Just been to trackday at Spa in Belgium on the 4th Oct 2011 with a load of Northloop buddies through Circuit Days. I hired a trailer from Southern Trailers in Alton and booked a DFDS return ferry - going out on the Monday and coming back on the Wednesday morning. I had dropped an email to Neil and Ann AEAVentures for a twin room.

My sister, Paula, who is 90% blind after a terrible domestic accident said she wanted to come along to experience a road trip again with her "big" brother. The last one we did together was the Le Mans 2004 trip in the BRG Excel SE.

In addition through Northloop I had been given a set of Blue EBC pads for the Elan to test out on the road and trackdays. When I received them I went down to the garage I use in Newbury, Sterling, and borrowed one of their ramps to change the pads over. I had a bit of difficulty getting the bolts on the rear calipers to come loose! The pads that were in there had only been fitted about 11 months before?

I had to enlist Sterling's help to get them loosened - involving a huge breaker bar and a lot of strength.......................

I then bedded the pads in over a few days on the road - gradually building up to full braking as advised by EBC.

The pads are really good for the road as initial bite comes in early and does not require a lot of heat to be effective - so the blues are ideal for road use.

The night before I was to set off on the trip to Spa - Neil sent me an email saying there had been a big mix up with the booking and 7 people turned up instead of 5. So no room at the Inn for

Martin and Paula, but he would organise something else locally and not to worry................

So on the Monday morning I went early and got the trailer and loaded the Elan and we set off for Dover. Well - a combination of traffic, roadworks, accidents etc meant we missed our ferry. doh!

So 2 hours added to the journey already.

Paula wanted some cigarettes and some for our Mum so I said lets stop at Adinkerke which is the best and cheapest place for ciggies. I plugged it into the sat nav and when we landed at Dunkirk off we went. Or we would have done had there not been roadworks and a "deviation" which took us all round the houses........anyway this added another hour or so to the journey.

However, this was not the end of our delays - Belgium has "found" a load of money to fix their roads and subsequently there are roadworks everywhere. This added more time to our journey

- so much so that we did not arrive at our alternative hotel until 1030pm.

However, the hotel was in darkness and the doors were all locked and no phone numbers on the noticeboard. To cut a long boring story short - we phoned Neil - he came over - found s Privee phone number - the owner got out of bed and let us into our room.

The next morning we headed off to the track with a little trepidation as the previous day the fog had not lifted until 12 and then the Marshalls had lunch until 1300. The morning was glorious with blue skies and sunshine. So no issues there :-)

Found Spa with no issues and unloaded the Elan and went to sign on and attend the briefing. It was Daren's 40th so we all sang Happy birthday to him before he started the briefing.

Roof down, helmets on and all strapped in we set off for the sighting laps. Arghhh, some people had got it all wrong and were overtaking the tailenders on the sighting laps only to find a "snake" of relatively slow moving traffic........................fortunately no major issues - just some red faces :-)

Did a dozen or so laps in the morning and then a fine drizzel started, not good, track very greasy and slippy - no likey :-(

Fortunately it was 12 and time to stop for lunch - lets hope the rain drys up over lunch.

The EBC Blue pads were superb - Spa is a very demanding circuit and speeds are high and the

brakes and pads take some high speed punishment. The blues did not protest or fade once in the morning - they were just excellent - filling you with confidence to brake later and later. Increasing the enjoyment of the day with every lap.

I have upgraded the Elan's front brakes to Wilwood 4 pots with 320mm disks and it is a good system. I had been pleased with the previous Wilwood pads apart from the excessive dust created under braking.

The Blues are a step up from the Wilwoods and do not create as much dust - let us see what the afternoon will bring.

After lunch we went out with the wet weather tyres and wheels on, but it quickly became apparent that a very dry line was forming..........yippee :-) Rushed back into the pits and put the track tyres and wheels back on and zoomed back out onto the circuit.

The tyres heated up really quickly and the pace picked up really quickly - I had also got to know

the circuit better and understood my lines and turn in points. I was really enjoying this so after

about 7 laps I went back into the pits to see if my sister wanted to come out for a few "hot" laps - she did so off out we went again.

A picture tells a thousand words - I had the smile surgically removed the next day..............

