A game of two halves....

[HYFR]

Hi all,

Today I had a great day out at Bedford Autodrome!
I went with my best mate in his Corsa VXR and another mate in his track only BMW which he actually races competitively.

Pics of the beemer:


Only had 2 laps pax in the beemer then the prop shafts let go but that was the end of the day..

So, iv got 3 cars....which did I take???!

Well iv decided to put the Cupra back to stock and sell it, so with Bedford being notorious for big wide open track and quite fast I though the R8 would be perfect for the job!



Early start and feck it was cold!....-2degrees first thing, but dry!



So out I go for the first session....iv not tracked the V10 before and only tracked ASBO at the Ring in the soaking rain.

WOW!!!

This car is just made for the track! Simply immense



Now, about 15mins into my session I get one of the Marshalls show me the NOISE! board

Now this is not them showing me their appreciation for my V10 glory...

The static noise limit was 101db which passed with ease with my Capristo valves shut....BUT the drive by limit is only 87.5db....a big drop!

Now Bedfords noise rules are one strike and you're OUT! So I knew I would be cutting it fine

Session 2.

Mindful of being close to being black flagged, I managed to get a very knowledgeable and experienced chap to pax with me so he could give me tuition and show me the NOISE monitors.


Session 2 was just insane! My pax man Dave was ace and really helped me get the best out of the R8....damning this car is just so capable! Easily the best 30mins iv had on track in my whole life

Got to 140on the back straight and it had more!

Brakes phenomenal and handling just so perfect.

We scouted the noise monitors and did our best to creep past em...



So. My energy is sapped now from beating the V10 round the track, so we decide to come in.

Get back to the pits only to be immediately met by a Marshall with a certain color flag in his hand


Yup, despite my best efforts I had tripped the noise monitors and I was black flagged



So...what do now?!

Well it was coming up to lunch break and I had one of my other cars about 20miles away..

There was only one thing for it...

And so 1hr later I returned just before the afternoon sessions opened....In this!



Venga was BACK!

Only picked up on Weds fresh from his turbo repair post Oct Ring trip



So, was able to continue to enjoy the day.

The little Cupra is lots of fun and just highlights the beast the V10 is!

Let my mate drive the Cupra and I drove his VXR, good little car!

No pics of the Cupra on track as photography man not out in the afternoon.

So, great day had by all!

Some more pics







Thumbs up!

[bam_bam]

Epic.

[C6NVS]

DK, if someone ever accuses you of being lazy, I'm going to be the first to punch them in the face....unless it is your wife...

Great write-up and wicked photos. Legendary.

[535dboy]

I broke my track day virginity at Bedford in my mates bran new 997 GT3 RS which was brand new at the time

It is a good fun little circuit - were you on the full GT circuit?

I then returned a month later in my then new exige and loved it

Unfortunately as we both started to mod the cars we made them unusable at Bedford - the GT3 measured 112 Db at spa!

It is a relatively safe track too although the penultimate time we went two friends wiped each other out at the point of one of your pics there, the 180 degree left. It was the most expensive crash they had ever seen being an AM DB9 and a modded 997 turbo which was only about 1.5 years old at the time

[sonny]

Nice one Dave, glad you manage to get the Cupra out for a last blast

[Ian_C]

Great write up DK. Didn't think you'd have the V10 out in this weather, maybe I might see it Weds after all! Few 246 and SRS boys out yesterday, including Nige in his monster B5 S4 who I think you've met at MK and Dan with an 04 S4 Avant who I recently bought a spare Avus 18 from