Croc

Introduction Most people just use the GoPro roll bar mount to attach their camera to their se7en and then drive off. However, you will quickly discover that our little cars are fairly high in vibration despite generally having a compliant suspension and good ride. As a result, a peculiar effect can be generated on video called "rolling shutter." Rolling Shutter Effect Borrowing from Wikipedia: Rolling shutter is a method of image capture in which a still picture (in a still camera) or each frame of a video (in a video camera) is captured not by taking a snapshot of the entire scene at a single instant in time but rather by scanning across the scene rapidly, either vertically or horizontally. In other words, not all parts of the image of the scene are recorded at exactly the same instant. (Though, during playback, the entire image of the scene is displayed at once, as if it represents a single instant in time.) This produces predictable distortions of fast-moving objects or rapid flashes of light. This is in contrast with "global shutter" in which the entire frame is captured at the same instant. To illustrate, here is a side by side comparison. Left half of a screen is with a CMOS chipset video recorder producing rolling shutter or "jello" effect. The right hand side of the screen is with a video camera with a CCD chipset with a global shutter set up. Clearly the left hand side of the screen wobbles around far more than the right which is steadier and far more enjoyable to watch. An illustration of the rolling shutter effect in this Caterham video - its particularly pronounced at idle when the car vibrations sync with the shutter timing of the video. So what can be done to avoid it? A couple of things: Buy an action camera that uses a CCD chipset (instead of CMOS chip as in a GoPro for example) as these are predominately using global shutter Buy a good roll bar clamp Use a camera with an active steady shot feature Buy a Camera that Uses a Global Shutter Dealing with each in turn. It is not automatically guaranteed that a CCD chip in an action camera will use global shutter to record video. In fact it is possible that a CCD chip may still utilize rolling shutter. Further, it is extremely rare that you will be able to find an action camera that does not use rolling shutter. More expensive professional cameras will likely use global shutter but these are $1000+ and well beyond the budget of us amateurs. Buy a Good Roll Bar Clamp The standard clamps provided with your new action camera are unlikely to cut it. Lots of testing over years has led me to use Manfrotto Super Clamps. They are expensive, heavy but work very well. They are strong and stand up to enormous abuse without failing. The standard clamp looks like this: There are other versions of this clamp with different shape locking mechanisms and if you look closely on Amazon you will find similar unbranded copies for cheaper money. That brass stud is important as it installs into the clamp and you then screw your camera onto it. There are also Nano clamps - smaller versions which are excellent for installing cameras on wishbones or headlight brackets for a different video experience. Out of side in this photo is the screw hole on the end of the clamp that will take a brass stud to allow you to screw your camera on. Sometimes, these clamps, once mounted in place, will be positioned so that the camera cannot be aimed correctly. In that instance you will find a ball head to be helpful. These come in a variety of sizes and prices but allow infinite adjustability in aiming your camera exactly where you want it and locking it tight so it will not move. Sometimes the ball head mount will not get your camera in just the right position. In that case, ball socket arms will provide the needed extension. I find the Ram Mount brand to have a good selection of options. RAM Mounts - Mobile Mounting Solutions Use a Camera with Active Steady Shot Feature or Use a Multi-axis Motorized Gimbal Attachment Many higher end action cameras will offer a form of image stabilization feature that reduces vibration effects from rolling shutter. This is a software driven mechanism to stabilize the image being recorded. The physical version of this is a motorized multi-axis gimbals, frequently seen in drone photography which uses physical movements of the gimbal to offset the physical movements of the camera. However, not all have the same effect in the end result. Action camera gimbals are designed for relatively slow movements and not high G forces of a vigorous backroad blat or a track day drive, as seen in the following example video. So the multi-axis gimbal is a fail for us amateurs unless you go high end which is thousands of dollars. So that leaves us with the software version that is built into the cameras. This technology has improved drammatically in recent years. Five years ago I tested a Sony action camera and found the so-called "SteadyShot" feature to be terrible - moving its aim around all over the place. Now, the current crop of GoPros, DJI Osmo Actions, Sony Action Cams, etc have very sophisticated software to reduce vibrations, producing a particularly professional image. When you select this feature you should know that it works by allowing the recorded image counter the movements from vibrations around an image center spot. It then crops the borders of the video so you never see the countering effect that is going on producing the effect of a closer video image. Each camera manufacturer calls this image stabilization feature by their own marketing term. Sony uses SteadyShot, DJI Osmo uses RockSteady, and so on. This is best seen in a back to back comparison. Same car, same driver, same camera, same circuit, same day, same Manfrotto mounting clamp and ball head. The difference between the two is Video 1 has no image stabilization. Video 2 has the image stabilization turned on. Video 1 - No Image stabilization Video 2 - Image stabilization turned on First thing you will notice is that the view of the cockpit and my body is cut off compared with Video 1. To my mind, Video 2 has a smoother image. Dashboard label letters are nicely crisp. Momo on steering wheel is nicely defined. A little less image vibration in Video 2. You should make up your own mind when thinking about buying a camera for this feature. So Where Do You Mount the Camera? You have a range of options. Think big. The traditional view is on the roll bar above the driver - like the ones immediately above. But keep in mind that height above the asphalt tends to slow the sensation of speed. With that in mind, you should consider alternatives: (a) Hang it off the side. Roll bars have upright pieces. The clamps shown earlier work well to mount on the side of the roll bars. Aim it over the driver's shoulder or maybe the passenger if you are out there terrifying them with your driving prowess (or lack of?). (b) Point the camera backwards - If you are anything like me, you will be pointing people by. Or if you are on a road tour with some se7ening friends then you get to focus on them following you. Or maybe, just maybe, you will get lucky and see someone goof up while following you. This produces a video like the following: Oops! (c) Front wishbones - This is a good location to get the sensation of speed and movement. Remember that it is subject to a lot of movement in the front suspension and a level of undampened asphalt vibrations. (d) Headlight stays - These are a great location for 360 cameras. You can clamp to the metal stay then I use additional painters tape to provide additional support for an extension arm to the camera to steady it. If you have never used a 360 camera before, play the video and while playing use your mouse or track pad cursor to click and drag the video around - left, right, up, down. You can face the video back at the driver or possibly study the track map that GoPro/Garmin/Sony/etc can overlay on the video. Track cars around as they are being passed. The big downside of these 360 cameras, apart from cost and massive video files, is that they generally do not have an external mic capability. So wind noise will be a factor you have to deal with. Wrap Up You may never remove all the vibration effects present in your se7en videos but hopefully this will give you some ideas to significantly improve the quality of your se7en videos to show off to your family and friends.

There are a number of sites around the internet where se7ens can be found for sale. Dealing with the pros and cons of each: USA7s Classifieds Paid up members can post their se7ens for sale for free. There are minimum standards of including an asking sale price and sale description. Much of the time, the car is known to the enthusiast community which gives confidence of the car being of a known quantity. Long standing members are known and can frequently be vouched for. https://usa7s.net/ips/forum/26-cars-for-sale/ Ebay Been around for years, however its usage as a market for se7ens has declined in recent years. Listing fees can be high plus Ebay does favor purchaser protections over seller protections, which is a concern given the high level of internet fraud on both sides. https://www.ebay.com/ Bringatrailer A more recent entrant to the car sales market, Bringatrailer has seen enormous success in recent years. It has driven the relative rise in Caterham resale values with some genuinely surprising prices achieved for cars that are in the sweet spot of desirability. Even so, as a seller, it very much depends on having the right people in the room at the right time to drive the selling value. A lot of the commentary that comes from each auction does need filtering to discern those who know and those who have no idea what they are spouting. A lot of this commentary will influence auction result - favorably or unfavorably depending on your perspective. https://bringatrailer.com/ Cars & Bids A recent entrant to the online car auction options, it follows the Bringatrailer model albeit with far less volume. https://carsandbids.com/ Hagerty Auctions As for Cars & Bids https://www.hagerty.com/marketplace/search Hemmings A venerable long standing participant in the online sales market. Essentially replicates the traditional newspaper classifieds with an online listing model. Reliable contender. https://www.hemmings.com/ Specialist Dealers A number of the larger, more reputable, manufacturer representative dealers also post listings for used se7ens from time to time. Rocky Mountain Caterham https://rockymountaincaterham.com/ Birkin Direct https://birkindirect-usa.com/ Beachman Caterham https://www.beachmanracing.com/overview Caterham Red Deer Canada https://7cars.ca/ Craigslist Used to be a significant player for marketing se7ens for sale. In recent years its significant disadvantages in format have led to its decline. A fee is charged for sale There is significant risk of seller or buyer fraud. Unlike say Ebay, there are no buyer or seller protections as Craigslist is a marketplace for individuals to meet via ads with transactions occurring outside of that environment. The search function is now useless. Most car dealers "hide" text containing every car brand within their ads. The search results are now polluted by cars you are not searching for. Further, searching for a Westfield, delivers anything for sale in towns called Westfield. Save yourself time and go elsewhere. FaceBook Marketplace This is a real contender for sellers wanting to advertize for free. While the interface is clunky and based on regions, a search site like SearchTempest can scan all market place ads to surface the se7ens for sale you are seeking. You need to be a FaceBook member to access and search the marketplace. Canada - Autotrader and Kijiji These are Canadian market online classified ads for cars for sale, very similar to the Hemmings approach. https://www.autotrader.ca/ https://www.kijiji.ca/ USA7s Weekly Update of Se7ens For Sale Having said all of this, USA7s publishes and update summary of se7ens found for sale in North America each week and can be found at the link below. It catches apprimxately 90%+ of the available cars at any point in time. Happy Se7en Hunting!

