Castle Coombe- 15th June

Post Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:41 pm

I'm off to Castle Coombe on Mon 15th June for a open pit lane trackday...

Anyone else gonna be there?

Post Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:04 pm

I wish. How much is it £195?

Post Thu Jun 04, 2009 3:18 pm

Yep..
£195...

http://www.bhptrackdays.co.uk/event/200 ... combe.html

There are morning and afternoon sessions, too

Post Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:04 pm

Well, had a great day yesterday at this event...

Car ran pretty much faultlessly all day and we did around 80 laps in total...

Best (unofficial, of course) lap time for my M3 was about 1.24

Only other BMW out was a stripped-out, white E30 325 2dr with a 2.7 eta based engine
Plenty of Scoobies, Caterhams and Lotuses (Lotuii?), though...and a very nice RS500 Cosworth although the owner boiled his (cheap) brake fluid on the first run and knew absoloutly nothing about servicing or maintaining the car...

I managed to destroy my front left hand Toyo R888 (showing the cords on the outside edge)
Also now need new front brake pads (Ferodo DS2500)
The exhaust is dead (it was on the way out anyway)
The rear anti-roll bar link had popped off the end of the roll bar....

The tyres have lasted 4 track days and about 250 road miles, but 3 are still OK...the rears have another 2 days, I reckon, and the other front another one day...
The pads have lasted 4 track days, too, and about 5000 road miles...The rears probably also have another two track days in them, too

Has anyone got any tips or tricks for making sure the AR links stay on the end of the bar?

There will be some photos and vids to follow....

Post Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:08 pm

Glad you had a good day

How did you get on over the rise and into Quarry?

Post Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:15 pm

I don't have a problem with Avon/Quarry, tbh...

On a trackday, I brake (dab) about 50-75m before the crest, then off the brakes to turn in/thru Avon
Then Hard on the brakes and change down to 3rd for Quarry

Post Wed Jun 17, 2009 1:50 pm

80 laps is brilliant. I've done Action Days at Combe in the past but never a track day as its always a little expensive, however if thats the sort of track time you get I'll be there soon!

Post Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:29 pm

Yeah...not bad is it?

The cost was £195 open pit lane...

The track time started at 9am with some sighting laps behind a course car....Useful as I hadn't been around Coombe since 2001
Then there was 20 mins Novice only time after which there was non-stop track time except for 1hr for lunch (and 10 mins to recover a broken down Radical).

We went out 5 times in total completing around 15-20 laps each time....
I drove 4 of those and my mate Jamie drove the other one...

I hope to be at the BMWCC Donnington day in Sept, now, with new pads and tyre, new Supersprint exhaust and perhaps some thicker, adjustable anti roll bars....

Post Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:17 pm

Some pics from my recent day at Castle Combe in my E30 M3

full set is at http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg23 ... e%20Combe/

Post Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:10 am

There's one on the 15th of July which I'm wanting to go to £170 seems pretty good.

Nice pics, still looking through.

Post Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:42 am

Can't be at Combe on 15th July cos a) it's my bufday and b) I'll be setting up sound n lights for a festival in Winchester

1st video at
http://www.fushion.org.uk/movies/Castle%20Combe%202.wmv

Post Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:55 am

2nd vid is up at http://www.fushion.org.uk/movies/Castle%20Combe%203.wmv

Post Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:04 pm

Fushion_Julz wrote:Has anyone got any tips or tricks for making sure the AR links stay on the end of the bar?

Happened to me last week. Make sure the U-shaped mounts on the trailing arms are pointing in the right direction; they tend to rotate when you bolt them on. You can also bend them inwards (toward the centre of the car) a little using a hammer and long extension bar.

Did you notice any difference in the car's handling?

Post Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:36 pm

The u-mounts are pointing in the right direction, alright, and nothing appears bent or broken, although the rubber bushes look a little worn...Perhaps time to polybush those too...But I may replace/uprate the AR bars

I managed to pop the end of the bar back in without too much hassle...just soap and a bit of force from a stilson grip...

The problem is, I don't know when the link popped out...It may have happened on the very first run or on the very last lap...
The car was rolling quite a bit as can be seen in this pic (for example)

However, in comparison to the Exige in this pic, there isn't too much difference...

So the answer is I'm not sure on the handling...I want/need to make the car corner a bit flatter but without ruining the ride...so heavier duty AR bars seem to be the way to go...