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The Hornet - Beford Autodrome GT


rooflessdriver
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Howard & I took the Hornet to Bedford Autodrome yesterday for a ClubMSV trackday.

 

Day didn't start well for me, getting up at 5am and arriving at the circuit at 7:20am, I went to brim the tank, so we could get the most out of the day.

Unfortunately all the local petrol stations were closed, and by the time I got back to the circuit, the signing on queue was huge.

 

Finally got to the desk and about to hand paperwork over, and they closed signing on for the briefing. :o

After the briefing, I was almost at the back of the queue again, and finally got signed in around 9:20 <_<

 

Anyway, the rest of the day went well, apart from horrendous on site petrol prices! £1.60 per Litre.

As we had well worn 888's on the car, we had no choice and ended up lining there pockets to the sum of £100!

 

I was a bit daunted initially seeing some of the other cars lined up to go out, 2Audi R8's, 3 Caterhams, Porsches, etc. but the circuit is so big, (3.8 miles), it soon spreads them out.

 

The first corner when you come out of the pit, Hanger hairpin (West 1), seems ok, until you approach it on a flying lap, and the Hornet has a nice little squirm from the backend under heavy braking and change down to 2nd, with nice turn in.

 

This sweeps round to the left through an opening corner (west 2) and up to club chicane (West 3 & 4). It wasn't until later in the day I finally had the balls to throw the car through this, and it just holds on. :D

 

From here, it continues into a 3rd gear sweeping left (West 5) and changing up for 4th into another sweeping right (West 6) onto Palmer straight.

 

Next you come up to a tight right hander (West 8) leading into the bank complex and accelerating out along the long 1Km straight down to the Beckham esses (south 1 & 2).

 

After following a 205 GTI on a later lap in the afternoon, I found a better line through the esses and was carrying much more speed through and not cutting the corners as much. I tired this a couple of times in 4th, but found it better to drop to 3rd and power out, changing up to 4th before the tight left hander (East Hairpin)

 

The East Hairpin is quite daunting with the big Blue & White barriers and earth bank and it tightens off on the exit.

The next two corners are a fast right & left and the Hornet sweeps through them nicely in 3rd and taking you out to the edge and lining up for the next left hander.

Again in the afternoon, I had a bit more guts and took this much quicker, using the width of the track on the exit and running down the right hand side, ready for the North Circuit Hairpin.

 

This one is hard hard hard on the brakes, drop to 2nd and turn in late and let the car run a little wide. (twice I had a BMW M3 in front of me showboating & drifting round here.)

 

From the hairpin you hang a double apex right which seems compressed when you enter it, with two rows of orange cones, but soon get the line of sight sorted and carry loads of speed on to the South straight.

 

I remember being told some time ago that I would never wear the brakes on the Hornet out, as I was too gentle with them, so taking the bull by the horns, it was hard on the brakes much later, drop to 3rd and turn in right clipping the edge of the hard standing concrete.

 

Now its just a straight run past the pit lane entrance, come across to the left and then cliping as much of the apex on Tower as you turn right down the start finish line.

 

As always, the Hornet handled beautifully, with no problems at all.

A few times I was suprised how much speed can be carried through some of the more complex corners, and on one lap, having been passed by an RS5, I suddenly found I was all of the back of him through the corners until he took off down the south Straight!

 

Hopefully Howard will have some Video footage, including one of a Supra losing it in front of me through Club Chicane! :o

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Yep, it was a brilliant day, I'll hopefully load up a video of my fastest lap off the iPhone, recorded with Harry Lap Timer. I need to downsize it for the interweb.

The Hornet, again was Flawless, ran all the day without issue or concern.

 

Have not looked at the video from the Camera yet to get Seans drives out or the evo waltzing in front of him. Hopefullly do that tomorrow. There should also be some of me worring a Caterham for a couple of laps. (Must be a novice for me to do that!)

H

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Video here of my fastest lap:

 

Video removed, better quality video further down in thread.

 

Sorry for the poor quality photobucket has clobbered the quality. (And shape)

I'll try and work out a better copy and replace this one.

However the main things are there.

The data is generated and overlaid onto the iPhone video by Harrys Lap Timer Pro. (V15 which is still in beta, but due for release in the spring.)

Features:

Countdown to start/intermediates

Corner entry and exit speeds

Corner names

Intermedite times

Current speed

Elapsed time since start

Friction circle

Map with blob showing position on map.

 

Must clean the windscreen next time!

h

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Nice lap. The car seems quite slow on the straights, is this the 1.6?

 

Yes 1.6 Normally athsmatic!

Not having a high vmax you have to learn to carry speed through corners.If you get the hairpin wrong before the long back straight you can lose 10-15 mph before Beckham.

h

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Nice lap. The car seems quite slow on the straights, is this the 1.6?

 

Yes 1.6 Normally athsmatic!

Not having a high vmax you have to learn to carry speed through corners.If you get the hairpin wrong before the long back straight you can lose 10-15 mph before Beckham.

h

 

I thought it would've picked up speed quicker given the weight of the MX5. Impressive speeds around the corners though :rolleyes:

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