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This article is the collected wisdom, or rather, lack of (my) wisdom in a long running thread on getting decent audio on an action camera track day video in my Caterham. While I was trying to get engine/exhaust noise instead of wind noise on a track, the lessons will still work on your back road blats with an action camera bolted to the roll bar. Lots of people have asked me over the years on how to reduce wind noise in there driving videos - road or track. While I am not an expert, I have done a lot of experiments over the years to form a view of what works and what does not. Your own experience may differ and thats good because you can also contribute that on this USA7s forum. I am not going to cover which is the best camera or mounting systems in this article – just want to focus on sound. I personally want a good throaty engine/exhaust sound in my videos, nothing annoys me more than seeing a great video with some crap music overlaid. I want to hear that engine roar at revs. If you are like that read on. If you prefer crap music then stop reading now. Its easy to get decent sound up to about 40mph. Its after that, you begin to hear increasing wind noise. I am not an audio engineer – I just know what I like listening to in a sevens driving video. I am trying for high quality sound – some of you may agree with me and others may want to short cut. All of us are right – we deserve to get what we want. A Se7en has unique acoustical properties: - They are aerodynamically dirty so lots of wind noise is a given. - They have a light construction so they transmit more vibration, noise and even electrical interference. - The light construction can sound “tinny” instead of resonating a nice deep note that a regular car might do with its more enclosed and insulated spaces. - They have lots and lots of wind noise….did I say that already? So this is a challenge that even open-wheel race cars don’t really have as most of them have slippery aero bodywork that can hide microphones from the wind, unlike a seven. Many of the video examples below are illustrating how the sound changes with the different methods. Don’t listen to the whole thing – listen just enough to get a sense of what works or does not work. So let’s start at a baseline. The GoPro or any numbers of action cameras advertise fantastic sound quality out of the box. That might be so when you are surfing, horse riding, riding a mountain bike, rock climbing or running around with your girlfriend in a meadow. However that is not true when you stick an action camera on a Se7en and ask it to record a spirited drive or track event. For example here is an action camera using its internal mic in its regular case perfectly mangling the glorious tones of a beautiful Cosworth Duratec engine in this gorgeous Caterham: Hmmm…. So that does not work. Lesson 1 – Position the microphone out of the wind. So let’s try and use an external microphone and see if that improves matters? Just a simple Olympus ME-52W connected to a POV VIO HD camera with the mic under the canvas tonneau in the boot area: Not great. One of two things is happening, (a) the level of noise is over-powering the ability of the mic to process the sound, and/or (b) the mic is over-powering the ability of the camera to process and record the intense noise frequencies. So with exactly the same mic mounted in exactly the same position let’s try it with a Go Pro HD2: That’s better. Still a little soft in volume and too much wind. Lesson 2 – Some cameras are better than others at processing recorded sound. Somewhere around this point in my discovery process, I read lots of tech articles about how you need a powered microphone to improve dynamic range, improve gain and improve recorded audio quality. So I graduated to an Audio Technica AT-3350 lavalier omnidirectional microphone. This has a little battery within it. So let’s mount it to a GoPro and locate the mic under the rear tonneau in the boot area. Much better. Much more differential noise than I would like. Still some wind noise. Not as throaty as the engine sounds in real life – a little thin sounding. Still not a great recorded representation of the sound we hear from our cars. Lesson 3 – Power is better than no power when using a microphone So now I am thinking I need to move the mic around to find a better position within the car. Positions tried and discarded: Under the passenger and driver’s seat – too much wind noise Under the dash on the center tunnel – too much wind noise. I guess air flow rolls off the dash and circles under the dash and foot well area? On the rear wing in front of the exhaust tip – way way way too much wind noise even with a 'dead cat' cover, also known as a 'dead kitten' cover. A 'dead cat' cover is a furry item that covers the entire mic recording element and is intended to protect the mic from hearing the wind. Example linked: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKT7LLH/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_98M5VD26QPTMR1QR2M5Q Mount the lavalier mic to the exhaust tip using painters tape. Don't repeat my mistake - I burned the tape, melted the mic, recorded nothing worthwhile and I felt like a right muppet. After hanging upside down in my passenger footwell, I saw a nice ledge way way up under the passenger side dash where the relays are located. So I gave that a go. I also upgraded mics to a borrowed demo model of an Audio Technica AT689. This is an expensive powered mic (now superseded). I do not recommend trying this at home. Much better. No wind noise now but because it is next to electrical components and it is unshielded you get static and interference. You also can hear the cycling of the fuel pump relay if you listen carefully. So that is another fail. Lesson 4 – Sticking your mic next to electrical components in a car will likely get some static/interference noise I do learn that a better quality microphone will produce better sound recording results – you get what you pay for. From my phone discussions with the GoPro tech people on how they produce their videos I learn that they frequently use a Sennheiser MKE400 or in one case a Rode Video Mic. Both are priced in the $200 range. They also sheepishly admitted they from time-to-time use separate digital sound recorders to blend sound into the sound recorded by the camera on a post-production basis. More of digital recorders later. Lesson 5 – With microphones you get what you pay for So let’s try the same mics and locations in different cars of different USA7s members to see if I can replicate the results consistently. Using Jeff's @JBH Caterham, I set up a test with an AT-3350 mounted in the boot area under the tonneau using a GoPro HD2: Without showing you the failed attempts, I eventually succeeded. Experiment replicated. Consistency is a challenge. I installed all of these mics using the same technique I tried on my car and I do get failures at an unacceptable rate. Some issues driving the problems are: Car vibrations making the mic to camera and internal mic connections break. Flat battery in the AT-3350 (no idea how long the battery lasts – I seem to get 1.5 days continuous track time from my testing but it always seems to go flat precisely when I really want to rely on it! Forgetting to turn the on switch on the AT3350 (no excuse – shoot me!) Vibrations eventually killing the mic so that it no longer records (internal fault to the case or some break in the mic wire?). Been through 3 mics this way. It is very difficult to work out at a track or during a drive whether you are recording good sound or not. There is no effective way to test this out in the field. Easily done on a laptop though but who wants to do that in the middle of a drive? Keeping it simple is important as you have a lot to remember to coordinate when you are about to go on track (helmet, gloves, belts, camera, fuel, mic turned on, bonnet clipped down, etc.). A Sunday blat is easier but you still want to get out and drive rather than faff around with a microphone. Lesson 6 – This learning process can be frustrating! So now I try for the Holy Grail. I give up on the cheap but fragile AT3350 and I run the AT689 mic forward to the engine bay and again using 3M painters tape, tape it to the shelf above the passenger foot well. The metal in theory should shield the mic from electrical interference and I should get lovely throaty sound from the roller barrel throttle bodies. Recorded with a GoPro And so it works. On back off I do get a tinny (another technical term of my making) sound as the intake is closed off but the rest of the sound is perfect. I even hear the CR500 tires being tortured through the corners. Lesson 7 – Engine bay on the intake side can produce really good sound with an external mic. So now can I replicate the sound using different mics same location? GoPro HD2 paired with an Audio Technica AT Pro-CM24 shotgun mic. You are riding aboard with Mike @Kitcat in his Caterham. Success!!! The AT Pro CM24 was mounted drivers side above the pedal box on the Caterham. As a contrast here is an Opteka VM2000 shotgun mic taped to the inner scuttle above drivers knee – not bad but a bit rattly and more wind noise than I would like. Would prefer just engine noise/exhaust noise. Lesson 8 – Engine bays are a good location for microphones as wind noise is largely minimized and intake sound is pretty good So now my question is does it work with other cameras? Yes – tested the AT689 with the Drift HD Ghost and the Braun Six Zero with mic mounted up under the bonnet above the passenger foot well. Braun Six Zero Camera and an AT 689 mic Drift HD Ghost and an AT 689 mic The Drift camera is not quite as good as processing sound as the Go Pro or other cameras with an external microphone. It picks up the deeper intake notes but seems to have trouble with the higher pitch notes once the intake is closed. Seems like Lesson 2 holds true. Lesson 9 - Some level of testing is required to make sure these solutions work on your seven. There is no out of the box solution for a seven So then I tried separate digital recorders, both mounted in the cockpit using