Tuesday 26 May 2015

Cadwell Park Track Day - with Video

Being a member of the lotus7 club has it's benefits, and one of them is low price track days. One of this years events that I was very much looking forward to was Cadwell Park.

I'd provisionally booked the day with a view to checking the weather three days before the event and  booking once I knew it was definitely going to be dry.  The forecast showed a lot of rain, so I decided not to book, and quite rightly so... By all accounts it was extremely wet, and there were three accidents - certainly not what I was making a 220 mile round trip for!

Nevertheless, another session at Cadwell was available yesterday (with MSV track days this time) and being a bank holiday Monday - how could I turn that down.  The price was only a tenner more than booking through the lotus7 club and the weather forecast was dry - it was a no brainer!

Unfortunately none of my mates could attend - so I left home early (5am!), and blatted up to Cadwell Park.  The first half of the drive there was cold and boring, but the second half was great with some fun A and B roads which helped to break up the long journey.
on track at Cadwell Park in my Caterham R500 Duratec
on track at Cadwell Park in my Caterham R500 Duratec
Cadwell Park is a really nice circuit with blind bends and lots of elevation changes - the video doesn't do it justice! You can get a little bit of air over the mountain, and the next series of corners (hall bends) flows really nice and it's a great feeling travelling under the overhanging trees - Gooseneck is also very challenging and rewarding when you get it right!  It really is a very technical circuit, so great for Caterhams (if a little bumpy in some parts)... The only problem is it’s so twisty you just catch everyone quite quickly, and there aren’t that many straights – so a lot of time is spent behind other cars... Out of the whole day I only really got ten or so laps in where I wasn’t held up by a slower car...

Having had the car flat floored by Rob at Rat Race Motorsport last week I was extremely keen to check out the new setup.  In short, the handling is vastly improved; the car now turns when I want it to - so if you're having understeer woes I'd highly recommend getting your car flat floored by Rob based on my experience.

Below is a video of three laps where I wasn't caught up by any other cars.  Hope you enjoy.

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