First pre-season test tomorrow

[nefarious_]

Some unedited ramblings:

 

First FF1600 test day

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, other than I knew I’d have a lot of learning to do, and that the on-track etiquette would be very err..different from that of a trackday. The other thing that’s very different from a trackday is that everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing, and where to be at what time etc, and there isn’t a hand-holding briefing to ease you into the routine. Therefore, I was once again most grateful to Barry and Tim’s experience as they went through a well-rehearsed routine of unloading car, tools, fuel etc and started working through the list of checks, while I got to observe, smoke fags and drink coffee.

 

Apparently I was very lucky with the set-up of the day, as you wouldn’t normally get so much track time (5x20 minute sessions) and the low numbers and lack of red flags meant that I could use all of them to the full. It was also very fortunate that there were only three other Formula Fords attending, so we were sharing sessions with the Legends (which are significantly slower). This meant that my baptism was a bit less fiery than it might have been as I didn’t have to worry about faster, more experienced guys constantly diving down the inside of me.

 

Conditions were pretty damp and slimy, with a heavy mist, but given that it’s Knockhill in mid February, and the whole place had been under three feet of snow less than a week before, I couldn’t really moan.

 

I always knew I was going out on a set of tyres from last season that were somewhat beyond their first flush of youth, but figured it was better to learn the car with less grip and then step up to fresh rubber once I’d got a few track miles under my belt, rather than vice-versa.

 

So, the first session was real tip-toe stuff. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations – I just wanted to get a bit more familiarised with the car, as its quite a culture shock from anything I’d driven before (even from the Westfield, which is pretty raw). The driving position is very snug, head movement is very limited, the gearshift is on the “wrong” side, the steering is outrageously fast (3/4 turn lock-to-lock!), and the fact that you sit so low with limited visibility makes placing the car on the road a bit tricky. There’s also pretty much zero body roll to act as an early warning that the tyres are about to give up their grip.

 

In the first couple of laps I just focused on keeping it pointing in the right direction, but quite quickly felt like I was starting to find a groove. Not terribly quick, and not worrying about detail like precise lines or braking points, but just getting a rough idea of the grip levels and a general feel for the car (including readjusting my natural sense of mechanical sympathy to cope with the straight-cut, un-syncromeshed Hewland gearbox).

 

And then, with virtually no warning, I lost the back end, and round I went for an inglorious trip sideways into the gravel. Having looked at the video footage later, I think I touched a front wheel off the wrong side of a curb, and just wasn’t quick enough to catch the resultant slide. I managed to re-start the car and re-join the track without too much incident. Fortunately it was to be my only off-track excursion of the day. Fastest lap of the first session: 1.13.

 

The second session saw the track dry a little. Although it was still slippery, it was at least more consistently slippery, making it easier to predict the amount of available grip from each corner. A bit more familiar with the car, I started trying to look at improving my lines, and trying to get a feel for where the braking points might be (but still not leaning on the car at all). It’s hard to properly describe how busy it is in the cockpit. I guess it’s how learner drivers feel on their first drive – so many things to be thinking about at once, it’s hard to shift your focus outside the car to think about exactly where you should be braking/turning in etc or anything much else going on around you. So it was a bit of a wake-up call when another Formula Ford suddenly blew past me from nowhere, doing what felt like double my speed. I thought I’d seize the opportunity to try and watch another, more experienced driven, so tried to tack on the back of him and follow for a lap or so. However, the initial speed differential was so great, and he was carrying so much more speed through the corners, that half a lap later, he was too far ahead to copy anything. I subsequently found out that he was 2012 Scottish Kart champion, but it demonstrated quite emphatically just how much more pace I needed to find. Fastest lap: 1.05

 

Third session, I pretty much had the track to myself, bar a few Legends, but the massive speed differential meant that they didn’t really affect my laps much (except when I found myself being forced onto the wetter off-line sections through some corners). Without any pressure, I started to try and string a few corners together. Still not giving the brakes a full threshold test, and still struggling to get the speed/line right through a few of the corners, but the car was starting to move nicely under me and confidence was definitely growing. Best lap: 1.01

 

By the fourth session, the heavens had opened again. Not a massive downpour but a determined enough level of drizzle to re-coat the track in a greasy film, so I was back to tip-toes again. Got the car significantly out of shape a few times, which wasn’t ideal, but at least I felt like I was getting the hang of catching the lightning-fast rear end breakaway with small, sharp stabs of opposite lock. Also learned that having to come off the throttle at all completely kills momentum – the engine spins up and down so quickly that even a small lift throws you out of the power band, and the throttle response from the old-skool carbs at low revs is ponderous at best. To make quick progress, you have to get everything right, first time, every time. Fastest lap: 1.05.

 

Final session, and the track had dried a bit again. Not quite as dry as the third session, but dry enough that I could throw the car about with some commitment, without too much fear that it would bite me. I started trying to hit a few braking points and carry a bit more speed through some of the trickier corners. It was very difficult to get these right first time, because everything was changing everything else – a faster corner speed through one corner saw me arriving faster at the next, and my previous braking point was nonsense etc etc . Still, the car was feeling really good under me, and given another few sessions, I reckon I could’ve strung a single half-decent lap together. Fastest lap: 1.02

 

So all in all, a fab day. Learned shed-loads about the car (not least of which, just how much I’ve still got to learn!). Not ready to make a decent judgement of pace, although the other two seemed very pleasantly surprised by what we achieved. Better weather should see a 2 sec improvement, fresh tyres another second, and I reckon I could find 1.5-2 secs from more familiarisation with the car and just by putting all the various bits into one decent lap. Which means, by my slightly optimistic fag-packet maths, I’ve got about a second to find from outright skill improvement to get up to front-half of the grid pace. Not bad for a first time out, I reckon.

[Andrew]

That does look fun, but being in the middle of a whole pack of goodness me must be a pretty scary place to be!

 

I've sent you a PM btw.