SCOTTISH ELISES AT BEDFORD AUTODROME

 

AUGUST 2004

Author: Kelvin Hughes

Just back from Bedford.

 I’m bloody knackered. Bedford is hard on the car and hard on the driver.

This was a SELOC track day run by the Bedford staff and sponsored by……well I forget; some telecommunications Company or other. Usual format of open pit lane etc. from 10am until 4.30. The track actually opened at 9am but the speed was limited to 50mph for the first hour.  They are very strict with the noise testing. They do the usual wave the noise meter vaguely behind the car while chatting on the radio test before they even let you into the first car park! You are also continuously monitored via track side noise meters placed at areas where you will be at max acceleration over 60mph. Anyone above 87db on the drive by is toast; no ifs or buts. I refitted my cat a few weeks ago to make sure I’d have no problems and to be honest I prefer the car with the cat fitted. Overtaking was by consent and on the straights only like most appear to be down here and the track etiquette was excellent; the best I’ve experienced. I think a lot of this was down to the strict marshalling. If you spin, no matter the reason, you are instantly black flagged and brought in where you have to report to either the organiser or the chief marshal for a wee discussion. Three such spins and you are kicked off the circuit. As a result, everyone played by the rules.

The track itself is built on an airfield so it’s pretty much featureless and very flat. This makes the first few laps a little confusing as you pick your way through the myriad of cones mapping out the circuit which was the 3.6 mile GT circuit. This is by far the fastest UK circuit I’ve ever driven. It has some fantastically fast corners that need a lot of commitment to take well. No lifting off here or it’ll be spin city. Fortunately there’s loads of run off so nothing much to hit if it does go Pete Tong. From memory my lap goes something like:

Out of the pits and join the circuit at the bottom of the pit lane straight into a tight left hand hairpin that widens on the exit. Down to 2nd, late turn in and late apex just taking a little bit of kerb. On the power early and make the most of the extra wide kerb. Get on the gas early and cane it up the short straight in 4th gear into a fast right left chicane. You can leave the braking very late before turning into the chicane taking the kerb then it’s hard on the gas out the other side and onto the best part of the circuit. The next section is a very long lazy S that first goes left then right; the change of direction as such high speed is fantastic. You can feel the g force pile on as you build up speed through here. It’s so wide on this section of track that I was using a different line every lap! On the right hander my car was struggling a bit with very slight understeer here. Come out of ‘S’ in 3rd changing up to 4th and down a short straight; stay out very wide stay on the power and follow the straight as it changes direction towards the left. Brake late and deep right up to the yellow cone (beyond it I thought was better) and turn in hard taking a few cm’s of kerb. This leads onto a tight left hander (a kind of constant radius affair) you need to get this bang on or otherwise you slide all the way through it. For those of you who have been at the Ring you take it like the chicane there brake deep and turn back on yourself. You come out of here very wide and you are off down the longest straight on the track. I was getting just under 125mph before the chicane at the end of the straight. Actually the chicane is really 2/3’s of the way down the straight as it continues on into a tight 2nd gear left hander. Anyway, the chicane is pretty fast; 3rd if you scrub off too much speed otherwise 4th. It’s a straightforward chicane just straight line it. Back up to 4th all the way down to very tight hairpin. This isn’t the place to have a brake failure or massively out brake yourself as there is a short runoff and then tyres. Down to 2nd turn in late and apex very late getting on the power early along a short straight short shifting to 3rd into a constant radius right hander; let the car drift all the way left as you unwind the steering and get back on the power. Down yet another short straight towards two corners joined by a short straight a little bit like Sunny in and out at Croft although going left rather than right. i.e. you drive them like one big corner. It’s all done pretty much flat (in theory at least) in 3rd gear. If you don’t turn in quickly enough or carry too much speed into the second part of the corner then you pretty much end up going the long way round through the grass as a few people did. This leads onto another straight up to 4th and gun it down to a very tight left hand 2nd gear hairpin. Mucho tail out action which eventually led me to spin here (black flag and ticking off!) Back up to 3rd and along a shortish straight  into a right hander which I struggled with once the tyres were very hot as my car was understeering like buggery here. It’s another late turn in constant radius jobby; let the car drift wide on the exit. Nearly home now save for two very fast 3rd gear right handers. Blast down a long straight up to 4th; then down into 3rd and a wee dab on the brakes through a long and wide right hander. Again drift wide getting on the gas early stay in 3rd and rev it out all the way to the next very fast right hander. Don’t brake this time maybe a confidence lift before turning in, ideally feather the throttle. Take a lot of kerb on the apex and gun it out of the corner back down the pit straight to do it all again.

As I said it is stunningly quick and the g force and constant direction changing takes its toll on you. It also eats your brake pads and chomps through your tyres. I used my Yokohama Neova today for the first time on track. They are excellent tyres similar to SO2’s although maybe more progressive. I don’t think they offer any more grip than SO2’s to be honest but turn is better and they don’t go off quite as much. They also don’t seem to get anywhere near as hot either as my tyre pressures didn’t need adjusting staying at a constant 1.7/1.9. Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.

This track really suits a more powerful Elise shod with R tyres; in fact R tyres on their own would make a massive difference. In the tighter corners I could stay with (and catch/pull away from) some of the R shod Elise’s (48’s in the main) but on the faster corners they were much faster. There were a few very fast Elise’s; a 135R S2 in particular but most were either lapping at my pace or were going slightly faster slightly slower. All in all, I did 4.5 hours driving burning two full tanks of BP’s finest. There wasn’t a single stoppage all day which I’ve never seen before.  

All in all a great day; Bedford was much better than I was expecting as I had read a lot of negative comments about it. It’s no Oulton Park but it does have some very high speed corners and wide variety of corners which most other circuits lack. The biggest question is then, is it worth it to come all the way down from Scotland to visit this circuit? I’d say yes simply because of the chance to drive on a large very fast circuit in relative safety. It’s easily faster than any other UK circuit and that in itself offers a new challenge.  Moreover, I live 35 minutes from the circuit so you’d have a free place to stay.

My car never missed a beat all day on track but unfortunately developed a fault on the way home. Under acceleration there is a very loud metallic ticking/clicking coming from the top of cylinder head like the tappet click but much louder; also there is a slight oil leak coming from the camshaft oil seal. Any views? My car clicked over the 40,000 miles mark on track today as well. Given the hard life it’s had (the MOT report said it needed some ‘tender love and care’) it has been very well behaved on the whole. What a great wee car it is!