Author : Robin Iddon
Amazing - total blast. My wife beat me up when I said
"most fun I've had since the Nurburgring" - I had to add "driving
my car". Even the flat caps were worth mixing it with, painful though
they were (Allegro - who drives an Allegro!??!).
The track is quite short; lap times are about 10-15s less than KH - Pete Croney
(sp?) clocked in a 49s lap in his RSA scooby (this sounded awesome, has such a
CR box that it hits the limiter at 125mph and was well driven). I glanced
at my watch for a couple of the Exige's very early laps, which were about 1:10,
but never looked again once we were in the thick of it. I expect we were
all lapping around the 60s mark give or take once we had figured the track out.
To give pax laps you needed a green wriststrap, which you got from one of the
two instructors on hand - Kelly & Rob - Kelly spent most of her time
teaching on Elises and Caterhams at Bedford (I think that's were she said), so I
asked her to do my evaluation laps. She offered a few corrections to my
lines, which worked well, especially the Esses and Clearways, which were just
awesome once you had them sussed. Could take a second or two out of the
average scooby per lap just by taking the right line through that corner
combination; this includes not braking into the Esses at all - what a rush!.
I had not managed to get TOCA2 working on my machine before going, so had not
practiced; once she showed me this line, though, I remembered doing the same
thing on TOCA2.
Here's a flying lap, from what I can remember ...
Cross the start finish line as you change up into 4th; wish you could see the
corner which you know lurks over the brow of the hill. Drift out to the
left edge of the track. Brake as late as you dare, doing about 110mph in
my case (scoobies were reporting 120-ish here). Watch out for locking up
the brakes over the big bump in the road - just let off the brakes a little in
anticipation. Over the bump, brake hard again and down into 3rd, looking
for the start of the gravel trap on your left. You cannot see the apex
from here, but this _is_ the turn in point. Once you have got the car
turned in, start on the power; by the time you reach the apex you should be on
full power down the hill.
At the bottom of the hill, the road kinks (and on a wet day water fills the
bottom up like a wee pond). Press on hard and head up the other side of
the hill, allowing the car to drift all the way to the kerbing on the left.
[From the observation gallery these hills don't look steep, but they are!]
[Though not as steep as the biggest rush of all time, the Fuchsruhre].
Power on up the hill; with my setup, you just hit the rev limiter at the top of
the hill when it's time to brake hard and try and coax the car around the outer
edge of druids hairpin, until about half way around. Still in 3rd, turn in
aiming to use at most half the track on exit; turn in too soon and/or failing to
use all of the track on entrance will result in a wide exit. This puts you
off line for the next corner and you lose a lot of speed. If you get it
right your neck should be feeling the G's as you pull through the apex and power
on down the hill towards the much slower left hander (Graham Hill?).
Sticking to the right of the track (and ignoring the "dummy" left
hander on the way down), brake hard, lift off the brakes, turning in and power
gently into the corner, which is off camber. You need to judge the
throttle right here; too little and you really should be in 2nd; too much (or
too soon) and you push the car wide in the corner, hit the exit kerbing which
will throw you back on the inside of the track and the tyre walls if unlucky.
Power up the short up hill straight towards the esses, stay right. Ignore
the "brake now" cones :-) Lift off slightly before the turn in
marker (which is towards the end of the kerbing on the right hand side IIRC).
Don't brake. As soon as you get the car turned in, bring on the power to
settle it - lift off now and you're in trouble. Also watch out for the
difference in camber between the tight (correct) line and the wider (slower)
line. As you cross over the ridge between the two, the car feels like it
just let go, but it is just the camber change.
Keep the power full on, aiming for the straightest possible line between the
first (left) and second (right) corner, taking both apexes on the kerbing if
you're brave enough. After the second apex brake progressively, until you
are close to the edge of the track. Lift off, allow the front to recover a
little before using gentle throttle, drive around the outside edge of the track
for just a couple of meters, then turn in for long right hander (Clearways, IIRC).
Get on the power early (before the apex), but make sure you stick tight to the
apex, which is in the center of the kerbing on the right hand side. As you
go over the brow of the hill, you can use full power and
let the car drift far out to the left edge of the track. Keep a slight
steering angle to the right still, because as you reach the outer (left) edge of
the track, you sweep back across to the right side, where the marshall's tower
is. Depending on speed, you may then stay tight to the right hand pit wall
up the straight, or you may need to use more of the track back over to the left
as you exit this very shallow corner. As with KH, the pit straight is
uphill and a banana, so watch out you don't run too wide! It can be
deceptive, especially if you are overtaking someone on your right hand side,
then realise that the track is rapidly narrowing on the horizon :-) Change
up to fourth when ready, and line up on the left hand side for the next
frightening plummet into paddock.
Many thanks to Steve Mitchell for letting me do a quick 5 laps in the Exige
(before he spaded it). This is still an awesome car; now revs to 8,000rpm,
though still not willingly enough - I found it was faster driving it like my
car, rather than using the extra revs. I also experimented with doing the
entrance of druids through the exit of Graham Hill in second gear. But it
still felt better in third; again once the engine revs more freely this would
have to be re-evaluated.
But the real win is the grip; Druids is painful on the neck whenever you get it
right, and at Clearways you were really glad of the harnesses pinning you to the
seat; I was still standing on the foot rest next to the clutch, trying to keep
myself wedged in the seat. For paddock you could be on the brakes later and
the power earlier.
The brakes are still shocking, IMHO. They work well but lack feel and the
pedal travel is excessive. But we expect that.
Steve crashed just as I was taking his brother in law for a pax lap. I was
overtaking a scooby out of Graham Hill (he was letting me past), and Steve was
trying to overtake me in the same straight; got the power down too soon, and
picked up a lot of oversteer. Didn't manage to correct it and slewed into
the tyre wall.
All in all a great day out.