SCOTTISH ELISES AT OULTON PARK
OCT 2004
Author: Kelvin
Oulton was great as always. It
started off quite wet but the threatened rain didn't materialise in the morning
so the track quickly dried out until around 2.30 when it pissed down. Quite a
mix of cars; lots of XR2 racers; RS Turbo's and LHD (Ringtastic) Beemers; the
usual Caterfields plus some exotica and the odd Elise or three and of course
Brian in his Noble; very nice it is as well.
I swear
the briefings get longer and longer; there was a whole new list of do's and
don't all of which I instantly forgot the minute the briefing ended so I can’t
repeat them here.
A couple of my workmates came
along, one in an S2 111S and the other in a Ferrari 355 GTS. Any Purvis, the
F355 driver, is an ex GT racer (raced for Marcos for 6 years) so was, shall we
say, quite handy. He also came fully prepared with covered Brian James trailer,
semi slicks and wets, large selection of tools, fold away seats for between
sessions, Racelogic datalogger (obviously switched off it being a track day),
plumbed in intercom, several jerry cans of fuel (6-8 mpg's on track; I was
getting around 15mpg) He's also ripped out the leather seats and replaced them
with 2 OMP figure hugging raceseats and harnesses plus he's added wings and
splitters and removed the cats and fitted a straight through exhaust. As for me,
well I turned up with my car, my torque wrench, some oil and a Kit-Kat (-:
The F355 sounded fantastic
when he fired her up but it was no surprise that he failed the noise test; his
car was measured at 110db(A) although they let him on anyway! The head marshal
chappie remembered him from his racing days apparently. What was very pleasing
was the fact the he was caning his F355 as hard as we cane the Elise. Tis the
first time I've been on track with a supercar that was being thrashed; generally
they pootle around. Being an ex racer he didn't give the slower cars much of a
chance to decide what to do as he passed them anyway; although it was all very
safe and controlled but he wasn’t quite following the pass by consent rule; he
normally does Gold Track trackdays and on those you pass either side. Although
the F355 is quite a big car it felt quite nimble. Changing gear looked like hard
work however given the distance the gear stick needs to move through the gate
and the big shove it needed to get it in gear. Despite that, he heel and toe'd
every change perfectly; sometimes blipping the throttle a few times (just
because he liked the angry bark of the exhaust) He was just about the quickest
driver on track although a raced up BMW M3 running on full slicks gave him a
good run for his money even forcing him to out brake himself at Foulstons much
to the amusement of the Beemer driver as you could hear him giggle away on his
in-car video footage. First time I’ve been a passenger in a supercar that was
being driven flat out and it was quite an experience.
This was also the first track
day and the first familiar road I’d driven since I had the Honda engine
installed so I was like a little kid at Christmas. It was really slippy in the
morning so I had to feather the throttle a bit to ensure I didn’t spin up the
rears which is easy to do in the wet. Again my car felt lacking in grip in the
damp/wet which was a bit frustrating until I gave one of my mates a passenger
ride. He’s a big lad at 100kg’s or so and having him in the car seemed to
restore the balance as the car had much more front grip. I’ve yet to fit Stu’s
aly belled discs and I’m glad of that as my brake vibration came back with a
vengeance after an hour or so; again very frustrating and this keeps happening
with every set of discs I put on the car.
The Honda engine and 6 speed
box are a joy on track completely transforming the car. The ability to rev it
out to 8k and to have a gear for every possible situation makes the car very
flexible. What I was finding that because it revs out so quickly in every gear I
would often be on the limiter in 3rd or 4th going onto the next
corner. Going into to Lodge for example I’d be at 8k in 4th long
before the braking point but changing to 5th was pointless as I was
immediately changing back to 4th. In the end, I started short shifting at
various places and taking some of the corners in the next gear up as the car
pulls very hard in 4th and 5th . At Knickerbrook I was
changing to 3rd however it was then on the limiter going into the
right hander before Clay Hill. I never really got a chance to try this in 4th
as I was always in traffic but something to try next time for sure. The ‘Ring
will be interesting as I figure I’ll be in 4th and 5th for
most of the time assuming I get up to a decent pace. In terms of max speed, I
was circa 4mph slower than the F355 based on an indicated max rpm in 5th as I
don’t tend to look at the speedo much when I’m driving. The other Andy (S2
Elise) reckoned I was 15-20mph quicker than him on the straights which seems a
tad optimistic to me.
The journey home was a
nightmare; possibly the worst weather I’ve driven in and possibly the worst
driving I’ve seen. It took 9 hours to get home due to nobheads crashing in the
rain; 4 separate accidents in the space of 50 miles and still people were
bombing down the outside lane at 100mph+ with rivers of water running across the
motorway. In the end, I came off the motorway and threaded my way south on A
roads and B roads.