the screw clamp mount. The first tried was a Tascam DR05 and the second was a Zoom H1. Most professional videos will use a separate recording source rather than use a mic attached to an action camera. This makes sense when you think about it as a digital recorder of sound is a complex piece of equipment, larger than the action cameras we are using. So its dynamic range, sensitivity of mic, noise reduction, and general ability to record a good track is always going to be better than the compromised equipment contained within a tiny GoPro box or the like. The one major downside with these is you have to spend time post production synchronizing video with sound (either with the regular video editing package or an application like Race Render. When you start recording you would clap to get a visual and aural cues from which to base the synchronization However, I found the vibrations from the car killed both the Tascam and then the Zoom H1. They would turn themselves off or just not record. So they were returned for refunds. Lesson 10 – Digital recorders offer the promise of better sound recording but more stuff to fuss with recording and sync with video later. Better to keep it simple What sounds good to me does not sound good to others. I prefer a little more bass in my sound mix. Others may prefer a little more treble when they hear their car recorded using my equipment. Lesson 11 – Sound is a personal thing. You may not like what I like – so experiment. This is my view on getting decent video sound on a Seven drive or track day. I don’t profess to know all the answers so please constructively contribute with details and examples of what you think works well for mic position/location and equipment used. Lesson 12 - If you want to go to the next level then listen to some better experts in this field I have continued my personal interest in this topic by following up with WindCutter who specialize in sound recording solutions including wind shielding for microphones. Below is an extract from an email exchange I had with Michael Stamp of WindCutter. He very kindly consented to me posting extracts of his email on this forum as I believe it is very helpful for us to hear from a professional. Indented text in blue is from Michael's email: Email I've been giving your problem some thought and have a few ideas that can be tried to reduce the wind noise. I noticed you are trying to capture the car's unique engine sound. In the sound recording industry the proper term for any sound you want to record, is "sound". Any sound that you do not want to pick up in your recording is called "noise", as in wind noise. For example, if you wanted to capture a recording of a bird song and there was a car engine being picked up in the recording, the car engine would be referred to as noise, and the bird's song would be referred to as sound. Likewise, if you were intending to record only the sound of a car engine and you picked up the sound of an unwanted bird, the bird sound would be the "noise". Recording moving car sounds is one of the most difficult recording situations, especially at high speeds. There are several problems that must be dealt with. 1. Equipment. I suggest you use an audio recorder (like your Tascam or Zoom) and separate wired microphone/s. The recorder can be inside the vehicle and a wire run to the microphone/s. The mic wires should be taped down using gaffer's tape Gaffer's tape is designed for this purpose. It's strong, re-positionable, sticks very well and won't harm your car's finish. A good lavalier mic should work in most cases where the sound you are after isn't to far from the mic. You will need to shock-mount your microphone so it doesn't pick up unwanted vibration noise.A shock mount can be made using foam or rubber as an insulator between the microphone and the mounting surface. If you would like, I can design and build a shock mount enclosure system for your particular microphone/s. Some Zip Ties would be handy for securing your shock-mounted microphone to your desired mounting locations. And of course you'll need a StormChaser WindCutter designed to work with your particular set-up. 2. Microphone Placement. This takes some experimentation and trial and error. You may find it helpful to have another person drive the car while you test your record levels on your recorder while listening to the live sound through headphones. You'll be watching your meters and listening to make sure your audio levels don't peak (too loud). Also, you should be listening for any rattles or vibrations in your mics mounting. You'll also be listening to determine if you are getting the sound you want without noise that you don't want. You may have to try moving the mic or adjusting it's angle to avoid unwanted noise and try again. When mounting the microphone, you want to avoid surfaces that will get very hot. You also want to try to keep the mic out of pick-up range of radiator fans and any other engine parts that create sounds that you don't want in your recordings. I like your idea of placing a microphone on the rear fender aimed at the exhaust pipe. Some long strips of gaffer's tape should be able to secure a mic in that location. The mic would need to be both shock-mounted and shielded from the wind stream. I have some ideas about how to get it shielded from the wind and shock-mounted. My idea is to place the mic inside a plastic tube like a PVC pipe. The inside of the tube would need to have some sound dampening foam like what microphone foam windscreens are made of and it would also need a shock mount system built into it. The interior foam material to prevent any reverberation caused by sound waves bouncing off the interior of the tube. The outside of the tube should be wrapped in something like Neoprene rubber or similar material. This outer material would serve as a first level shock-mount and protect the car's finish from scratches. In addition to recording the exhaust sound (called the exhaust "note"), you'll probably want to place a separate mic to record the engine sound. This can be done from under the bonnet. This type of placement can be tested with the car's engine running while the car is still and then tested while at speed to check for wind noise. Once again a tube apparatus might work well in the engine compartment as well. 3. Technique. A lot of trial and error to discover what works best. Here is a link to an article by an expert Hollywood sound man who has a lot of experience in recording car sounds. I think you'll find this article helpful in learning some of the techniques the pros have developed. Rob Nokes Guide to Recording Cars Best regards, Michael Design & Fabrication TheWindCutter.com http://www.thewindcutter.com/shop/ A link to Rob Nokes Guide to Recording Cars is here: Rob Nokes Special: Guide to Recording Cars (designingsound.org) I will note that I use the WindCutter microphone "dead cat" wind shielders and they have been the most durable out of all brands I have used so far, although I suspect they would melt if taped to the exhaust... Lesson 13 - Keep trying! Continuing in my journey of quality audio on Caterham track videos, I have reached 'nerdvana' Garmin VIRB action camera mounted to rollbar using a Manfrotto clamp. Twin mic set up using a 3.5mm cable splitter. Twin AT Pro CM 24 mics - internal battery power works better than camera providing power to mic. Both mics are covered with 'dead kitten' mic covers. One mic runs forward along passenger side of cockpit and around outside of scuttle into engine bay where I tape down the mic with non-marking painters tape under the intake on the top of the passenger footwell inside engine bay. Photo link shows the line of blue tape and camera on roll bar. Second mic runs backward and is taped down next to rear exhaust - photo illustrates. The blue painters tape shows the line of wire between camera and mic. End result is pretty good. If you have a side exit exhaust then revert to single mic setup with mic in engine bay or second mic inside boot (under boot cover) near side exhaust. Conclusion I hope your efforts end up as satisfying as I am with my end results. Look forward to seeing you post your backroad blat and track day videos on this forum.

Silverstone Circuit After my Donington Historics excursion, I made my way to Silverstone for a follow up track day in the same week. Like Donington, I had been here before and I was driving the same Caterham 310. However, I had big reservations. The GP layout at Silverstone is a power circuit. Very fast. But I only had 152hp so I was not going to be very fast. Plus with the 5 speed gearbox that they only offer now (apparently there are now reliability issues with the Caterham 6 speed box that traditionally was specified and that I have in my Caterham CSR) then I was likely to find myself stuck without the right gear at some point. Sure enough that was how it turned out. You really need a Caterham 620R or R500 to enjoy this circuit. Some on track photos There are two choices of video Option 1 360 video that you can pan around and look everywhere but not great sound but it does have a track map and data overlay and corner labelling for the first lap so you know what corner I am going through. Click and drag cursor to pan the video around 360 degrees Option 2 Regular video with sound and data overlays. Both videos really illustrate the power nature of the circuit. I would belt into corners at max velocity 105mph, usual high speed understeer and then the aim was to minimize the speed being scrubbed off by the corner. Then on exit, I could not drop a gear to pick up the pace because of the gaps between the ratios forcing me to hold a higher gear and lug it out of the corners. And this was the situation all over the circuit – Copse, Maggott/Beckett, Abbey, etc. It was a fun day on a circuit but frustrating all the same. So whats my favorite between Silverstone and Donington? Donington. No contest. Its fast and fun and well suited to a seven. Even in a lightly powered Caterham it is a good drive because it flows so well. Donington is one of the best circuits you will ever drive in a Seven as it flows so well maintaining momentum.

Continuing my ongoing efforts to drive the great race tracks of UK and Europe by Caterham, I was at the Donington Historic Festival followed by a Bookatrack track day at Donington in a Caterham 310 and later in the week, driving the same car at Silverstone. Donington Historic Festival It does not have the cachet that Goodwood has but it also does not have the price tag or attitude. Its incredibly relaxed. You can wander the paddock, stick your head into an engine bay and at lunch walk the pit row. The circuit is brilliant for spectators. Just take the tunnel into the center of the circuit and walk the inside. Lots of grassed earthen berms to give elevated views of the track and still allow close up viewing. This is a spectator event definitely worth attending. http://www.doningtonhistoric.com/the-event/ You know you are in for a special day when you walk outside your hotel and find a gorgeous Mercedes 300SL. The hotel parking lot was packed with tasty cars. Like moth to flame, I was suckered in by this little Escort. Note names on the side for that famous WRC driver/navigator partnership. They actually race these Bentleys. No roll cage. Just a gutsy driver throwing a brick shithouse into a corner at high speed. These things are quick in a straight line. I have a soft spot for French rally cars - I love Alpine A110s. One day... A lovely Lagonda No prizes for guess why I was checking this one out. FIA Group 2 BMW CSL. Old school mechanics rock! This is a replica of the Broadspeed Jaguar from the 70s driven by Derek Bell, amongst others. Powered by a Jaguar V12. I bet its reliability was challenging... Not a hint of woodworm in sight - a Morgan Jaguar E-type semi-lightweight. One of these days.... The Legends lunch tent for which I did not qualify had a revolving display of tasty machinery outside for the whole weekend. Adjustable shocks, 1930s Bentley style And the dash from the same car. I want a klaxon button on my car! This is an historically important car for Volvo. It was their first dip into 1980s touring car racing in the very early 1980s. On the back of that they went in with their 1984 Group A evolution car run by Ruedi Eggenberger. Shark attack! 3 Group A BMWs. Group A cars are big money these days. In this one pic you are probably looking at US$700,000 plus worth of car. I would love the Garage du Bac car - great period race history on that one. A Ford Capri. European FIA Group 2 with the Westlake V6 that puts out around 300hp and sounds magnificent. These were largely overrun on the continent in the early 70s by the emergence of the BMW CSL although they hung on competitively in the British Touring Car Championship into the beginning of the 80s. A D-Type - what more can you say. Yes it is genuine and yes I could touch it. Brilliant event to allow you so close to such historic cars. I saw the owner allow a 10 year old kid to sit in the drivers seat and just imagine. Lifelong motoring passion result from those types of youth experiences. This car regularly runs at Goodwood with name drivers. This weekend it was misbehaving sadly. A lovely Aston Martin The Formula 5000 racing was one of the best to watch. Have a close look at the driver names on these cars - James Hunt, Mike Hailwood.... They may be historic cars but they are still raced hard. Naturally I had to check this one out. Its a replica and not a true Group C Bathurst car. I chatted to the owner and could actually tell him the early history. 1983 VH Holden Commodore converted to a race car in the early 1990s for the Commodore Cup and eventually Queensland Touring Cars. Somewhere along that line it was converted to having a 1985 Group A VK grill. The owner bought it and modified it with the Australian Group C body kit from 1982-1984 and put the livery of the Bathurst 1000 winner from 1982 on it. He was going through a lot of frustration dialing it in - it was not stopping well nor turning evenly left or right. It was running a Chev 350 which is cheating a little....lot... The driver was Abbie Eaton, time setting driver on The Grand Tour. She was delightfully relaxed about her father's car despite it misbehaving at times and even so had it as high as 3rd place in the race. What can you say? And the one-off Ferrari 'Breadvan'. Unfortunately it broke during the race but was wonderful to watch while it was going at it. Turning to the racing, apologies for the poor quality as I was taking these on an iPhone. One of the touring car races with a BTCC car going through Craner Curves. An Alfa WTCC car exiting Old Hairpin past Donington Hall. Entering McLean’s. A nice view of Craner Curves, Old Hairpin and then Starkeys (closest to camera). A lovely old Alfa GTV Group A touring car. An Elva A BMW 635Csi Group A touring car following a Rover SDI Group A UK touring car The Ferrari ‘Breadvan’ A FIA Group 2 BTCC Mini following a Group A Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth. The Mini later sheared its right side front stub axle and ended up nestled up against the wall where I was standing. Bookatrack Caterham Just at the back of the pits is the headquarters for Bookatrack. A big showroom and adjoining office. In a separate building just behind is the maintenance area where they service the rental cars, build customer cars and support Caterham owners. Of course I had to visit and pick up an order form… There is a huge mural in the showroom of a Bookatrack rental Caterham on circuit. But when you look in close you can see it is made of up lots of small images from their track day photography. I appear on this wall in more than one place – just not sure where! Donington Park Circuit A circuit with a lot of history – pre-war GP racing plus more modern Formula 1. It is a wonderful drivers circuit set within a natural valley bowl so lots of entertaining elevation change. This photo shows the back of the circuit in the bowl with the run down through the sensationally fun Craner Curves then the right into Old Hairpin before the track heads left past the old stone bridge that used to be part of Donington Hall. Extending the view out further, this shows Craner Curves, Old Hairpin andthen the long run through Starkeys heading back up hill. If you panned right then you see the run into the righthander McLean’s. Then a short straight uphill to Coppice which is an early apex and long arcing exit. For this I had a Caterham 310. This is 152hp Sigma engine car. LSD. 5 speed Mazda box. Ideally I would have had more power but it was the only car available for rental at short notice. Donington, like most UK circuits, is subject to strict noise controls. For my track day it was 98db. Needless to say this Mustang failed it on the sighting laps behind the pace car!!! This is a relatively short track. We were running the GP configuration which gives the extra arm off the back of the pits that provided extra length. However, it is quick – indicated by the average speed. In my rent-a-caterham it was a third and fourth gear track for the most part. Only went into second for the two hairpins on the GP extension. It may have been a 5 speed box but 5th is an overdrive and you lost speed if you tried to use it. Luckily 4th was a direct drive and so I survived just reving it out to 7000. Some on track action I just overtook him…honest!!! For video we have two options. The first is the 360 video. You can pan the camera around to look out the back or look down on me driving - click and drag the cursor to pan. Sorry no decent sound on this as it does not support an external microphone. For those who are conventional and like sound then this is the alternative video.

So I am back to Spa for some days on track. This time I brought Jeff @JBH and Rahul @rnr from this USA7s plus quite a few other track day friends. Yesterday was the museum to see the rotating car displays. Some freebies from when I bought my UK Caterham. Jeff was running a Ginetta. His assessment at the end of the two days on track was that the Ginetta is a great handling car, but way down on power (138 hp). At 1850lbs, it is very much a momentum car. The Bookatrack photographer put the second Ginetta into the wall at Campus corner illustrating that sudden throttle lift or sudden power will spin it. Rahul was running the Golf R32 with a few track mods. My trusty beastie! We all survived day 1, albeit a little tired and sore. There is a fair amount of G forces on the body around this track and that adds up over the course of the day. Day 2 weather was cold, sleet and rain. A day to take it easier on track. Jeff @JBH and myself with my Caterham. It goes without saying, this was ballistically quick on track. One of the new Alpine A110s - great looking sports car. Yes that is a Ferrari 275 GTB next to it. Yes he took it out in the rain and snow. Yes he did spin it. Yes he is my hero! My rental car for this trip was something really unusual. Who of you has heard of a manufacturer called “DS”? So I had a DS7. It’s part of Peugeot/Citroen group but is a unique vehicle line. It was mostly well equipped - no power seats or rear vision camera. It was really quite nice to drive except...it had a 1.5L diesel. No turbo. It was sadly lacking in the engine ferret department. Glaciers have moved quicker. We all survived day 2. Rahul managed an exciting but safe spin at Pouhon. The Bookatrack mechanics took to calling Jeff’s Ginetta, the “Love Nest”. Why? Well he and his significant other were spending a lot of time in the small enclosed cabin (on track) that the Ginetta has. So late Sunday, when the Ginetta arrived in the pits with steamed up windows, the crew started laughing. Their laughter (and mine) increased once the instructor exited the passenger seat. The weather was pretty rubbish. Snow, hail, sun, sleet, sun, rain, etc. We had all seasons in each hour every hour. So the Caterham on semi slick tires quite frankly sucked unless there was a dry line. Otherwise I was like a cat in a wet bathtub. The Focus RS Sport - 350hp, all wheel drive was a star. Perfect for the conditions. A number of cars had drivers that ran out of talent - BMW 5 series, a VW fun cup thing (guaranteed at these events), and a Caterham. A Caterham 420R is a pretty quick cat for Spa. I am still going through the data but the quickest lap I had was a 2min48.2. Lap record is 2min43 with equivalent race Caterham. An R300 lap record is 2min45. For a Focus RS, Renault Megane or Golf R32 then higher 2min50s was considered “good”. The Ginetta is relatively low powered say 145hp with around 1500lbs. Very nice handling and brakes. So it’s quick in the context of its power/weight ratio but will not compare to a 420R. 210hp at 1350lb. But it is a very nice track car as it is all purpose built. In the dry at Spa you want a Caterham. In the wet you want an all wheel drive car or a Caterham with proper track wets. Those without a Caterham or a Ginetta, rented from RSR Spa, a very professional outfit just outside the circuit gates. L to R: Renault Clio, Renault Megane Cup, Ford Focus RS Sport, and VW Golf R32 The obligatory videos are now ready 1) The straight ahead cam with good sound and data 2) The 360 cam. Double click on the video to see it on the youtube page. Use your mouse/arrow key to pan the camera around. Lap 1 you can look back at Doofus waving at a friend after Radillion in the Focus RS or on lap 2 follow the Aston Martin DB2 as I (eventually) pass it on Kemmel Straight. Look down for the data overlaid on the headlight Some extra photos of the day Chasing a buddy Mike through Eau Rouge and up to Radillion. He rented from RSR Spa. A good outfit to rent from if you are looking for more car choice. Rahul @rnr hurling his Golf through Eau Rouge In the esses at Les Combes This track is all about the corner - Eau Rouge Trying to scare Anand, Rahul's cousin with some good laps. He was with me on my fastest lap around this track. There is a lot of elevation change between the different parts of the track La Source turn - turn 1 after the F1 start line My passenger Jeff @JBH looks rather perturbed? Heading towards Pouhan corner with the F1 pits in the distance Coming through Les Combes at the very top of the circuit

So in late March 2018 I just happened to find myself in Belgium for a weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, in the Ardennes, about 1.5 hours east of Brussels. I was last there in July 2013 and had promised I would return but as usual work, life, other cars, family, blah blah, get in the way. It is simply one of the best 3 tracks in the world to drive and a seven is just so well suited around there given the momentum style of driving. Ignoring that, I signed up for the March 25th and 26th (Sunday and Monday) with Bookatrack and again rented a Caterham with them. I believe they run the best track days of any operator anywhere and they are such a fun group of people to be around. March is an uneasy time for a track day at Spa as you never know what could happen as I learned in March 2013 and got the distinct pleasure….err….experience of driving on track in snow. Not recommended, even at Spa. As it turned out I need not have bothered – sunny, clear, some clouds and in the 50s both days – just perfect. To remove any chance of jet lag, I flew in early to Brussels and meandered my way over to Spa town, an easy 12 minutes drive from the track. This was a change from staying at a hotel next to the track as it allowed for enjoying the town’s various nice restaurants in the evening and a nice walk around what is a pretty little town nestled in the valley. Given I arrived on the Friday and was not driving until Sunday, I decided to take a few scenic drives around the old circuit and visit Stavelot where the Spa-Francorchamps museum is located. The Museum is located in the undercroft of the restored Abbey. Its not big but the displays rotate regularly and everything is very interesting and well done from original race cars, memorabilia and old photos. A diorama of the circuit – old and current – in the context of the surrounding area Following this I drove the old circuit. Originally the circuit was laid out on the local public roads. Eventually this became too dangerous and the modern day circuit, still based on local roads, was carved out and enclosed. Up to 1970 Formula 1 and GT races were being held on public roads, running through villages, alongside houses, fields, with no safety barriers or run off. Speeds averaged 180mph along these roads. For example, this is the old Malmedy straight. And here is part of the Masta kink. If you know where you are looking there are some gravestones along these roads, in drainage ditches by the side of the road, or next to old trees, memorials to the racing drivers who died in high speed crashes. Quite sobering. The Saturday was a test day at Spa, so I drove into the pits, dropped the car and proceeded to walk the circuit in its entirety Despite having been there before, I had never walked the circuit. This helps you understand the geometry and layout of a corner, whether there is elevation change, camber change or other little nuggets of information that can help you drive the circuit quicker. This is a fast circuit – I average 85mph – that’s an average! Astounding when you think about how a Caterham does not have a particularly high top speed. So the game is to carry as much speed as you can through every corner. The following photo is looking uphill at the old pits and back towards La Source (corner 1). Then standing in the same spot but swiveling left is Eau Rouge (at the base of the hill – corner 2) looking towards the top of the hill where Raidillon corner is located. Moving up the hill to the top where Raidillon is located but looking left a little, you get the classic Spa-Francorchamps view back down the hill to Eau Rouge, the old pits and La Source in the background. Raidillon is the top of the hill. When you come through Eau Rouge (no lifting…), you cannot see the next corner so you aim the car using the tops of the pine trees and if all goes well you pop across the top of the crest, two left wheels on the Raidillon curb as you then track out right. Then you are on the long Kemmel straight. Its essential to get a high speed run through Eau Rouge and Raidillon to max your speed on the straight. You are still gaining elevation here, heading towards the highest part of the circuit at Les Combes. This is the exit of Les Combes (corner 7 on the map) and the highest elevation of the circuit Some mention has to be made of the elevation change on this circuit – its massive. The lowest point on the circuit, just after Campus corner is at 1110 feet of elevation (from sea level). The highest point on the circuit is just exiting Les Combes at 1410 feet of elevation. So in 1.5 miles the circuit drops 300 feet. Alternatively, consider that at La Source corner the elevation from sea level is 1272 feet. At Eau Rouge you are at around 1140 feet and at Raidillon you are at 1242 feet of elevation. So in track distance of about an 6/10ths of a mile you have descended 132 feet and then in the next 300-400 feet you ascend 113 feet in elevation. Pretty radical elevation changes that are only equaled in circuits like Mt Panorama in Australia or Portimao in Portugal or the Nürburgring. So after Les Combes it is downhill into the right handed sweeper Bruxelles (corner 8 on the map). This is off camber initially although it starts to ease off as you get through to the last third or quarter of the corner. Looking back uphill to the exit from Bruxelles Then its to the downhill lefthander (corner 9 on the map). This is tricky to judge. It’s tighter than it looks. It has two green plastic posts on the apex so don’t cut this corner. There is not much run off and if you do get it wrong on exit there is artificial grass just after the curb, not very nice for grip as the car goes all squirrely there. And just to ensure there is a high level of pucker factor, as you track out from the apex there is a dimple in the circuit, right where your right rear wheel tracks out. So you have to watch for the rear end snapping away from you at just the wrong moment. Then onwards, faster, downhill…. …..to the Double Gauche (corners 10 and 11 on the map). Some people call this double apex left sweeper, Pouhan corner. The entry (corner 10) The middle (corner 10 exit and corner 11 entry). The skid marks tell the story of what not to do with the corner... The exit (corner 11 exit) Double Gauche is seriously quick and incredibly satisfying if you get it right. Somewhat early looking entry, mild brake tap in 4th gear, hold the wheel and let the car arc out to the right before arcing back to the second apex. If you get it right then you just hold the wheel constant through the corner and feed the power in. Just after the first apex I am foot to the floor through the rest of the corner. You are carrying some serious speed by the second apex and for me getting up towards the redline in 4th gear. Get it wrong and it is one hell of a wild ride. Plenty of tarmac run off once you get beyond the artificial grass. Then on to Fagnes (corners 12 and 13). This is corner 13 below. It is slightly uphill and favorably cambered. So you can carry good speed right through corner 12 and then flick the car back left for corner 13 all while feeding the power in and generating just a slight drift from the tail – epic fun. Then it’s on through Campus and onto the straight than leads into Blanchimont. An open left double sweeper – no lifting – before you arrive at the Bus Stop And here So it is a hard braking down from around 120-125mph (in a 420R) to like 30mph, flicking right then left. And at this point you are back at the modern pit straight accelerating up towards La Source. For this Spa treatment, I rented a Caterham 420R SV. 220hp Duratec. 