Nige’s Spa Francorchamps Trackday report

Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2012
Posts
214
After a couple of trouble free days during the Destination Nurburgring 22 trackday I woke this morning looking forward to Spa with no concerns.We had an early breakfast at the guesthouse and whilst chatting, Hilde brought out some old, original pamphlets from previous Nürburgring events. We must have spent a good 15 minutes reading through them and could have spent longer if we didn't have to get on the road. Seeing photos of the Ring from all those years ago, along with various articles and adverts from the time was a great start to the morning
DN22SPA205.jpg


I can't recall the actual years these are from, but I've seen the cover on several photos over the years. I suspect there aren't many original copies laying around anymore. Breakfast was certainly lively but even though we were all talking about the Ring and it's history, eyes were firmly on the clock and before long it was time to head off
DN22SPA210.jpg


It's a good 1 1/2 hour drive from Nurburg to Spa and when towing it adds another 15 minutes to that time. The rain was still falling, it was dark and yet we were all excited about the trackday ahead as we said our farewells to Hilde for another year.
wave.gif

DN22SPA215.jpg


Is it just me ? I suspect not ! I still get that short burst of excitement when I see the track for the first time. It's the same whichever trackday I'm attending, actually seeing the circuit makes it all seem that little bit more real. If I thought I was bad, Gav was even worse ! He's been to Spa before to watch the F1 but this was going to be his first time on the track and he was even giddier than I was
DN22SPA220.jpg


Welcome to a damp and dreary Spa
DN22SPA232.jpg


As always, we took the tunnel under the track to gain access to the inner paddock
DN22SPA242.jpg


The day was being run from the new pits but before we had time to start unloading, it was time to sign on and head off for the briefing
DN22SPA255.jpg


The day was being run by Circuit Days but as usual, Chris takes advantage of the local instructors and Roy helped during the briefing by giving some pointers on particular area to watch out for and explained that Spa carry out 'live' recoveries, the same as the Nürburgring which is something I've seen and experienced before. Whilst seeming strange if you are used to UK events where every breakdown is followed by a red flag during recovery, the European way of trying to get the car back under waved yellows means red flags are seen far less than would otherwise be the case. That means the days flow better, without the stop-start and traffic queues you'd otherwise see after a stoppage.There were a lot of drivers I'd seen over the previous 2 days at the Ring. Like me they were of the view that a large percentage of the cost of these events is the travelling and accommodation so tagging on another trackday when you are already here made perfect sense. Well, that's how I explain it to myself anyway
l0l.gif

DN22SPA435.jpg


After the usual sighting laps it was time for the circuit to go live and the pitlane opened. I'm not sure if it was the weather but from the minute the track went live, there was no big rush to get on track and there was no queue in the pitlane
DN22SPA258.jpg


It had stopped raining but the track was still soaked and I went out for the first laps on the wets that were still on the car after yesterday. The plan was to get everything up to temp and then take Gav out for his first ever laps of Spa. As it's such a long lap I only did 4 laps and came back into the pits
DN22SPA273.jpg


Gav jumped in and we went straight back out. I know I've said this before but taking someone who is enthusiastic for their first lap on a new circuit is almost as enjoyable for me as it is for them. Just watching back the drivercam and you can see how much he was enjoying the lap. That reaction is infectious and I found myself grinning along with him
biggrin.gif

gav.jpg


The rain had stopped but there was no dry line. It was dry enough to swap to the Direzzas. I wasn't ready to fit the Slicks just yet but the Direzzas are perfect for these conditions
XSP_6010.jpg


I did notice that I wasn't able to use full boost up Kemmel straight, the AFR was starting to go lean if I did.
hmmm.gif
I'd had this issue at the ring but thought I'd sorted it with a tweak to the fuelling.Thinking nothing of it I kept lapping and ran between 0.7 and 1 bar instead of using the 1.5bar map. Whilst it meant I couldn't always keep up with the quicker stuff on the straights, it made no difference anywhere else
XSP_5817.jpg


Like the Ring, there are loads of Porsches on these trackdays and one of the most enjoyable parts of the day for me is getting in amongst a few of them and having some close laps together. Yup, that's right, I look forward to chasing Caymans and GT3's in my MK2 Golf
l0l.gif

XSP_6669.jpg


We noticed a few drops of oil under the front splitter whilst checking tyre pressures. I could see some oil on the splitter so removed the bumper for a closer look
DN22SPA298.jpg


Straight away it was obviously this was a fresh leak from the oil cooler
shok.gif

