My first track day at Silverstone

[wellground]

Hi folks, On Thursday I went to my first track day at Silverstone (with RMA trackdays). Although I had not driven Silverstone before, my brother V8Bloke has much experience and he was in the passenger seat giving me some useful instruction. However I only managed 3 sessions as my sequential gearbox failed yet again. It's going in the bin now, I am returning to a 5 speed manual box. However, just before the gearbox let go, I did get a clear(ish) lap in. What a wonderful race circuit to drive. I left a lot of time out on the track, but managed a 2.32 lap, so I was chuffed with that. I filmed it with my iPhone 5 so the video isn't that good. But if yu'd like a look.

https://youtu.be/WEoJ9Q8fF5k

Rob

[Steve H]

Good effort there Rob, you were doing a lot right on that lap, more pace through Maggots/Becketts next time though .

What car were you running? Shame to dump the sequential, there's a number of reliable versions out there...........

[wellground]

Steve H said:

Good effort there Rob, you were doing a lot right on that lap, more pace through Maggots/Becketts next time though .

What car were you running? Shame to dump the sequential, there's a number of reliable versions out there...........

Thanks for the advice, always welcome. I felt after reviewing the video I was too slow on entry at Copse and Abbey too, I was unsure about how much speed to carry into both. Next time I will hopefully improve. I have an Evo 10, I have persevered with my Samsonas sequential dogbox for over 2 years, but have decided it's just too unreliable. It has taken too much money from me already and I won't go to another (better)manufacturer. It's only a track car. The 5 speed manual is plenty good enough for me. I had a fantastic time when it was running.

[v8bloke]

Was a great day apart from the gearbox problem. Really good for first time. I'm sure you could have lost another 5 secs. by end of day.
It was an eye opener seeing a Porsche 918 spyder being driven hard. The Le Ferrari was shifting too. Lots of interesting cars.
Looking forward to next time in the passenger seat bruv.

[wellground]

v8bloke said:

Was a great day apart from the gearbox problem. Really good for first time. I'm sure you could have lost another 5 secs. by end of day.
It was an eye opener seeing a Porsche 918 spyder being driven hard. The Le Ferrari was shifting too. Lots of interesting cars.
Looking forward to next time in the passenger seat bruv.

You were a great instructor. Those hypercars were great weren't they.

[ClassiChimi]

Graham from RNA is a great chap, Silverstone rocks, good lap time for your first day there.

[Chr1sch]

I just had a look at one of my laps in my little Peugeot - i did a 2:46 and felt like i was flat out - 2:32 is motoring! very impressive

[wellground]

Thanks guys.

[Chris Sideways]

That looked like a nice tidy lap Rob,just for comparison this was my first time at Silverstone a few years ago the car is a Lotus Exige (race car) 230bhp running on road tires,I love the bit where the GTR see's me in his mirrors pulls over on the straight then proceed's to pull away from me at a huge rate of knots

https://youtu.be/NNugHrP7evo

[Mound Dawg]

One of our cars was there too. It was the old red one...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vW5gb5Poe08&featur...

[Elderly]

Mound Dawg said:

One of our cars was there too. It was the old red one...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vW5gb5Poe08&featur...

Nicely composed and perfectly exposed video .......


....... of the driver *

Is that what people want to see when viewing track day footage?

• there might have been something more interesting later

but after about 2 1/2 minutes I got bored of watching .

[Steve H]

Camera would be better a tad lower but I like to see what the driver is doing, much more involving than a view from the dash.

[Elderly]

Steve H said:

Camera would be better a tad lower but I like to see what the driver is doing,

Yes but I like to see what the driver is doing in relation to where they are on the track.

[wellground]

Finally I have the internet connection to upload the whole session, including the gearbox failing to get gears then finally going pop on the way back into the paddock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feiOf7BOyOA

[wellground]

Chris Sideways said:

That looked like a nice tidy lap Rob,just for comparison this was my first time at Silverstone a few years ago the car is a Lotus Exige (race car) 230bhp running on road tires,I love the bit where the GTR see's me in his mirrors pulls over on the straight then proceed's to pull away from me at a huge rate of knots

https://youtu.be/NNugHrP7evo

Very nice too

[Humour]

Elderly said:

Steve H said:

Camera would be better a tad lower but I like to see what the driver is doing,

Yes but I like to see what the driver is doing in relation to where they are on the track.

Out of curiosity Wellground, what is the power to weight ratio of your track evo? Looks like you had fun on track until the mechanical :/

Elderly, arguably the position of the camera could be a tad lower, but the issue in this case is clearly the quality of the camera not being able to resolve the dark scene (inside the car) against the light scene (outside), thus over exposing and whitewashing the outside shot. I have the same issue I have been trying various settings within my equipment to try and rectify, but to no avail. Anything older than a Hero3+ will exhibit the same issue when mounted behind the driver (e.g. not windscreen mounted), including the cheap GoPro copies out there. So on this occasion it is a case of the technology used not being up to the job. Of course if you are willing to donate a brand new Hero4 camera, one can provide you with shots palatable to your eyesight

Humour

[wellground]

Humour said:

Out of curiosity Wellground, what is the power to weight ratio of your track evo? Looks like you had fun on track until the mechanical :/

It's an Evo 10, so it's heavy compared to earlier Evo's, stripped with a cage it's still 1500kg, running 570/540. Here is a pic of the car on the day, just lining up Anthony Hamilton to pass him.

Rob

[wellground]

Humour said:

Out of curiosity Wellground, what is the power to weight ratio of your track evo? Looks like you had fun on track until the mechanical :/
Humour

380BHP per tonne

[boxsey]

Humour said:

Elderly, arguably the position of the camera could be a tad lower, but the issue in this case is clearly the quality of the camera not being able to resolve the dark scene (inside the car) against the light scene (outside), thus over exposing and whitewashing the outside shot. I have the same issue I have been trying various settings within my equipment to try and rectify, but to no avail. Anything older than a Hero3+ will exhibit the same issue when mounted behind the driver (e.g. not windscreen mounted), including the cheap GoPro copies out there. So on this occasion it is a case of the technology used not being up to the job. Of course if you are willing to donate a brand new Hero4 camera, one can provide you with shots palatable to your eyesight

Humour

Hero 2 can work pretty well as long as SPOT mode is selected. Here's a recent example of mine from a very sunny day at Donington. The camera is mounted behind but granted a lot lower than the video above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVPZjA8Iey8

[wellground]

Good video, haven't been to Donnington for ages, looks lovely and tidy on your footage now.