RAF Marham Charity Track Days - 1/2 September

[Perdu]

Wolf?

Sheeps clothing?

Blarryell Mark, I'm just looking for a cheap way to stop the boot floor scraping off on the tarmac...

Next year it WILL be sheepclothed wolf time...

 

[mgmark]

All just sounds like advance excuses to me chaps...... .  Mine will probably be related to lack of cooling capacity.....

MG Mark

[garyfrogeye]

Just checked the weather forecast for the coming weekend and all looks great,
DOH! it'll probably p*ss down now, although a damp track would even things out a bit and would be fun.
Mark, did you get my pm??

[mgmark]

Just checked the weather forecast for the coming weekend and all looks great,
DOH! it'll probably p*ss down now, although a damp track would even things out a bit and would be fun.
Mark, did you get my pm??

Gary,

Received and replied.  Good weather would be nice, but as you say a little dampness would add to the fun. 

Spent some of yesterday fettling the A in readiness.  For Le Mans I had installed a small fan to blow cold air over the carbs, which did a fine job in resolving the previosuly persistent fuel vaporisation problems.  Yesterday's work got rid of the Kenlowe fan and re-sited the oil cooler so that it now sits beneath the radiator instead of in front of it.  These had been doing a good job of blocking the flow of air through the radiator, so both of those should help the flow of air.  Next on the list for next Saturday is sealing the gaps around the sides and top of the radiator with some felt, to prevent re-circualtion of hot air from the engine bay.  With a bit of luck that should reduce the running temperatures to a more acceptable level for next Sunday (I hope...)

MG Mark

Mark

[mgmark]

Well, just back in from a grand day and last evening out - with the relatively low numbers, I managed to get us into the Officers Mess, so had a pleasant evening chatting into the wee hours was aided by a few beers.  The A behaved itself, and her running temperatures stayed lower for longer, so the fixes have worked, although by the middle of the day after a lot of "spirited running", she was running out of cooling capacity on the main straight.  Lovely 3+ mile track, with plenty of entertaining twisty bits.  So syuch worries for Gary or Bill who kindly let me have a drive of their frogeye and midget respectively.  With their various perfoprmance tweaks, the performance is not dissimilar to the A's in terms of top speed and cornering speeds, but they just do it such different ways - theirs being much like high-powered go-karts and the dear old A much more limousine-like.  A big thank you to them for letting me make the comparison.  Bob T also had a great day out, with his fuel injected midget, although the slightly whining diff at the start of the day turned into a lunched diff a short while before close of play.  Bad luck, but at least it happened at the end of the day rather than at the beginning!  The plan was a tow out of the Station to get onto normal roads and a call to the AA - hope you got back safe and sound eventually. 

Next one will be around April next year, and I'll post the dates as soon as I get them

MG Mark

[peter2007]

Mark

Saturday was superb.  Good track, nice people great weather. Howie and I both had a great day.  Thanks for your organisation and please pass that on to the guys at Marham.  Shame we couldn’t meet up.

Having such a long runway was a real opportunity to open up the Cerbera which I got to 175mph.  I think there was more in her but I ran out of runway and didn’t fancy missing the breaking and risking the cones.

Its an interesting mix of surfaces to say the least.  There were some very funny noises on the concrete coming onto the back strait.  I came away with no more than a sticky accelerator cable (and some lost rubber) so all in all not bad.

Well worth the trip.  Please book me in for next time!

Peter

[mgmark]

Peter,

No problem, and glad you enjoyed it, even if you were the sole CA rep on the Saturday! 

MG Mark

[garyfrogeye]

Hi Mark,
I would have posted here earlier but no internet at home and intermittent at work too, for some reason.

Absolutely fantastic day (plus previous evening). The Frogeye got a complete thrashing and I think my front offside wheel bearing is feeling the pain. It was complaining a bit on the way home.
My last session out I really went for it with Bob T as a passenger. I managed to spin twice on the last lap and brought Bob back a gibbering wreck. He was laughing hysterically.

Please pass on my thanks and admiration for all those who organised and gave their time and effort so freely. I include you in that statement too.
How many other track days has a "Mr whippy" machine waiting for you after a bit of hard driving.

The only bit of hooligan driving I saw was me, so apologies to anyone I happened to spin in front of.

April you say. Yes I'll have one of those please.

[Perdu]

"Apologies"

Yes you monster I'll have one of those! Undertaking inside the hairpin...

Warning all drivers  this man is a monster when helmetted for the track.

Mark, what a fantastic weekend you showed us. Thanks to you and all the staff at Marham. I hope the catering staff enjoyed their little whizz around too. My guest may have been disappointed at our stately progress, but we did have the pleasure of watching one of Garys pirouettes. At least 375 degrees Gary, well done.

Bob, I hope Ant and yourself didn't have to wait too long for assistance and got home OK.

All in all, a stupendous day out, as dear old Arnie says... "I'll be back!"
 

Bill

[Bob T]

Yes, Gary definitely scares me!

As you guys now know, my axle went bang big style.

With the prop disconnected and turned by hand there is a clonking in the gearbox too and the speedo is jammed at 40mph so god knows what damage has been done in all.

It was about midnight by the time we got back.

But I'm still glad we went.

Ant was talking about nothing else except selling the Audi and buying a Spridget on the way home 

He loved your car Perdu and the fact that it revs freely to silly speeds.

A big thank you to all for organising the day and especially Mark's efforts - you have mail Mark!

What date is it in April? How many days is it left now?

To all those who didn't come along  - you fools!

[mgmark]

Some nice pictures been posted of our cars  on the PH thread at:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=400683&i=240

The one of Gary overtaking Bill on the outside is just within the rules of the day, allowing overtaking on the exit to the corner, after Bill had dived in a little too quickly and deeply.  Overtaking me under a yellow and diving up the inside of Bill in a red-mist moment elsewhere were not......but he's such a cheeky chappie.....

Glad to hear that Bob got back alright in the end and sorry to hear about the extent of the damage, but if you willl free up all of those extra horses out of the engine....seriously, I hope it doesn't require wholesale replacement of the drivetrain!  And I'm glad that Anthony has seen the sense in ditching modern metal!

MG Mark