Show Us Your Motors!

Akagi · 24 Jul 2018 at 08:24

He'll be chasing a 7:59 now then.

Havana_UK · 24 Jul 2018 at 08:54

He already is! You can see it's easily achievable considering how much time he lost behind slower cars. I would say he could manage 7:50 with the car as it is.

crinkleshoes · 24 Jul 2018 at 09:40

I’m chasing 7:30 when I’m there at the end of Aug... only 11 laps under my belt so far

Havana_UK · 24 Jul 2018 at 09:44

crinkleshoes said:
I’m chasing 7:30 when I’m there at the end of Aug... only 11 laps under my belt so far

Don't chase it too hard! Booking any instruction? Apex seem quite reasonable, around €100 / lap, less if you book multiple laps or half/full days.

adam cool dude · 24 Jul 2018 at 10:32

Havana_UK said:
Don't chase it too hard! Booking any instruction? Apex seem quite reasonable, around €100 / lap, less if you book multiple laps or half/full days.

Bah if he bins it. He can afford it. YOLO

Havana_UK · 24 Jul 2018 at 11:28

If he bins it badly dropping coolant/oil over the track and 5 cars wreck behind him, can he afford that?

That's what happened with the 675LT that dropped its fluid over the track causing approx. €1m of damage in the following cars!

Captain · 24 Jul 2018 at 11:35

Why do they let cars on so often? Why not space them out every 5-6 minutes so cars aren’t being held up by slower drivers?

I know they are there to make money and as much as possible but it must be frustrating paying to do a fast lap and being held up by someone who’s still a beginner.

-westy- · 24 Jul 2018 at 12:03

Clov!s said:
Why do they let cars on so often? Why not space them out every 5-6 minutes so cars aren’t being held up by slower drivers?

I know they are there to make money and as much as possible but it must be frustrating paying to do a fast lap and being held up by someone who’s still a beginner.

Because it's a tourist day, you're not "supposed

" to be there to chase times.

Havana_UK · 24 Jul 2018 at 12:03

Do you know how many cars go....? On Sunday they had approx. 150 cars on track at once at the busiest time, but even that's not mega busy. 50 cars on track and you could probably do a lap without even seeing another car.

If you spaced 150 cars out at 5 minutes each that would take 12 1/2 hours for those 150 to drive their laps!

I wasn't going especially quickly, but even at the busiest times I was only passed by maybe 10 cars during the whole lap, and maybe passed 2 or 3 myself during the same time.

timmeh · 24 Jul 2018 at 13:35

crinkleshoes said:
Pictures just came through from Spa & Zolder Some really cool ones IMO.

Spa:

RMA18H_0936 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18H_0044 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18H_0871 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18H_1080 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18G_0093 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18J_8098 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zolder:

RMA18M_8114 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18M_8229 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18M_8218 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18L_0968 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

RMA18L_1000 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

I’d imagine Zolder was probably the more fun track for that car wasn’t it? Zolder’s up there as one of my favourite tracks. I’ve only seen it on sims though

ChrisD. · 24 Jul 2018 at 14:14

The ring is crap now compared to 10+ years ago. Well not crap but not a patch on what it was.

Havana_UK · 24 Jul 2018 at 14:32

ChrisD. said:
The ring is crap now compared to 10+ years ago. Well not crap but not a patch on what it was.

My first visit was only 4 years ago as that was as a passenger only. What's changed so much for you to have that opinion?

Firestar_3x · 24 Jul 2018 at 15:11

Over commercialisation and subsequently too many people going.

Simon · 24 Jul 2018 at 16:02

Hardly crap. Just have to pay more for the same experience.

TF days prob ‘crap’ but I’ve never been on one so wouldnt know.

ChrisD. · 24 Jul 2018 at 17:07

Havana_UK said:
My first visit was only 4 years ago as that was as a passenger only. What's changed so much for you to have that opinion?

Overcrowded, expensive, marshalling is still pretty dire making it far more dangerous. I’ve been going near;y every year for about 13 or so years and it’s gotten worse over time.

Don’t get me wrong I love the experience but it’s far too busy and expensive now to have a proper laugh.

I may do a proper track day there rather than TF.

I much prefer going to Spa for a track day now vs TF at the Ring.

