UKGTL Season 8 GT Classics Cup - Silverstone (GP 1987-90) - Jul 2

[dynosaur]

It was you Laurie, who I passed a few times and then spun right after the pass and let you by again, hehe!

Have a nice holiday, Laurie! I will be away on holiday too after a week and a half.

[ross.mcw]

Great fun this one in the end despite me practicing in the Mclaren and then switching to the 911 5 minutes before qualy.  Many thanks to Lazlow for his set-up otherwise I'd have been stuck.

Finished as high as I think I was able to even if I'd not had an early spin on the final corner when battling Lazlow and Tibs or lost some time waiting for a backmarker I'd accidentally knocked off the track.

Much apologies for that by the way - I'm sure it was 'M Cooper' but I can't see his name in the line-up?  Sorry for knocking you off at turn 3, I got caught out by your earlier braking I'm afraid, I waited and saw that you got back on okay but I hope your car wasn't damaged for the rest of the race.

EDIT:  found you Mike, it was 'Oilseal', really sorry again about that lapse on my part.

Had a great time catching and eventually just passing Tinman near the end of the race - just about my first proper pass that I've actually managed to make stick!

Go Team Prodigy!  Down with the Oldies.

Cheers, Ross.

[Blunder]

You reep what you sow....

Little practice, knew the M1A would cook it's tyres so took the safe option!
Pretty dull race but all my own fault!

M.

[pribeiro]

Not much to say in fact.
Qualified at the back, made a good start and at lap 3 or 4 I was in 8th and that was when
my lack of skill driving the Vetteboat began to show up. Not many mistakes...3 spinings
overall, during 30 laps it isn't too bad.  
A few good moments with Legzy's Vette (I was not the only crazy )   and with Tinman
that watched my first Runaround Sue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49klxPex-k Vette.  

Dynosaur wrote:"It was you Laurie, who I passed a few times and then spun right after the pass and let you by again, hehe!"
And I add: Laurie saw me spining the other two times, just after I lapped him. So, his Fiat must
have something like 007 cars that disturbed us.

Congrats to podium and to all that finished. Hats off for McLaren drivers for kepting the cars
on the tarmac.

Cheers


P.S. I forgot to mention Blunder as another Vette crazy driver. 

[Legzy]

I'm really pleased with the way the split in cars worked, with the 911 being just slightly more popular. I knew the M1a would be the fastest but that as the race progressed, the worn tyres (or possible pitstop) would bring it back in line. So chuffed that seemed to work out too.

My race sadly was a bit dull too. Did some laps on Wednesday night but intended to get myself sorted properly in the hour upto the start of the race. Instead I ended up with only a few laps under my belt as I tried to help people that were having connection problems. Still at least they all got in in the end (I think).

Did have one really good spell with Sandor. We traded places about two/three times a lap for about five laps. That was most excellent. But my lack of preparation meant I had some serious shortcomings in my Vette's setup & the serious shortcomings in my skill level were not able to make up for it. Couple of brief moments with a couple of other drivers in between my spins .

Still, I finished ahead of Blunder  

Congrats to SamB. Good to see Minton back. While Oily has managed to work a decent early gap at the top of the leader-board.

[dynosaur]

Not much to say in fact.
Qualified at the back, made a good start and at lap 3 or 4 I was in 8th and that was when
my lack of skill driving the Vetteboat began to show up. Not many mistakes...3 spinings
overall, during 30 laps it isn't too bad.  
A few good moments with Legzy's Vette (I was not the only crazy )   and with Tinman
that watched my first Runaround Sue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49klxPex-k Vette.  

Dynosaur wrote:"It was you Laurie, who I passed a few times and then spun right after the pass and let you by again, hehe!"
And I add: Laurie saw me spining the other two times, just after I lapped him. So, his Fiat must
have something like 007 cars that disturbed us.

Congrats to podium and to all that finished. Hats off for McLaren drivers for kepting the cars
on the tarmac.

Cheers


P.S. I forgot to mention Blunder as another Vette crazy driver. 

Laurie spread oil on the track, that must have been the reason we had a hard time passing his (leaking) Abarth. 

[TinMan]

Had great difficulty joining. Got the dreaded "looping", first with dynosaur (who was shown driving a 911S), then with Oily,dynosaur and Ross (shown driving 1310 Minis), then with ross (shown with the GTL pacecar). The common denominator must be our perpetual nemeses, those pesky Prodigies lol.
Eventually all sorted (by Legzy, I think).

Qualified in 11th, my best qually time being recorded on full race fuel (someone must have an explanation as to why that always happens).
Okay start, followed Ade for the first lap. On the second lap he seemed (to me) to brake earlier into the 2nd gear corner and I slid in to him. My fault entirely and I have already PM'd an apology and reported myself to the race stewards. Ade finished a place behind me, which I don't think is fair, so I should be demoted (at least) one place. Humble apologies, Ade.

Anyway - I then had a good tussle with Pribeiro for about 4 laps until he spun out (unaided by me, I hasten to add). It then all got pretty lonely until about 4 laps from the end when ross caught me for 5th and I could'nt keep him behind me.
All in all an enjoyable race.
A point of interest is that (for me) the heavier 911RSR was faster at this track, which has not been the case for me at any other track. Probably the high speed nature of Silverstone.

TC

[mr_oily]

Knew that was going to be a challenge in the M1A and I wasn't disappointed!

Great little qually battle with Sam, pipping me to pole by a tenth or so, but I think in the end but we all knew it was going to be about the race pace and tyres!

It was really obvious the Mclaren would be in bad shape in the closing stages due to tyre wear so I knew that this time, I would have to do more than just think about conserving tyres as I have in the past and then just drive flat out anyway, I would actually need to take it easy or I wouldn't be finishing at all!

Off the grid I wanted to stick with Sam and eek out that all important gap together but his pace was just too hot, so I quickly settled for sitting in second in the hope his tyres would go off or that he'd make a mistake when mine were in much better shape - oh and that I'd be able to hold off Dyno! I've never appreciated quite how difficult it is to run a pace just below your maximum...clearly another skill lacking from the toolbox! Not only did i find I was making more mistakes running slowly in the early stages but I was misjudging the pace too, letting off too much then going for a blast to gain it back and so on.

Couldn't believe the pace of both Minton and Tibs who were looming in the mirrors towards the latter stages and as i tried to use the extra speed of the Macca to peg a steady gap still managing those tyres, I think i made another mistake which saw me on the grass. Really hoping there'll be a lap chart available so I can see how it all panned out.

Anyway for the first time ever,  I could actually see I was succeeding at managing wear at times (well smoking less anyway ). The numbers weren't climbing at such a rate on the PD (22 LR by the end still!) and towards the end of the race i had a feeling I was in better shape than others and was hopeful of a late charge on Dan for second. That might have been a bit optimistic, I realised I'd let the gap grow too large and was running out of laps - at this point I started to really push and the inevitable super slow piroutte happened towards the exit of Becketts ruining any chance of catching him and putting me firmly into the clutches of Tibs, who I have to say pulled out an absolute blinder around here- well done mate!! If it hadn't have been for your spin that podium was yours.

Really bad luck to teamie Dyno, again clearly had the pace but caught out by that damn pendulum effect of the M1A. Aside from that a fantastic Prodigy finish with green ones 3rd, 4th and 5th. Lovely Jubblee.  

Next!

P.s - All above board this end Bara  

[Legzy]

Really hoping there'll be a lap chart available so I can see how it all panned out.

Your wish is my command: Lapchart

It's funny to see on the Gaps graph SamB opening up an increasing gap, till his tyres are shot & everyone starts closing back in on him 

[Alex vV]

Well....

Early this week I had the brilliant idea to map some less used options to buttons on my G25.
Somehow I messed my whole config up and but found this out during/after the race.

Reason I had problems on the starting line was that my clutch pedal was not working and without autoclutch this causes the engine to cut out.
Problem was that the car moves when this happens (starter motor) so I had a stop/go before the race started  
Big apology to Bill for messing up his start, but could only get away after 3 times restarting the engine  

When I took the penalty it turned out the pitspeed limiter button was also not working.. so I crept to the pit hoping not to break the speed limit..
Returning on the track I had problems downshifting to 4 on the H-shifter... probably the heat and me desperately figuring out what   happened!

.. and that was only after 1 lap  

Way down the field I soldiered on and actually got a decent rythem where I could thrash the Porsche around.
Enjoyed all the fighting around me and trying to find the apex through all the tire-smoke....
Thanks Ligel for giving me a challenge to try to catchup (and spin again). Good to see you back.

All in all a pretty desastrous race for the Gentlemen Drivers. Things can only get better for this moment on (I hope).

Had to make a stop and go because I cut the track too many times.
Got in the pit and wanted to continue asap and hit Escape  
Race over.....

You should really pay more attention at Q's briefing. The purple button is the dump-oil-on-track button and the green one is for the smoke screen. The red one is the Eject button  

[pribeiro]

You should really pay more attention at Q's briefing. The purple button is the dump-oil-on-track button and the green one is for the smoke screen. The red one is the Eject button  

 

[baracus250gt]

Bara, i just used the default set up and it felt ok  . One thing i did learn about the Arbarth is that you cant flick the car to change direction otherwise it just wants to spin...have to be quite gentle with the steering.

Yeah I know what you mean. My main problem was coming out of corners where it sometimes just wanted to carry on it's trajectory and not responding to straightening the wheel, coming off throttle, blipping or any combination of these which normally gets a reaction of some sort on any other cars I've driven. The moments I had were extremes of this behavior where I had clipped my outside rear on the grass on an exit (thru understeering) and just not had any 'feel' to correct it so it just pendulumed into a full spin or sudden 90 degree lurch!

Laurie - I'm wondering if FIATS also stand for Firing Itself At The Scenery?!
(excuse the extra S - needed it to make my pun work hehe!)    

[baracus250gt]

P.s - All above board this end Bara  

lol I know. Gonna try out my mobile FIA inspection team next week anyway.
You'll see the grumpy looking chap sat in my passenger seat if u look in your mirror on the grid (since ur always infront of me there!). I don't mind the extra weight :p
 

[Spadowski]

You reep what you sow....

Little practice, knew the M1A would cook it's tyres so took the safe option!
Pretty dull race but all my own fault!

M.

Dull??? Certainly not from where I was sitting (right up your exhaust).

[Wiltshire Tony]

Does anyone recall having any problems with the M1A loading?

If you do know off any problems could you let me know asap please.