You can just see the EBC Pads sticker on the front bumper.

Here is the car going up Eau Rouge at speed - you can see the EBC sticker clearly in this one.

I did another 10 laps and then Paula wanted a rest so we came back into the pits.

However, I was buzzing and was soon back out on track enjoying myself. The pads did not fade once and just kept braking consistently all day - from the start to the finish. I only came in as it was near the end of the day and I was running on fumes :-)

Here is a link to a friends Vimeo page where you can see the elan in action at Spa being followed by a classic Lotus - A Sunbeam!

:-) http://vimeo.com/30137572

EBC - the pads are fantastic and there is loads of meat still left in the pads. I will definitely buy another set of these and will be recommending them on the Lotus Elan Central website -where I will post a link to my blog.

DN4 a 2 day trackday at the Ring - or "I'm in heaven"

DN4 - I have been looking forward to this for months - and praying the weather would hold :-)

Picked up the trailer and loaded the Lotus on it ready for the trip over on the Sunday, Track

Wheels and tyres (check), Jack (check), tools (check), spare tyres (check), brake pads (check), 20 litre Petrol can (check) less time off track:-), warning triangle, yellow reflective jacket (check) - all systems go!

Set off on the Sunday morning to catch the midday ferry - smooth journey down to dover with no traffic problems. However, the trailer was a bit "snaky" so when I got to Dover I had time to

loosen off the straps and move the Lotus forward by two inches and then secure it with the straps.

For the rest of the journey it was much more stable - cruising at 70mph and achieving 30mpg - excellent. The Rover is a good old bus and uses a BMW Turbo diesel engine.

Got to the Ring but it was too late to register so I went straight to Jochen and Sofia's. I had packed a nice bottle of Rioja a 2004 vintage that my son had bought me as a present. so we drank that with some food that Sofia had prepared, lovely. Then early to bed for an early rise to get down to the car park to register and get my transponder.

I was in the overflow car park so I found a good spot and parked the "rig" and unloaded the Lotus. I then went over to register and the "Mexican" and friend were still setting up - slackers :-). The lovely Hannah signed me in and got me my numbers, wristband and transponder.

What a field of machinery was here for the event - very impressive. The fellow Scot with the

Ferrari 308 GT4 - one of my favorite cars of all time was there. Photo from Frozenspeed site -

Jochen does take marvellous photos, really captures the essence of the event.

I tried to catch up with him over the two days but we were never in the same place at the same time!

Loads of people I know were there in their cars, but difficult to meet up with anyone? Either they were on track or I was............

Pulling in to go on for my 3rd lapping session I spotted Bruce at the entrance and gave him a wave. He had his helmet and asked if he could jump in for a pax lap or two - NP I said. we had to adjust the belts as the last person to use them had been very slim and small - probably my daughter.

Now - Bruce can talk - he would probably win the talking Olympics if he entered - lovely bloke and a volunteer Ring Marshall. With hundreds of laps under his belt in both cars and bikes - some of them painful. Here is a lap (the middle of three) with Bruce giving a running commentary. http://vimeo.com/26697626 He did talk through the whole three laps - at one point commenting that here we were lapping the Ring and chatting as if we were on the E40!

I then bumped into some of the Northloop guys and Floyd asked for a couple of laps, so I went and got the Lotus and picked him up and off we went. At one point he asked if I use the kerbs at the top of the hill after the depression in Foxhole - no I said "it unsettles the Lotus".

Then going into Speigel curve just before Miss Hit Miss I cut it to sharp and mounted the kerb! In 8 years of going to the Ring in various cars I have never touched that kerb! Floyd said I

thought you just said you didn't use the kerbs and then you go and use a kerb that nobody uses!

Here is the lap http://vimeo.com/26734984 How we laughed :-) but no drama really just a small sphincter movement..........................

There was sporadic rain but it was hot so it never settled and apart from some over exuberant Italians everything went well - as someone said "I have paid for all the track why are you in my way......"

Here are some more photos from Frozenspeed - excellent as usual and I like the new fisheye lens ads a new dimension to the pictures of your car. The guy in the Carrera GT was pedaling it really quickly and certainly knew his way around - you can see him flash past in one of the videos.

