Promised Seth and Keefy I'd do a thread on this just for info really and to show that really language is no barrier to car enthusiasts
Background
I've been trying to get a group of Opel Fruits (We are known locally as the Norfolk Monza Mafia) to go to a French Opel Retro trackday held at Croix en Ternois Circuit (75 miles in from calais and a 625 mile round trip from Norfolk) for a few years - track is short tight and twisty and according to research used to be used by F1 boys to replicate Monaco street circuit so not ideally suited to a lardy coupe with 350kgs of pig iron up front and sod all weight in the father ted
In 2009 I thought I'd got it all sorted out with a few attendees but the event is only held if numbers reach a point where the event is break even or better and so it was called off.
In 2010 I got a couple of cars again to sign up and the event just scraped in on the numbers so here is a little write up/review
Waiting for a ferry ;D
And the support car - nice reliable A3 Diesel (if a little dirty) - Come on two old Monzas - 600 plus miles and a trackday thrown in - support car is mandatory ;D - Didn't need it tho except as a warm up vehicle as it had a decent heater ;D
Parked up outside the Hotel
Next day The trackday
Some of the attending cars
the Belgium mob turned up with a complete 12 car transporter - in fact 90% of the cars turned up on trailers of some description or another
So was it worth the trip?
Hell yes - It was a good event - very relaxed atmosphere - very tolerant of drifting (given the track conditions that was pretty much what everyone was doing - either by accident or on purpose - in some cases I couldn't work out which!!!)
Std of driving eticate was also much higher than Marham which isn't bad at all so a good measure of the consideration paid to other track users by all attendees
Briefing
Was held in French - Didn't understand a bloody word but flags were held up and it seemed to conform to my expectations Yellow be carefull - red go real slow and come back into the pits - no questions were asked when it all finished I put my hand up and asked on which side should we pass or be passed and was told it's OK no sides just whatever is best for you
It actually worked well - Vive la France ;D
Morning early session
Track was damp but looked like a dry line would soon appear - yeah right like we'd be that lucky
I went out for a few laps to get into the swing of it - did about 30 mins gradually building the pace untill I thought a break would be wise - I swapped seats with Paul (we were both car sharing my Monza as his wasn't ready for the event) and went to take some pictures - on of the other French attendee's wife asked me if I had been driving the Monza - sure I said - You're mad she said those corners should be taken with caution till you learn the track.....
I was quite happy with the track and was nowhere near 10/10ths
I was later tho ;D
Track layout
If you want to get an idea of the track layout then maybe a lap or two in the Monza might help (slightly nervous passenger meant I was trying not to make him barf - he has previous for this and also it was fairly early on in the day. the knocking noise I finally traced to a lose diff...... good preparation there then!!!
^ starts on the rather short main straight (compared to Marham, Snetterton or Silverstone)
it was bloody slippery when wet (Bon Jovi?) Didn't matter which gear I used I got wheelspin - just easier to control it in the first three (so that's a smidge under 100 mph by the end of teh main straight - (I got good initial grip once coming onto the straight and got into fourth - promptly then spun the rears and had a huge moment - so I left that gear alone for the rest of the day using the first 3 unless on a cool down lap!!)
Personally I thought the watersplash was a nice feature to add to a circuit - I kept hitting it again and again because the line away from it had a bit of an oil on water problem!!!
Video including water splash feature - it just got deeper during the day
Oh and I think the "sun screens" slipped under the radar although a Thierry (french Autobahnstomer member who also attended) has said he will explain if asked - no one has yet and it was just a bit of fun ;D
Bottom line it was my first full on wet track day and it was a blast - I'd had damp mornings or the odd shower in an afternoon but never just non stop bloomin rain all day - taught me some stuff about car control - and also to really really stay of the kerbs as they were instant 180 or 360 devices - I have a bit of an affinity for kerb usage see sig pic ;D
More pics here - post any you like
s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/opeltuners/French%20Trackday%2020100228/
Booked to go again this year - just hoping numbers reach the desired amount to let the event go ahead again - if they do I'm going to be quiet as the Monza needs some tweaking ready for the event - must update the build thread sometime
Background
I've been trying to get a group of Opel Fruits (We are known locally as the Norfolk Monza Mafia) to go to a French Opel Retro trackday held at Croix en Ternois Circuit (75 miles in from calais and a 625 mile round trip from Norfolk) for a few years - track is short tight and twisty and according to research used to be used by F1 boys to replicate Monaco street circuit so not ideally suited to a lardy coupe with 350kgs of pig iron up front and sod all weight in the father ted
In 2009 I thought I'd got it all sorted out with a few attendees but the event is only held if numbers reach a point where the event is break even or better and so it was called off.
