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I've been meaning to do this for a while, here's a little write up of the trackday a few of us took part in at Donington on Monday. This is a mixture of how it went and some things to help those who've yet to take the plunge! As this was a Javelin event I'd taken advantage of our Clubs exclusive 5% discount, plus I'd had some loyalty points from last year which reduced the cost to about £280 from £299. A track evening is about half this price. I always add insurance cover for 5 trackdays to my annual insurance renewal so a quick call to Howden on the Friday had my car covered with one of these. It's normally far cheaper to do this if you do more than one event a year. for example, a one off track day insurance for my car (valued at £25k) is about £120 but when I add five at renewal it adds about £100-£120 total to the renewal price (£20 ish per track day). Being a Javelin day, the driver briefing is done online the day before, answering some easy questions on track etiquette, what the flags mean etc. This means driver signing on is very slick, normally less than 10mins gets you your wrist band and car sticker. Other organisers may have a face to face briefings at the track. I'd arrived at about 8am (track opens at 730) to find Ben and Nathan already there. Joolz and Claire arrived shortly afterwards. We'd pitched in on the day to secure a garage (just £40 between us). Nathan, Joolz and Claire had trailered their cars there, but Ben and I had both driven with the passenger seats full of essentials, this is an example of what I normally take. At 9am it was time for the sighter lap. Essentially this is a single file (no overtaking allowed) familiarisation lap of the circuit following a marshal at relatively low speed. Once this was completed, the track started in earnest..... sadly for us, that's when the hours rain commenced 😂 Being on semi slicks and with no roof we sat the first hour out until the track dried. We always delay our first drive for 30mins anyway as it allows the more excitable drivers to get the adrenaline out of their system! I'd been a bit worried about my noise levels as it was the first time on track since my ITB's were fitted. My induction noise at 9,000rpm is VERY, VERY loud, noticeably louder than a similar Zetec engined car for instance... my fears were realised, on my 12th lap I was duly black flagged for noise (102.3dB vs the 98dB limit)! I was touching the rev limiter in 4th directly under the newly calibrated dB meter on the pit straight 😂 You are allowed one chance in these circumstances so we put on our thinking caps over a breakfast buttie.... Amusingly, Ben had also been black flagged in his MNR but it was a case of mistaken identity for him (another red "sevenesque" car) as I was the real culprit 😂. Here's Ben telling the marshal "it's not me, it's Rob!" 😂😂 By this time we'd been joined by Garry, Glynn, Steve, Alistair, Michael, Hedley and Tony who'd all come along to watch. We were walking back to the garage after breakfast when we spotted some 300mm lengths of discarded closed cell foam (about 40mm thick, 100mm wide)... a plan was hatched! 10 minutes with some helping hands, gaffer tape and cable ties, and hey presto, I had my extra sound proofing under the V8 bonnet on the intake side! I headed back out to do some lappery, short shifting 3rd, 4th and 5th as I passed the DB meter and no black flag!!!! I'll be looking for a more permanent solution for the next one 😂 Nathan had hit some troubles by this stage in his 1600cc, 270bhp RLM Hyabusa powered MNR. Having only had the car a few weeks and it being effectively stood for 5 years (MOT mileage only), he'd discovered a misfire above 8500rpm. Despite a team effort to remove/clean the fuel filter and change his spark plugs the issue didn't improve. We believe it's probably a coil pack but sadly we couldn't fix it so he settled for some gentler laps. After the 1 hour lunch break, I set out giving some passenger rides for a couple of 17 year old petrolheads I'd invited (we have to get the younger generation interested in our daft cars!). One was my neighbours son and the other is a budding Instagram photographer I know, both enjoyed it (well I couldn't hear any screaming at least!). Passengers can normally sign on during these events as long as they have ID and a helmet, it's just £10 for a wrist band so is a cheap way for novices to experience the cars and circuit. You can also book in extra drivers like Joolz and Claire do as they share the driving of their track only zetec Westfield. Later on I also took Ben out for a few laps (as a registered driver, you can also be a passenger). Ben has done a lot more track days than I have and is very quick and consistent so it was great to get some feedback on the car and my technique. His bike engined car is a lot lighter and mlre agile than mine but he was impressed with the power and the neutral chassis balance. Seems he was enjoying it anyway 😂 As a track day is not a race, most organisers will not allow live lap timing, however you can run an action camera (as long as it's securely fitted) that will also record speed and time. I also run a free app on my phone (with the display off) called Racechrono which gives rudimentary telemetry. With my Gopro attached and Racechrono app running in the background I can then get telemetry plus footage of my laps to help improve my technique. A here's an idea of the sort of info the free Racechrono app can give. This was my fastest lap of the day with overlays for speed, lateral G and longitudinal G. Amazing to see the car pulling over 1G at 100mph down the Craner Curves.... that's the part of the track where I realise I'm not a Lewis or a Max 😂 The car performed faultlessly all day and despite me having to short shift in a couple of areas I knocked 3 seconds off my personal best, completed over 60 laps and managed a respectable 10mpg.... Despite the MegaS2000 probably not being the most track biased Westfield (she's quite heavy), old rear tyres (secondhand Kumho V70's that are past their best), running in "Peak District cake chasing" softish road settings, and my lack of talent, we were only about 3 seconds off the slick shod, race spec 3.7 V6 Ginetta G55. On my fastest laps we were also keeping a well driven 620r very honest, easily passing the Caterham Academy cars (who were there testing), noticeably quicker than the sole Ariel Atom, driving by the M2 Cup cars, and not embarrassingly far off the incredibly quick slick shod Radicals. Another great thing with a track day is the photos you can get. Some organisers charge for these, some don't. Javelin photos are free to download from Flickr within a days or so making a great keepsake. All in all a fantastic day! Having fun on track and loads of laughs with mates in the garage is what makes these events so brilliant. If you're debating whether to go and do a track day, I would highly recommend it. Get insured (optional, but gives peace of mind), spanner check your car, stick a helmet on and go have some fun! It's really the only place you can fully explore the incredibly high limits of our amazing cars.

