Wrexham & Chester meet @ Oulton Park Saturday February 7

Well the weather turned out bright and sunny, with  no snow once out of Telford  8) . Was good to meet up and chat with PaulC, Alonso, Racer, JohnC and Fletch   :y:
Got some photos and video of the action, first lot of photos we're pretty useless with the car passing before the photos were taken  :mrgreen: , but managed to correct that eventually, so here's my photos…..


























Videos will be added as they upload……….

Spielberg………lives in Telford  :roll:  :roll:
 :wink:

daz1971 said

Spielberg………lives in Telford  :roll:  :roll:
 :wink:

                                                                                          

Here's todays DJ Gammy driving tuuuuuunneeessss  

Great pics and videos! This is approximately how my day went:

Woke at 6am, set off early because I was towing and I knew the roads would be icy. Indeed my local roads were ungritted and it was interesting driving on ice with the heavy trailer. Other roads were good until I pulled off onto the local country roads near Oulton Park, crawled along at around 15mph it was so slippy. But still got there early.

Once the safety briefing and sighting laps were out of way, headed onto a still damp (and in some places, icy off the line) track and everyone was on 'wet' tyres. There was really very little grip and the car was twitchy all over the place, for example spinning the wheels in 3rd gear, etc. It was a case of gingerly driving around and gradually building confidence to explore the limits of traction available. Then I found the limit, spun, couldn't restart and got towed off the track.

With the electrical non-starting issue apparently fixed, I headed out again and got some nice laps in, still trying to nail the perfect lap down. It was the usual case of a mix of different cars and drivers, so it was difficult to find a clear spot and properly stay 'in the groove'. After lunch, most now switched to cut slicks, I chose to stay out a little longer on the wets and the grip levels were definintely improving.

So I came in and switched to cut slicks, the difference was really noticeable once the tyres had warmed up and I was really getting good. There was a couple of notable things that stuck in mind; a white Rover who plainly didn't realise he was holding me up; and later a Mk2 Golf which made a risky overtake more/less in a chicane. Anyway, with these incidents out the way, I eventually found clear track with nothing either in front or behind me, and I was really able to get quicker.

With no cars in front, I could really attack corners, shorten my braking point closer to the corners, brake harder, reduce understeer by weight transfer to the front of the car and therefore go quicker all round. I noticed my top speeds on the straights increasing, my speedo is inaccurate but I did see 'off the scale' (more than 120mph, which is probably around 95-100 true speed). Then I spun, couldn't restart and got towed off the track.

Many thanks to GAMMYGOLFGTI, Alonzo, Jon C, Racer and Fletch for the moral support and also to all the Oulton Park marshalls, etc. Safely home and unloaded the trailer just as it was getting dark. I discovered another top tip which is to disconnect the winch wire before you try reversing a car off a trailer. Then I drove the trailer round to the back of the house and made a right pig's ear of reversing it (in the dark) around the corner - apologies to the council/neighbour whose garage now has a couple of chips in it - but I'm sure they were there already?

GAMMYGOLFGTI said

daz1971 said

Spielberg………lives in Telford  :roll:  :roll:
 :wink:

                                                                                          

Here's todays DJ Gammy driving tuuuuuunneeessss  

this will be a new feature……defo!  

paul_c said

Great pics and videos! This is approximately how my day went:

Woke at 6am, set off early because I was towing and I knew the roads would be icy. Indeed my local roads were ungritted and it was interesting driving on ice with the heavy trailer. Other roads were good until I pulled off onto the local country roads near Oulton Park, crawled along at around 15mph it was so slippy. But still got there early.

Once the safety briefing and sighting laps were out of way, headed onto a still damp (and in some places, icy off the line) track and everyone was on 'wet' tyres. There was really very little grip and the car was twitchy all over the place, for example spinning the wheels in 3rd gear, etc. It was a case of gingerly driving around and gradually building confidence to explore the limits of traction available. Then I found the limit, spun, couldn't restart and got towed off the track.

With the electrical non-starting issue apparently fixed, I headed out again and got some nice laps in, still trying to nail the perfect lap down. It was the usual case of a mix of different cars and drivers, so it was difficult to find a clear spot and properly stay 'in the groove'. After lunch, most now switched to cut slicks, I chose to stay out a little longer on the wets and the grip levels were definintely improving.

So I came in and switched to cut slicks, the difference was really noticeable once the tyres had warmed up and I was really getting good. There was a couple of notable things that stuck in mind; a white Rover who plainly didn't realise he was holding me up; and later a Mk2 Golf which made a risky overtake more/less in a chicane. Anyway, with these incidents out the way, I eventually found clear track with nothing either in front or behind me, and I was really able to get quicker.

With no cars in front, I could really attack corners, shorten my braking point closer to the corners, brake harder, reduce understeer by weight transfer to the front of the car and therefore go quicker all round. I noticed my top speeds on the straights increasing, my speedo is inaccurate but I did see 'off the scale' (more than 120mph, which is probably around 95-100 true speed). Then I spun, couldn't restart and got towed off the track. Many thanks to GAMMYGOLFGTI, Alonzo, Jon C, Racer and Fletch for the moral support and also to all the Oulton Park marshalls, etc. Safely home and unloaded the trailer just as it was getting dark. I discovered another top tip which is to disconnect the winch wire before you try reversing a car off a trailer. Then I drove the trailer round to the back of the house and made a right pig's ear of reversing it (in the dark) around the corner - apologies to the council/neighbour whose garage now has a couple of chips in it - but I'm sure they were there already?

Always read the small print folks  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

It was good to meet everyone. Oulton park is such a great circuit and there's always a good atmosphere there. All the Golfs where going really well today even though the conditions where not the best, think its a circuit that they're well suited to.

glad i came down in the cold, it was bloody freezing. there was some amazing cars there today i was surprised at how many new evos, gtrs scoobys etc credit crunch has yet to hit trackdays . nice to meet a few of you and put faces to names glad no lasting damage to your car paul maybe later this year mine will be ready :dontknow:  :dontknow:  :dontknow:

Thanks for posting pics/ videos Gammygolfgti    - I reckon I must have been pulling into the pits on one of those vids, I can't have been going thaaaat slow  ops:  

It was great to meet other club members and see a few other mk1's out on track.  8)
 The circuit was so slippery in the morning and I had a few sideways moments. It improved into the afternoon and I started to gain a bit more confidence then. It was quite worrying seeing so much ice and snow just feet/ inches away from the circuit - one wheel on the grass (snow)and that would have been it!  8O
Just need to sort some stiffer springs for the next one! There's a few of us thinking of going to Cadwell on Fri 27th March if anyone's up for it? Should be ?129 or less if we can get a group discount. Hopefully might have warmed up a bit by then too.

Jon