Castle Combe Trackday with MSE, 31st July 2015

[dern]

Did my first circuit track day on friday at Castle Combe having just done airfields before now. The experience is well worth the extra money as it's far far more satisfying to hit your lines when there's an actual edge of the circuit to deal with. I loved the track although some run off wouldn't have gone amiss

The car was its usual high maintenance self but I got a good day of driving in. A winter of taking apart and putting together again is beaconing to solve a few issues...

- The rx7 engine tends to throw oil up the filler cap on long fast right handers and I need a better catch tank system to stop this simply heading all the wait straight through to the intake
- The engine bay gets way too hot on warm days and I need to relocate the air filter to the front of the car, increase air flow out of the bonnet and get more air flow through the charge cooler
- Tidy up the chassis as it's showing a few stone chips and bits that need cleaning up
- Sort out the mess of the wiring loom

Other than that it came home with a blowing turbo manifold which happily went at the end of the day.

Softened off the suspension after the first session as I found it very bumpy and it was much better after that. Found the track a bit slippery but it was very hot. Huge fun though. Had a great time chasing a very fast cbr1000rr engined westfield and followed a maclaren 675 round for half a lap until he let me go by which was cool. Spun a couple of times trying and failing to get the esses right but sorted it out by the end of the day. Great fun.

I shot a few video clips of which this is one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0-zm8-5Pu8

Cheers,

Mark

[dern]

[stylussprinter]

Brilliant , that's where these little cars really score ON TRACK . You need to let hot air out via the sills . Cut fibreglass from front to back where you'd normally cut for exhaust side exit. Underneath if you don't like the side looking empty and right back to the ally plate that's rivitted to the chassis tube. Then under each side of the sills close to the front wheels there's enough space to drill 4 or 5 large holes(mine are almost 100mm's) This will create drag of the engine bay hot air by fast cold air flowing under the car.

[josephmoore]

Looks great

How do you find your shell type seats for comfort? Considering swapping out my oofy Cobra ones for shells with foam pads to get a bit lower in the car.

[dern]

Brilliant , that's where these little cars really score ON TRACK . You need to let hot air out via the sills . Cut fibreglass from front to back where you'd normally cut for exhaust side exit. Underneath if you don't like the side looking empty and right back to the ally plate that's rivitted to the chassis tube. Then under each side of the sills close to the front wheels there's enough space to drill 4 or 5 large holes(mine are almost 100mm's) This will create drag of the engine bay hot air by fast cold air flowing under the car.

Really good information, it's going back in the garage for the winter for some fairly major overhauling and I'll address that at the same time.

Thanks,

Mark

[dern]

Looks great

How do you find your shell type seats for comfort? Considering swapping out my oofy Cobra ones for shells with foam pads to get a bit lower in the car.

No problems with the seats at all but I don't drive it for long periods. They hold you in with the harness really well and don't feel at all uncomfortable. Depends on the seats, your shape and so on. I'd never have something more padded or comfy in something like this.

Cheers,

Mark

[MattD]

Looks great

How do you find your shell type seats for comfort? Considering swapping out my oofy Cobra ones for shells with foam pads to get a bit lower in the car.

I did 1500 miles through France in a week this summer in shell type seats. I've taped in a foam pad to support lower back/lumber, other wise its fine as a bare shell.

[josephmoore]

Great stuff. Thanks guys.