures.



Then it was time to head out, past the line of Ferraris, Porsches, and even a brand new Spyker, on to the track with Calum Lockie. As at Silverstone, Calum came with me for a few laps of familiarisation. And boy was that necessary. I don't know if other track day companies offer the same service, but I'd really recommend Gold Track, not just for things like that, but for their excellent organisation throughout the day.

For anyone who hasn't been to Bedford Autodrome, it's a circuit that can be configured a number of ways, and the GT circuit is long. Very long. It's over four miles, and it took me the best part of the morning just to work out which way the next corner was going. Add to that the fact that the clouds decided to intermittently soak the track, and it was pretty difficult to get to know the place.

What I found was that corners which on one lap seemed to have loads of grip could on the next lap feel like you were driving on ice. And it wasn't always the case that wet equalled slippery. For example, just after lunch, on a soaking track, the car was the grippiest it had been all day. I guess it's something to do with the combination of rubber, oil, water and track temperature that made things so unpredictable - but it was certainly interesting, and most of all a lot of fun.

One of the main things I wanted to achieve through these track days was a better feel for rear-wheel drive handling, and Saturday was perfect for that. On certain corners oversteer was almost impossible to avoid - and not just the slow corners, but also the fast sweeping corners around the circuit. This gradually forced me to find out exactly what the car was going to do under different conditions, and how I should react to it. The phrase 'driving by the seat of your pants' was a bit of a mystery to me until Saturday. I feel enlightened! I think there's something about the wide open spaces of Bedford that make you confident that if you get something wrong, you're unlikely to hit anything solid. Of course, even skidding over the undulating grass at the wrong angle can do all sorts of damage, but it somehow felt like a consequence-free environment. It was fantastic for learning.

Once I'd figured out the lines of the track I spent the day learning from Phil, who had helpfully come with me again. I learned to look through the corners to the exits, and in the case of complexes of corners, I learned to look from one corner to the next, to make the car flow. I became acutely aware of the consequences of too much movement of the steering wheel or over-enthusiastic throttle application, and gradually got smoother in my approach, letting the car drift out of the corners and unwind the steering by itself, trusting that it will settle itself down. Which most of the time it did. Of course, there were a few spins, the most notable being one directly in front of the pit lane, but then if you don't spin, you aren't trying hard enough, are you?

So, it was a real learning experience, and extremely tiring. By 4pm I had had enough, and I feared that any loss of concentration could result in me throwing the car into the scenery and hitting one of the few solid objects around the track. I didn't relish the idea of having to walk home! So I called it a day, and the car behaved perfectly on the long drive back to Bracknell.

All in all, it was a great day, and one that I would thoroughly recommend. It's going to be a little while until I'm able to go on another track day, but already I've achieved one of my main goals. I need to keep learning, keep concentrating, and then maybe at some point I can think about either racing, or a little bit more power for even more fun on track days... Hmmm...

If you feel that your driving skills are missing something, and you want to improve without breaking the bank, I would totally recommend a cheap track day car and some early mornings!

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

500 yards...

Hi.

Another day, another challenge. It's now two days until Bedford, and the BMW, which should be on the driveway, is back in Steve's workshops. I picked it up this afternoon and got 500 yards down the road before realising that the rhythmic knocking noise coming from under the car wasn't going to go away. A quick confirmatory test-drive and inspection by Dave at Guglielmi revealed that it was one of the back cv joints or wheel bearings. Great. So the car couldn't go anywhere this evening, and the interior shots I promised to post will have to wait until later. Until then, here's a shot of it on its way back into the familiar surroundings of the Guglielmi workshops.

Realising that without the BMW I would be walking the 80 miles home, Dave kindly lent me another of their cars - a BMW 3 series touring, which, whilst not the BMW I had been hoping to drive home, at least got me back in comfort. Thanks Dave, I hope you didn't have to walk home yourself.

Anyway, the plan is now to get the car fixed tomorrow or Friday, and for me to pick it up from Daventry at the crack of dawn on Saturday, on my way to Bedford. Fingers crossed... again...

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

Nearly Bedford-time

Hi.

I still haven't seen the BMW since its first outing at Silverstone a few weeks ago. Phil brought it back to Daventry on the trailer for me, and I just haven't been able to get up there to pick it up. Actually, it has worked out well timing-wise, as I've been able to ask Steve to look at a few bits and pieces before the car's next outing. I was thinking about having Gaz shocks and new springs fitted, and changing the tyres for a set of Toyos, but the costs have been racking up, and I've decided that enough is enough for the moment. So the 'bits and pieces' have been limited to some work on the door locking, a set of replacement exhaust hangers, and lowering the driver's seat so that my crash helmet doesn't hit the roll cage.

My next outing is coming up fast - it's next Saturday at Bedford Autodrome, and I'm really looking forward to it. The circuit looks technical and interesting, so hopefully the BMW's lack of power won't be too much of a handicap. Phil's going to make the trip up there with me, and it'll be good to get some more instruction from him. I don't think he's been there before either though, so it'll be a learning experience for both of us. I hear that there are really good run-off areas, so hopefully the car will stay in one piece, as I'll be driving it to and from the circuit this time, and it would be a long walk home!

Anyway, the only other thing on the list for this week, aside from picking the car up on Wednesday, is a good clean, inside and out. Once that has been done, I'll post a few interior shots so that you can see where the money has been spent.

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

Silverstone - Action Shots!

Hi.

I promised I'd post a few shots of the BMW in full flight at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago. Here they are - next will come some pictures of the interior to show the modifications that have been carried out. I'll clean the car before then, to make sure it looks a bit more presentable...







Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.

And we're off!

Hi.

Done it! I'm in one piece, the car's in one piece, and my head is buzzing with the things I've learned, about myself and about the car.

