My day at brands open pit 25/02/2009

Sorry if this isnt in the correct section I wasnt too sure


First off I am still grinning like a chesire cat was possibly one of the best days of my life


Also possibly one of the most expensive


Met up with someone off of civictyper.co.uk and headed on down there.


Myself and mark comendeered ourself a garage




Then I got myself briefed and signed on




Then after that we headed out on the sighting laps behind the saftey car.


Then it was open pit time

I at this point went off for my instruction session. Possibly one of the best £25's I have spent. I learnt so much from dave my instructer. He used to drive press cars for honda here so knows how to chuck a CTR around so was ideal for the task in hand

I can say up until then I really didnt realise the car was capable of that much. When people say CTR's handle they arnt lying. By the end of my teaching session I was up to speed and following the lines nice and smoothly (possibly the biggest difference is getting the lines right as I now know)
Thanks again Dave :wave:

Then I went for some laps its safe to say I got my moneys worth 3 tanks of fuel and I reset the trip meter when I left mine this morning and it now reads 250miles :cool:


The amount of grip CTR's have is crazy (compared to a corsa anyway ) will grip and grip and if I does start to slide a little lift off will get it tight again. And its also nice and predictable with lots of feed back. It lets you know you are upseting it before deciding it likes the grass. I did have one hero style moment at graham hill at about 45 degrees but the car did well at not snatching back to suddenly and we held it together (much to the amusment of my passanger ) I think with an LSD my car would be very capable


Also went out in an impeza (doesnt feel that fast but clearly was ) and a caterham which I now want badly


In summery I would recoment one of these to anyone. Everyone was mega friendly and dispite the range of cars there I didnt come across or here of any bad driving from anyone


Car behave impecably too apart from filling it with petrol letting some air out of the tyres and tighening some wheel nuts nothing was needed. Other people seemed to have theirs in bits all the time. There was a mk4 astra gsi I there but I think that went pop as it was smoking out on track and then I saw it getting recovered outside


Funniest moment of the day was my passanger singing kings of leon sex on fire changed to "your brakes are on fire" as we pulled into the pits I did have quite a bit of smoke coming from the front


Some pics I grabbed:

Only a few I got on my phone. I am awaiting others to post theirs.






The posh porche boys


















Woops






Thats got to big my longest post ever :cool:



Gutted I couldnt get any video though. As they have banned suction mounts considered sneaking out with it but didnt want to ruin a good day

second picture u posted mate, do u know who's ax that was with the black kit?

looks like a good day out! will defo need to come down to brands for this at some point!

its possibly the best track ever, and you're not the first person to burn through a set of tyres there

rat write up mate, welcome to the addiction

[quote="haddow_AX"]second picture u posted mate, do u know who's ax that was with the black kit?
quote]


Cant see it in any of the pics


Do you mean the pic with the green caterham in the pit lane? If so iirc thats a saxo track car (track tuition.co.uk or something )

MGM wrote:

its possibly the best track ever, and you're not the first person to burn through a set of tyres there

Yer really like the track. Nice and simple but difficult to fully master if that makes any sense. Nice lot of changes in gradient too. Suits cars like mine too that arnt mega power machines as it hasent got massive straights and you can carry your speed quite a bit. only needed 3rd and fouth to keep it on the cam all the time and just 5th for the main straight.

Mannnn i get goosepimples just looking at Brands. Easily my favorite track!

Glad you had a good day mate

Gavin I officially hate you! I was going to do the 25th at brands again or oulton but since I'm caming my car I want it done for the next time I go out.

I always thought brands looks abit crap in birds eye pics but the gradients make the track what it is...Oh and I could have a semmy by just looking at Paddock Hill bend.

Glad you had a good time mate!

Shame would have been good to see you there.

Yer paddock hill is epic


I think I am an inch shorter today after all of the compression you get flying out of the bottom of it

[quote="Gavin"]

haddow_AX wrote:

second picture u posted mate, do u know who's ax that was with the black kit?
quote]


Cant see it in any of the pics


Do you mean the pic with the green caterham in the pit lane? If so iirc thats a saxo track car (track tuition.co.uk or something )

defo not a saxo with the shape of the front of the roof curves from that pic mate and the way the rear window is, was an ax gti for sure from that colour scheme as no saxo's are done like that i know of......had to be an ax gti on 205gti wheels...think i may know who's car it was but not 100% sure.

I need brands.

We are doing one in the summmer.

Oh if you are I am in for sure


I am doing a couple of small 20 min sessions on the 18th of march in the evening with a couple of mates. £25 of 20mins was just too tempting

Haddow I am talking about the picture with the white and black car in. We talking about the same one?

From what I remember its definatly a saxo on the vtr pepper pot style wheels

the one above the parr motorsport porsche one aye?

thats the spit of an ax shell from the way im looking at it likes, the wing shape, the flat white doors with the handles hidden and the window shape as well. 99.9% thats an ax shell even from that distance looking at it mate

looks like a mk1 Saxo VT to me if i'm honest fella, the door handles are visible.

bugger it!

send me the picture to: haddow8335@hotmail.co.uk and ill havea proper look and see it, im positive thats an ax shell!

and the one piece front window too, i'd say saxo!

polycarb window. get the pic sent to u and zoom in on it chris its the flatter styled front bumper like the ax and you can see theres no door handles just the lock.... its defo a citroen either way!