2017 - Caterham 620R in Portugal and Spain

Continuing on my series of exploring tracks of the world driving a Caterham, this month saw me in Portugal and Spain enjoying Bookatrack Iberia 2017.

A nicely paced week of starting in Lisbon to drive the Estoril Circuit followed by a 3 hour drive south to the Algarve region of Portugal to try out the Portimao Circuit. Then it was another 3 hour drive south east to Jerez in Spain for the Jerez Circuit.

This trip I rented a Caterham 620R SV. 310hp Rotrex supercharged Duratec with the Sadev 6 speed sequential. Here is the trusty beastie:

Bookatrack makes an annual Europe trip. 2015 for me was France. 2016 was Eastern Europe. Next year maybe Italy if the dates work? They run the best track days of any operator. Disciplined while still allowing a level of flow. All passing is on the left with point by. Passing in corner is acceptable by consent (i.e. point by).

There are a range of cars on this trip – probably 50% Caterhams, quite a few Porkers, Eliges, and Evora plus this trip a couple of Audi R8s and a couple of RX8s. All have driven track days before even if they have never driven the circuits we are visiting on this trip.

The accommodation package is an optional add on but worth it. Quality hotels in prime locations. A group dinner drink night at the beginning and end are included. This helps you meet people and makes the whole trip very social. In the evening after a hard days driving you could always enjoy a drink on the hotel terrace with members of the group before migrating into dinner.

Estoril Circuit is in the outer suburbs of north west of Lisbon near the seaside resort town of Cascais. It was the home of the Portuguese Formula Grand Prix from 1984 to 1995.

It’s a fairly free-flowing circuit although the track map makes clear that various kinks and chicanes were added over time to slow the F1 cars down for safety.

Its setting is in a valley bowl which allows plenty of elevation change. Here is looking towards the mountains where Sintra is located:

The downside of those mountains is the wind. The day I was there it was howling through. The car was quite active in being blown around down the main straight at high speed.

Being an ex-Formula 1 circuit, it is wide, long straights and very fast.  But as the cars got faster they introduced slow-down measures.  So the track flows for the most part there are the odd-extra slow sections.   Here is one of the slow down measures implemented – a Z turn, which was so tight as to be absurd. But it worked – I was slow there.

The 620R was fast, as you would expect. Plenty of grip from the 13 inch Avon ZZRs although it was very easy to break the tires loose coming out of the corners. The torque effect on the wheels as the supercharger spools up did not assist the task of minimizing wheel spin while trying to put the power down.

The Sadev sequential is pretty easy to use. Lift the lockout ring on the gear stick and pop back to get into first. Let go the clutch and you are away. Then just hammer it up the revs and drag the gear lever back for next gear and on you go. Going down the gears is just the reverse – pop the lever forward. No clutch needed. The electronic gubbins cut the revs and allow the next gear to slot home. The only downside was the race clutch. On/Off in nature it was difficult to get away smoothly. I solved the problem by just getting 4000rpm and just dropping the clutch.

Here is some video of an afternoon session to give you a taste of what the circuit is like. The sound is just as it was – supercharger whine and all.

And it was during my day at Estoril that I discovered an unfortunate side effect of a Caterham 620R….heat. The chassis tubes transfer so much heat that my racing boot heels started to melt. Breaking out the trusty duct tape worked on a session-by-session basis but you had to keep reapplying as it melted each 30-40 min session. At Jerez where it was a stinking hot day – call it close 100 degrees F – then even the ball of the foot sole area started to melt. Trust me you feel it on the soles of your feet

Then it was off to Portimao in the Algarve region of Portugal.

I picked up my trusty rental from ‘Uranus Hertz’ for this trip and this time it was a beast…worth killing. It had a 1 point something 4-cylinder piece of shit engine. Six speed gearbox – I am sure they were labeled slow, slower, quite slow, really slow, effing slow… It had 7 seats but I doubt the engine could have got it rolling with 7 average people inside.

But…somehow…I managed to see [censored]kmh on a downhill motorway stretch in some country with the engine ferrets screaming their lungs out with my foot mashed through the firewall and out by a headlight. So technically it was not slow but it took several hours to build up to that speed.

Portimao Circuit was built in 2008 for nearly US$250 million and it shows. The circuit is impressive. Big money has clearly been spent even since then. Big grandstands. Impressive viewing areas. Decorative ponds outside the cafeteria. There were even sensors under the curbing to monitor when you exceeded track limits and crossed onto the curbs – something I am badly guilty on all tracks (as the video shows).

The track is used for Superbikes. It has hosted Le Mans cars and a test session for Formula 1.

The track map really does not reveal the essence of this circuit – it has elevation.

Its very old school in feel – blind corners, rollercoaster nature, very fast and unforgiving. It is an intimidating track – one of my top 2 challenge tracks. There are corners where you are committing to corners without knowing what’s in front of you and without being able to actually see the apex or track out. It requires big balls for bravery in key corners and a lot of active thinking to avoid the mind games the circuit plays on it. This is one of the great new circuits of recent times. This is one circuit I need to go back to.

The elevation change is the key to Portimao. The video flattens out the true elevation feel but look at the altimeter height changes to get a sense of how quickly you are changing elevation. High speed understeer was a real issue on many corners. The last corner coming onto the straight was particularly bad as you popped over a “ledge” the car dropped and the front just scrubbed away from you. You had to ride through it until the grip returned then you could apply power otherwise you just understeer off into the gravel if you apply power too early. It was one hell of a ballsy corner.

Apologies in advance of this video. The GoPro audio adapter for the external mic broke and so sound comes and goes with static crackles in between.

So then it was on to the last circuit – Jerez in Spain. Built in the mid-1980s it has hosted the Spanish Grand Prix in the 1990s plus host to touring cars, Le Mans prototypes and MotoGP.

This is an unusual circuit. Not as much elevation change as Estoril or Portimao. Its specialty is head games – the corners trick you visually so that you need to be on your game. I thought it was ok but it was the third best of three superb circuits this trip.

It was a stinking hot day. I went through 8 liters of water while at the track and needed more to properly rehydrate. This was the circuit where I started melting the shoe soles over the ball of my feet.

The tires were all slimy too – I had to be extra careful given the grip was compromised.

Now there are some very fast drivers on Bookatrack track days but their ‘gung-ho’ style often comes back to haunt them with unfortunate incidents. Jerez brought out the worst of these.

So Hotshot Shane is coming up behind me rapidly. I am on my first lap out for the session and I see him coming. I was timing to let him past next corner however I never had too. The video shows what happens if you go into a fast sweeper too fast.

1. The rear steps out

2. Our erstwhile driver counter steers to offset the rear

3. He comes off the power to get the car rear end back under control

4. Weight transfers to the front very very quickly

5. Weight applied onto front tires with a ton of lock applied suddenly grip and the car shears in the direction you are trying to avoid going

6. It’s all over very quickly.

But in many European circuits you have gravel traps to slow you down. These are not good as you get bogged down and have to be towed out. Gravel can get into belts and dislodge them or truly upset the timing creating a very expensive engine problem. More concerning, if you go into a gravel trap spinning then a wheel or two can dig in and you are rolling at that point.

The video has second class sound thanks to me having to bodge a microphone and mix it in separately as a result of my equipment breakage in Portimao. Still it gives you an idea of the circuit.

So who is joining me next year? Next years schedule is not on the Bookatrack website yet but there is hope that the dates will work for Italy as they plan next years events.