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Bedford 5th Feb 2011


hms
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Had a great day at Bedford with Lotus on Track.

The day, as you may have read elsewhere got off to an auspicious start, however, no real damage to the Hornet, the front bumper paint is crazed and there are brown streaks of wood preserver around. At least the hornet will not suffer from woodworm!

 

Anyway, a description Bedford GT circuit.

 

Exit the pit lane takes you to Hangar haripin.

This leads to Palmer Curves, a chicane that runs into a sweeping left hander. Palmer Curves can be taken with a feathered throttle in 4th applying power on the exit, hold into the left and take the unnamed right hander at full throttle, keep on the throttle to pif-paf still at full throttle in 4th. Down into third for Bank, a not too tight hairpin. Down into second if you can manage it.

Now you have the long back straight leading to The Flick. I found it better to drive through The Flick in third rather than feather the throttle and coast through. Approaching the flick I was approaching the rev limiter in 4th normally around an indicated 95 mph, if I had been in second at the bank then I was approaching the flick at around 100!

Exiting the flick back into 4th and flat out through harrier 1 down into 3rd for the unamed bend after harrier 2, left hander in 3rd. Short straight to another left hander which lead up to a tight hairpin then a sweeping right hander down the runway. Difficulty here was picking out the correct cones as the cones either side of the track and the apex cone were all identical.

 

Down the straight to o'rouge right to the right hander at tower, again flat in 4th onto the starting straight.

 

There's plenty of run out on all corners so you can be more agressive.

After lunch, one of the guys, Tim whom I had been sprinting wth last year took me out for a couple of laps in his elise. What an eye opener! He showed me that I could put a lot more into my driving, and I'm sure my laps after that were a lot quicker than before.

Actually managed an overtake or two as well, and MG and an Elise! (Well the Elise wasn't being driven at 10 10th's). Both the overtakes are on the attached video.

 

Click the black screen below for the video to start.

 

th_3d30f682.jpg

 

h

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I love a bit of bedford :angry:

 

That first left hander when you exit the pits is lethal on anything other than a dry day due to petrol etc being spilt from filler caps etc... I also think the long back straight is a hidden danger at times- i was braking heavily to set myself up for the first chicane (left/right) and the front right locked (no abs) and the car started to slide nose first towards the armco - luckily it straightened out when i let the brakes go again... parp !

 

The last 2 days i have been have always been wet at stages - gave me some great opportunities to hold some tailslides and then focus on speed later in the day when it dried up :wacko: I have always been the slowest car on the day since they are mainly dominated by 911's, skylines and beemers... would be great to see more 5's out there.

 

Looking forward to getting back there in a few months methinks !

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