# Mallory Park trackday pics, a comedy story and a duff tyre



## Stu-Oxfordshire (May 7, 2002)

Well, for anyone coming to the TTOC trackday at Mallory later this year, after spending a whole day there on friday I can vouch it will be a corker!
Here's a few pics from the day:

Pit straight - one of the few times there wasn't about 50 cars on track!

















Some other pics: 
SLK DTM - sadly it didn't venture anywhere near the track 









Onto the comedy story....
As we arrived in the paddock, I noticed a gaggle of people behind us setting up this red awning, and rolling out a Radical SR3: 








.....what you may also notice in this picture is a chap in a ferrari coat; he was also wearing a matching ferrari cap - there's always one. Anyway, more about him later.

After the safety briefing session was over, I spent half the morning helping a mate to disassemble his rear hubs on his Nissan 200 to reduce the spacing (wheel rubbing issue) I ventured out on track twice in the morning session and it was rather busy so came back in and took a few pictures.

After a wander round the paddock I noticed that the pit crew, trailer and awnings that surrounded the Radical was also accompanied by the owners' spanking new F430: 









....Fezza owner, complete with Fezza jacket, Fezza racing boots (sadly no photo's) and Radical was out on track. I've always fancied a Radical however if you own one of these things, you simply HAVE to be the quickest out there - the humuliation of being slower than cars without downforce and twice the weight would be too much to handle :roll:

Anyway, I wandered over to the pit wall and noticed there was gaggle of cars being held up by......none other than Michael Schumacher himself, in the Radical:










It should be noted that the 2 cars immediately behind the Radical are piloted by some very competent drivers: they were at least 2 seconds a lap faster than me (which isn't difficult to be honest).

From the pit wall, it was clear to see that the Radical was holding up the faster guys - but not letting them through despite regular blue flags from the Marshalls.

....and a few laps later, the chap in the Evo III (below) got a run on him out of devil's elbow. Seconds after this pic was taken, Radical man turned straight left on the Evo. Had it not been for some lightning reactions, both of them would have been picking bits of their cars (and themselves) out of south Leicestershire for days on end  

















So... back in the paddock, mayhem ensued:
Both Evo drivers went over to see Schumacher and the conversation went something like this: 
Evo driver "Hello mate, got any mirrors on that thing?"
Schuey (undoing his helmet): "eh?"
"we were sitting behind you for 3 laps"
Schuey "no you weren't"
<everybody else watching> "YES THEY WERE!"
Schuey: "oh.....well you can't have been very quick because I didn;t see you on the straights" <what a twat>
(at this point I wandered across and showed him the picture on my digital camera) 
Schuey "well I took the racing line....if you are on it when I turn in, we have an accident; get with the programme or F*CK OFF!"



Evo driver <rage> : "What? On the racing line? over 100 people have just watched you nearly cause the biggest accident in trackday history because you are too f*cking arrogant to move over - you have downforce and slicks and half the weight of anything out there and you've just been dicked by a 5 door family saloon .....think about that when you drive home in your mobile status symbol in your f*cking gay cap - get some talent or f*ck off yourself"

<rapturous cheer and applause from watching throng of drivers>

After lunch, there were 2 very serious accidents. On the exit of Gerards, there is an off camber crest which unsettles the car in a big way: if you are offline then you have to get out of the throttle - weight forwards, slip angle, front tyres grip, rears don't and if you are not careful, you can have a big moment.

Both this Focus ST and Evo VIII ran out of talent and hit the wall head-on. Airbags went off in both accidents and both drivers were lucky to walk away unscathed. I really feel for both of them, it's awful to:
a) see accidents like this and....
b) see someone's pride and joy written off
...but at least there were no injuries.


































All in all a fantastic day: the track has EVERYTHING: fast corners (Gerards is PROPER FAST) and slow hairpins where it's possible to get a nice powerslide on.

I too have to thank my lucky stars though, as a little surprise was waiting for me when I changed the wheels over this morning: 

























....this tyre was mounted on the Offside front of the car. Throughout last year it was mounted on the Nearside Front....
After consulting directly with Dunlop I switched all the tyres over to prolong the track life: this is something they do recommend (as the outside shoulders wear prematurely: if you swap side to side then you can use the additional wear available from the should that has been on the inside of the tyre) - none of the tyres had been at their wear indicators so this is a little worrying; i have seen other trackday tyres far more heavily worn than these and they were fine.