All in all in the space of 48
hours I’d been travelling either on the train or in the car for a total of 28
hours! However, it was worth it as I had a good laugh with my mates on the
Friday night and a great day at Oulton on Saturday. Roll on the ‘Ring.
AUG 2001
Had a great day at Oulton yesterday, it was a bit damp
under the trees at Druids and the usual puddle was on the apex at Old Hall. I
just hung around a bit 'till the other cars dried the track a bit.
I'll have a go at describing a lap like Lawrence and Robin.
Take 4th at the start of the pits, brake at the 100m cone and down to 3rd. Turn
in and clip the inside kerb,a bit understeer here and run out onto the rumble
strips taking 4th again at the end of the pit exit, Keep it nailed round the
right hander before cascades, brake once you're over the crest and take third
for cascades clipping the
kerb and running wide onto the concrete and getting 4th. Again keep it nailed
over the blind rise and lift with just a dab on the brakes for the left hander
before Shell. I was taking third at first but found 4th was okay. Some track
insurance and I might have tried it with just a confidence lift! 2nd for shell
and up to third on the exit kerb, hold third, even thought the change light is
on as it is not worth taking third for such a short moment. Into second for the
chicane, plenty kerb on the way in, fight the understeer on the way out and take
third on the exit kerb. Up to fourth on the straight, brake hard and take second
for the chicane at Knickerbrook. The kerbs here are very harsh but you could put
the saw tooth bits between your wheels except they put a cone there :-(. Up the
hill holding it flat over the crests and round into druids. Brake half way
between the inside kerb on the wee left hander and the turn in point. Drive the
car down the middle of the road taking the virtual apex about 2/3 way round.
Just clip the second bit of kerb on the second apex and get ready for the
oversteer on the crest as you exit and take the kerb, getting fourth just before
the bridge. Down to Lodge brake hard at the bottom of the last dip just before
the corner, take second turn
in and take plenty kerb, the rears spin up going over the crest and the change
light comes on as you hit the exit kerb, third at the crest and 4th at the pits
and do it all again, superb!!!
The standard of driving was good and only one car, a S160 got smacked. The guy
ran up onto the exit kerb at Druids, dropped a wheel onto the grass, spun it and
went into the tyres on the inside. Front clam shagged but nothing else too bad.
The car was still drivable.
Open pit all day and about 20 cars so plenty track time and easy to pass.
Only one guy got a ticking off. Me. Nae passing on the inside at Old Hall
:-(.Though I was passed well before the corner, just a reminder Sir!
Great day with about ten Elises out and one Exige. The car I liked the best was
an old Lotus Cortina with one of my old rivals, Andy Middlehurst, driving. He
was flying! It looked like the photaes of Jim Clark in the sixties, magic.
Author: Malcolm Johnstone
Not long in the door from the track day at Oulton. Fantastic!
Left this morning at 4am, good run down. Quite a place! briefing
told us it was open pits, max 25 cars (only 45 in total) and the full track.
Great! An amazing variety of cars. About 8 Elises, few Scoobys, loads of
EVOs (one 390hp beast) Couple of Caterhams, 2 lunatic Skylines (3 foot flames
and very, very rapid) NSX (max powered up with decals and wing!) Single seat
race cars, Clio sport, Renault spider (stripped out race car type) Ex touring
car Vectra type thing and two Ultimas. T'was anorak heaven..
Met up with Peter after briefing. His superior track skills were evident.
I was chuffed to pass a good variety of cars. Great fun, the discipline
and courtesy of all was superb.
Dry day apart from during lunch..
Immediately afterwards was interesting, Peter and myself were standing watching
(waiting for it to dry in other words). In the space of 5 mins the first
bend after the pit straight claimed S2 Elise, couple of S1s and the Ren Spider -
whose Nomex'd up driver had spent lunch changing to wet weather tyres. All
undamaged, though I think the S2 buggered off home then! The small numbers
made it great fun, Mid afternoon I was getting really into it, did about 6 laps
without even seeing another car.
C4 were filming the Warrender EVO VII, at one point they had about six evos in
procession, led by an Espace with the door open and a big camera in the
boot. They also strapped a camera to the wing of one of the evos.
Keep an eye on C4, although Peter and myself will not be on! (bugger really,
cause that would have been even better than Del's Evening News Pic).
One of the Elises was a father and son over from France - unlucky for them they
had their hard top in place all day. Robin has posted a great track
description, all I have to say is that it is a fantastic track with everything
anyone could ask for. The car behaved well, Ledas were superb.
