MX-5 OC Forum

Javelin are organising one of their Car Control & Sprint days at Barkston Heath on Sunday 5th February for just £59.00

Bargain!!!!

Practice your oversteer to your hearts content or run the super smooth sprint circuit.

I will leave Norwich at 06:30 if anyone wants to tag along 

• Car Control / Slalom Section - Concrete Course of approx 3/4 mile. Drive as you wish.
• RWYB Sprint / Trackday Track - a 3/4 mile Spriint Course on super smooth tarmac. Runs untimed as a trackday (passengers allowed)
• http://www.javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackday/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=398itemid&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

At that price it would be rude not to.

I'll see you next wednesday at the pub - feel free to nag me to book barkston if I haven't already signed up by then.

Captain Muppet:

At that price it would be rude not to.

I'll see you next wednesday at the pub - feel free to nag me to book barkston if I haven't already signed up by then.

Nice One Dave, It will be great to see you there.

See you Wednesday

Kevin

Hi guys,

Im new to the whole mx5 thing, was wondering if i could sign up and tag along?

Would be good to meet you all and practice my car control.

Bakedbean100:

Hi guys,

Im new to the whole mx5 thing, was wondering if i could sign up and tag along?

Would be good to meet you all and practice my car control.

Hi bakedbean100

No problem happy to have you along.

If you want to use the facillities with your car you will need to book with Javelin (click on the link in the first post) If you want to tag along for some passenger rides then this is fine too.

Not sure of your location but I usually go up the A17 as a route leaving Norwich about 06:30 in the morning and getting to Barkston about 08:15.

If you want to meet up and come with me or meet on route then just let me know.

Its a great place to practice as only one car at a time is allowed on track so no danger of hitting another car and you will be amazed how good these little cars are.

Captain Muppet has done some Drifting Competitions and he got me into this bad habbit so if he comes along it will be a blast.

Kevin

Bakedbean100:

Hi guys,

Im new to the whole mx5 thing, was wondering if i could sign up and tag along?

Would be good to meet you all and practice my car control.

Barkston is a great place to safely muck about in a car. While there are a few tyre walls most of the course is wide open with lots of run off - enough run off that one corner I habitually enter at 60mph with the handbrake on (there is plenty of room for that sort of thing to go wrong and yet you still won't hit anything).

You don't have to do anything as extreme as that though - plenty of people just drive round normally and practice getting a "dab of oppo" at the hairpin.

Keep an eye on tyre wear - the surface is hard on tyres and it's easy to wear through a set if you do lots of sliding around.

A few pictures from previous Barkston days

Captain Muppet in action at Barkston

Me on my first track day in my MX5 (which was Barston). Note lack of anything to hit if it goes wrong:

Me after a 60mph handbrake entry to a wide open corner at Barkston:

Me getting it wrong after fitting a turbo (this is a very short bit of the track where no one sensible would try pushing their luck - the chicanes are there to slow you down, I ignored this):

Maybe I shouldn't show that picture to newbies, but it does take considerable stupidity to drive in to a stationary object, and I don't think anyone who has seen that picture has ever replicated it.

Nothing a new door didn't fix the smell of the stagnent water was the worst thing

I seem to remember that last picture quite well.

Hasn't put me off, although I an still cautious through that slalom section so probably a good lesson for me.

Thanks for the answers and picture guys. I will book it in the coming week. Im coming from newmarket if any of you guys are from this area?

Regards

I will be going from Norwich up the A17 so probably best to meet you there.

Are you bringing any spare wheels?

 Mmmm, could be tempted by this....assuming I survive my first track day the weekend before.

Great Car you have got there Steve, My favourite MK1 and it's got all the nice bits on it.

You will be fine at the track day and so will the car, I remember my first track day, I was terrified and thought the car would blow up but it's a great car and very forgiving.

Best bit of advice, Ignore the other cars and drive your own lap, don't get inticed into trying to keep up with others.

Good luck and hope to see you at Barkston

Kevin

I dont know, i dont have any spares but i don't really want to wreck my current tyres. 

I may get some cheap rear wheels off of ebay or something. 

If my friend comes in his civic ill put my wheels in there :P

Bakedbean100:

I dont know, i dont have any spares but i don't really want to wreck my current tyres. 

At Barkston you do a lap and then have to queue up to do another one. If you give it five minutes to let the tyres cool (or spend a couple of minutes driving slowly through a puddle) the tyres last a lot longer. I know Javelin do rental MX5s so it might be worth asking if they could rent you some wheels and tyres.

Other handy hints:

More pressure in the rear tyres makes them break away at lower speed (I've used anything up to 60psi on tracks depending on track layout and power).

When you do your sighting laps make a note of how much steering lock you are using for each corner. When doing your fast laps if you find you're using more steering lock then you are in to the start of understeer, and if the rears let go at this stage it'll be a handful to catch. Avoid understeer.

Don't forget to check the wear of your front tyres too - just because the back is sliding doesn't mean that the front tyres aren't doing a lot of work.

Get a passenger ride with someone who can transition (change the direction of the slide from right to left) consistently and watch how they are steering. It's one of those things that takes ages to work out for yourself, but is easy once you know how to time a throttle lift with the steering technique.