Let's start at the beginning of the day on Saturday, and the great news that the doom-laden weather forecasts thankfully turned out to be wrong. It was a grey start, but not a snowy one, and that was the main thing. I extracted myself from my bed at 5am and set off to Silverstone at 6.

I felt pretty guilty on the way up to the circuit - guilty that I wasn't contributing anything to the logistics arrangements for the BMW. Instead, Phil had kindly picked the car up from Steve's and was going to bring it up by trailer. I was cocooned in my warm Volvo without having experienced the delights of tying down cars and hooking up trailers in sub-zero temperatures. I got a bit of an insight though into the troubles trailering can bring when Phil rang me to let me know that one of the hubs on the trailer had seized, and he'd had to take one of the four wheels off to get the trailer to move at all. Not a great start, but, with some extra pressure in the remaining right-hand wheel, he told me the trailer was safe to use.



Phil's tribulations didn't delay him long. He arrived at Silverstone shortly after I had signed on. The track was still icy at that time of the morning, and snow still lay on some of the shadier parts of the paddock, but the sky was bright and we just had our fingers crossed that they would open the track quickly. After a driver's briefing at 8.30 we extracted the BMW from the trailer.

The car was pretty dirty from the drive up through salted roads, so I didn't get the grand unveiling of the BMW in all its race-prepared glory, but what really mattered was how it felt and how it drove. Initially, everything felt strange. The racing seat was set high (which is how I like it) but with my helmet on, my head bashed against the roll cage as soon as I moved right slightly. "This could be a problem..." I thought to myself.



I didn't have long to think though, as I had booked a familiarisation session with Calum Lockie, experienced GT racer and, as it turns out, personable and insightful instructor. As we set out on to the track he immediately knew which areas I struggled with and which I found easier. I never even noticed the roll cage - so much for that being a problem!

Calum's comments were extremely useful - if only I could remember them all. It's like a golf swing - the moment you get one thing right, everything else goes to pot. That's what I told myself as the car pirhouetted around the right-hander at Becketts. Too much entry speed into the corner. Oh well, no harm done. But I was a bit concerned about the brakes - the pedal travel seemed to have lengthened considerably, and I was mashing it into the floor but still the speed wasn't coming off.

When we arrived back in the pits, Phil and I had a look around the car - the discs weren't too hot, the fluid wasn't boiling, and Steve, on the phone, insisted that the system had been bled. The only thing for it was to get back out there and see how the car performed this time. And speaking of time, the morning was flying by, and I had to make my 10.30 appointment with one of the circuit instructors, by the name of Scott. I'm not sure what his background or experience is, but he was a relaxed and amiable guy, with more good insight into the circuit and my lines around it. Some of what he said contradicted Calum's a little, but he explained this by commenting that my particular car (low power, low grip) didn't really suit some of the lines of the GT racers that Calum usually pilots. I tried a different line around Becketts - but after a few laps, we had a pretty big 'off', across the kerbs and the mud, which flew up and spattered all over the car, ensuring that I wouldn't be able to keep this indiscretion a secret...

Unfazed, Scott explained his view that the problem was all down to the fact that the brakes were new and hadn't been bedded-in properly. "Give it a few more laps - it'll be fine" was his advice, and he proved to be absolutely right.

Throughout the day I gained confidence and commitment to the corners, but just like golf again, some that had been perfect at the beginning of the day suddenly fell apart. Like Copse, a corner which I absolutely loved - a slight and quick dab on the brakes from top speed in 4th along the pit lane, heel-and-toe down to 3rd, balance the throttle, feel the back of the car twitch a little, adjust the line slightly, and back into 4th as the car is straightening up on the exit - lovely. For some reason my turn-in point started getting earlier, and to compensate I was putting more power on mid-corner, which resulted in wild arm-actions to correct the understeer-oversteer-understeer problems that resulted. Anyway, it got a bit better later in the day.

For most of the afternoon Phil was next to me in the car, giving calm instructions from his perspective as a racer, and crucially, never indicating any panic at my incompetence! It was absolutely brilliant to have someone there who could take away a lot of the uncertainty about a first track day and help with advice about driving styles. One of his best pieces of advice was not to stay out too long in any one stint. I found myself, after ten laps or so, losing concentration and making more mistakes in my eagerness to rectify the ones from the previous laps. Part of the challenge to my concentration was the predominance of very fast (and some very valuable) cars on the circuit. It was swarming with Porsches, Caterhams, and Radicals, as well as a number of classic American racers (a Corvette and a Cobra) and they came up in the mirrors of the little BMW pretty quickly! I adopted a policy of getting out of everyone's way as soon as possible, so as not to get a bad name for myself. And it pleased me that every now and then I'd find myself with someone else in MY way - usually the circuit's own Lotus Exige with a paying driver, or even a Nissan Note which somehow found its way on to the circuit!



As the sun started to go down and we loaded the car back on the trailer after having used up two full tanks of fuel (thankfully there's a fuel station on site at Silverstone), I thought through the day.

So, what did I learn? Well, I achieved what I wanted to - to start learning how to handle a rear-wheel drive car properly. I really could feel the transition from understeer to oversteer. The next thing to learn will be how to use that to my advantage, to alter a line slightly here and there. I also learned that it's going to be a long process of discovery - discovering my own skills and limitations, and those of the car. Unavoidably, I also learned that I'm not going to be satisfied with the power and handling of the car for long. It could do with more horsepower, and the suspension set-up is rather odd, with a tail-high stance that doesn't seem right. It needs some adjustability which it doesn't have at the moment, so at some point, when the bank manager allows, it would benefit from more work.

Until then, I'll focus on looking towards the next track day, which I'll arrange as soon as possible. And I'll post some pictures of the car in motion as soon as I have them.

Thanks for reading this. Speak to you soon.