A mate of Peter's was there with a very interesting Legacy B4. He didn't
take it on track, but that is a real Q car if ever there was one. Twin
turbo, 160mph+ but looks like a vectra/laguna/whatever from 100 yards. All
in all, I am very glad Peter posted about the day, total contrast to my 1st
track day at KH. However a 1st day in shite conditions is probably a 'no
bad thing'. No downsides at all ('cept the Friday afternoon M6 palaver),
Definately be needing new pads before 1st Sept!
Author: Gil (still with a <BG>)
JAN 2001
Getting there was a bit of a nightmare.
Left Murrays late - I had popped in for some EBC greens and a bleed of the
brakes. I promised Colette to be there for 2.30, but it was 3.00 by the
time I arrived :-( Then Tut was still there - they were having problems
bleeding his brakes after changing the hoses. So it was nearly 5.00 by the
time Tut and I rolled into the car park that is the bypass these days; met
Lawrence at the Esso on the 702 and headed off at 5.30 for a "quick
blast" down the 701, or so we thought. When we finally joined the 701
at 6.00 there were ominous blue lights flashing ahead and more coming from
behind. We got about 10 miles down the 701 to find the road closed due to
a major accident.
Anyway, we needed to divert 10 miles over onto the 702, crawl south then switch
back over to the 701. All in this cost us another half hour I reckon.
Finally got to the allotted meeting point, J16 M74
services, 45 minutes late. Paul G. had to keep going as he had a dinner
date, but Steve M (Black Exige) waited to join up with us.
The rest of the journey was uneventful, apart from playing cat and mouse with a
motorway cop car for 10 miles or so (we were the mice). Met up with Chris and
Clare (Stelvio99) - was great to see them again and we had a good beer/blether
in the bar of the hotel. The hotel was amazing value at £15 - advertised
room rate was £152/night!
I didn't quite manage to get up in time the next morning which caused chaos in
the jigsaw puzzle secure car park :-). Got to the track for 8.30 though,
which was well within the spec'd sign on time. Of course the actual
timetable was ignored completely anyway, so it would have made no difference if
we had been late!
The track was covered in a layer of ice, and it was 11.00 before it had thawed
enough for them to open the middle-length circuit (the one that uses the
hair-pin half way up the straights). Then they needed to do the
familiarization laps which took another 30 minutes. As usual we left the
nutters to burn off some testosterone and went and had a cup of tea. At
noon we joined in the fray; the circuit was good fun, but very slippery. A
mixture of the thawed water, dust and rubber. The chicane (Knickerbrook)
was like someone had spilled oil over it!
Then the circuit closed for lunch (even though the info pack said it wouldn't).
It reopened at 1.00 and as usual the testosterone levels had risen; also the
Shell banked 190 corner had been opened over lunch as the frost had finally
thawed. The next 2 hours were marred by red flag after red flag. As
we know, these tend to kick off a vicious circle and that certainly seemed to be
the case here. The worst incident was the Lister Scooby demonstrator
rolling on the way out of the final corner (Lodge) and ending up on its roof
snuggled up to the tyre wall. Both occupants went to hospital, but this
was
precautionary we believe (no nee-naw-nee-naw). Imagine the test driver
explaining that to his/her boss next week.
But from 3.00 to 4.30 the circuit was nearly empty (all the big scoobs were out
of petrol and out of brakes) and we could have a real blast. Did lots of
pax laps during this time; Peter, Carol and two friends showed up for some pax
laps too.
The circuit itself was fantastic, though quite treacherous if you allowed
yourself to go off-line anywhere.
You hit the end of the pit straight in fourth gear; didn't check speeds, but I
reckon 100mph or so in my car. Brake down to third gear and turn hard
right into the first corner, which is very fast but you need to hit the apex and
have faith that the track is in fact there on the exit (most people I followed
tended to underestimate the space available on exit, and hence didn't take the
corner to its limits).
Up into fourth gear for a short blast to the very mild downhill right hander (Dentons).
Just takes a wee lift at turn in to make sure you get the car tucked in to the
apex and then straight back on the power; there is not really an exit to this
corner as you aim from the apex straight to the turn in for the next corner.
Brake fairly hard and down to third gear for the long left hander (Cascades).
Be sure to make the apex, so as to not run out of track on exit; also there is
some very favourable camber at the apex which helps to propel the car around the
corner. In my car I could be flat in third before the apex. Up to
fourth once out of the corner for a longish blast down Lakeside.
When you get to the island hairpin (which is coned off - just using it as a
marker) lift or brake, depending on how fast you are going and how brave you
are. I used the point where the outer edge of the hairpin met the straight
as my turning in point. Keep it in fourth for the long miss-hit double
apex on the way into the Shell bend. Once the car is settled in this you
can be flat in fourth no problem (somewhere between the first and second apex's
in my experience). The problem with taking this corner fast is that you
need to brake very hard down to third on exit because it is a very short
straight to the Shell 190 degree banked right hander.
