Bedford GT Track Videos

Well saved at the begining of the 2nd vid mate :)

It's a shame about overtaking on corners but safety first I suppose! You look quite confident on the brakes, sounds like you just need some more time to get used to putting the power down on the exit without ending up facing the wrong way. I'm impressed with how the S2K handles though, not as snap happy as I'd imagine it to be.
 
Xez said:
Not normally a fan of honda's but it does sound very nice :D

What cameras are you guys using? Going on track again in a few weeks and want to have a front bumper mounted camera. Googled it but they all seem pretty expensive!
Click to expand...

Mine's a bullet camera mounted in a fog light. Two external microphones in the engine bay, with the MiniDV recorder in the glove box.

Will be getting a better quality cam for the next outing, the whole setups are quite pricey though.
 
Silent Bob said:
That's a good video, I don't think you could have taken the lines much better. I find it funny that I disappear off into the distance on the staights and then a couple of corners later you're back on my tail. I think I'm going to get a set of sticky track tyres for next time to improve my cornering speeds.
Click to expand...

Heh, yeah - there's not much in it with the corners, straights are light night and day though! Sticky tyres will make a big difference I think. I fitted a new ECU chip which has given the car a nice boost - raised the rev limited by 400rpm too (so I can stay in gear around another 10mph in 3rd up to 90).

Coilovers and braided lines going on before we next meet, so should be interesting to see how we get on if you're running R888s or similar. :)
 
Dup said:
Well saved at the begining of the 2nd vid mate :)

It's a shame about overtaking on corners but safety first I suppose! You look quite confident on the brakes, sounds like you just need some more time to get used to putting the power down on the exit without ending up facing the wrong way. I'm impressed with how the S2K handles though, not as snap happy as I'd imagine it to be.
Click to expand...

They are only snap happy if you lift off mid-bend, or like Gareth did - full throttle on the shiny red and white rumble strips.
 
Conanius said:
Housemaster, did you have any joy watching this in the end ?
Click to expand...

I managed to watch them yesterday, it was my laptop that was the issue with the sound not coming through, they don't like being dropped IT bods tell me. It looks like you had fun out there and that is what it's all about at the end of the day. From what I can see in a small video you look to have the fundementals in place and with time more and more speed will come as confidence grows with the car. Practice usually equals speed once you get the bends joined up to the straights and follow the right lines, which you seemed to be doing fine from what I could see. What tends to happen is you get less and less trailing throttle as you get quicker and you are either on the throttle or on the the brake or balancing both. At the end of the day its your own pride and joy and your own money and money or likely exposure to more money if you get it wrong or someone else gets it wrong near you (see DB9 and 997 on said day!) is the main factor when it comes to these sort of things.

You are out there giving it some and I'm amazed that more people on this forum don't do the same as they really don't know what they're missing and late teens and early twenties is the right time to be out there hoaning those skills and getting a real understanding of how their cars work and what fast driving is all about. Racing between trafic lights, through the town late at night or around a country lane is not going to demonstrate how good you are or what your car can do. Get out on a track, maybe get some instruction and have some bloody fun as tomorrow it might all be over!!
 
Looks pretty tidy Gareth and some good commitment there. Seems the car is setup very well with some progression in the grip limits, some parts you have some very nice throttle control which balances the car well through the corner and thats reflected in your corner exit speeds. Where you find the limit you did a good job and getting the car back together and carring on regardless even over the grass :D

My criticisms would be:
- Dont bother with heel and toeing yet. Its distracting your driving IMO, you are missing the turning points and dont seem to be as hard on the brakes as you can be in a skip, worry about H&T later one.
- A few times you are changing between throttle on and off with no real modulation but still keeping a pretty tight line, that suggest you should be able to enter corners faster but thats a pretty obvious thing to say whilst your relatively fresh to tracking any car let alone an S2000.
- Try to ignore the fact you are catching cars, particularly the fast status cars, you can see how you lose your composure when you catch the 911.
- Early Apexing is meaning you are getting on the power pretty late out of the corner theres a couple of corners behind the 911 where you can see him apex later and has a much straight drive out of the corner. Key to exiting is to get on the power only when you know you wont have to back again to tighten your line.

Main thing is you had fun though and learnt a lot about your car :D Hope I dont end up sounding like a knobber know it all in that, i dont intend to, but then afterall Im not a 'real' petrolhead anymore anyway :P
 
Nice video's there.

Looks to me like you essentially have it down. My only comment would be to encourage you to relax into your seat and not get up over the wheel so much. Tempting as it is (I know, I used to do this lol), if you can relax into the seat more (bring it forward a click or two if need be) you'll get a finer feel for what the car is doing through the upper back vs your lower.

Try not to let your thumbs get inside the wheel either as kickback off a curb may do you some damage, or god forbid if you have an off or get clouted etc cause a sprain, breakage or fracture. Fair do's to Housey (edit: and Johnnycoupe) though as he's got you pretty well covered on driving the track. I've never driven Bedford yet exept in a sim.

You're doing well though and look quite composed to me. :)
 
Wow, loads of comments and advice, cheers guys !

I've only done 4 Trackdays in the S2000 (with another 2 in Nicks 318) So fully aware I still have a lot to learn. Really appreciate your tips guys and I hope I can do something with them and get a bit quicker ! Appreciate the compliments paid about lines and control. As for your comment about continuing going after the slide I didnt even really notice it to be honest, I knew it had gone very sideways down the straight but I was just absolutely obsessed with catching that car !

Reference the car setup Jonny I'm lucky enough to have had Tony at Wheels In Motion do some work on my car recently, and he's asked to use my car to develop a track setup for the car (for free!). Obviously very pleased about that, and I'm sure that will help me also... Whenever I improve I can just get adjustments done and we are laughing.


I definately think I could have been considerably quicker and cleaner had I got more tuition, and I am a firm believer that the best modification I can do is training, training and more training !!

So far I have only ever had two sets of tuition, once on my first trip to bedford in August last year, and once at Cadwell Park However I got chatting to one of the instructors who is racing GT cars this year when I was at Cadwell Park (He's still waiting to decide if he races an F430 or a Gallardo !) and he has offered me and Nick his services whenever we go to the track for a full day. We definately will be giving him a go and see how we get on.
 
Used to watch things like this and the palmer sport days from the small hill/around around the edge of the one of the straights. Worked for a month in teh summer after I finished uni on the airfield driving cars around for Paragon. Love the vids, keep up teh skill honing :D

Need to get into this soon, but saving for a house etc and being a sad settled down **** doesn't help, and I only live 10 mins down the road near bedford :(
 
Just a general question, based on the comments made reference improvement do you think I'm best to hone these skills just on this track as it's relatively simple or should I step it up to something different ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom