The second trip was also with Adamanda and the SIDC, Rich Browning also coming along for passenger rides.
Again, having listened to reports of the weather at the Ring in April, I opted for the car. As it turned out, the weather was fantastic and we could have taken bikes, but better great weather in the car than pouring rain on the bike.
My new improved CarCam, designed & built by my father, Patrick, was a great success, giving some excellent footage of my laps.
With a dry track, the power limitations of the MX-5 were much more apparent. While it's never felt under-powered on the road, the 'Ring is a different beast altogether. On the long uphill Kesselchen - Klostertal stretch in particular, I was just willing the car to go faster.
My favourite bend was the incredible 200-degree banked left-hander, the Karussell! Where I was being overtaken by more powerful cars on much of the track, here the MX-5 was in its element. I was entering the banking at about 50mph and exiting close to 60mph - faster than most of the Subarus and Porches and the same speed as at least one Caterham 7 SuperLight. :-)
Least favourite was the second 90-degree right at Brünnchen. I didn't know then that the exit is notoriously slippery, and I put the power down about three car lengths too early. The back end went, and I found myself sliding sideways. I considered trying to steer into the skid to straighten it up, but decided that was likely to result in over-correcting and heading straight into the opposite armco. I opted instead to accelerate the skid to get it facing backwards, then straighten up and try to slide backwards up the track. I almost succeeded. I didn't quite manage to get it parallel to the track, and slid onto the grass, the front end just kissing the armco at about 3mph. The result was a very slight scrape on the LHS of the front bumper:
I also grabbed a passenger ride in one of the SIDC member's 22b driven by Ring instructor Phil Gardner. Wow. I videod it from the rear seat, and managed to get some glimpses of the circuit amid the 'floor-roof-floor' footage ...
Copyright © Ben Lovejoy 1999