And finally to my story of the weekend.
The race weekend at Silverstone GP was the 24 hour C1 race and the Sports Prototype Cup was supporting alongside the Caterham Grads race club and some MX5s.
Friday was 4 test sessions 2x45 and 2x30 so plenty of track time to get used to the car. Firstly we had to do a seat fitting as it's designed for all size drivers and I am at very much of diminutive stature. So we moved the pedal box to its closest position and quickly made an expanding foam seat. I talked through the circuit to get an idea of gears and brakes. The box is 6 speed sequential so no clutch needed apart from setting off and the race is a rolling start so straightforward.
First session was ok, I had a little grassy moment, so needed the grass cleaning out of the rads, but other than that, the car was good. But pretty much the antithesis of last weekend's Lotus Elan on the same circuit.
With an idea of the fastest possible time being 1:58, I did a 2:07 with a good feeling of more to come. On looking at the data, the next step was the braking force and points. I was using about 25bar brake pressure, when there was the possibility of 80ish bar available at top speed and downforce. The Revolution produces about 600 KN downforce at max. The 2:07 was the fastest Revolution time in session 1 with three of us doing that. That was an ok start. The car felt good, tyres came in quite quickly, all in all very nice. Quite heavy steering despite the power assist. Looked at the data with the data man and clearly I was calibrated to Lotus Elan braking points and pressure!
Next job for session 2 was braking. Initially not trying to get the braking any later per se, but to get the brake pressure up to then move the braking points. Golly that was astonishing. Both Hanger Straight and more the end of the Wellington Straight coming into Brooklands. I pressed the brakes as hard as I could and the braking was astonishing. Made me laugh out loud.
But then the guy right in front of me spun coming out of Luffield, and there was no time or space so I collected him. Pretty low speed incident. You always think afterwards, surely I could have avoided that. Did I need to be close as I was going to go by, or could I have just slowed and backed off? But in reality, there was nothing to do. And that was that. Yes, some carbon bits to replace
but there was a problem with a suspension pick up point and after some discussion we decided that that was that really. We couldn't run with it like that and they wanted to properly attend to it at the factory. So sadly it was game over.
But I had a great time, the cars are astonishing and very trick. The Abbotts are truly splendid people and Phil will try and get me out again this year. Portimao, Monza supporting the F1, or perhaps Donington. In reality I'm not going to be having another go at a circuit I don't know, so perhaps Donington! Actually my biggest disappointment (other than not racing) was the chance to be in a race with LPM3s. That's definitely bragging rights to bore the grandkids with in a few years time. And to have been on the pace in session 1 with a couple of great names was very happy!
Here is a video of the race start coming through Copse (starting on the "old" start finish line)
https://flic.kr/p/2m2ynnq
IMG_20210529_085549 by
graham Ridgway, on Flickr
IMG_20210529_085544 by
graham Ridgway, on Flickr
IMG_20210528_102803 by
graham Ridgway, on Flickr
