Lemon's X47 track ST

[lemonjs]

I attended a hill climb school yesterday at Gurston Down. The format was along the lines of:

1. Class room time discussing the track, hill climb as a sport in general, and information on their club
2. Track walk with an instructor that included commentary on the corners, breaking/accelerating points etc
3. Convoy runs with the instructor in the lead
4. Individual runs throughout the day with instructor feedback after every run (they each took a section of the track)

I wanted to see if hill climb was a potential starting point for motorsport for me instead of time attack or proper circuit racing as it would be considerable cheaper.

While I enjoyed the day and had great fun driving, the value is pretty terrible when you consider a run is 40-45 seconds and you need to wait for the other 25 cars to finish. The total seat time for the day was around 8 minutes, with the remainder of the day waiting around in the sun. The price is similar to a full track day where I'd get easily 1.5 hours of seat time, with the limitation being how much time I want to spend in the car.

Most of the day was hot and dry, but it rained for the last two runs.



A real mixture of cars:



It looks pretty slow on the video, but it was quite scary given how narrow it was!:

I'll probably take it easy for the next month and get the car prepped for the Nurburgring.

 

[Fusion Works]

Hold up, they give you a class, track walk, etc for your hill climbs? That is pretty cool. They just pointed at the road up the mountain and said "Go", we were on our own to figure it out.

 

[hawyee]

While I enjoyed the day and had great fun driving, the value is pretty terrible when you consider a run is 40-45 seconds and you need to wait for the other 25 cars to finish. The total seat time for the day was around 8 minutes, with the remainder of the day waiting around in the sun. The price is similar to a full track day where I'd get easily 1.5 hours of seat time, with the limitation being how much time I want to spend in the car.

That's similar to autocross in the US except for that you have to work the course as well when you aren't driving, so I think hill climb would be a better value for seat time. Where else do you get to full send on a public road as well? Also the competition aspect is really what makes it worthwhile, class wins can and often are decided by tenths or hundredths of seconds in those events. Hill climb is on my list as well of fun things to do with the bean eventually

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^I forgot if your car has at least a certified roll bar in it or not, but most hillclimb sanctioning bodies here in the states (including the ones run under SCCA Solo 1 rules and regs) require at least that for the slower classes, and full wheel to wheel spec cages for the upper, faster classes.

 

[lemonjs]

Less than a month now until my pilgrimage to the Nurburgring! I have no more track days between now and then and won't be driving the car much, so I had it in the garage at the weekend to do some prep.

First item isn't prep, but made sense to do while the discs were out, new Pumaspeed adjustable drop links:


I did notice this crack a week or so ago but did not realise it went through the whole disc! There's also quite a few Js missing from my J-hooks!


At £380 for a set of front discs, they are not cheap, especially compared to stock discs. I did consider going back to the OEM set up with braided lines, but I absolutely love the performance from these brakes so will stomach the cost.


The old Motul RBF 660 was looking gross, but had been in there for around 18 months. The brake pedal still felt pretty good but was time for replacement. Fresh RBF 660 went in, just under 1 litre total.


I ended up refitting the existing EBC RP1 as they had around 60% left and had worn pretty flat. I will pick up a new set for the ring. I'm undecided if I prefer RP1 over RPX. The RPX is so confidence inspiring as the bite is vicious, but it's very hard to modulate. RP1 on the other hand feel just like normal pads, but do eventually feel like they have the same stopping power.


And finally oil and filter change using Castrol Edge 5w30 and a FoMoCo filter. The only extra thing I think I'll do before going is to stick down some rubber sound proofing material in the front to take the edge off - the drive is going to be horrific even with noise cancelling headphones. I'm not sure if we will pass through the Netherlands, but if we do it will be 5 countries in a single day!

 

[M-Sport fan]

Those are 330mm front discs (or more than that)?

How long is the ferry ride across the Channel?

 

[lemonjs]

Those are 330mm front discs (or more than that)?

How long is the ferry ride across the Channel?

Yep! 330mm. I do regret getting such large brakes as it means I have to run 17s. If I was to do it again I’d get 290mm and run 16s.

The ferry takes around 90 minutes, but we’re going to take the Eurotunnel which takes around 30 minutes.