Goodwood 1998
For my second trackday I went to Goodwood for what was my last trackday of '98.
It was the best £105 I've ever spent, I got there for the 9am start, there wasn't any briefing we could just go straight out onto the track. For my first venture out I decided to go round with a guy called Chris, who runs the South East area of The Lotus Drivers Club, as I'd never driven Goodwood before and he offered to show me the lines. I duly strapped myself in the passengers seat and he commenced to show me around, after about 5 laps I'd started to learn the lines 'in theory' and he was starting to pick up the pace, I was amazed at the speed the Elise can go through some of the corners. After about 12 laps it was my turn so we changed over to my Elise and he passengered with me, for the first few laps I was taking it real slow and still messing it up at a couple of the corners but after a little while I started to get in the groove, we stayed out for about 12 laps again then Chris wanted to go out on his own. I sat in the paddock for a while drinking tea and having a quick smoke, then the rain started, now deep down inside I had been hoping for rain as it would be nice to have a wet trackday just before Xmas so that I can get a feel for what the car's like in the wet, the man upstairs duly provided the necessary's! This also explains the lack of photo's.
There was 5 other Elise's there as well as 2 Subaru's, 2 Porsche's, a Ferrari, a racing Aston Martin, a stripped out racing Caterham, an RS Turbo Escort, an old Anglia (!), an Alfa-Romeo, a VW Jetta and a F3 single seater. But the Aston retired after a couple of laps with a burst brake hose, the F3 blew up his gearbox and the Jetta's exhaust fell off (and we worry about our car troubles)! On top of that the guy driving the Caterham was a complete novice and just about everybody overtook him and the Ferrari wouldn't go out on the track unless it was empty, with all this happening the organisers gave up with the two separate groups idea and just let everybody go out when they chose, upto a maximum of 10 cars out there at once! This was great news as it meant loads of laps for us, by the end of the day I'd done nearly 200 miles on a 2.38 mile track!
Driving in the rain was great fun and not as hard as I thought it would be, I had visions of the backend stepping out on all the corners and it being really hard to get the power on, but I found that as long as you feed the power in gently and steer smoothly it's a pussy cat, my biggest moment was coming out of The Chicane at the entry to the pit straight when I put the power on too soon and the offside rear tire was still on the rumble strip, this caused the backend to step out but I managed to catch it and continue without lifting. The hardest part of track driving in the wet (IMHO) is corner entry speed, if you don't get it just right then you get massive understeer and ruin the rest of the corner. I was amazed at the stopping power even in the wet, in the dry it's staggering and in the wet it's not that much different I was quite literally standing on the brake peddle and none of the wheels were locking but you had to do this in a straight line, the car wouldn't stand for any trail breaking, as soon as the weight started to unload from one corner then the sliding would start.
All in all I had a great time and I learnt allot about wet weather driving in an Elise, I've also got more confidence in it's abilities and mine, with that in mind I'd advise anybody with an Elise to do a trackday as soon as they can, you won't be disappointed.
My favourite moment of the day; going through the fast right-hander called Fordwater, after the double apex at Madgwick Corner at the end of the pit straight, in 4th gear at 6500rpm (I think that's about 110mph). As you enter the corner you're going uphill and the apex is the brow, this means that as you approach the turn-in you can't actually see the exit and as you crest the brow you can feel the traction starting to go, all the while you're letting the car drift from the right to the left of the track and you're wondering if you're going to make it, but all of a sudden the grip returns and you shoot down the left side of the track ready for the next corner. Some people brake or lift slightly on the entry to this corner but I found that it can be taken flat out even in the wet, you just have to have faith in the car and the good part is you get to do it every lap. I can't wait for a dry trackday when I can do that corner again, maybe next time I'll try 5th gear, hummm.....
