Popular Post Rob Hunter - Club Secretary Posted July 25 Popular Post Share Posted July 25 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. 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naranja_Al Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 3 minutes ago, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said: 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. A mixtute 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. Good write up Rob 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joolz Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 excellent report, and you managed to make our car look way better than it is in reality, top marks ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hunter - Club Secretary Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 35 minutes ago, joolz said: excellent report, and you managed to make our car look way better than it is in reality, top marks ! It's a tidy car and looked great in track! Have a soft spot for a yellow Westfield, my first one: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naranja_Al Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 50 minutes ago, joolz said: excellent report, and you managed to make our car look way better than it is in reality, top marks ! Your car looks ace, so clean without lights, plates etc. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevanP Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 4 hours ago, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said: 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. 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hunter - Club Secretary Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 5 hours ago, KevanP said: 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. That's a good point, the track tuition that's offered is excellent. Probably the most cost effective way of going faster 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 On 25/07/2024 at 12:17, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said: It's a tidy car and looked great in track! Have a soft spot for a yellow Westfield, my first one: Rob..what engine was in the yellow one..I am trying to find a photo of my old one to check the reg.. me neither was with cvh yellow, rac bar and a Q plate and sure ended in voj... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Only photos I can find but I think i can just make out the number.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hunter - Club Secretary Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 18 hours ago, Mole said: Only photos I can find but I think i can just make out the number.. @Mole that's amazing! Looks like VOJ to me but she'd changed quite a lot by the time I owned her! I do know it had a CVH at one point as it was in the extensive history file (was still registered as a 1.6 in fact). The CVH had loads of work done looking according to the receipts, various dyno plots of over 135bhp if I remember correctly. When I owned her she looked quite different and had a 2.0 Blacktop on twin 45's with a dyno'd 165bhp and loads of carbon bits. I was told it was the first car to have the carbon sides, full carbon interior, carbon bonnet scoop etc and apparently was on the WSCC stand at Stoneleigh one year as a result. It was my first Westfield, I bought her from an ex WSCC member a mile or so from Curborough in August 2019 and he'd used it mainly for sprinting and trackdays. A brilliant car, but only kept her for 6 months as the Westfield bug had bitten hard and I traded her in for the MegaS2000 in the February.... she did 2,500 fabulous and trouble free miles in that time though! 😂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 That's interesting.. I bought it in around 2004;04 2005 from a guy in St Neots Cambridgeshire.. it was my first Westy too. I changed a couple of things but not too much but did put a mega squirt ignition system on with the help of the Norfolk AO at the time. I did a couple of track days at Snetterton but then went to work in Texas, so sold it.. I think it was to a guy in Birmingham area who bought it unseen. When he received it he said it was even better than he expected.. unfortunately after a number of months he destroyed the cvh I think on a track day. So it was probably then that the work got done... It was great to see it again and know she served you well! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hunter - Club Secretary Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 56 minutes ago, Mole said: That's interesting.. I bought it in around 2004;04 2005 from a guy in St Neots Cambridgeshire.. it was my first Westy too. I changed a couple of things but not too much but did put a mega squirt ignition system on with the help of the Norfolk AO at the time. I did a couple of track days at Snetterton but then went to work in Texas, so sold it.. I think it was to a guy in Birmingham area who bought it unseen. When he received it he said it was even better than he expected.. unfortunately after a number of months he destroyed the cvh I think on a track day. So it was probably then that the work got done... It was great to see it again and know she served you well! Brilliant how the cars stay in the club and give so much pleasure to loads of people! I'd assumed the CVH must have let go.... She was on an Omex200 when I got her, had a rebuilt 3.92 diff & LSD (at Bara motorsport), Varley redtop battery, Wosp lightweight starter, Team Dynamics 1.2's, Gaz Gold shocks etc. She was thirsty, noisy and temperamental (was running huge chokes and jets so didnt like being below 3,000rpm) but great fun 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naranja_Al Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 @Mole & @Rob Hunter - Club Secretary what a great story, love this! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 41 minutes ago, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said: Brilliant how the cars stay in the club and give so much pleasure to loads of people! I'd assumed the CVH must have let go.... She was on an Omex200 when I got her, had a rebuilt 3.92 diff & LSD (at Bara motorsport), Varley redtop battery, Wosp lightweight starter, Team Dynamics 1.2's, Gaz Gold shocks etc. She was thirsty, noisy and temperamental (was running huge chokes and jets so didnt like being below 3,000rpm) but great fun 👍 Sounds like the owner after me did plenty of work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 34 minutes ago, Naranja_Al said: @Mole & @Rob Hunter - Club Secretary what a great story, love this! Yes great to hear what happened with a car you owned a while back..and that it brought plenty of joy after I had sold it.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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