Car Limits Days

[Eriedor]

Looking into doing one of these days, has anyone on here done it before? Is there any competitors i should consider?

Also which is the better location North Weald Airfield or Thorney Island? Living in Reading either is an option for me.

Also the website recommends inflating tyres beyond normal pressures, any advice regarding this, would it be ok to inflate upto max pressure and drive to the airfield approximately an hour and a half away?

 

[Sin_Chase]

Take a pump with you for changing pressures, do not drive on the road with over-inflated tyres.

I did it in the S2000 at North Weald, was a great day and an awesome pub lunch

For the money you cannot go wrong for as near as damnit a whole day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqeDQYBI6Y4

Couple of other vids from the day on my YT account.

 

[James_N]

Take a pump with you for changing pressures, do not drive on the road with over-inflated tyres.

I did it in the S2000 at North Weald, was a great day and an awesome pub lunch

For the money you cannot go wrong for as near as damnit a whole day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqeDQYBI6Y4

Couple of other vids from the day on my YT account.

It just looks to me like your driving up and down a bit of runway and turning around at designated points? doesn't look that exciting driving in a straight line!

Im just planning on doing a novice trackday in my S2k, maybe at oulton or bedford.

 

[Sin_Chase]

It's an airfield handling day, not a track day.

 

[Howard]

Take a pump with you for changing pressures, do not drive on the road with over-inflated tyres.

I did it in the S2000 at North Weald, was a great day and an awesome pub lunch

For the money you cannot go wrong for as near as damnit a whole day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqeDQYBI6Y4

Couple of other vids from the day on my YT account.

Where's the powersliding?

 

[Eriedor]

Which airfield did you do yours at Sin?

 

[Sin_Chase]

North Weald

Howard - All the power sliding was on the high speed bend, before I could get any video footage (everyone is out on the tarmac so no cameraman )

Was very hard to power slide at lower speeds, my S at the time was on a stock geometry which favours under-steer. On a fast road geo now so the end is far more playful. Would love to go back/on a track day since polybushing/geoing.

 

[Coco]

Evening Eriedor,

As it happens I did a Car Limits course at North Weald a couple of weeks ago.
I was joined by my brother in his MX5, a chap in his 111R who was on his fifth day with Andy Walsh & a gentleman who had dropped in from Belgium just to complete a couple of days! (he used the EliseR hire-car).

I believe Andy has only recently added Thorney Island as a venue, that's not to say it might not be up to scratch, but North Weald does the job very well.

Regarding inflating the tyres, we raised the MX5 tyres to 40psi before the event & they still started to show strong wear on the shoulders, so we stuffed another 10psi in which helped, mind you they are cack tyres.
There are plenty of service stations within 0.5 miles of the airfield you can use in the morning to save driving a distance on the road with over inflated tyres.


My experience of the day was really positive, I knew which skills I wanted to improve & I took away with me the knowledge in these areas.
The day isn't all 'educational' either as some time is allocated for having a spot of fun in the afternoon.

My brothers experience of the day was even more rewarding. As a novice & recent convert to rear-wheel drive he was able to safely push & experience his MX5 beyond the limit in complete safety. On the way home it was bucketing it down, he reported afterwards that he was slicing his way through roundabouts triggering his traction-control half as much as it used to, instant improvement.


We both are planning to return in the near future, it is easy to see how Andy has strong repeat business & customers who are willing to travel a distance to attend. Fully recommended.


James_N,
I've done plenty of trackdays including tutoring, depending on what you want to learn reflects if you attend a tutored trackday or airfield tuition course.

 

[Eriedor]

Thanks for the response Coco, appreciate it.

I believe Andy has only recently added Thorney Island as a venue, that's not to say it might not be up to scratch, but North Weald does the job very well.

North Weald it is!

Regarding inflating the tyres, we raised the MX5 tyres to 40psi before the event & they still started to show strong wear on the shoulders, so we stuffed another 10psi in which helped, mind you they are cack tyres.
There are plenty of service stations within 0.5 miles of the airfield you can use in the morning to save driving a distance on the road with over inflated tyres.

Cool, that's good to know, got some fairly new Michelin PS2's on atm would be got not to mince them in a day!

