Crail

"Exit the paddock, turning left (seaward!) down the 'main straight' towards a fast sweeping right-hand bend (almost a parabolic IMHO!). Approaching in 4th, brake just before a white concrete patch and select 3rd for the bend. Balance the car on the way in, apex about half way round and work with the throttle to control some luvverly powersliding oversteer as you exit. Watch for the drainage ditch on the left but use all the width and stay left as you power up towards the first Chicane. Bend to the right for entry, stand on the brakes (good surface here) and select 2nd before whipping left, and then look to control power oversteer on exit...keep an eye on the grass on your right too, zero traction! Let the car head diagonally over to the left of the track again for the 2nd proper corner of the "triangle". Select 2nd, aiming to flatten it out, and use some fairly severe trail braking (in my car, at least) to combat mega understeer which emerges as you exit. Then keep right for the line-up to the 2nd chicane; bend left this time, brake over some pretty dodgy broken surface, and throw the car right for some photogenic sideways stuff on exit ;-). Hard on the power to approach the final right-hander of the triangle in 3rd; the entry is tight, and you're going in blind thanks to the tyre wall on the right. Once across the apex at the tyre wall, watch the drifting left as too far and you clip the drainage trench...not pretty as the crops beckon. And there you have it - a flying lap of Crailburgring".

NOV 2004

Author: Simon Arnot

I also had a great day today. As Ali said, it started dry. I also went on the track to take advantage of the dry weather, quite a bumpy surface and a few stones about but didn't see any of the big potholes that had been mentioned. Seemed to be almost a perfect number of people there, never had to wait about to get on track. After the rain came down, I spent a bit of time on the oval with Ali, Lee and Neil, it got better the more it rained. Neil certainly had fun with his slick P-Zeros! Also had some fun on the wet track trying to get the back sliding with mixed results. At least I have now had my 1st spin. And my 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. Cheers again to Lee for organising and I'd definitely do it again. New rear tyres are now definitely needed!Author: Stewart McNaughton

In the morning when it was dry I decided to try out the oval. As mentioned there was no diesel and no water (at that point). It was really the first time I had the car sideways and was chuffed that I managed to control it. The grip was a bit inconsistent as there was clearly some diesel residue on the surface. I had more fun trying out the small figure of 8 configuration and this was great fun once I settled into a rhythm. Only down side was the large 1 tonne straw bales seemed fairly close, but never a problem for me.

Whilst it was still dry I ventured out onto the track. First thing that surprised me was how much understeer I was getting on the slow corners. I had always believed that the S1 was renowned to be more oversteery than the S2 which has a reputation for understeer. I gradually built up speed and confidence, but always came in for a breather when I felt that I could do the next lap much faster.

The rain started as very slight drizzle and the track began to get greasy. No real problems. I spun first at the last hairpin, but wasn't fazed as I knew exactly why it had happened - getting on the power too quickly and too tight a line on the exit. I did the same thing again a couple of laps later and wasn't fazed until I tried a spin turn to get going again and did a 360. Ok I though it's slippy now and promptly did another 360 trying to get going again. Time to calm down. Did another couple of easy laps before coming in.

After lunch the drizzle had turned to steady rain so I had a few pax laps with Andy and saw how much of a pussy I was being. Big mistake! I went back out and again starting building speed and confidence with each lap until .... 2nd last corner at about 70-80 mph the car swapped ends before I knew what was even happening. All I could see was the big bales becoming even bigger and instead of trying to think about how to avoid them, I was doing the mental arithmetic for the price for a new front clam and paint job. These thoughts very quickly changed to the cost of a rear clam as the car continued to spin backwards towards the metal gates. I think it was at about that point that I decided to see what would happen if I tried out the brakes. Phew!! I came to a nice stop a fair bit away from said bales or gates.

The thing that I didn't like about that spin is I had no idea why it happened and I wasn't expecting it. It fairly dented my confidence but thankfully not my car. I can only assume that I must of lifted off the throttle and steered left too quickly (to line up for the next corner) and upset the balance. Obviously with it being wet the car continued to spin much more than if it were dry.

Still, a good day out and the weather was ideal - no honestly it was! Dry in the morning for novices like me to get used to the car and wet in the afternoon to learn ifn "safe" conditions how the car reacts.

The much maligned surface at Crail wasn't nearly as bad as I expected and I would say that it is no worse and probably much better than many roads in the UK. The close proximity of bales, gates and tyres isn't ideal, but this makes sure that you give the corners some respect.

Thought the track was great, only got hit by stones when Ali overtook me for some reason?!? but overall no problems with the surface - just the HUGE haybails which seemed to be drawing me towards them every lap!