The last lap of the day was a bit traumatic - three cars were ahead of me in the queue a race

prepared MX5, Clio Sport and an E46 M3. They took off and I followed behind - some cars came

past me a Renault Megane 250?, Scirocco rental and the Italian 599 GTO (glorious noise) and a GTR.

I then motored onto Adenaur Forst where I passed a Cayman and onto Metzgetfield.

I was coming into Kallenhard when I spotted the E46 facing the right way but with his back

bumper in front of him! Everyone was OK and his two friends in their cars had parked up to help him.

Carried on and was getting into the "groove" and another E46 went past going up Kesselschen - noticed he had an attractive blonde passenger :-) dropped to fourth and was accelerating into Mut curve at just over 120 klicks - when I and the E46 had to do some very hard braking!!!

The rental Scirooco had lost it and ping ponged across the barriers and was broad ways across the whole track - three wheels knackered. front and rear bumpers off and damage to most panels...........ouch expensive and the 12000 euro excess!!!

This is the danger of the Ring - this chap had been driving like a cock every time I encountered him on the Ring - with the cars electronics saving him! Earlier in the day he and another Scirocco rental had come up behind me at the same corner two abreast and too fast - causing me to brake very hard at the next curve before Steilstreke or I would have hit them as they went passed me in the corner!!!

Once the electronics have given up the guy has no talent or capability to recover and this happens - no one was hurt - only his wallet - but he was lucky. The Ring is a very unforgiving "beast" and you have to treat it with respect. Here is the video

http://vimeo.com/27366264

So the session was red flagged and we all came off - parked up in the Grone Holle and bumped into Steve in his Manthey prepped 996 GT3 in white - lovely - he was with some HPC guys and one of them was the Cayman I had passed at Adenaur Forst. The Ring was closed and with two recoveries it would be closed for some time so I decided to go and load the Lotus on the trailer for the trip home.

I also had to take out the Vbox and cameras and give them back to Jochen/Frozenspeed - he rents the system out for 150euros for a half day and 250 euros for the whole day and as you can see from the videos it is a good system.

Then the boring journey back to Dunquerke and then home......it is always a low time to know you are leaving the Ring and probably not coming back for months :-(...............

Ring Trip with James in the 968CS

A good friend, James, called me a few weeks ago and asked did I want to travel with him to Spa and the Ring in his 968CS - of course I had to think about it for all of a millisecond :-)

So on the Saturday morning my alarm went off at 3.06am...........................my god thats early.

On the road before 4am and got to his house for 5am.........

so we caught the 7.20am train and were in Spa for midday - sharing the driving.

The 968 has adjustable suspension on the shocks and the rebound - so it was on "soft" setting for the trip over.

A friend of James was racing at the Spa classic in his race 944 - and we were stopping to watch - and be pit crew if needed. Unfortunately it pissed down with rain and his race was eventually stopped and cancelled after 6/7 offs.....very frustrating .

We carried onto the Ring and the rain dried out but we arrived too late for any laps. We both had an early night as we were going to get up for some early laps in the morning. Met up with Max in his GT3 and had some good laps on a virtually dry track. Max then headed off back to UK. Discovered he only

lives a few miles down the road from me!

The track was closed for incidents quite a few times but we got about 6/7 laps in total.

There was a classic car show near the TierGarten and I took some pictures. A lovely BMW3.0CS

which had been converted to a convertible - it was very well done. An original Lancia Stratos but I managed to loose the picture of that and a fabulous Merc Gullwing.

Here is a picture of me at the highest point of the Ring - Hoe Acht.

Went down the Pistenklaus for a steak on a stone on the Sunday and it was mobbed - some prat then put black pepper on their stone.....

The next day the 968 owner said I could do some laps with the car and Jochen did me a deal on a Ring card with three laps - great when a plan comes together :-) So I got three dry laps without incident - well!!!! almost..............

I came out of Karrousell and a car going round the outside clearly didn't see me and I had to go wide

and onto the grass not good when you are in someone elses car. no harm done though

Cadwell Park with Mazda on Track Apr 2011

Booked a Cadwell Park day with MOT, booked a trailer and hitched it to my latest tow vehicle, a Rover 75 Tourer with BMW Turbo diesel engine (31mpg while towing). A really good car for a "daily" and pretty good for towing, bit of a surprise really.