5 speed gearbox, and LSD. Nice goodies of leather road seats, aero screen and regular track day roll bar. What I did not expect is that it was brand new. 5 miles on the odometer. Naturally it required a little fettling on the brakes, some more bleeding to make the pedal firmer to my liking but I was sensible about doing a thorough check myself before racing out there and being silly. As it turned out it was perfect. Not one issue during the two hard days on track. The only part of the spec I struggled with was the 5 speed gearbox. The ratios were all wrong. A similar engine car with the 6 speed gearbox gets away from you pretty smartly by just having 2 extra ratios – 6 speeds to your 4 speeds – as the 5th gear is overdrive and the 4th gear is direct, matching the 6th gear in the 6 speed box. So along the Kemmel straight I felt like I was doing a high speed economy run in 5th gear as it just would not pull any further, even after changing at the redline in 4th. There is good reason the 5 speed box was specified. Apparently there have been quality issues with the 6 speed box. Given the life these track cars get then you want them reliable. So I needed to get out there and do my public service by running in that Duratec nice and carefully….errr.... right…. I can just see the for sale ad later – Company demonstrator model, run in carefully by little old lady on Sunday drives in scenic Belgian mountains…. Bookatrack track days are extremely well organized. High quality of driving. Strict enforcement of some basic rules that ensure predictability and safety on track. Plenty of interesting cars to check out. Very friendly crowd. If you want to drive the circuits of the UK or Europe, these are the guys to go with. Some pit scenes Yes folks, if it is cold and you sneeze inside your helmet you do fog up your glasses – here I am waiting to de-fog so I can see. There are many people of alternative persuasions – even Westfield owners enjoy track days. They are quite patient at letting others overtake them… Naturally, a circuit as quick as Spa ensures that this is not an economy run. But I could use up 2/3rds to 3/4s of a tank every 45 minutes on track. I would simply head to the pits once the fuel gauge hit the red (and below the red on one oops occasion) and the trusty BAT mechanics would spring into action and fill me up. One trusty pit chappie even polished up my car after every session to make sure I looked good on track. So we head out on track Eau Rouge Passing another BAT renter spun out who entertainingly was called Shane! La Source Exiting Fagnes corner With the strict noise restrictions in place in UK and European circuits, Caterham have devised this two muffler set up - a side one and then passing the tube under the wheel arch, over the axle and then to the rear muffler. This allows you to comply with 92db limits on those tracks where it was needed. For Spa the noise limit was 102db for the days I was there. This would be helpful to those running Lime Rock or Laguna Seca. Keep off the artificial grass people At the end of Kemmel straight in the braking zone for Les Combes Like my past experiences with Spa the GPS logger hates the Spa mountains and the data just did not work again. So just video of two sessions from Sunday with no overlay of data. Somewhere on one of those videos is what happens at Raidillon if you miss the second apex at Eau Rouge and you do not lift…. Sunday session 2 Sunday session 3 I finished the two days with 475 miles on the clock after starting with 5. I think that’s respectable. Sadly, I cannot make their July track date which is Spa and Zaandvoort. So no chance of going back until this time next year. Instead I have days at Donington and Silverstone planned for early May and Brands Hatch booked for October. Still chewing on whether I want to do Anglesey for a weekend in August. One day I may get someone off this forum to join me. For those people light in their loafers and need a car with a roof to protect their delicate hair, then RSR Spa also rents cars. Renault Clios, Meganes and Porkers. But I will warn you – the Sevens are quicker!

Given I arrived off a US flight early in the morning I stopped in first at the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon UK, about 1.5 hours drive from Heathrow. It celebrates the British motor industry which had extraordinary success until brought down by poor management, weak Governments and labor unions in the 1970s. The facility is superb with extensive sponsorship by Jaguar and Land Rover. If you want you can take a Land Rover or Range Rover on an off road test drive in a purpose built 4wd trail on the property. I had a great time testing a LR3! In the museum, there is a spectacular collection of cars: An original Jaguar XJ13 with its dashboard Who remembers Bob Tulius? Then it was cross country to Donington. The circuit maintains a museum which has the greatest collection of Formula 1 cars anywhere on Earth. I can only say they may be under estimating. I left a trail of drool, dribble, sweat, tears, pee and sperm all over this museum….absolutely amazing. You may want to hurry to see this collection. Tom Wheatcroft, who bought the circuit and established the museum passed away in 2009 and left his estate to his son who seems to be actively selling cars off to buy WW2 tanks So then it was on to the track day run by BookaTrack. Normally very tightly organized, given it was the Friday before a weekend of racing, it really turned into a practice session for the racers. The track: We were running the National Circuit without the hairpin extension. There were a range of cars – Radicals with RST V8s, BAC Monos, high powered Caterhams and Westfields, tin top touring cars, an absolutely amazing yellow Ruf Porsche 911, to hackers like me in a beaten up Caterham R300. Rules are passing on the “straights” only on the left, ideally with a point by. However, that degenerated rapidly as the red mist descended. In the afternoon it seemed like you did 2 laps went to the pits under red flag and then went out for another 2 laps before another red flag and so on. It was amazing how many “race cars” were showing drivers with no talent. One Renault Clio race car was ahead of me at Radcliffe before running off the track, through the gravel trap, out back onto track off onto the grass on the right, over correct and then back left across the track into the gravel and eventually into the mud….muppet! A few of the Caterham Academy drivers demonstrated lack of fear and made numerous gardening excursions. Here is one of the reasons behind one of the stoppages: For those wondering what happened to my poor Caterham gear lever above, that was the result of it suddenly becoming a "flappy paddle" gearbox while going from 5th to 6th diving downing into Craner Curves at 85-90mph. Fortunately there are no photos of the "gardening" that resulted from my sudden surprise and confusion. Somehow all the gear lever retaining bolts had worked loose so the lever disconnected from gearbox. While I tried to limp to the pits in 6th gear I ran out of revs and had to be flat towed back for recover. Looking towards Redgate corner: Looking back towards the start finish line and the pits: Going through MacLeans Just about to turn into Coppice Navigating Redgate corner: A wonderful drivers track – definitely worth trying out. I put together some video of the circuits. One thing to keep in mind - renting Caterhams is not cheap. You break it you pay to fix it (except when it breaks due to something not your fault - e.g. gear lever). Exceeding rev limits (6800rpm) is monitored closely and is punished with a fine for each serious transgression (100-500rpm over is a slap on the wrist and told don't do it again). This is fair when you consider that race cars have a hard life and the maintenance is steep and therefore costly. I have found Bookatrack to be very reasonable about things. They have a team that prepares the car, keeps it field up and helps sort things out when they go wrong. I think they are very good outfit to rent with should anyone want to try out one of the famous UK or European circuit. With this in mind my mode for the day is to get to within 95% of the lap record for that circuit in a Caterham R300. In all cases I succeed by the end of the day and I have not risked the car or my wallet in the process. The Bookatrack Caterham is a R300 spec car. 180hp Duratec, fully caged, stopped race car. CR500 on 13 inch wheels. Caterham 6 speed gearbox. Stack instrumentation but no speedo. They run both S3 and SV chassis. If you do not like the regular carbon Tillet seats or the larger B2 Tillets like I do not (major back pain results) then they have these specially made up foam seat pads to construct a seat that is very comfortable for a days run - this is what I use. Camera is a pre-production Sony. Orginally recorded in 1080/60fps, 120 degrees field of view. Sound is mostly rotten as I was testing the internal mics for the maker. Data is recorded via Racechrono Pro with separate bluetooth GPS logger. I use Manfrotto clamps for the most part. Where the video looks like it is moving around and a camera mount may be loose then what you are seeing is actually the Sony SteadyShot feature which tries to compensate for vibration to improve image quality - I think it failed and will try it switch off next time. The large box on my left wrist is the camera control. The silver box on the scuttle is the GPS receiver for the data logger. Apart from the sound the Sony cameras were excellent - I could use the remote to turn on/off the camera mounted on the wishbone while I was belted up sitting in the car. You can also use it to check aim. The terrain change on these circuits is best shown by the altitude in feet change. Donington National Circuit