My brothers experience of the day was even more rewarding. As a novice & recent convert to rear-wheel drive he was able to safely push & experience his MX5 beyond the limit in complete safety. On the way home it was bucketing it down, he reported afterwards that he was slicing his way through roundabouts triggering his traction-control half as much as it used to, instant improvement.

That's good to hear, I'm pretty much in the same position as your brother, recently converted from ~240ish bhp FF to ~300bhp MR and want to be able to make the most of the car whilst staying safe.

Will book up once it's gone in for a service and report back on my experience.

 

[Coco]

No worries fella, although it feels like being back at school, which in essence you are, these are valuable skills that stay with you for life.

That's good to hear, I'm pretty much in the same position as your brother, recently converted from ~240ish bhp FF to ~300bhp MR and want to be able to make the most of the car whilst staying safe.

That is absolutely bang on, many people throw a few quid at a decent motor & then have absolutely no idea how to extract 1/10th from the car. I hope you have a great time, I look forward to hearing your own thoughts.


A few pics:

 

[Eriedor]

Well after an incredibly busy summer I finally got round to doing this.

It was a great day, being in the car for barely 2 minutes i realised I was going to learn a lot that day.

Started off on the high speed corner exercise, PSM off naturally. Approach at 50 miles an hour off all the pedals and turn in .... a second later i'm facing the other way lol. Few more attempts where you're only allowed to us your pinky finger to turn from the top of the wheel resulted in the same lol but finally did it which made the point of how much at fault my steering input was when both hands were on the wheel. By lunch i was cruising around it at 75 The main problem was holding the steering wheel too tightly, not allowing the car to settle mid corner when it goes over undulations.

The course in the afternoon was great fun to put into practise what you'd learnt (or forget it all ), being taken around it in your car by Walshy really shows what 10/10ths is, i didn't realise how brutal you could be with the brakes initially even with PSM off.

On the day were two other race prepped elises getting in some practice before Brands Hatch next weekend. One of them kindly let me have a go in his which was a riot. They're like a big go cart, so raw, nothing hydraulic, nothing electric...awesome!

It was a bit of information overload, there was so much to learn you can't possibly take it all in, so i focused on a few of the skillls and will inevitably go back for more in time.

Obligatory pics (crap camera i know):

 

[Berger]

Can I ask why you would be over-inflating your tyres? Would have thought it would make the car handle like cack and risk a blow out?

Whenever I have been on track I have let air out of them to compensate for them heating up more than they would on road and getting back up to the original pressure.

 

[Eriedor]

I'm no expert but I imagine it's to help the sidewall stiffness, preventing it from breaking down during high speed cornering.

 

[Sin_Chase]

It is for sidewall protection, hard cornering at those speeds and lots of spin outs etc. I was up at 50 PSI (28 above normal) and still wore down to the indicator marks.

 

[Berger]

It is for sidewall protection, hard cornering at those speeds and lots of spin outs etc. I was up at 50 PSI (28 above normal) and still wore down to the indicator marks.

Goes against all other information I could find online, everywhere said to lower pressure to compensate for the tyre heating up.

Your tyre is going to be rock hard and like a balloon shape with that much pressure in it and will probably contribute to the car handling like cack and spinning out.

 

[Eriedor]

Well the advice came from the guy that runs the day and to be frank he's a ****ing pro so I'm happy to go with his advice.

 

[Conanius]

Goes against all other information I could find online, everywhere said to lower pressure to compensate for the tyre heating up.

Your tyre is going to be rock hard and like a balloon shape with that much pressure in it and will probably contribute to the car handling like cack and spinning out.

I ignored this when I did a day with Peternem, Nickxx, Matteh, OllyM etc ... 32PSI all round as per usual.

IMO its just because as its 'car limits' not 'track day' they dont want you going OH MY GOOD LORD I USED 5 MM OF TREAD.... AND THAT WAS JUST ON THE SIDEWALL.

In reality, the surface there is like gravel anyway so its borderline irrelevant

 

[Sin_Chase]

should have seen the state of my tyres after the day.

Went into WiM and the guy looked at the lifted egdes of the tread and gave me a funny look

 

[NVP]

I'm really intrigued by these car limit days, what sort of stuff do you do over the whole day and how long do you actually get?