Arrived very late in the evening and thought I cannot be ar**d to pitch the tent or find a hotel.

So I will just fold down the rear, blow up the airbed, jump in the sleeping bag and that will be that! Wrong - inside a car is like sleeping in a fridge I was f***kin freezin, never again.

The day turned out to be glorious - blue skies and hot sunshine all day :-) excellent.

It was not just Mazda MX5's but a whole mix of cars.

A gaggle of Fiat 500's with a number of them being Abarths. These cars are very rapid and

handle really well as you will see in some of the later pictures. There were BMW's, some Lotus Elise's, some Westfields and Golf GTi's.

Here are some pics of the Elan on the day - it was my first time using the Luke harneses and

what an improvement - really keep you firm in the seat, which in turn gives you more control. I am getting the passenger site fitted shortly.

The car is still rolling too much in the corners - so I think I will try the 40% stiffer and slightly lower springs from SJSportscars.

On this lap with the BMW M3 following I got it a bit wrong on the back of the circuit going into Chris's.......bit too much lift going into the bend. the back came round and I had to stomp on the power to stop it spinning, but it was quite a lurid sideways slide. The BMW driver came up later and said well caught :-)

The day just got better and better, especially

with the tyres up to temperature.

The photographer keep taking pictures of me attacking the mountain, he was hoping I would lift

the front wheels - they got very light and

squirmed but no full lift :-)

Couple of BMW M3's going into Hall Bends - couple of good guys. the E36 is owned by 3 guys who share the cost of running a track car - good idea.

The E36 was fully stripped out with a cage,

bucket seats and harnesses.......Oh! and running on slicks - GLOL

Another picture showing the body roll and the sunshine on the day, great day no mishaps, no stoppages and a good time had by all. Then the four hour journey home....................................

Elan Injectors

Had the garage take out the injectors and sent them off to be cleaned and refurbished. They came back looking almost as good as new! It has made a significant difference with an extra 110cc of fuel getting into the engine in a more controlled manner.

Throttle response is improved and I think I have cured the problem with the MIL light coming on under hard acceleration.

Further Elan Upgrades

I have changed the seat in the Elan for Bucket seats I bought from a fellow Elan member on the Forum www.LotusElanCentral.com I then sold the old seats to another forum member - Dave. Forums are great when they work like this :-)

Tony lives near Newcastle so as an addition to the seats I was able to pick up a door for his partner's damaged car and drop it off on my way up to Scotland.

Pictures of the seats fitted to the Elan -

Also got 6 point Luke harnesses which I will fit next week and new seat belts from the Lotus Aftersales division.

The Elan is going into the bodyshop on Monday for two days as a st**id woman ran into the back of me in traffic last summer and the repainted bumper is now showing runs in the paint? 8 months after the repair - wierd.

Overdue Update

Been busy with family tragedies - Mother in Law died - Father in Law wanted to die to join her! - Father died - 5 friends died of various cancers - and all sorts of Sh*t on other fronts............sometimes life sucks.

"If it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all......"

Did two track days at the Nurburgring with Destination Nurburgring in the Elan - fabulous. Here are some pictures:-

This is April 2010

Very well run and a great selection of cars - even a Ferrari 599 FXB - the noise was incredible as was the speed.

Here are some from the Aug 2010 DN or DN2 as it has become known :-)

Most extreme Capari driven by a "professional" who didn't understand that the flags apply to everyone!

It was really great to have the Nordschlief to

ourselves. No Tourists, No buses, No D**kheads.

Just everyone enjoying themselves with virtually no stoppages.

Most of the photos are from my good friend Jochen of Frozenspeed - he really is a fantastic photographer - his pictures are always excellent.

I am suffering my winter blues and withdrawal symptoms from not driving the Ring for months!

I had a track day with the BMW car club at Silverstone on the Stowe circuit - the forecast for the previous two weeks was dry sunny but cold....................................... It was actually wet grey damp and cold. I had put my track tyres on in the vain hope that the forecast would be right!

so I spent most of the day slipping and sliding with no traction whatsoever - still we had a laugh and I met up with some old friends.