Well, I had an awesome day at Thruxton yesterday, which was in contrast to my journey home - more on that later.
Great to see a good group of us in the paddock and out on track , making it a socially very enjoyable day too.
I was on road tyres but still managed a PB of 1m35, bettering my time on Federal semis, and that was with Steve on board as ballast
. Also drove my car at the fastest ever, clocking 130mph+ regularly, twice seeing 132, before braking for the chicane. I think the fitting of new Tein MonoSport coliovers 2 years ago has improved my confidence in high speed corners. Grip from the tyres was incredible, and any loss of grip was easily corrected. That gave me confidence to go without braking through the very fast Noble, Goodwood, Village and Church corners - with the occasional slight lift before Church when my balls weren't up to it
. I was able to carry so much speed out of Goodwood that I was occasionally able to overtake 2 o 3 cars on down to Church and another couple up the hill to the chicane, which is something I did not expect in a car lacking straight line speed on most trackdays. Helped by the overtake on either side rule, which as Alan ssid, took some getting used to.
It just demonstrates how good the RX-8 can be when you get the momentum through and out of corners leading onto long straights. Thruxton really does suit the RX-8 well, and it's very fast. It's also very satisfying to hook up a good lap. Remarkably, for me, there were only 2 braking points; a heavy one at 130mph for the chicane, and a lighter one before the Campbell/Cobb complex.
So sorry for Steve, again suffering a broken engine. But big shout out to Scott at RRP who turned up in just over an hour with a recovery truck
. hope your car is back with you soon Steve.
Having achieved all I could, with the prospect of a 3 hour journey home, I departed at just before 3pm, but eventually got home over 4.5 hours later after horrendous traffic on the M25 and A12. A car on fire on the A12 near home was the biggest delay. Everyone was coming off the A12 into Colchester, causing gridlock, not helped by emergency gas repairs on one of the main town roads!
My 22 year old car was faultless throughout the entire day, just getting a little warm at time in numerous, lengthy, stop-start crawling on M25 and A12.
I hope everyone got home safely, and I'll see some of you again at Mallory next month.
I'll try to get some video up later, but have two lively grandchildren here this weekend, so might not happen until Monday
Steve saying goodbye to his car.....
