October to November 1999 rambles

Kemble track day and Mastery at MIRA.

Kemble track day

Went to a track day at Kemble airfield, organised by Easytrack. Despite the appalling weather, I had great fun; the lessons of MIRA were still clear in my mind, so I was able to take advantage of the cones and wet surface to slide the car about on every lap, but never actually spin it. Why doesn't Cadwell have this much run-off? The highlight of the day was not when the umbrella that I was using to keep the torrential rain off the car blew away. Whilst I was taking shelter in a friendly gentleman's Elise, the umbrella handle bashed against my windscreen, producing a huge star crack covering the full height of the screen. Fortunately the umbrella sailed clean over all of the other cars without causing any further damage. It gave me an excuse to get rid of the pitting from stones, I suppose...

Friday, 5th November 1999. Link to this ramble.

Mastery at MIRA

Spent an excellent day at the MIRA wet handling circuit, organised by Don Palmer of Driving Development. I managed to keep the back out for about 3/4 of the way round a 50m-radius circle with the appropriate grin plastered to my face. Out of eight (I think) cars there, mine was the only one which was rear-wheel-drive, so I probably had the most fun of the lot. There are no photos because manufacturers test at MIRA, so cameras are banned.

Sunday, 10th October 1999. Link to this ramble.


This page is http://www.strangely.org/diary/199910/index.html. It was first published on Saturday 30 December, 2000 and last updated on Saturday 30 December, 2000.