Thanks to Paul for sorting it all and for the people that did the timing, flags, stop/start, etc, as well as everyone who made it there.

Was great to see everyone and was a great day

Nice to see proccy roll up in the biatch and take the usual verbal abuse too

I hope mayzon hasn't smoked too many people out with his knackered turbo and hope chrissy gets home safely and soon too

Guys and Gals...and Proccy

thanks to Paul and every one for helping setting this up.

these days are really worth EVERY PENNY (oh with the puns)

i had a fantastic day out!

Nigel, i want your car, its just the nuts!!!
Fishy_dave - thanks for taking my Mrs Marco20vt out, she loved it! she keeps saying how its soo much better than the coupe felt planted in every way

to every one else, thanks for coming and making these events just brilliant!

My mate Craig was massively impressed with how nice every one is also how helpful and generally just a great bunch!

He did how ever ask about the purple jumper thing, i burst out laughing and proceeded to explain

looking forward to Spa now, more than ever!!!!

Very good day, thanks very much for letting me join in!!

Great day out that was, thanks for organising Paul.

Lovely to put some names to faces

Thanks for the passenger ride marco

I followed JBT to his garage in the end and drove home in his ka

left the house with 250bhp and came home with 50

I'm just going to have to see what the mighty JBT says about the turbo...

My dad his mate and my bro really enjoyed it too,
infact they all said how great the atmosphere was, everyone's friendly and enthusiastic

I'll be at spa come what may

Thanks very much for coming along

Nice to meet you to mate!
It was an "interesting" lap

Isn't it amazing how such a simple little track can be SO entertaining?

My competitive nature means I'm a tiny bit miffed not to have posted the best time of the day, but after Fishy_Dave's first run, I knew I was doomed....

At the end of the day, whilst 138bhp isn't very much at all, when its shoving just 560kg around, its going to be stupidly quick. I was also watching Dave's braking points - for the big stop at the end of the straight into the second lap, he was hitting the brakes at the 50m board. Dave's cornering speed was also far higher than mine, yet another consequence of a car with such low inertia.

However, for me, the biggest drawback was the inability to drive like this:-



I was understeering like mad coming out of the top hairpin, but Dave was just being a drift-demon (possibly something to do with showing off to Marco's laydee?)

Great day

More photos to follow soon, but I've only just finished work for the night, so I'll probably do it sometime tomorrow

What a great day, really enjoyed it! Great to see some new faces!

Can't wait till next time, I'm thinking possible in September/October?

hell yes

Go on then!!

Will Nigel have his revenge??
Will Begbie make it?
Will Proccy touch Mario up??

Who knows!!!!

Just got home, long drive back to Dorset, not helped by the trailer getting a blow out on the M5.

Good day though guys, will post more once I've had a bite to eat (a celebratory winners meal Nigel ).

Here is a vid from my iPhone.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z13/clio172cuppb/eff86c60.mp4

Wonderful day, let's do it again!

I had a great day, Nice to meet you all - Nice to see some very quick comitted drivers!

I will come again with more power and non standard suspension next time - I was surprised how well my Leon wollowed around @ 1.11 with Leighton driving,

Even though the clutch gave up on his run!

PS I got in @ 12am after 2 AA change overs!

Thanks to JBT for the tow, Now thats how to run your coop in..

Thanks to Leighton for the borrowed AA,

And thanks for the AA man letting our rescue continue even after seeing the shredded tyres and saying 'been on a track av you?'

Also to Hovedan for keeping with us for about 2 extra hours..

Chrissy

Glad you got home ok Chrissy.

Feeling better after a good bit of sleep.

What a great value day, would love to do this again. Thanks so much to Paul and others involved in organising this.

I had never been to Curborough before and was kicking myself I got there two hours late. Embarrasingly I couldn't get the trailer out the garage for over half an hour , plus the VW does seem down on power on full throttle, down to 30mph on the steepest hills!. Before the event I did know that my car would be well suited to the circuit, being twisty with no long straights, but knew that Nigel and others had a good deal of experience.

