I'm taking the Coupe over to this on Sunday:

http://www.curborough.co.uk/introtosprinting.htm

You don't need to book in advance and best of all its FREE!!!!

I only I'd found out sooner Damm!

Let us know how you get on

Boooogggers


I would had popped along but only seen this now How did you get along?


Neil

Lewis & Jenson better be watching their back!

What a great morning, really friendly club, had a fantastic time. Started with 'signing on' or more like signing away any liability for death or injury! At this point we were given a group number and then it was over to the on site cafe for tea and bacon'n'egg butty (it did strike me that to improve performance I am going to have to improve power to weight by reducing the intake of these!).

Our group was called at 11 for a brief with the club chairman, he pointed out that unlike with some motorsport, sprinting and hillclimbing was very friendly and everybody was always ready to help you out and get back on the track. The real competition was with yourself and your personal best - power does not equal a faster time.......

Then it was off to the timing hut where we had a brief on licences and paperwork - straightforward - you need a Non race national B which the MSA will exchange for £39 of your hard earned cash and also to be member of a club - I'm a member of Shenstone & District Car Club that run Curborough. This gets you an invite to all events run at Curborough by all clubs and also it is usual to get an exchange invite as well - hence I can enter the Bentley club sprint at Silverstone and also the MAC hill climb at Shelsley if I wanted to.

Next we had a full brief by the head MSA Scrutineer on how to prep our cars and also what equipment we would need. As most of us have road cars then we would run in road registered classes so that makes life easy. You should identify the positive battery lead and also the off position of the ignition switch. I have also fitted a battery kill that also breaks the ignition feed. Other than that you need a full compliment of wheel studs, an MoT, a timing beam breaker and an oil catch tank of at least 1 litre capacity or a fully closed breather system.

Next we collected our cars and then it was off up to the start line where we had two full laps in an instructors road car who pointed out the detail of the track and then we were back in our own cars with an instructor for two more runs.

What I can say is that the Coupe did not disgrace itself in any way, to go back to the comment made by the club chairman power does not mean a faster time, my 70bhp Coupe was keeping up with Civic Type R's and Boxters - why? - because it goes around bends really well! Even Steve my instructor commented on how well balanced the car was and how well it turned in.

I am now hooked - I have video footage of my first run so will post it up in the next few days.......

I am competing at Curborough this coming Sunday, 12th June. I compete in the championship there in my coupe, the following Saturday (18th) I am at Mallory park (sprinting) and the Sunday after that (26th) I am back at Curborough.

Any and all advice welcome!

David

Morning David

The hairpin is a bit tricky! What sort of times are you posting, I rekon my first run was around 48s which given my lack of experience, a passenger and the "wide" event at the hairpin is probably not far of the pace.......

Which event is at Mallory, not on the invite list for SDCC - is it a HSA event?

Regards

David

David,

My best Curborough single lap is 36.87s and my quickest double lap is 65.62s. I reckon that the car is capable of around a dead 36 seconds single lap.

The Mallory park event is a Midlands Speed Championship event - http://www.midlandspeed.org.uk/calendar - where I will probably be in a completely awful class such as "sports racing cars up to 2 litres", because I have a 1600cc twin cam Honda engine. That will put me against Radicals with Hyabusa engines and the like, but Mallory is great fun.

I find the hardest part of the Curborough track is the long tightening left hand bend after the start, where as the weight comes off the car as you go over the hump, and you cannot really see the curve, then adhesion diminishes about in proportion with the need for your bravery to increase!

I very recently (2 events ago) put wider wheels on the back of my car and I have 8.5" wide slicks on the back and 7" wide slicks on the front and I am still probing the adhesion limits!

I am hoping to get my car on a rolling road on Monday 13th - again, for some remapping/tuning.


Cheers,


David

I did manage a 45s run including passenger and another "wide" event I quite like that long tightening left - then again I don't have enough power to be going fast enough to loose it!

Looking at the times posted by most road legal cars I should be running mid field at around 40s - 42s which I should be able to achieve with a bit (a lot) of practice

It is amazing how quickly you can improve with practice. Most improvement comes out of the driver, most of us do not get the best out of our cars.

David

David,

We've been looking for something to do this weekend - so we'll come down and cheer you on on Sunday.

Lichfield = Staffs so well local. We'll bring the stove so cup of tea whenever you want.

We'll be in a Burgundy/Gold GMC Yanktastic mini dayvan - not exactly missable.

Hope to see you there.

Edit: Weather forecast is rough.

I will look forward to seeing you, I need all the help I can get.

Come in to the paddock area

David

I've got "family" visiting on Sunday
I've been told what I'm doing

Sooooooo

I might just take on the threat of a painful and slow death and pop over as well!

I hope it is not too wet!

Don't think you will be running on slicks looking at the Met Office web site