Take the car all the way to the edge of the track before turning in, and stay in
the banking much longer than you think you should; the apex is very late and if
you turn out too quickly you run out of
track on exit.
Stay towards the left of the track here, because you want to set up a nice
straight line to brake into the turn in to Foultons chicane, but there is a mild
right hander before it. Brake down to third and turn in hard, taking
plenty of kerb. Then lift and turn right, again taking some kerb in the
middle part of the chicane, then drive straight out, full power, taking plenty
of kerb on the exit, using all the track on the way out.
Up and over Hill Tops and into fourth gear. Brake hard down into second
for the right hand entrance to the Knickerbrook chicane. Use plenty of
kerbing as before but be sure to stay in the right hand exit longer than you
think is required, otherwise you will run out of track on the way out. In
my car I was just running out of second gear as the car straightened up, which
was handy, setting it up for the long sprint up and over Clay Hill and under the
bridge.
The line here is a bit weird. You need to drift all the way over to the
right edge of the track (once under the bridge) and turn in quite late for the
mild left hander before Druids. All this in fourth gear. The reason
to stay out to the right and turn in late is that you want to keep the car at
the left edge of the track once through the corner. If you allow the car
to come back into the center of the track (which is what it feels like it wants
to do) then you cannot brake and get across to the left for the entrance to
Druids.
Brake down to third for Druids. Another double apex miss-hit corner, but
very long. I never got this really right, coasting through the first part
of the corner on medium revs in third gear, only having the confidence to power
through the second apex.
Up to fourth gear under the second bridge for a run down to Lodge, which is a
tightening right hander over the crest of a hill. Brake hard down to
third; make sure you hit the apex, which has some nice camber too, and you can
be flat on the throttle all the way once you have the car turned in. The
exit is quite wide (provided you have hit the apex right - this is where the
Lister Scooby rolled :-) and allows for easy positioning to take the uphill mild
left hander into the pit straight really tight. Up to fourth and watch for
your braking point for the first corner again.
All in all an excellent track with lots of scope for refining technique and
line. I felt like I needed another day like this one to really get the
line, speeds and gear choice nailed. Brands Hatch was simpler and the line
was easier to learn.
New brakes were fantastic once they finally bedded in (EBC Greens on the EBC
grooved disks). Pedal was rock hard the whole day, no fade and really
tremendous bite and stopping power. The S02's did their stuff too, with no
lock ups at all once the track had dried. The suspension felt really
planted; I am sure I was nowhere close to its limits.
The only thing I didn't do was swap cars with people and get pax laps with the
other Elises so we could compare notes. However, with the time being eaten
into on all sides, there just wasn't time to do that.
Did my last couple of laps just before 4.30 on Refill, having already decided at
4.15 that I had exhausted the tank's reserve :-). Followed Steve to the
petrol station and got 40.02 litres into the tank! That has to be a record
:-)
Author : Robin Iddon
Highlights
Sneaking into pole position for the familiarisation runs thereby getting a
perfect view of the correct lines instead of a Chinese whispers (can I say
that?) version as usual.
Passing the L15STR Scooby, who left the pits as I was going through the first
corner, his driving was very ragged on this occasion and I was glad to get in
front of his accident.
Having a pax on every lap, I definitely enjoy my driving more when I have some
live feedback.
Watching the power sliding antics of the *testosterone types* for the
photographer and realising how much speed and time it cost them.
Getting to experience 2 versions of Oulton on 1 day.
Building up corner speeds as the track dried out
Being asked by one pax, why anyone would need a tuned Elise when the standard
one is soooohh quick :))
Lowlights
can't remember any
Author : Lawrence Hoy
Just a quick
BIG THANKS to everyone for a fantastic day at Oulton Park.
Apart from the morning delay and the disruptions in the early afternoon, we had
a lot of fun. Especially toward the end where it really was very quiet on
track, so managed many laps without seeing another car (a sure sign I was also
getting less slow!).
We're now _really_ looking forward to Stelvio and will be booking a place at
Brands in October.
Robin, thanks for taking Clare out. She commented your driving is much
smoother than mine...
Author : Christiaan Jones
Didn't get a chance
to say goodbye to everyone (Trafford Centre was Beckoning). Thanks again for the
Pax Laps, Simon And Vicky also enjoyed them (Simon is on our list). As ever your
driving was very smooth and the car felt very snug on the track, personally I
think this isn't good as a passenger should come out the car feeling that they
need to kiss the ground
;-)
Author : Peter Bennett