DN22SPA301.jpg


I run a Setrab Proline cooler. Not only are they extremely efficient but a lot of thought has gone into the design. They have several ports for oil inlets and outlets to ensure maximum flexibility when mounting. By tapping the cooler 22mm, it allows the fitting of adapters to many common sizes, from AN12 to BSP fittings. The cooler is the same, you just buy the necessary adaptor
ProLine-COM-group-900-1.jpg


The adaptor is sealed to the cooler with an O ring
Adapter.jpg


These are the original O rings from when the cooler was fitted back in 2018
cooler.jpg


It didn't take long to spot the issue
DN22SPA322.jpg


We tried sealing the thread with PTFE tape, but as they are both parallel threads, we simply couldn't get a 100% seal and I refuse to drive on circuit if I'm losing any fluids. I've seen too many friends have accidents due to fluid loss on track.

There were several race teams setting up in the lower paddock and so I had a wander round and found a team with a selection of copper washers. They had one the perfect size and even gave me a spare. I offered to pay but the guys just waved me off "We have a box full, don't worry about it "
WhatsApp-Image-2020-04-02-at-15.49.59report.jpeg


Whilst getting the copper to seal needs more torque on the fitting, I'm pretty confident this has fixed it permanently
2d39349f_thumbs.gif

IMG_20191121_124124-1024x769.jpg


Whilst we were refitting everything it started hailing. We ended up getting soaked to the skin, but had a change of clothes so once we'd finished we all changed into dry clothes
DN22SPA340-1024x769.jpg


The circuit was fully wet by now but as the skies were clearing I left the Direzzas on and just played around a bit
XSP_7095.jpg


I find Spa with it's large run off areas gives me a lot of confidence to practise lift off oversteer in varying degrees. From a small lift to rotate the car on entry to a full lift to get the back sliding
slip.png


The rain stopped and the sun came out. A few laps later the standing water had gone and I was back up to speed
XSP_6703.jpg


Ian jumped in for a session and we followed this Porsche out of the pits. What a great few laps it was too. We were very close over the full lap, he had so much more traction out of the chicane onto the start finish that he just cruised past but everywhere else it was much closer. I followed for a couple of laps then he moved over and let me past. This was definitely the most enjoyable session of the day for me. Whilst it was still wet off line, there was enough of a drying line to be able to carry good speed through some corners. As always, the Golf was simply awesome through Pouhon and Blanchimont. They are fast corners and the Aero really makes a big difference.You can hear Ian commenting how lean the fuelling is going on the couple of occasions when I tried running high boost
XSP_7323.jpg


I'd had this issue at the Ring before I tweaked the fuelling. One of the great things of the DTA ECU is that it logs fuel pressure. By looking back at the logs I can see that the fuel pressure was constant at the Ring as the revs rose. Which is how it should be
fuelok-1024x497.png


Looking at the log after this session with Ian and it was clear the fuel pressure was falling away when I pressed the high boost button. (Yellow
line). This caused the AFR to start going lean (White line)
fuelstartfail-1024x483.png


The first thing to check was the intank fuel pump and filter. Removing the pump is relatively easy, but sadly the filter was spotless. I was hoping to find it covered in debris !
IMG_20191108_134052-1024x769.jpg


The next thing to look at was the external fuel pump This was mounted under the car in the same location as the original fuel pump. Since this issue I've moved it to a more accessible location.I removed the pump, fitted the spare and cleaned up the earth connection to the chassis as it was showing a bit of corrosion
DN22SPA353.jpg


I`d been explained what I was doing to Matt, and he had a look to see what I had been talking about
DN22SPA348.jpg


Gav, for reasons known only to himself, saw this as a perfect opportunity to start messing around. As you'll see later, this was the only a taste of things to come
huh.gif

DN22SPA350.jpg


After refitting everything we went out for another session but the issue was the same. Hmmm, nothing more I can really do so I just left it on low boost and carried on lapping
XSP_5774.jpg


As the afternoon progressed the fault very quickly became worse. Instead of dropping pressure on high boost, it was now doing it on actuator pressure only. This was no longer a decrease in pressure at high revs, this was a severe drop over 4,500rpm and even with short shifting, I knew it wasn't safe to continue lapping so called it a day.When I arrived back in the UK I fitted a new intank pump and the problem was fixed. Turned out the original intank fuel pump which was probably 30 years old had finally had enough. It had started failing the day before at the Ring which is why I needed to tweak the fuelling on the ECU. Then once it rapidly deteriorated during the afternoon at Spa until it had pretty much failed completely.As they are so cheap, I now have a spare intank lift pump in my box of spares along with the main high pressure pump which I already carried
fuelbad.png