It's lucky for me it delaminated on the inside: I dread to think what the effect would have been if it was the outside shoulder of the tyre on a corner like Gerards :?

Hey ho, I have a new set anyway....but it's mildy annoying that I can;t get another couple of trackdays from this set.

Mallory: awesome track: I will be going back again soon.


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## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

Fantastic write-up as always Stu.

What a c*ck that guy was. You can have sympathy if he was to say 'sorry mate I am new to this will make sure to look out more', but to think that just because he has the money for that set up he can please himself and ruin other peoples day..Tw*t.

If he had that much money maybe he should hire the track for himself!


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## ir_fuel (Jan 10, 2003)

Lots of stuff can be bought using money, but talent and friendlyness are not amongst those, thats clear


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## Carlos (May 6, 2002)

Arf, arf and thrice arf.

Sounds like a great day. I love a bit of confrontation so long as I'm not directly involved. Was it overtake on the left or the right, as in several of those pics people are all over the place?

Wish I'd been there instead of Center Parcs. The only remotely interesting thing I have to report was that a rather tasty young bird's right tit fell out of her bikini at the bottom of the rapids slide. At least a 'C'!


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## markh (May 6, 2002)

Great write-up, thanks for sharing.


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## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

Stu-Oxfordshire said:


> you've just been dicked by a 5 door family saloon


A simple repost to that would have been "A '5' door 'saloon'!? Now this I have to see, who makes that, and where the hell do they put the extra door?!"

:roll:


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## ronin (Sep 6, 2003)

markh said:


> Great write-up, thanks for sharing.


Yeah - thanks Stu, but lets let Carlos show his pictures of the Center Parcs incident :roll:


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## PaulS (Jun 15, 2002)

Jeez your evo must be bloody quick to shred tyres like that :twisted: 
I just stick to smokin' the rears now and again :roll:

Excellent trackday report. It's scary what _can_ happen at these events. I witnessed a Ford Focus RS spin out right infront of me at the Nurburgring. Every trackday I've had I've had scary moments but nothing like that luckily. Sometimes think it'd be good to have a one-make/model trackday, where the cars all have similar performance/handling to sort out the drivers from the cruisers


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## Gaz225 (Feb 11, 2006)

Great pic's of what looked like a cracking day.

I'd of loved to see the Evo driver moaning at the flash cun7


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## Stu-Oxfordshire (May 7, 2002)

Cheers all.

A recent development on the car has led me to believe I *could* have warped my brand new discs  I really hope not as I followed AP's instructions to the letter - not even 50% braking force until I had done over 200 miles of B road type driving. 
However, a telephonic assessment of the "tyre situation" has led to a preliminary appraisal that worn suspension bushes and front lower suspensions arms have caused the problem with the tyre, and also caused the symptoms under light braking which could lead me to think I have warped the discs.

Let me explain:

For the last month or so, despite having the 4 wheel alignment done, I have experienced a rather worrying amount of toe-in left on the car. 
So, last week I had the car in at Steve Hill Motorsport (who do all the servicing on the Evo) and a pre-trackday spanner check revealed worn bushes on the rear and front, and a rather dodgy nearside front lower suspension arm. Based on that assessment, they ordered new Powerflex bushes all round and 2x new front lower suspension arm assemblies (after all the car has done 45K miles and well over 30 trackdays).

This "toe-in" is obviously exacerbated on track under heavy braking and sticky tyres and, for the first time since I had the Evo, I experienced a mild "snatch left" under braking for Gerards. 
Apparently, the worn bushes on the nearside of the car, combined with the knackered suspension arm assembly means the nearside of the car is pitched much lower than the offside: offside goes light, offside front wheel skids under braking (which would explain why the ABS kept kicking in) and overheats the inside of the tyre (due to the camber I am running) - when the tyre overheats, it delaminates.

I am agreeing with this initial appraisal as I really hope it is just that rather than: 
a) A defective tyre or....
b) that I really have warped the discs :?

Car is booked in later this week so we'll see.



Carlos said:


> Arf, arf and thrice arf.
> 
> Sounds like a great day. I love a bit of confrontation so long as I'm not directly involved. Was it overtake on the left or the right, as in several of those pics people are all over the place?
> 
> Wish I'd been there instead of Center Parcs. The only remotely interesting thing I have to report was that a rather tasty young bird's right tit fell out of her bikini at the bottom of the rapids slide. At least a 'C'!