Donington Park action…

Some new engine mounts to replace my ‘barely set jelly’ pair 🤪

New harnesses. Sick of the faff of multiple connections. One was a bit doggy anyway, kept coming out

A wee blast along the A702, Dalveen Pass often used by Evo for the COTY runs. Temps held up and dry feet 🙄

Your car looks ace, so clean without lights, plates etc.

It's a tidy car and looked great in track! Have a soft spot for a yellow Westfield, my first one:

That's a good point, the track tuition that's offered is excellent. Probably the most cost effective way of going faster 👍

Hi Matt, thanks for the link, very interesting. I could do something similar except that I would like to install an in-tank pump set up from a Fiesta ST180 or similar. This avoids the need for swirl pot, pre-filter and separate fuel gauge sender unit so ultimately should be lighter. I do have the skills to fabricate a complete tank if necessary but my TIG welding skills are a little rusty! Cheers, John.

Brass heater blanking plugsWheel centre caps

I've just had mine running and there is far less engine movement than there was. Hope It will stop the air filter rubbing on the bonnet.

Excellent write up - really useful for any newbie track goers. I've done most of my track days via Opentrack, who run a very similar format. They even throw in professional ARD's tuition for 30mins free.

excellent report, and you managed to make our car look way better than it is in reality, top marks !

Good write up Rob 👍

No mate, we raided a nearby skip for some foam and sound proofed under the bonnet..... a bit of short shifting and I had my naughty boy status removed 😂

Hey mate! Good thanks. Unlike you I didn’t get black flagged for noise, did you get pulled again after I left? We were on the GP circuit which was a first for me.

I have used Andy of AW driver training in the past, you use your own car and explore the limits of grip and how to correct. It's a good course and taught well, he is an ex touring car driver. I also did the drift course when it was at Donnington but I think they have moved to Silverstone now and also the full day with Palmersport which was amazing and really gave me the confidence to go faster. https://www.awdrivertraining.co.uk/ https://www.silverstone.co.uk/drive/caterham-drift-experience https://www.palmersport.com/event-options/full-day

How did it go mate? We need to synchronise calendars 😂

Yep me too, with the occasional 5th through Craner if I get it right 🤣 We were on the GP Circuit so I needed 3rd for Melbourne…..

I do the whole lap in 4th gear in my car. That's national circuit

Yes Donny is fun..but third is used a lot ...

While I was tinkering - Dave decided the safest place was in the car

Just got in and tidied away. I had an amazing day thanks. Got faster each session. Car was faultless just need to grow a bigger pair!

Howden and the five days included for me for past five or six years...

See.. should have kept the Westy..

Roof on, ready for a potentially rainy trip down to Cullompton this evening 🌧️🌧️

The sun brought the cars out yesterday where we managed 14 cars in total, 12 Westfields, 1 Sylva Striker and a MX5. Breakfast was eaten outside in the sunshine. After feeding ourselves, 10 of us headed out towards Selby, we started as 10 but lost @Ross Seight somewhere on the way. The rest of us managed to stay together through some back roads to arrive at The Motorist. Big thanks to everyone who came out, including @Kenner in his Striker and @Jill sutcliffe and Darren on their first run with us. See you all at the next one.

I think this topic is non-westy-ist. So being a tad non PC here’s mine…