In 2010 I got a couple of cars again to sign up and the event just scraped in on the numbers so here is a little write up/review
Waiting for a ferry ;D
And the support car - nice reliable A3 Diesel (if a little dirty) - Come on two old Monzas - 600 plus miles and a trackday thrown in - support car is mandatory ;D - Didn't need it tho except as a warm up vehicle as it had a decent heater ;D
Parked up outside the Hotel
Next day The trackday
Some of the attending cars
the Belgium mob turned up with a complete 12 car transporter - in fact 90% of the cars turned up on trailers of some description or another
So was it worth the trip?
Hell yes - It was a good event - very relaxed atmosphere - very tolerant of drifting (given the track conditions that was pretty much what everyone was doing - either by accident or on purpose - in some cases I couldn't work out which!!!)
Std of driving eticate was also much higher than Marham which isn't bad at all so a good measure of the consideration paid to other track users by all attendees
Briefing
Was held in French - Didn't understand a bloody word but flags were held up and it seemed to conform to my expectations Yellow be carefull - red go real slow and come back into the pits - no questions were asked when it all finished I put my hand up and asked on which side should we pass or be passed and was told it's OK no sides just whatever is best for you
It actually worked well - Vive la France ;DMorning early session
Track was damp but looked like a dry line would soon appear - yeah right like we'd be that lucky
I went out for a few laps to get into the swing of it - did about 30 mins gradually building the pace untill I thought a break would be wise - I swapped seats with Paul (we were both car sharing my Monza as his wasn't ready for the event) and went to take some pictures - on of the other French attendee's wife asked me if I had been driving the Monza - sure I said - You're mad she said those corners should be taken with caution till you learn the track.....
I was quite happy with the track and was nowhere near 10/10ths
I was later tho ;DTrack layout
If you want to get an idea of the track layout then maybe a lap or two in the Monza might help (slightly nervous passenger meant I was trying not to make him barf - he has previous for this and also it was fairly early on in the day. the knocking noise I finally traced to a lose diff...... good preparation there then!!!
^ starts on the rather short main straight (compared to Marham, Snetterton or Silverstone)
it was bloody slippery when wet (Bon Jovi?) Didn't matter which gear I used I got wheelspin - just easier to control it in the first three
(so that's a smidge under 100 mph by the end of teh main straight - (I got good initial grip once coming onto the straight and got into fourth - promptly then spun the rears and had a huge moment - so I left that gear alone for the rest of the day using the first 3 unless on a cool down lap!!)Personally I thought the watersplash was a nice feature to add to a circuit - I kept hitting it again and again because the line away from it had a bit of an oil on water problem!!!
Video including water splash feature - it just got deeper during the day
Oh and I think the "sun screens" slipped under the radar although a Thierry (french Autobahnstomer member who also attended) has said he will explain if asked - no one has yet
and it was just a bit of fun ;DBottom line it was my first full on wet track day and it was a blast - I'd had damp mornings or the odd shower in an afternoon but never just non stop bloomin rain all day - taught me some stuff about car control - and also to really really stay of the kerbs as they were instant 180 or 360 devices - I have a bit of an affinity for kerb usage see sig pic ;D
More pics here - post any you like
s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/opeltuners/French%20Trackday%2020100228/
Booked to go again this year - just hoping numbers reach the desired amount to let the event go ahead again - if they do I'm going to be quiet as the Monza needs some tweaking ready for the event - must update the build thread sometime
