Goodwood 23/02/02 - Trackday with Steve R and A-BUET

  

07.00 hrs.....Awake to a bright and sunny morning, but a trip to car to load some bits tell me to break out the Polar jacket and silly hat :-), this turned out to be a wise choice as a biting wind was present all day

08.15 hrs.....Tea, toast, shower, shave (no....nothing else beginning with S :-) feed cats and a morning ciggy or two all done, I set off for Goodwood

08.45 hrs.....Arrive at Sainsbury's Chichester, stock up on some more cigs a sandwich, KitKat and cold drink (bad choice :-( hot tea was the order of the day), the guy ahead of me is saying "60 lucky dips, for today please...Oh and I think this maybe a winner", hands over a lottery ticket, (staff) "Yep...70 pounds on that, here's your 10 pounds change Sir"

09.00 hrs.....Arrive Goodwood :-)

Park up and glance round....Ummm Saabs, Porkers, Caterhams, F550 (nice), 360 (nicer still) and others.......Ahh!! 1 x Skyline GTR, good Steve's here, amble over to find he's in the hands of the 'noise police'......Oh dear!! faces look grim :-(  ...."Sorry mate too loud, it's 98db max today"

Well what now ?, most of us would get the hump and head home very disappointed .....Steve on the other hand is not about give in so easily, he had the foresight to bring along his 'muffler' pipe, so within a minute or two and from various sources, a trailer's ramp if offered to get the car off the ground, tools, overalls someone's boot carpet to lay on appear and Steve with Rob assisting are ready to rock and roll :-) ....I must say it was very heart warming indeed to see such a team effort to help assist a fellow car enthusiast to sort the problem....

09.30 hrs.....Well Steve seems to be no newcomer to a spanner and with Rob's help the cat pipe is out and the muffler pipe offered up....and it fits !!, small pause while a hunt for a missing nut starts..."Can't of gone far ?", shake out the mat scan the surrounding area ummmm !! mystery, a few minutes pass.... (Steve) "Hang on" out from under and groping around in his overalls "Yeah...I may have it....ahh ! here it is, up my sleeve", nice one Steve :-), back under to finish off

The car comes off the ramp for a quick test around the paddock....a slight 'grinding' noise is apparent from the rear of the car, back up onto the ramps, the problem is soon located, the muffler pipe has moved the rear box just slightly and the propshaft is rubbing against it....Ummm a bit of a debate on a suitable fix... a helpful mechanic steps in and with aid of couple of carefully placed cable ties (a medal for the man who invented them :-), problem solved

11.15 hrs.....Back to the noise test area.....and eureka, exactly 98db !!, your in (just :-) !!

Despite the hassles of the morning Steve finds the time to entertain the crowd, with a bit of close-up magic :-) "nothing up my sleeve, err well...maybe", click here for small video (466k) .WMV format

A quick test to see if the mods hold-up, please note I didn't flinch, (much :-), or shout ?, as A-BUET hurtles towards me, click here for a small video (457k) .WMV format

11.45 hrs.....At last Steve is out and all seems well after a few slower laps, he speeds up for the last few, nice and sunny so do a bit of video of the Chicane and Pit straight

12.00 hrs.....Steve returns smiling, he commented that after a short shower and with his Pirelli P Zero C's being on the their last legs, it was like being on slicks in the wet (Umm...fun ? scary ! more like),  time for lunch we retire to the pits and a chance to get out of wind for a while and look forward to the afternoon and some general chit chat about cars...(Steve) "Yeah...I started with an Anglia, but soon popped a 1600 lump in it"........ (me) "Me too !!, I went for the 1500 unit, from the Cortina, still had 997 brakes though", the young lads around looked perplexed by this talk of 'vintage' cars.....Corsair V4's, Fiat twin cams.....

13.25 hrs.....Set off round the perimeter track, me trusty Micra coping well with rough terrain, to find some suitable locations to video events...Ummm !! excellent spot to start just past Madgwick and sun behind me too, try to open the door a struggle as it faces the strong wind, right...zip up jacket don silly hat and exit through passenger door .....woahh !! it's windy, clamber down the bank to the trackside fence and have a go at a test video 

13.40 hrs.....Steve's on track, video a couple of passes then jump into the car and move round the track a bit and just get set-up in time to catch him returning, repeat procedure again before the session finishes...

14.10 hrs.....Arrive back at the paddock, the poor Micra had been transformed from a nice Silver to a generally Brownish colour :-)..... unexpectedly Steve offers to take me out next session, knowing he had only one session left and maybe others keen to go out, this was very thoughtful and very much appreciated, cheers mate

14.35 hrs.....Helmet and video camera to hand I head for A-BUET, we proceed to the holding area, Steve hangs back to see if there are some suitable cars to 'play' with :-), indeed there are and we join the pit lane queue

14.40 hrs.....Green light and were off, a warm up for most of this first lap, but at the chicane the revs rise as we exit down the Pit straight, get the camera rolling as we approach the first bend, get a big jolt in the eye from the viewfinder on the way out (mental note...remember the bump next lap), winding it up now a sweep though Fordwater and head down full bore to St Mary's, hard on the brakes and power out, a wonderful sound of barking dogs emanates from up front as Steve slips between gears, we're heading out onto Lavant straight, the dogs are barking louder, as we go up the box 100...110...120...130..., take a moment to glance at Steve.... (thinks) he's definitely no stranger to high performance driving......focused, but looking so relaxed and unhurried, setting up now for Woodcote down a couple of cogs and in.... on the power and out very rapid !!, lap times in the mid/high 1.30's confirm we've not been hanging about :-)

Not much on track competition for the mighty Skyline only past by a modded Westfield, easily dispatched a VW, Carlton and others ((Ed. others 911 Turbo TWICE !!! Oh an by the way the Carlton was also Nitros injected !!!, don't forget the Sierra 4x4 as well and..... - Memo to self - Get a new Reporter !! - SteveR) (Reporter - Hey guv' I'm doing me best, I had a camera to eye most the time with a 1inch screen couldn't tell a Sierra from a Carlton, bu**er this I'm taking that job on the Sun :-))

Sadly the laps go by so quickly and we're now on the slowing down lap, mind you I did manage to get some steady footage at last :-)

15.00 hrs.....Back in the paddock, thank Steve for very enjoyable session, hope the video is not to shaky :-).....We take the opportunity to check under the car.... yep the cable ties still hanging on, amazing !!..... Steve had planned to leave at 15.00 hrs but decides to go for the final session, to make up for the mornings 'events'

15.40 hrs.....Steve's out for the last time, one warm up lap and the heavens open with heavy hail Steve reappears, in the haze, slowly into the chicane and retires, a wise choice

Shame about the rains at the end but till then it was a fine day and the cold ideal for the turbo cars....but all in all a great day out.... Cheers Steve, also check out Steve's excellent website at www.A8-EUT.co.uk

Finally.... click here (1516k) for a full lap of Goodwood with Steve and A-BUET  (so I cheated and use a section from the steadier cooling down lap and so ended up as a 2 min lap.... so sue me :-) -  Note. all videos in .WMV format and require Microsoft's Media Player 7, or better to play

Chucked in a few 'arty' pics, below, well hey !.... it's my report and I like 'em

Ron - Feb 2002