Understanding Donington's 98dBA Drive-By Noise Limit

[bigothunter]

Hoping for some clarification here please

Donington has an official drive-by noise limit of 98dBA on "Quiet Days" which seems very liberal. However, apparently the microphone is positioned on the pit wall very close to the track. So cars which pass the regular 92dBA limit actually fail 98dBA at Donington.

I'm hoping to enter a fairly expensive track day at Donington and don't want to run into noise problems. Car is a quiet production racer which records 95dBA static noise level.

Can I be confident in passing Donington's "Quiet Day" noise limit? Or should I give Donington a miss?

ref: https://www.nwleics.gov.uk/pages/noise_from_doning...

[anonymous-user]

What car is it?

[bigothunter]

BMW 320 racer but we are also interested in entering a well tweaked road going 2.3L MX5.

[mmm-five]

The only way to tell is to actually try it.

If it fails, then just lift off on that part of the circuit...it's not like you're chasing lap times, racing or using it as a test day!

[impprobable]

You have to time YOUR lap to coincide with the airplanes taking off. No noise limit for those feckers !

[mmm-five]

impprobable said:

You have to time YOUR lap to coincide with the airplanes taking off. No noise limit for those feckers !

...and make sure you only drop fluids directly under the flight path

[4.7]

Your drive by reading should be less than your 3/4 max rpm static reading.

[bigothunter]

Thanks for your help guys

I called MSVT and TrackDays TDO who were both extremely helpful. Two key factors became apparent:

Microphones are placed close to the track at various location around Donington, which makes cheating by backing off rather difficult.

Sometimes Donington use static noise testing in addition to drive-by. On "Quiet Days", Donington limits are 103/98 dBA compared to Club Race limits of 105/92 dBA. Due to close proximity of microphones to track, Donington's drive-by limit of 98 dBA is more stringent than 92 dBA common at other circuits.

My question has been answered and fears allayed. Donington track day entered with both cars

[LPAK]

If it helps, mine is 99 static and had no problem at Donington.

[bigothunter]

LPAK said:

If it helps, mine is 99 static and had no problem at Donington.

Thanks