Mate, it was overtake on the left, and made very clear at the breifing: "by consent only"

Now....onto this bird: how long were you viewing for and did you get rumbled by the wife? :roll:


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## scoTTy (May 6, 2002)

Nice write up.

I'll certainly be on the look out for the knob jocky at future events. :roll:


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## HighTT (Feb 14, 2004)

Stu-Oxfordshire said:


>


He's not all bad .......................................................................................................................He is overtaking the Goose on the correct side


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## jedi_quaTTro (Sep 29, 2003)

scoTTy said:


> Nice write up.
> 
> I'll certainly be on the look out for the knob jocky at future events. :roll:


normally RS4 or 6 owners :roll:

but seriously what did the marshalls do ? black flags ?


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## Mrs Wallsendmag (Dec 13, 2005)

A car with red and white stripes  no wonder


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## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

jedi_quaTTro said:


> scoTTy said:
> 
> 
> > Nice write up.
> ...


????

Explain?


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## W7 PMC (May 6, 2002)

omen666 said:


> jedi_quaTTro said:
> 
> 
> > scoTTy said:
> ...


Their was an incident last year (can't recall where or who) in which an RS driver was allegedly acting like a c0ck during a track day & as per the Radical driver, refused to move over & let quicker cars/drivers through.


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## W7 PMC (May 6, 2002)

Excellent write-up Stu. Looks like a fantastic day & lucky your tyres held out. Those pictures reminded me of that faitful RS6 Avant in that Ring video that was doing the rounds, where his tyre exploded on the home straight


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## clived (May 6, 2002)

jedi_quaTTro said:


> scoTTy said:
> 
> 
> > Nice write up.
> ...


Sorry?


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## Stu-Oxfordshire (May 7, 2002)

W7 PMC said:


> Excellent write-up Stu. Looks like a fantastic day & lucky your tyres held out. Those pictures reminded me of that faitful RS6 Avant in that Ring video that was doing the rounds, where his tyre exploded on the home straight


Cheers - it was a great day. Car is booked into Steve Hill later this week for an evaulation. I spoke to them this morning and they have seen this on track cars before: the worn bushes cause the front wheels to camber "in" even more aggressively under braking - this is then exacerbated with running stickey semi slick tyres and big brakes: the inside shoulder heats up disproportionately and then overheats: causing the delamination.


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Stu-Oxfordshire said:


> W7 PMC said:
> 
> 
> > Excellent write-up Stu. Looks like a fantastic day & lucky your tyres held out. Those pictures reminded me of that faitful RS6 Avant in that Ring video that was doing the rounds, where his tyre exploded on the home straight
> ...


Is the moral of the story not to fuck with the setup then? If the bigger brakes are dissipating more heat, if things aren't kept "tip top", it looks like expensive bills result...


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## Stu-Oxfordshire (May 7, 2002)

jampott said:


> Stu-Oxfordshire said:
> 
> 
> > W7 PMC said:
> ...


Hi Tim, 
The root of the tyre problem has nothing to do with big brakes - they (in fact any decent brakes, let alone upgraded ones) are simply exacerbating a problem caused by worn suspension parts.

My car has done over 30 trackdays and 45K miles: bushes and suspension arms are subjected to a lot of punishment on track and one of the things I have overlooked on the car is replacing these parts. It would be the same with any car which has such regular track outings; the forces acting on these parts are very high indeed. Mitsubishi engineer these parts to withstand these forces but like anything on a performance car, they need replacing as they wear out.

I think where you are coming from is that the big brakes are in some way dissipating heat into the tyres? This is not the cause of the delamination. I run negative camber on the front wheels - an exaggerated illustration of this is the wheels are angled as follows (when viewed from the front of the car): 
/ \
With worn suspension arm assemblies and bushes, it causes the wheels to "flay" wider under braking because the arms and bushes have an element of "play" in them. The effect of this under braking, is that the degree of camber is exaggerated, this restricts the tyre contact patch dramatically. Ergo, less grip is offered from the tyre despite the same braking forces.

This causes the tyre to move around a lot more, generating heat and when this gets to a point, the performance drop-off is immediate. This would explain why, towards the end of a 4/5 lap session, I had ABS cutting in: the OSF tyre was unable to cope with the braking force and started to skid - the ABS sensors detected this and set it off. When a tyre overheats to this level, the rubber compounds in the tyre separate and it delaminates.

The worn bushes were detected last week and it was booked in this week for replacements - the trackday has simply advanced the inevitable that's all. Hope this explains it.


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