Bedford Autodrome trackday

[JonMad]

Signed up for this today, on 31st October, at clubmsv.com

Looking forward to my first trackday in the CLK. Though before that, next Friday, I'm doing a car control day which is basically one person at a time hooning around a short coned circuit at an airfield.

May well be needing new brakes and tyres soon. As well as all the other service stuff that Olly at PCS listed when I went to see him this morning.

 

[bond_007]

hope u have fun

 

[Gollom]

hope u have fun

Welcome! Not long before your post count is up to 30 then ...

Would be good to tell us just a little about your interest in MB. Enjoy this forum - it really is the best!

 

[petermansell]

Signed up for this today, on 31st October, at clubmsv.com

Looking forward to my first trackday in the CLK. Though before that, next Friday, I'm doing a car control day which is basically one person at a time hooning around a short coned circuit at an airfield.

May well be needing new brakes and tyres soon. As well as all the other service stuff that Olly at PCS listed when I went to see him this morning.

Excellent - do give feedback after the 31st as I know your car has bracking ducts instead of fog lights and would be interested to see how they affect the performance of your brakes as I could only manage three laps of the large bedford curcuit at a time becuase of severe brake fade.

Are you doing the car control day with Car limits at Weald?

 

[JonMad]

Hi Peter,

The car control day is this one. I booked it when I still had my MX-5. Spot the out one out! (ok, there are a few non-5s going).

It's one at a time through a cones course. Here's one of a few videos from a similar day. Apologies in advance for all the sweaty palm fidgeting that's going on - you'll see what I mean - will try and avoid that in future.

I've done some Activity Days with Car Limits. Great fun and very useful - the most fun being when they lay the coned course out. Will definitely do that day again whenever possible in this car.

Here One from Brands if you're interested.


Will report back re the brakes after that and after Bedford. See if the ducting let's me get through more than 3 laps

Cheers,
Jon

 

[marty359]

Nice video of Brands Hatch,what camera mount do you use? Was your accelerator stuck to the floor in the first vid? jeez you was'nt hanging about eh

I did the Bedford track a while ago and could only get 2 laps in before brake fade,two laps of fun then one lap of cooling down,it was ok but the straights are not quite long enough so ive booked a place on thunder road at Woodbridge airfield on the 18th to see what my baby feels like flat out.

 

[JonMad]

Thanks. Yeah, loads of fun that whole little lap. And then as I'd spun it more than could be recovered it was clearly the only sensible option to keep my boot in and make the most of the LSD.

Camera mount is a Manfrotto Superclamp. I also have a suction mount. That was mounted to my roll bar so I'm going to have to find an alternative in the CLK - maybe onto the side of the passenger bucket, if I can do that without damaging it

Cheers,
Jon.

 

[JonMad]

Hi guys,

Some pics from the car control day here. I also have some brief in-car video (brief, because each run was 30s or so, followed by a few mins of queueing to go round again) that I will put up on youtube. Including the first run where I forgot to turn the ESP off . Allows an interesting comparison anyway.

Need to rethink what I'm going to do for tyres for Bedford as these Eagle F1s are now worn a tad too much, as you can see

Car was awesome and whoever said Merc traction control systems stop you having fun - they lied.

 

[JonMad]

Mate posted a video up of the day when he came round with me. He had a helmet cam on, which looked a neat little thing. I think at the end he says something like, 'How you missed that I do not know' (click). Some of the MX-5s were faster but didn't generate as much smoke.

Cheers,
Jon

p.s. Another video as it was a bit of a laugh.

 

[JonMad]

Well it was today A few pics here, video to follow

Awesome day, really enjoyed it. Brakes held up very well, no fade. I had ESP off the whole time. The morning was extremely slippy, I really had to go slow in and oh-so-gentle out otherwise it would just spin up coming out of any of the corners, whether 2nd or 3rd gear.

Went through the morning with no rain and a dry line had appeared after lunch. The level of grip improved noticeably and I was able to go a whole lot quicker. Saw 133 on the long straight after the West hairpin, if you know the circuit. Only outbraked myself there once

The front right tyre took a fair bit of abuse. Even in the drier conditions it was tricky to keep a check on the understeer - noticeable when following 911s and Caymans that seemed to be quicker through certain sections - and I still had to take it easy in 2nd and 3rd out of corners. Left a load of black lines in my mirrors out of the hairpins.

 

[petermansell]

Well it was today A few pics here, video to follow

Awesome day, really enjoyed it. Brakes held up very well, no fade.

Even in the drier conditions it was tricky to keep a check on the understeer.

That's interesting - I reckon the duckting must have made a real difference and improved your brake cooling then as mine won't go more than three laps at Bedford without major fade.

You can dial out the understeer at reasonable cost with H&R anti roll bars.

 

[JonMad]

Bear in mind though Peter that it was wet, so was taking it slightly gentler on the brakes. I don't know how long my longest session was, 20-25 mins maybe.

Oh, 9.9mpg on track - 11.5 in the morning in the wet, so 8ish in the afternoon as it dried

 

[JonMad]

Some in-car footage

Found 10 mins of most interest, i.e. some other cars to watch, mostly porsches going faster than me round corners. And a tyre smoking 3 series touring. Whenever the revs flare up, that's another black line (or two) left.