There was only 45 minutes to go so whilst I wasn't thrilled with the driving being cut short, I'd still been able to complete most of the day and almost hit my usual 200 track mile target. It's not a target as such, but hitting 200+ miles is usually a sign of a day with few issues. The fact we had to stop to fix the oil leak and then try and diagnose the fuel pressure problem whilst still driving 180 miles on track helps remind me not to focus on the problem but the actual lapping instead
DN22SPA364.jpg


Gurds had been able to lap with no problems at all. We only had a few laps together and they were in the wet. Funny how that works sometimes. You make loads of plans to lap together but just end up out of sync with each other and only realise it at the end of the day
eh.png
IMG-20191005-WA0023.jpg


After packing up and dropping the car off at the guesthouse we walked up to the Pizzeria for a meal. Andy joined us and we ended up being the last group of people in the restaurant. They actually had to ask us to leave
shame.gif

IMG_20191002_214037.jpg


The next morning we planned on meeting up, having a chat and a coffee before lunch then heading across to the Ferry. Gurds phoned and said his car wouldn't start and the battery was flat.After only a few minutes with the voltmeter it was obvious the alternator wasn't charging the battery
DN22SPA368.jpg


Whilst Gurds was removing it, we were ringing all the local garages and scrapyards trying to find a replacement. Nobody had one!
DN22SPA371.jpg


Then we realised we had a spare Golf alternator... Hmmm I wonder.
hmmm.gif

DN22SPA377.jpg


Removing the rectifier/brush pack from the BMW one, it was clear one of the brushes was completely worn away
DN22SPA386.jpg


Whilst the Golf one wasn't identical, they were both Valeo and the brushes looked the same size
DN22SPA389.jpg


We desoldered the brushes from both sets. We'd never had to do this before and not only are they soldered, but they are crimped too which makes disassembly tricky
DN22SPA466.jpg


However after 30 minutes or so we'd swapped the brushes to the BMW rectifier pack, fitted it to the alternator and then started to refit that into the engine bay
IMG-20191003-WA0032.jpg


Then. Well to be perfectly honest, I don`t really know what happened. Seems like Gav's messing around the day before was infectious...
ninja.gif

DN22SPA398-1-1024x769-1.jpg


Ram looking mystified at what Gurds is doing whilst Matt and I refit the alternator
IMG-20191003-WA0048.jpg


Gav, Sahib and Keerat were happy to stand and observe
DN22SPA404.jpg


Gav isn't particularly choosy.
DN22SPA465.jpg


It seems I'm not either
hysterics.gif

DN22SPA467.jpg


Matt spotted him out of the corner of his eye, a swift kick to the nuts was in order
DN22SPA468.jpg


I don't really think anything I type can explain what was going on..
DN22SPA463-1024x769.jpg


After the alternator was fitted, the car was started with jump leads and the alternator was putting out a stable 14.1V. Success !
veryhappy.gif

DN22SPA403.jpg


We drove into Francorchamps for some lunch. To say we were in high spirits would probably be an understatement
IMG-20191003-WA0045.jpg


So after all that messing about, the trip was over and it was time to head off home and do you know what. It had been bloody fantastic.Sure I had a leaking O ring and a failed intank fuel pump but after 3 consecutive days of thrashing the cars nothing had fundamentally failed. If we'd been here tomorrow a new intank pump would have fixed my Golf and Gurds had no problems. I was apprehensive before we drove out on this trip and I guess that was partly why were messing around so much this morning, the relief that I'd driven 700 miles over 3 days and had some stonking laps in the process was a huge relief and we all knew how bad it could have been after the Ringmeisters issue I had
endspa.jpg


Once we'd driven to the Ferry we had a couple of beers in the bar. This photo sums up the trip to me, big smiles from Matt and Gav after a truly memorable few days
DN22SPA446.jpg


Whilst driving, Matt'd downloaded the Russian F1 and we took the Pizzas and beer back to to the room to watch the race. Which was a relaxing end to the day
DN22SPA447.jpg


Gav had never been to Spa before and as we were discussing the trip driving back to the ferry he was full of praise for it. The high speed nature of the circuit really suits the Golf and the damp had allowed me to play around a fair bit. He's comfortable enough sitting next to me that he just sits there with a big smile on his face knowing that I'm in control.All 3 of us agreed to return to Spa in 2020, Matt enjoyed it so much that he agreed to drive across in his E36, I'd tow the Golf and we'd book on a 2 day event to make sure we had plenty of tracktime on what is my second favourite track. Sometimes I think it's my favourite, then I drive the Ring and realise it's a very close No2
 
Last edited:
Was looking forward to this write up after the previous ring one. After reading so many of your track reports it still amazes me that you somehow manage to find new things to go wrong that haven't been considered previously, lol.
Sounds like an amazing trip though, your spares box must grow bigger for every trip.
 