Can't wait to try again soon..... but remember, as far as Mairi is concerned - it was a big flat smooth airfield with nothing to hit and everybody drove very slowly with no spinning at all - especially not me!!!

Thanks for the day yesterday, despite my hangover and the fact that by 7am I had already reported all my credit cards as stolen, then found them again immediately after they had been cancelled I had fun. Nice drive up too and a nice one back behind Tim. Slippy but fun. £35 quid made it a bargain day too, good work, I would defo be back for some more hooning. Sadly my car was handling like a people carrier with understeer every where and only oversteer after a serious prod on the throttle. More of that below in the post I have cut and pasted from my thread on SELOC. Only downside was that it was one of the worst places I have been for run off ( i really would not like to see a high speed impact with one of those hay things) and the tyres would a lot of damage too. Compared to last time I was at crail and there really was nothing to hit, it was a bit of shame. Never really felt up for trying to put in fast laps, even found myself short-shifting a lot. I would prefer Oulton on the wet to crail Still fun though and put me in the mood for some more "real" track action in the new year. Nice to see my car looking ultra low on some of the photos, shame I am a zillion miles away from the apex :-) Thanks to Giles for the tow up, first time in convoy since Le Mans and also to Tim for the tow back. nearly missed my exit of the bridge!!

Around 20 cars showed up.
2 or 3 Scoobs and an Evo 6 enjoyed chasing each other around. You'd have felt well at home, Tut. Thought the Evo was fast but poorly driven. Lots of Elise action (excluding the various mishaps!), particularly Kevin "Smokin" Smart's excellent demonstration of donuts and the best ways of destroying Yokos ;-)

That was a laugh! The Yoko's seem to be virtually indestructible though. Great fun in the wet despite the lack of grip. I'll take up the advice of SO2's for the winter and keep the 539s for summer.

Lawrence had a ball, the rosy cheeks and huge grin said it all.

Hamish's TT couldn't provide enough grip on its baldy tyres, which was a shame.

Willie whispered around in his rev limited Exige. Nice car, boring colour I think though!

One Scoob beached itself into the mud after turn 1.

All in all, I drank lots of hot tea from my flask, caught up with a few people and had a nice take-away lunch from the local baker's. Oh, and avoided doing the tidying up at home ;-)

Looking forward to the next few months' automotive action.

Author : Scott Francis

It's unfortunate there were so many mishaps on the day, I bring the total count to 5 bumps in total, correct me if I'm wrong? I believe it was Alec (my apologies if I have got your name wrong) who had a slight run in with a post on the way to Crail and is a candidate for a new front clam (a crash reminiscent of my own). Peter also managed to crack his clam across the front after picking up 2 cones. Colin, hope you manage to get the 22B back on the road ASAP, I believe there is a picture of your car in the files section of the egroups/Scottish Elises site under KH video stills.

Although I didn't have the Elise back in time, the Type R proved itself and all though I was a little hesitant to take it out at first I felt I was lapping at a fair lick by the end of the day. Only niggles being the ABS which seemed to cut in far to early and the bottom corner at the pit entrance/exit which I couldn't seem to get right as it was right in between 2nd and 3rd gear ratios. Next time the bugger is getting filled with super to see if there is a difference off the mark.

My apologies to Kevin I did not realise you were waiting to overtake the Esprit when I flew past you both, I thought you were just being slow!!! I take it you went back for the FAST CAR day on Sunday to show them how to waste a set of Yokohamas?

Willie, Thanks for a great day, You will have to get some serious road miles in, in the Exige to loosen it up a little so you can put the foot down next time everyone comes up.

This is the first time I've driven this setup of the Crail circuit and the first time I've been to Crail for over a year. I prefer this setup to the original setup with the chicanes on the opposite side of the track. I did the first few tentative laps with Robin as passenger and wasn't getting the lines right at all. We swapped over to let me see Robin's line and to see how quickly he was taking the chicanes before I had a go on my own. I tend to find that it takes me a fair few laps to get into the groove on a new circuit, sussing out my braking points, when to turn in, get back on the power etc. By the end of the day I felt as if I was lapping consistently at a fair pace. Anyway, thanks to Robins generosity I had blast, despite not being in my own car

Just a quickie to say thanks for making us welcome on Saturday - had a great time although my other half wondered how I had mud on my face......

Big thanks to Robin for trying to improve my mediocre driving.

Author : Alec

Had a very enjoyable day AT Crail on Saturday - thanks for setting it up, Kevin. Was good to meet a few more familiar names from the list. Lawrence, thanks for the passenger laps - very impressive - makes you wonder if you really need anything more than a standard Elise with close-ratio gearbox!

SCOTTISH ELISES AT CRAIL

PICTURES

NOV 2004

Author: Simon Arnot

NOV 2004

FEB 2000