Sir Greg Posted January 21, 2007 Posted January 21, 2007 Hi Terry, I spoke to Brian and Paul Luti at Autosport and although they have provisional dates they have to wait till Knockhill are sure about BTCC dates and testing days etc before going public. For anyone else looking for track time, Dreadnought Garage are a Callander based company specialising in TVR, MG and of late Cateringvan. They have built and run race cars and have a good pedigree in motorport. The son Paul Luti has run a monster of a V8 MG ZT in the last couple of years and we spent a memorable couple of days in 05 nursing it around the Britcar 24hours at Silverstone......we finished preparing the car on the starting grid almost.........and it finished.. Anyway, they run several track evenings and a couple of mornings, at Knockhill. These sessions to be honest are more suited to fairly experienced drivers and there is s a reason for that. On most track days, passing is only allowed in designated areas or when it has been made clear that the driver in front has seen you coming! The Dreadnought days allow open overtaking.....apart from up the inside on corners. It does make it very very entertaining but it can be quite daunting for beginners or those who are learning their cars etc. They are however, very well run events and in the times I've been there I've yet to see two cars taking each other off. My mate Scott managed to put his M3 CSL into one of the gravel traps backwards however...........just after he said the worst words you can ever say on a track (or anywhere).............. "Watch this" Quote
greenandmean Posted January 21, 2007 Posted January 21, 2007 Towing eyes are also under review for Harewood hillclimb, after a few complaints about lengthy recovery times the organisers are saying that some of the time lost is due to the competitors having nowhere to hook up to, so eyes may be in everyones best interest other wise it could be a case of hook up to what looks strong/convenient and hope for the best. Quote
Sir Greg Posted January 21, 2007 Posted January 21, 2007 I did once see a possible solution used by a guy with a MX5 track day car. He had made up a sling type thing from what looked like old seat belt webbing. The theory was that when this was slung round a suspension mount or tie bar (or roll cage even) it would cause less damage than a flippin big 'ook! It means that you would have to keep it handy in the car so you could chuck it to the recovery marshall before he hooked up the car. How the idea would fare with the track scrutineers is another question I suppose. Quote
Lurksalot Posted January 21, 2007 Posted January 21, 2007 You weren't on track , were you with someone who was ? I was taking a couple of shots today with my new box brownie I have lots of shots of blurred things so shout up . It was me on track in my westy with higgsti (the racing god) giving me some pointers. I was in the navy blue westy, which according to MSV was 105db exactly @ 4000rpm (pinto engines) with the standard Westfield exhaust (only been used for just over 2000 miles). Would be interested to see any blurred pics if you have got any of us, think I will get the photos from the day off the official photographers anyway but its always nice to see more. Back to the point, they did say that they wouldn't let any car out on track that didn't have a towing eye fitted. They let us out without one but don't think they bother to much with 7 type cars where there are plenty of points to tow from. Dan Sorry to appear to be hijacking but I'll post it here anyway Dan Quote
Lurksalot Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 I dug this one from the non keepers, but its ok ish Quote
oioi Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 just my thoughts on towing at track - if you are stuck in the gravel trap the initial inertia to get the car moving and the pull angle may well combine to damage a suspension component. i personally wouldnt trust it. Quote
darthurs Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Yep, that's me. Good pictures by the way. Dan Quote
pistonbroke Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 just my thoughts on towing at track - if you are stuck in the gravel trap the initial inertia to get the car moving and the pull angle may well combine to damage a suspension component. i personally wouldnt trust it. Except you could almost lift a wessy out unaided, with yer bare hands Quote
tex Posted January 23, 2007 Posted January 23, 2007 iv worked as a marshal on clervaux gravel trap lots of times - (croft 1st corner) trust me - suspension towing points are not good - as the car goes into the gravel it buries itself lots of times this has happened so when the cherry picker gets ya out it really does yank the hell out of the car - the extra drag of the ploughing car makes the difference. one other point is roll bar mounting points are not good - gravel traps again - i have seen a few times slings come off the car with real whipping force - how close is your head? think about it... not good... front end proper tow hooks are cheap - about a tenner from demon theives.. and they are expensive! Quote
cast iron Posted January 23, 2007 Posted January 23, 2007 iv worked as a marshal on clervaux gravel trap lots of times - (croft 1st corner) trust me - suspension towing points are not good - as the car goes into the gravel it buries itself lots of times this has happened so when the cherry picker gets ya out it really does yank the hell out of the car - the extra drag of the ploughing car makes the difference. one other point is roll bar mounting points are not good - gravel traps again - i have seen a few times slings come off the car with real whipping force - how close is your head? think about it... not good... front end proper tow hooks are cheap - about a tenner from demon theives.. and they are expensive! Im with Terry on that one, gravel traps can take some grunt to pull a car out. Quote
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