Donington Track Evening 29th April

[Ed Doe]

Evening folks,

Thought I'd bung up a video from my latest track outing - a nice evening slot at Donny Monday 29th April.

There were a fair few red flags annoyingly, so quite a few stoppages, but I still had enough time to boil my brakes and lose the pedal on the last session of the evening!! Bit of a brown-trouser moment steaming into Mclean's at well north of 100mph, brake pedal went to the floor. Managed to pump it to get enough brakes back to make the corner...!! Next on the list; bleed the brakes!!!

Anyway, disclaimer - apologies for me being a bit overexcited again and chatting absolute boobins in the video with my mate; first time out this year after a long winter, and first time out on the new AD09 tyres! I'm certainly far from the best/quickest driver on track, but just can't get enough of how much fun it is!

[beanie]

Nice

Shifter looks great, really tight. I don’t think I’d have the confidence to shift that quickly on mine as I’m sure I’d catch a synchro or three!

What tyres have you moved on to?

Edit, just noticed you said ad09. How are they in the wet? Half tempted by them as my next road Tyre but worried they might be a step too far for my use

[Ed Doe]

Nice

Shifter looks great, really tight. I don’t think I’d have the confidence to shift that quickly on mine as I’m sure I’d catch a synchro or three!

What tyres have you moved on to?

Edit, just noticed you said ad09. How are they in the wet? Half tempted by them as my next road Tyre but worried they might be a step too far for my use

Yeah the shifter is a cracking mod tbf, I love it.

I've literally only driven the car to and from Donington and on track all in the dry so far, so can't comment on wet performance.

Off to the ring in 2 weeks' time, will report back afterwards!

[Mr Tidy]

That looks like a great evening Ed.

[Ed Doe]

That looks like a great evening Ed.

It was! Bit of a shame we had so many red flags but swings and roundabouts, I guess given the state of my brake pedal I'd not have managed any more track time than I did either way!

[beanie]

Nice

Shifter looks great, really tight. I don’t think I’d have the confidence to shift that quickly on mine as I’m sure I’d catch a synchro or three!

What tyres have you moved on to?

Edit, just noticed you said ad09. How are they in the wet? Half tempted by them as my next road Tyre but worried they might be a step too far for my use

Yeah the shifter is a cracking mod tbf, I love it.

I've literally only driven the car to and from Donington and on track all in the dry so far, so can't comment on wet performance.

Off to the ring in 2 weeks' time, will report back afterwards!

I expect they’ll be fine in all but the heaviest of downpours or standing water. I think the ad08 was pretty reasonable in that regard so these are probably similar.

[1536Z4]

Did you notice much difference with the new exhaust set up ?

[TomK]

Nice ed! Car looks well. No issues with noise then I take it? Sounds great I must say.
AD09 will be my next set of tyres i think, they seem to be a good compromise from what I've read.
I'm desperate to get the car out again and this post has helped get my ass in gear, so thanks! Will do my best for may, it hasn't moved since November
As you point out in the commentary more bravery on the brakes required, and I'd add, higher corner entry speed in the slower stuff will help laptime. It looks like you do a little too much too early (which might expain your temp issues), but I imagine you're not used to the new tyre braking capability, which is fair enough tbh, it can be a big difference. For reference I can usually dip into the 19s round there (no passenger mind)

[Ed Doe]

Nice ed! Car looks well. No issues with noise then I take it? Sounds great I must say.
AD09 will be my next set of tyres i think, they seem to be a good compromise from what I've read.
I'm desperate to get the car out again and this post has helped get my ass in gear, so thanks! Will do my best for may, it hasn't moved since November
As you point out in the commentary more bravery on the brakes required, and I'd add, higher corner entry speed in the slower stuff will help laptime. It looks like you do a little too much too early (which might expain your temp issues), but I imagine you're not used to the new tyre braking capability, which is fair enough tbh, it can be a big difference. For reference I can usually dip into the 19s round there (no passenger mind)

Haha I was waiting for your critique Tom only because you've done a lot more track time than I have, particularly on semi slicks.

Yeah definitely no issues all evening with noise, so you can put your race cans back on I guess seeing as I think mines the same setup?

This was my first outing on any sort of semi slick, so it was quite a learning experience, but really rewarding! Difficult to offer any sort of comparison as its the only semi slick I've tried but I'm really impressed so far, the car felt quite progressive as I went past the limit of grip.

As regards slow speed corners, might have been my confidence but I think I need to dial in some more camber at the front, it felt a little understeery! Also a bit of tweaking of the damping too - I just banged in the basic 'track' settings from intrax as a baseline this time out.

Other areas for improvement definitely include:

1. Growing a pair down craners - I feel like my line is wrong and when I turn in to the last left at the bottom it always seems to want to step out over the hump, feels quite disconcerting, yet when I get through the corner I always feel I've left speed on the table as I'm not using all the track on exit!?
2. Growing a pair and staying flat all the way through schwantz!

*racing driver excuse incoming* 1.22 I felt wasn't bad with a passenger all the above considered (and genuinely the first time I'd driven the car at all since Sepember last year!) , but definitely I can feel there are a lot of areas to make up laptime. Roll on the ring in 2 weeks and then I've got to get another UK day booked!

Shout when you've got yours ready and book something; I've got a mental period of work travel coming up but would be keen to try and get on a trackday with you at some point, seems long overdue!