Anyway, after a few jibes on arrival about only cars driven to the circuit were allowed I unloaded the car and queued up. Thanks for those who let me push in for my first run. For some reason the idle speed was running at over 2000rpm, no idea why. First run surprised me in how slippery the surface was, or was it my old tyres? Plenty of twitchy sideways moments and difficulty in seeing the corner apex being so low down, great fun through, love the top corner.

Head scratching over the high idle problem and then the engine cut out and wouldn't restart. Flea to the rescue, quick tweek on the throttle stop and it cured the problem, thanks mate.

Last run before lunchtime left me a tenth of a second behind Nigel. After lunch Nigel seemed to retire to the timing shed, that is until I got in a quicker time in the 1.06s. Nigel again reduced his lap time to similar to my time which is remarkable considering the extra weight of the Coupe and goes to show how an experienced driver makes such a difference (that and a good few hundred BHP).

At this stage I thought I would sit back and see if Nigel could beat that time and gave a few passenger laps. Sorry to those who also asked for a lap that I couldn't fit in, I will happily take you out on another occasion. It was fun taking out Marcos girlfriend, although she was concerned at getting flies squished on her Guccis . I was under instructions to get it sideways so gave it plenty of welly! Seemed to be enjoyed anyway.

Just in case I thought I should go out again to see if I could set a faster lap alone, the extra weight of a passenger both slows the car down and makes it more likely to understeer (not calling anyone fat btw ). Frustrated on a couple of runs by not being able to get 2nd gear and getting 4th instead, on my second to last run it came together and I dropped into the 1min 5sec area. Strange how that run felt slower than some others.

Thanks for being a great competitor Nigel, and such a shame your shoes didn't allow you to drive my car, I'd have liked you to experience it. Next time ok? Good to meet Theresa for the first time, and nice chatting to the guys with the Clio and Elise. Hope you got back safely Chrissy?

Will upload a video later. Cheers

Many thanks Dave and it was good to meet you too

Also glad you back safely too chrissy

Great day - thanks to Porky Paul & everyone who helped make this run so smoothly, it was a great day.

Chrissy - v bad luck with your car, hope it is not too costly to get the clutch done...roll on Spa !!

Some photos - these are re-sized to 1024x768, but if anyone wants the hi-res originals (3488x2616 - 9 megapixel) just let me know

Aplogies to those people that I didn't get photos for - you simply didn't run while I was out there snapping (I had to get back for another run just to try to beat Dave )

Oh yes - times will be up this evening...

Some lovely pics there Nigel, particularly of the Elise. Some comedy understeer moments captured there too, is that Hovedan in the Green Coop?

cracking photos Nigel!!!

Chrissy - hope you got home ok mate!!

i think thats MattM mate!!

Bloody cheek, as if I'd be SOOO out of shape! That could only be MattM I was driving Custard, so 0/10 for observation Dave!

A very good day btw, and many thanks to all the organisers and everyone who pitched in to help make the day a success. Apart from the killed clutch, turbo, gearbox (I think that's it )

And annoyed at losing out to Leighton by 0.03 of a second in my car. Was the first time I've really pushed the old family bus, and the first time I've successfully completed a timed lap of Curborough after my spin in my 16vt last year resulting in ripping the tyre of the rim.

Oops, I should never have doubted you Dan Should really have noticed which colour car you were driving too.

Just looking back through the vids, god I'm going grey!

That's ok Dave, what with that grey hair I'll put it down to old age

Looked very neat and tidy

Hello everyone.

Great day yesterday, good to see some new faces in the Renault and Lotus. It was good to go out in your car Dave, many thanks.

Good to see everyone else again except Proccy of course. Good to meet a few new people such as Chrissy etc.

Big thanks to the people who covered the timing and flag duty in the afternoon. Without them we could not of had the fun we did through the day.