Forum member Steve @Blokko and I enjoyed a track day at Anglesey Circuit, way up north in Wales. Anglesey is a small club circuit in the far north of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. The views from the circuit are simply staggering. Weather was great, highly unusual for this part of Wales, and there were only about 30 cars on track - all behaving well. So both of us got a lot of track time in on this brilliant circuit where we played tag with each other. Steve had his share of mechanical issues with the expansion bottle top losing pressure and because his tires lost grip once they reached a certain temperature - understeering out of Church at 90mph was 'interesting' to quote him! Entertainingly, for others, I had a moment with an instructor on board early in the day. Steve was on hand to witness it: "So I decide to sneakily follow Mike out on track for his instructor session so that I could pick up his lines. We joined the circuit at The Banking hairpin, then it’s a short straight into Church - which is a long 90 degree right hander that you can carry a lot of speed through. The next ‘proper’ corner is Rocket, but between Church and Rocket the tarmac is never actually straight – a gentle right hand curve that sharpens a bit just at the point where you might want to think about hitting the anchors. At this stage (when I got things right) I was approaching the sharp left hander of Rocket at 110. Braking here is helped by the fact that there is a steep incline on the approach to Rocket, which enables you to scrub a lot of the speed that has built up. Except on this first lap Mike didn’t manage to scrub enough speed and he watched the apex fly by as he headed towards the infield. Fortunately he managed to make the turn before running out of tarmac – thus saving the embarrassment of going grass cutting with an instructor on board." Photos: Steve (Blokko) looking concerned when talking with me (back of head)! Steve following me in his K-series engine Caterham Roadsport SV Anglesey GP Circuit And an experiment at Anglesey to run a camera low down on the front wishbone/A arm. Apart from sound I thought this was a good position

In the latest installment of doing UK/European track days in a Caterham, this time we are at Anglesey, Wales. It is way oop northern end of Wales – a 5+ hour drive from Heathrow airport. You can get closer by flying from the USA into Manchester but I have had enough of third world airports this year. Ideally you would double head this event with an Oulton Park Day – about 2 hours away. Anglesey is only 70 something miles from Ireland across the Irish Sea. This location on the Irish Sea presents problems and opportunities. Opportunities, as this is one of the most scenic circuits on earth perched on top of the cliffs above the crashing ocean. Problems, because of that ocean, winds can be sweeping across the track at gale force and it is highly likely it will rain while you are there. Naturally, I was rolling eyes the day before my event when I discovered it was perfect sun, no wind as I knew then that I was going to have a crap weather day the following day…guaranteed. Anyway, I was last at this circuit in 2014 running a rental R300 race car. This time would be with more hp with a 420R under my seat. For an overview of the circuit we have the map: There are two basic circuit configurations – International GP with the second long hairpin and Coastal which cuts that phallic portion of the circuit out and introduces the corkscrew to connect the hill to pit straight. In case you wonder why I come this far for a circuit? Its exciting. No other circuit puts as much G forces on my body. By the end of the day my neck hurt, I had bruising from the side bolters of the seat, my fingers hurt from throwing the car into corners. And for all that it is not a very fast track in average speed. Its also very pretty around the Anglesey peninsula. We ran International in the morning and then Coastal in the afternoon to give some variety. The day before my event there was a Plop Race going on. This name, more commonly associated with the short sharp sound of a fresh log playfully slapping at water in a toilet bowl, was actually referring to a completely different kind of shit in that it was scooter endurance racing. Yes! Who knew that 8 hours of 50cc racing could be so exciting. I pissed myself laughing at the crashes, the collisions and the “I am unable to avoid the tire wall” moments on the circuit with the most run off of any circuit out there. The rules are simple – you must use the correct engine with its limited displacement. No mods of brakes or chassis allowed. Fairing/bodywork is free to modify in that you can remove it or run it. Streamlining is not allowed. Engine is free to modify but folks, keep in mind that if you give a 50cc engine a compression of 7 then it will not last one lap of the circuit let alone 8 hours. There is no point being the fastest on the warm-up laps. One team in the pits I chatted with had burned through 5 engines by 3pm. He hoped they would finish as he had no more engines…oops! So with that in mind, my track overview photos will include many examples of “plops” on the track. Turn 1 after the start line is a fast left hander. Tight entry but opens up nicely on exit with a good run possible into turn 2 – just watch the cars exiting the pits here. First photo is of the “The Banking” i.e. a banked turn 2. Background is the Irish Sea and the mountains of Snowdonia (BTW very good twisty roads in there on your way to and from Anglesey). Banking is probably only 5 degrees – nowhere near as extreme as the 15 degrees on Lightning Circuit at NJMP. Fairly simple – late turn in, apex 2/3rds of the way around, power out. Then you have a straight heading down towards Church which sweeps right in a curving straight. It looks tighter than it is. You need a full lift of throttle or light dab touch of brakes to get the car to turn in but then its back on full power, accepting that there will be some front end drift/understeer as you track out. So why do they call it Church? Well, if I faced 180 degrees and looked out with my back to the circuit then you see this: The Church is only accessible by foot at high tide or anytime by Shane in his Stalker. Back to the circuit, out of Church, the track curves right. Keep the foot mashed through here. And up the hill to Rocket corner Now Rocket corner hides a secret, seen in the next photo. Hidden, just over the crest, is a second gear tight left turn. Those skid marks in the braking zone tell the “oh shit” moments of quite a few drivers (or riders). Assuming you get through Rocket then you have an almost immediate right tight hairpin corner, seen in the following: Then you exit the hairpin and prepare for one of the best corners on the track, Peel. Peel is iconic because it is a fun corner and the views are epic. It’s a tight right entry but once committed it opens up on exit, just like the view. Most drivers hold tight to the right fearing the lefthander below the crest, but that is just optical, plenty of time to exit Peel properly out left and then come back right in readiness for the next lefthander, Seaman’s, out of sight down the hill. The Seaman’s corner is critical because it is where the track divides from International layout or Coastal layout. If International then it is a slightly off camber brake and dive to the apex then favorable camber as you put the power down on track out. If it is Coastal circuit then you hold left for the instant right into Corkscrew then try to hold to the center or right to be ready to turn left onto the main straight. The photo below shows the confusion – the track is the right most tarmac. The left side tarmac corner is actually pit entry. More than one ended up in the pits by mistake. If we are continuing onto the International Circuit then we proceed along the Tom Pryce straight to The Hairpin. Naturally it is a hairpin. Then blast back along the straight to the last corner before the pit straight/start/finish line – The Bus Stop. Its tight and slow – second gear. There is a patch of tarmac around the apex out to the middle of the track – this makes it off camber and tricky. Very easy to rotate the car here if power is put down aggressively. Also easy to rotate the car left into the pit wall. As always, my trusty steed was my 420R Naturally, my weather was a light drizzle in the morning to wake me up, “sea mist” was the affectionate name by the locals, followed by dreary gray overcast skies, eventually turning into rain at around 4pm. The locals said it was “quite a nice day.” Needless the say the drizzle in the initial session led to lots of spins, me included, before I at least managed to get my act together. Loved this Exige This type of curb does not do good things to the inside front suspension....wheel is a little airborne. The BAC Mono was incredibly quick but the two this day were plagued with electrical gremlins. The license plate of this R400 has a backstory. The owner chose "DCP" in the plate as it referred to the lurid pink metallic of his car. So what does DCP stand for? Dog Cock Pink. Truth in advertising I suppose.... The beauty of Anglesey is the view over the Irish Sea at various points around the circuit. Video shows the afternoon sessions on the Coastal Circuit using the corkscrew to come onto the pit straight. First 5min34 mins are clean laps. At 5min35 I am wearing a bee on the camera as I play tag and hang onto the back of a Caterham 620R. I was 210hp. He was 309hp. He would just disappear away from me on the straights but I would claw back by being brave elsewhere. Links TFL Racing https://www.tflracing.co.uk/

As I have done for a number of years now, I rented one of the Bookatrack Caterham R300 racecars for their European tour, this year Eastern Europe. The plan in the week of October 10 was to fly into Budapest, spend 2 days enjoying the town then pick up a rental car and drive to Brno in the Czech Republic to meet the group at the hotel. First circuit was Brno. We travel then to Slovakia Ring, which is roughly 35 miles east of Bratislava in Slovakia. After that it is drive back to Budapest where we run the Hungaroring, home of the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix. For those that have never been to Budapest, you are missing one of the great cities of Europe. Lots to see and do and very reasonably priced. Naturally I sampled the local brews in my favorite cafe by the Danube watching the world go by! Brno Circuit, Czech Republic There was a famed Brno Circuit. But like the other great tracks of Europe – Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans, Pau, even Nürburgring, it has changed dramatically over time. The original 19 mile circuit was discontinued and a move was made to purpose built facility nestled in the hillside and valleys on the outskirts of Brno city in 1987. I drove some of the original 1930s track, as it is now the access roads to the current circuit. Even some of the original pit buildings remain present on the sides of the road. The track is known for hosting MotoGP bikes, Formula 3 Euro Series, DTM, FIA World Touring Car, Superbike World Championship, and FIA GT1 World Championship. Sadly the weather forecast was not encouraging. The day was cold, high 30sF, overcast with rain forecast late in the day. In Fall with the leaves changing color it is a magnificent setting The track map shows a fairly lengthy track nothing special in layout. But, the story of Brno circuit is all about elevation change. It may be hard to read the following graph