Another great read, and we now have the answer as to what problem began rearing it’s head at DN22.

Amazed it was still on the original in-tank pump!
As is often the case, the signs were there at DN22 but I just didn't realise.

The pumps aren't particularly stressed, they are lift pumps that feed a high pressure 'booster pump' which is the one that does all the work. They aren't known for failing, hence me having no spare. This time ;)

Was looking forward to this write up after the previous ring one. After reading so many of your track reports it still amazes me that you somehow manage to find new things to go wrong that haven't been considered previously, lol.
Sounds like an amazing trip though, your spares box must grow bigger for every trip.
Mate, if it amazes you, imagine how I feel :p

But seriously, this was just a worn out part. Nothing to do with the track driving, the pump doesn't work particularly hard and it was simply fatigue with a few hundred miles between starting to fail and stopping my driving.

The spares box will need its own trailer soon :)
 
That reminds me of the reeve brothers and the video that used to be on YouTube of him racing a caterham around Spa.

Lovely car always had a soft spot for them after owning a Mk1 and two mk2’s.
 
Last edited:
That reminds me of the reeve brothers and the video that used to be on YouTube of him racing a caterham around Spa.

Lovely car always had a soft spot for them after owning a Mk1 and two mk2’s.
I've still got a copy of that video. That car definitely set the benchmark for a Golf around a track at the time!

I always looked at it with great admiration, never imagining my own Golf would end up quicker round spa many years later.

To be fair though, they stopped developing it a long time ago so it's not a fair comparison, they were trail blazers that's for certain.
 
I take it this your mates mk1?
https://youtu.be/BJ6xqQJScDo

Is it the reeves brothers (Trevor or Maurice) old mk1? If not he may have to change the name of title as I’m not sure how quick their car was but it certainly looked quicker.

https://www.clubgti.com/forums/index.php?threads/maurice-reeves-rip.288799/
You replied as I was typing.

That's the link to my mates mk1 yes. We have a copy of the reeves mk1 footage and I believe Gurds spent quite some time comparing the two videos before titling his own
 
So he thinks it’s quicker must be some car if it is.
It`s a very well developed MK1 :)

I'd love to do something like this, but I have 3 issues. I don't have the money, time or skill (spanners and driving) to be able to do this. Great read as usual

FluffySheep
Thank you. When I started doing trackdays back in 2005 I had never driven on circuit and had extremely limited knowledge of working on cars. I've learned a huge amount in those last 15 years. I definitely couldn't afford it if I had to pay someone else to do the work on the car.
 
Kudos to you guys they look like proper motors.

Always preferred a well developed classic car rather than a brought and already built Porsche or Ferrari, must be a hell of a buzz passing an expensive motor.

Do you guys have build logs or anything?
That's one of the THE biggest buzzes. I mention it a lot in my reports, but often have a little smile to myself whilst typing comments like 'I tagged onto the GT3 for a couple of laps'. I don't always appreciate just what I'm describing.

A MK2 Golf built by me sticking with M3's and GT3'S. That's bonkers. :)


All my reports and a lot of my build is on my website at www.pinderwagen.com
 
That's one of the THE biggest buzzes. I mention it a lot in my reports, but often have a little smile to myself whilst typing comments like 'I tagged onto the GT3 for a couple of laps'. I don't always appreciate just what I'm describing.

A MK2 Golf built by me sticking with M3's and GT3'S. That's bonkers. :)


All my reports and a lot of my build is on my website at www.pinderwagen.com
I fully appreciate it. That reeves mk1 spa vid blew my mind watching it make mince meat of cars 10 times its value.

Shame we don’t move in the same circles as I’d love to experience it as a passenger. I’ll check that out thanks.
 
Shame we don’t move in the same circles as I’d love to experience it as a passenger. I’ll check that out thanks.
Do you do trackdays? If you do and you see me at an event, please come and have a chat. I'm always happy to talk.

Unless something is broken and I'm fixing it, but even then I'll tell you that :D
 
Can vouch for ^ :)

Good read as always Nige, hopefully this years plans not being too disrupted at the moment - looking forward to the next report (whenever that is!)

Random question - how's the older version of Circuit Tools I sent working out, all OK?
 
Back
Top Bottom