Great track day!

[miniman]

Haven't driven my Mini for months due to my utter failure to get the engine rebuilt over the summer, so it was great to get a chance to drive my brother's MG Metro-engined car yesterday at Castle Combe. I was mostly driving my MX-5 but it has to be said that the Mini was far more fun. It's great to hang on to the back of 911s and Griffs through the corners, even if they do pull away down the straights.

Note to self: get on with engine rebuild this weekend!

[haynes]

Did he drive the mini there and did you have any mecahnical issues and what about engine temp? Never actually done a track day, hill climbs are ok because your only caning it for 40 seconds, i imagine track use to be immensly more punnishing. A friend was at coombe a few days ago, might have been sunday, driving a davrian and a tornado which are both fibreglass specials (kit cars???). They had an issue with noise and went over the 100dB so had to get a silencer from merlin.

[Cooperman]

Track driving is not so punishing as rallying. On the track the actual velocity is much higher, so although you are on max power, you're also getting good through-flow of air.
My rally 'S' gets hot on Summer rallies as with 2 big spotlights, a long sump guard and high revs combined with low gears and lowish forward velocity, the heat really builds up under the bonnet.
'Rougeleo' is taking my Red 'S' to Silverstone this weekend (I can't make it as I have got to work on my Black Enduro car) and I've told him that as soon as he slows down in traffic to switch on the electric fan. I find that once it gets hot it's difficult to get it to cool down again, so the trick is to switch on the aux. fan early when going slowly.

[miniman]

My brother drove his Mini to the track from Brighton, and drove back again the same evening. The temperature didn't get much above 90 even when hooning it around the track. The Yoko tyres suffered a bit, though.

There was a Davrian there with a bolt-on silencer - a red one.