TrackScotland Track Day at Knockhill 10th March

Writing this up slightly later than expected but looking through the pictures I snapped on the day all the days events quickly come flooding back.

The trackday had already been re-scheduled due to bad weather back in February so we were itching to get out on track to test out the strut brace on the Celica and more importantly the engine on the Civtegra.

Lets start out with the strut brace all fitted up: 

Was very easy to fit and everything went together very neat, a big tick for the research and development that RT-Performance put into making this.

Onto the track day, there was a great selection of cars that turned up for the day, a lot of them on trailers or in the back of trucks/vans. It was a pretty daunting arriving to a sea of very professional looking cars/teams.

Things like this Civic sporting a genuine BTCC rear wing and this very tidy (and very slidy) Escort.

Cars joining us on track included various Skylines, R33 and R32 as well as a R35 GT-R, 2 e46 BMW M3 CSLs, a selection of Evos, some of the Scottish MINI racers, a variety of Peugeots such as 306 GTI-6 and a track-prep 106 known as Hulk. VW Corrado, a fair few Starlets, some MX-5s, a turbo CRX, a Silvia Spec-S and a Caterham R400. There's probably some I missed there but the pictures should do those represented justice.

Needless to say the pit was busy all day.

Unfortunately the day for us had a bit of a black cloud over it, there were concerns with the Civtegra over-fuelling in the rev range,  a possible slow puncture and a mysterious habit of it drinking coolant in the days leading up to the 10th. The day came and indeed the Civtegra had problems, the brakes despite being sourced from a V6 MG-ZS were still not quite enough to pull it up at the end of the pit straight!

Entering into the first downhill turn too fast the car almost rolled and ended up at track side having smashed the new front splitter in to and taken a tyre off the rim. A lucky escape is the general feeling towards this. It limped back up the hill on 3 tyres and was parked up for the rest of the track day. It completed only 5 laps which is a real shame. So there was a lot of stress and struggle to get the car off track which took some time. 

So back to the remainder of the day, it was a fast day with a lot of big power or well prepped cars on track but I didn't feel like I had to move over much and got some good laps in! Still need to build my confidence and I hope that some fresh brakes (mines are scored and corroded slightly at the moment) will help with this.

The strut brace did help with turn in and keeping the car more level, less understeer through faster corners. Celica still rolls about a bit and the thought of coilovers hovers around me constantly.

Now for some pictures of track action:

 One of the two black CSLs there. Built to be a track car anyway, both of the BMWs came with spare tyres (one of them a set of slicks) and upgraded AP Racing brakes.

 The turbo CRX

 Wallace Performance tinkering with their Evo, it was throwing out A LOT of flames

 An indication of the selection of cars on track

Evo vs Evo, new vs old

 the slidy starlet, had him behind me for a few laps and it was a hoot to watch him drifting around.

 More Evo action

 Love the small print on the number plate - "No wife, Great life"

 The M3 CSLs side by side, further away one with the slicks.









Close up of the slicks and brakes, clearly getting more heat in them than I managed

Aero for days!











As always, there are more photos on Facebook here: Facebook Album. Don't forget to share and such!

Looking forward to the next day, have bought some new brakes for the Celica and no doubt the Civtegra will be back and stronger than ever.

Thanks for reading

Chris
TrackWeapon