but there is close to 250 feet (75m) of elevation change in the track from top to bottom. You start up high, wind your way down to the lowest point and then it is a very steep climb back up to the start finish line. This photo illustrates the elevation. This is me about half way down the circuit and in the distance, lower, continues the circuit and it is not even the end of the elevation drop. Yes I know I missed the apex Tom (as some of my "friends" on here will be quick to point out!) - with so much water on the apex you had more grip hold the car well out from the apex. The trusty rental Caterhams all lined up. The R300 have orange stripes and the 620R are red stripe. I did enjoy how the Bookatrack photographer lined up the cars at opposite angle to pit exit! My trusty R300 for my days on track is here. A standard SV chassis with de Dion rear end. 2L Duratec making 180hp. Redline is 6800-7000 but I usually change at 6500 for sympathy. No frills race car – no lights, indicators, extra gauges, or heater/blower unit. It is usually set up with fiberglass Tillet shells, although I use a foam seat arrangement when I run this car. Its nice to see Bookatrack gave her a shiny new coat of black paint and orange stripes since I last used it. A bit about Bookatrack. I have been running with Bookatrack for 5 years now at various UK and European circuits, always running Caterham R300s. Jonny Leroux, with his wife Sarah, run the best track days of any operator I have run with. Handy with the wheel himself, I think he still holds the lap record at Spa-Francorchamps in a Caterham R300 – the video is on YouTube somewhere. But Jonny’s best skill is building a group of loyal repeat customers who are just all welcoming and friendly to anyone that joins one of his track days or annual Europe trip like this one. The laughs are frequent around these days – no egos. I have tried a bunch of UK/European track day operators over the years – Bookatrack are the only ones I will run with now. Even if you never run a Bookatrack track day, Jonny is a passionate Caterham supporter and in the last year opened Caterham Midlands, based at Donington Circuit in the UK - worth a look if you are in the Midlands of the UK. The format of the track day is open pit lane. The track breaks for lunch for an hour but you can guarantee 7 hours of open track time. I would average about 3 hours on track in a day with lengthy breaks in between to keep the car and myself fresh. You do not lack for quality track time. Someone told me there were 30 cars but apart from the first 30 minutes there was never anything close to this out on track at once. You really did have quality time on the circuit. So some photos courtesy of Bookatrack. One feature of a Bookatrack track day is their practice of 2-3 sighting laps for people new to the circuit to get a basic familiarity before you go out and plant the size 11s to the floor. So I took out my Avis RentaCar, who for once gave me an upgrade to a nice Mercedes…. low powered diesel…sigh… Some pit photos Sadly it rained in Brno. Because of the rain I did not make a full video of the circuit but a series of slow laps in persistent rain that just accumulated around the circuit. The shiny bits of the track in this video are standing water or drainage channels across the track. Yes it really was that wet. I gave the day away after I had a bad aquaplane coming out of turn 1 which I saved and then further down the circuit at turn 11 I aquaplaned again through the braking zone, skated across the gravel trap and somehow managed to haul it up on the grass next to the fence without doing any damage other than tasting seat fabric at the back of my mouth from a big buttock clench. As I am out of the car in the pits after this, I hear of two other Caterhams that had major oops moments from aquaplaning at turn 2. Seemed a perfect time to call it a day. I think I will be back. I want to try the track in the dry. I have seen enough to know it will be a fantastic drive when the conditions are more favorable. Slovakia Ring I will be upfront and admit, I thought this track would be a bust before I even turned a wheel. On paper it did not inspire me. It looked like a classic case of how many corners can you fit into a flat field. Everyone I talked to in the group said the same view and we all changed our minds once we drove it. What an interesting circuit. It was quick. I was at redline in 6th gear at four points in the circuit. But in between those fast bits were some very slow bits. So that led to the surprise on how much fuel a Caterham could consume. The fuel guys were run ragged keeping up. Some photos courtesy of Bookatrack: I was caught here waiting in the pits to head out for first session of the day. An illustration of the confusing layout is in this photo. Besides the track I am driving on there are another 3 elements of the track hiding in the background as it loops back on itself again and again. The track was hard on cars. Here is Roger, a former Chairman of the Lotus 7 Club of the UK, showing us how to fix a rear end on his absolutely gorgeous Vauxhall powered car. I never realized how nice a Vauxhall engine could sound until I heard this one. Another former Chairman of the Lotus 7 Club (who I will keep nameless to avoid embarrassment) had engine problems which stopped him on the circuit. His K-series R500 had decided to lunch itself at 8600rpm. Scrutiny of the damage in the pits was instructive – it had rods out both sides of the block with clear open holes. Never seen that done double before. In fairness it was said to be well overdue for its refresh schedule of every 3000 track miles or 10000 road miles so the owner was not overly surprised. Here is a video. I decided to use the regular roll bar clamp with the go pro plastic mount. Bad move – I should have known better as they vibrate at speed and get the jello wobbles. Still it should give you the right idea of the track. Hungaroring The last of the circuits we were doing. First constructed in 1986, it is the home of the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix; it has a reputation as a drivers track. It also has a reputation of being tricky in the rain. It is situated in a valley so 80% can be seen from any point, which makes it great for spectators. This is the sequence of turns 2 and 3 and in the background turns 4/5 probably my favorite part of the circuit. Here is the third and second last corners before the main straight. A word here on the cars participating. Nearly all were UK based. Jonny has a couple of tractor-trailer units for the rental cars. He also arranged a few extra trucks to pick up other owner cars (spare wheels and tires) and truck them all to the circuits. So owners could all fly in knowing that their cars would be delivered. He then set up shuttle buses for those not wanting to rent a car so you could be picked up the airport, shuttled to the group hotel and on to the next circuit and so on. A very smooth way of making the entire trip work. The cars were mostly Caterhams. Many R500s, a few 620R, and a couple of R300 (ex-Bookatrack cars now in private ownership). There was a Noble, a Porsche, a track modified Miata, a Lotus Exige, and a Hayabusa Radical. There was even a Lotus Evora whose owner drove it across from the UK to participate. Hungaroring surprised me by being perfect for an R300. You only really ran out of revs about half to two-thirds of the way down the main straight. That said the 620s were running 155-158mph down the straight whereas I topped out at around 117-118mph in the R300. The R500s were doing around 145-147mph. Its a loooong straight. When you hire a Caterham through Bookatrack on these types of track days 1 hour of professional instruction is included – 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon. The instructors are UK based so they were seeing the circuits for the first time along with the customers. What I found most interesting was talking through the circuit and their analysis process and how they modified the recommended lines over the course of the morning. You really got to hear and see how a pro works their way into a new circuit to drive it quick. The track was a blast. I loved it. I would very happily go back again. It really is well suited to a seven. Here is a video to give you an idea. Forgive me but I was incompetent. I switched the forward camera to the Sony and it was vibrating at speed because it was not facing square to the front but was instead angled. So it was buffeted by wind and more susceptible to the usual vibrations of these cars to produce the jello effect. The rattle of the mic is from me not securing it properly in its correct location. So I have blocked out the calendar for early October 2017 to go back to Europe with Bookatrack. Who wants to join me? You can rent your own Caterham or go share with someone to split the cost. You get to arrive and drive a fully supported, all costs included Caterham on some of the best tracks in the world and enjoy very social dinners with a group of like-minded individuals. Its my idea of a fun driving vacation. If you need more temptation then maybe read the posts on my earlier trips with Bookatrack to Spa-Francorchamps, Magny-Cours/Dijon, Oulton Park, Donington/Anglesey.

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.

The latest installment in my quest to drive the great tracks of UK and Europe. This time was the Brands Hatch GP circuit. Last October I had tried the shorter Brands Hatch Indy circuit on a track day and thought it was promising. That was nothing - the GP circuit is sensational fun. Unfortunately, some numpty developer created a whole village of idiots next to the Brands Circuit. As a result, use of the GP circuit is quite limited and heavily noise restricted - 95db for my day. But when you get the opportunity you take it. The full GP circuit is the same as the one followed by F1 before it ceased using Brands Hatch and migrated to Silverstone for safety reasons. The track map and video just do not convey how much elevation change happens on this circuit. The video flattens things out tremendously. It also does not convey the bumpiness of the circuit. I was destroyed by the end of the day - lots of bruising next day. However, I don't care - it is epic! Its an old school style of track. It forces you to think. It requires a big brassy set hanging between the legs. It requires bravery. It challenges better than nearly everything except Spa, Mt Panorama, or Nurburgring. Definitely high on the must try ticket. This is probably the worst track for the Mazda 5 speed gearbox that comes with the current version of the Caterhams. Its a 3-4 gear track only. Only use 1-2 entering or leaving pits. No need for 5th gear. IF there was ever a case for a 6th gear box, it comes on this track. So here is the track video. Makes it look slow. So consider the elevation meter. Look at how my hands work the wheel. See how much I physically move around in the car from the bumps. September sees me at Angelsey. October sees me hopefully back at Donington and for my first time at Cadwell Park. Who wants to join me? Links TFL Racing https://www.tflracing.co.uk/