Flack88 · 24 Jul 2018 at 18:02

ChrisD. said:
Overcrowded, expensive, marshalling is still pretty dire making it far more dangerous. I’ve been going near;y every year for about 13 or so years and it’s gotten worse over time.

Don’t get me wrong I love the experience but it’s far too busy and expensive now to have a proper laugh.

I may do a proper track day there rather than TF.

I much prefer going to Spa for a track day now vs TF at the Ring.

I thought that the ring was very close to closing down at one point? TBH the ring has never appealed for me for the exact reasons listed. I would love to go to Spa but the straights would kill my car

crinkleshoes · 24 Jul 2018 at 20:26

Havana_UK said:
Don't chase it too hard! Booking any instruction? Apex seem quite reasonable, around €100 / lap, less if you book multiple laps or half/full days.

Yeah... think I have an hour.

Took 2 laps from Apex for my 2nd and 3rd lap in the GT3... was very helpful, got me to learn the track quicker and trust more of the blind crests.

I've got new tyres going on before this one too... they finally released the Trofeo Rs in the 245 width for the fronts a couple of weeks ago, so I'm just waiting on my car to come back from it's first service on Saturday and it'll have the new tyres Monday.

Havana_UK said:
If he bins it badly dropping coolant/oil over the track and 5 cars wreck behind him, can he afford that?

That's what happened with the 675LT that dropped its fluid over the track causing approx. €1m of damage in the following cars!

Closed track day, not tourist day so the rules are different... would only have to pay for the barriers or damage to my own car.

The 720S will definitely get a few laps... but I'll likely spend most of the day in the SR3.

Clov!s said:
Why do they let cars on so often? Why not space them out every 5-6 minutes so cars aren’t being held up by slower drivers?

I know they are there to make money and as much as possible but it must be frustrating paying to do a fast lap and being held up by someone who’s still a beginner.

Most are good at moving out of the way of faster cars... I've only done 11 laps, but people were mostly very good at getting out of the way.

As for letting them out often... most tourist openings during the week are only about 2.5 hours in the evening... so if they spaced cars out with such a large gap like that, there would be a lot of angry people... plus there are loads of good overtaking opportunities on the first sections of the track - so I'd rather go for it and overtake, rather than bump into them later on around the track.

Havana_UK said:
Do you know how many cars go....? On Sunday they had approx. 150 cars on track at once at the busiest time, but even that's not mega busy. 50 cars on track and you could probably do a lap without even seeing another car.

If you spaced 150 cars out at 5 minutes each that would take 12 1/2 hours for those 150 to drive their laps!

I wasn't going especially quickly, but even at the busiest times I was only passed by maybe 10 cars during the whole lap, and maybe passed 2 or 3 myself during the same time.

Yeah - it was 90-140 on track at a time when I was there & when it was down to 90, it felt quite quiet.

timmeh said:
I’d imagine Zolder was probably the more fun track for that car wasn’t it? Zolder’s up there as one of my favourite tracks. I’ve only seen it on sims though

No, I much prefer Spa... Spa you can get up to higher speeds so you take as much advantage of the aero as possible.

No corner on any track I've driven can come anywhere close to the feeling of doing Eau Rouge flat near the top of 6th gear at 140mph... such a special feeling it had me laughing out loud in my helmet when I did it with a grin on my face... I don't normally have vocal or even facial expressions when driving... more flat concentraty face... but some corners in the Radical on Silverstone and Spa are really incredible.

ChrisD. said:
Overcrowded, expensive, marshalling is still pretty dire making it far more dangerous. I’ve been going near;y every year for about 13 or so years and it’s gotten worse over time.

Don’t get me wrong I love the experience but it’s far too busy and expensive now to have a proper laugh.

I may do a proper track day there rather than TF.

I much prefer going to Spa for a track day now vs TF at the Ring.

I'm going on 24th August with RMA Track Days (partner event, not sure who's running it).

crinkleshoes · 25 Jul 2018 at 17:47

racetracker_4643604_71538 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Havana_UK · 25 Jul 2018 at 19:28

Looks so good!

crinkleshoes · 25 Jul 2018 at 20:40

Just had a few more emailed to me!

Not meaning to flood the thread with my pics... just think these are quite cool

racetracker_4641353_71536 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

racetracker_4646933_71531 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

racetracker_4647756_71532 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr