Another track day - Silverstone! (now with pictures)

[mrfunex]

Just about to begin. Weather is.... stormy! 

[Farqui]

Excellent, the weather should make it entertaining!

Enjoy

[Big Rat]

1 hour ago, mrfunex said:

Just about to begin. Weather is.... stormy! 

@mrfunex 

Bad weather no problem to skilled south west Silver drivers 😂

Big Rat

[mrfunex]

Update: it's raining, and the track is closed. Someone had a gearbox explosion, and drove the *entire &£@$€%# lap* on the racing line, dropping oil and parts. All 3.66miles. Not very happy. 

I've managed about 10 laps during the first half of the day. Boo! 

[Big Rat]

12 minutes ago, mrfunex said:

Update: it's raining, and the track is closed. Someone had a gearbox explosion, and drove the *entire &£@$€%# lap* on the racing line, dropping oil and parts. All 3.66miles. Not very happy. 

I've managed about 10 laps during the first half of the day. Boo! 

@mrfunex

I just love live trackside updates, oh no gearbox is it, well if these people will drive 'inferior' transmission equipped cars to the events, just spoils the day for others - only joking perhaps you point this out to him and send him round 🤓

Big Rat

[Farqui]

Aw snap, sorry your fun was cut short.

[emjay82]

What a nightmare, you must be fuming. . Very kindly put...."someone had a gearbox explosion". I'm sure there could have been other words to describe them as they carried on around the track!

[mrfunex]

So, the fun continues... puncture! 

Not fixable, but luckily a local place can source a new rear!

So, all in all, rather eventful in a frustrating way! 

When I was on track however, the car was great. I'll do a full review tomorrow! 

[Farqui]

 a shame as there's plenty of tread left.

Couldn't the tyre be plugged?

[mrfunex]

So, as promised, a review of the day (and the car!)

The day:

I did a track day last year at Silverstone (amongst others), in the dry. Yesterday's event was an entirely different affair! I used a TDO I've booked through before - they're really good - and helpfully had an instructor sit with me for several laps, right at the beginning to get my eye in again. Grip levels were utterly abysmal (many times the rear wheels span approaching 100mph in 3rd gear), corners were slippery, there was quite a lot of standing water and in the spray of vehicles in front, forward visibility was zero.

We had stoppages for cars leaving the track, some leaving various expensive internal components externally on the tarmac, one closure due to the sheer amount of rain and a puncture (for me) which ended our day an hour or so early. No, it couldn't be plugged :-( There was a great atmosphere there however, also because of all the stoppages the marshalls offered to work through their lunch break - usually the track is closed between 1-2pm.

 

The car:

For a heavy saloon car, with a massive lump of metal in the nose, it was great. I used sport mode, manual shift (obviously), but left the stability/traction set on throughout. The ISF felt like it could have stayed out there all day, non-stop. Speeds were slightly lower due to the weather, but there was no brake fade, the various guages on the dashboard never ever moved from halfway (apart from the fuel guage hohoho!) and nothing from the car made me feel like I needed to come in for a rest.

The handling was 'lively' on occasion! My car has the standard Bridgestone Potenza RE050A front and back, in the usual OEM sizes - 225 width on the front and 255 on the back. The car did want to wheelspin the entire way through third gear (so up to around 100mph) and we probably nudged 135mph at the end of the Hangar Straight. Around the corners, unfortunately, the huge weight of the 5.0 V8 made itself known - quite a bit of understeer was present, but until the electronics started beeping and power was reigned in, this understeer could be balanced on the throttle. Once I'd got the hang of this, the car was quite nicely set up, but you had to be GENTLE! The sheer torque of the engine could end play on that corner so easily if too much power was requested. We never span, occasionally slid, but the car was always willing for more.

Other special mentions go to the awesome H&S cat-back on my car - the car sounds like a Spitfire at WOT and it must have *just* scraped in under the 105dB limit. An old mate from school who popped in, grabbed a helmet and was present throughout - I think he had as good a time as I did despite the setbacks and the stoppages!

 

Summary:

Silverstone is ace. It's a world class circuit with sections to exploit the potential of any type of vehicle. The ISF is truly staggering - I drove 120miles to the track in comfort, drove as quickly as I could for a day around a race track in some awful conditions, then drove all the way home. All it demanded from me was more petrol (and one tyre!). It's truly a fantastic road car and a passable track machine. Is it's natural home Silverstone on a wet, cold day in March? No. It's too nose heavy and modern driver aids interfere - though probably saved my bacon - on at least a dozen occasions. Could it be improved - yes! I think slightly wider tyres on the front would help mitigate the understeer, and I'd like to try the car again in the dry, also a slighty stickier tyre compound would be worthwhile. I don't do many miles in it a year (5000 or so), so longevity of tyres isn't an issue for me. I am fortunate to also own a Honda S2000 as a toy car. It's not nearly as powerful, but it's about half a ton lighter, practically mid-engined and shod with VERY sticky rubber (Toyo R888). This has been my companion for a few years of track days now and for that type of driving, it has the ISF beat. I wouldn't dream of selling either of them!

 

Hope you lot enjoy the read - pics to follow.

[mrfunex]

Naturally, everyone present at the circuit, to a man, approached me throughout the day and said,

"We've all seen these in blues, reds, blacks and greys; but silver! Silver is the best colour to have an ISF in..."

 

[Big Rat]

1 hour ago, mrfunex said:

Naturally, everyone present at the circuit, to a man, approached me throughout the day and said,

"We've all seen these in blues, reds, blacks and greys; but silver! Silver is the best colour to have an ISF in..."

 

@mrfunex

Yes matey it's been hard to convince some around here of this photochromic fact 😂

Glad you had a good day on the whole !

Big Rat

[Big Rat]

7 minutes ago, Big Rat said:

@mrfunex

Yes matey it's been hard to convince some around here of this photochromic fact 😂

Glad you had a good day on the whole !

Big Rat

Stuart 

Last time I did this, this was the kind of MPG I was getting cough.......cough...... 

Big Rat

[mrfunex]

In my defence, the average mpg did drop to the low-9s, but by the time I'd done a half lap to cool down and got back into the paddock, it had gone up again!

 

...will try harder next time Mr Rat, sir! ;-)

[emjay82]

Great pics but all those exhaust fumes must have effected the fellow drivers perception of the best colour 😉 

[Mark G]

Good post, it does seem the car stands up well to a good thrashing with little or no consequences, I had the pleasure of pushing mine very hard for around 120 miles last year on a road trip to Andorra, extremely hard braking from 3 figure speeds in and around the Pyrenees and as you say no fade and all temperatures remaining normal, great car.

[Rusty Crobar]

@mrfunex great write up and pics, sounds like we had similar experiences on track. The rain sounded challenging but I guess a road car handled it better than the proper race cars 😊