My son has joined a C63 club and they had a run today to a meet in Stevenage. Not really my thing as they met at a motorway services and then drove round the M25 but the meet sounded promising (Porsche and Mclarens as well), so I thought I'd give it a go.
Initially, about 15 C63s met at Cobham services on the M25 and then convoy'd round to South Mimms services to meet another 15 or so - considering that you don't see many C63s on the roads at all, 30 was damn impressive:
My son's C63 is loud; almost straight piped, tuned - it's loud but there are 2 or 3 others in the group even louder and stock C63s aren't quiet, so the exit from the services was...not subtle. And the short tunnel on the A1 up to the meet was insane - I couldn't hear myself think.
The meet was an industrial estate, hosted by a car repair place, so we got a free bacon and egg roll, which was an unexpected bonus. It was quite a good event; 30 or more C63s, a similar number of Porsches and 10 or so Mclarens:
The weather was lovely and good car chatter was had; I know as much about C63s as I do about Porsches.
The drive back was half motorway and I came off early onto some local fun roads I know, with a lunch stop at Newlands Corner - all very pleasant.
Wales trip in 2 weeks with the PPCC, which I hope will be good. I've got new coil packs and spark plugs to fit - not sure if I'll get time before Wales.
The amazing summer-like weather we are having continued, just in time for Barry's first track day at Goodwood.
I'd only booked half a day because Goodwood is expensive and the afternoon sold out very quickly, so we had the morning booked. There were a few of us going from the Surrey Porkers group and we met up at 7am in Petworth centre:
Arriving at the circuit, an iconic shot of us all in the famous (are they?) Goodwood paddocks:
Registration and noise tests done ok, out for the first 15 minute session:
I had a passenger, one of the group who was not there to go on track and was taking pictures and videos. The first session was fairly slow as I got used to the track. I had done a few hours on the simulator where I crashed a lot - fortunately, it is much easier in real life. Each session only had 10 cars at a time on track and with such a short session, we rarely caught or were caught by anyone else, so you just had time to sort out your lines - my best time was 1:56.
In between sessions, had a look at the competition - a beautiful sounding Aston was quick as hell:
There were a couple of Atoms and Beemers that were quick but nothing else too excessive:
My 2nd session was much of the same and much quicker - a best of 1:49, so a good 7 seconds improvement.
Session 3 was my best - a reasonable 1:46 being my best time of the day and I was actually a second slower in session 4, the final session before lunch (which was very nice, as you might expect from Goodwood).
I was glad I hadn't paid for a full day - my brakes were starting to feel a bit soft and I felt I had 'done' the track. I didn't want to risk pushing harder just to gain another second on my lap time.
Below is some video of the last session:
Overall, it was huge fun - 120mph down the back straight and the lovely flat 6 wail past the pits which sounded awesome to me - I hope others noticed and appreciated it.
Barry did incredibly well - brakes were starting to go off in the last session and were not really up to a track (I was braking much earlier than a couple of the more track-oriented cars, as you'd expect) but it was perfect for just having fun. Suspension was really good for a road car - a little bit of roll but not bad at all. Nothing broke or fell off - great result, great day.
Having said that, on the drive home, there was a new noise from the rear brakes which sounds like maybe a warped brake pad/disc or maybe just a build-up of brake dust - I'll see if it is still there next time.
I had a great day BUT I'm not in a desperate rush to do more track days - they're fun but ultimately, you're driving round and round in a circle on the same 2 mile stretch of road. I much prefer a road trip with 100+ miles of unknown road ahead of me.
