Hi all,

This thread is for those wishing to travel up in convoy to Curborough.Feel free to edit wIth a new area/contingent and timing/meeting details lets see if we can get some sizeable convoys advertising the marque...

I'll kick things off with my area.However I'm unsure of timings so someone please feel free to take over

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place:?
Time:?

1.Jon13

Good idea.

Although, what time will the day start? Anyone?

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place: Michaelwood Services M5 J13-14?
Time: About 2 hours before proceedings start at Curborough (see above!)

1.Jon13
2.Hovedan
3.Minimetaller
4.Senny Dave
5.Flea
6.Chrissy

For a start...

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo
2. Mariocirillo

If everyone can get there for about 9 too fill out the forms etc. We can't go out on track till 10. Finish is at 5pm.

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo
2. Mariocirillo
3. Marco20vt
4. Sedicicvalve
5. deannn_20VT

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo
2. Mariocirillo
3. Marco20vt
4. Sedicicvalve
5. deannn_20VT
6. Tim42

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo
2. Mariocirillo
3. Marco20vt
4. Sedicicvalve
5. deannn_20VT
6. Tim42
7. Begbie

What kind of cruising speed do you have in mind? If I don't trailer up I can probably manage 75-80 ish max as the revs are just too high above this for comfort/fuel economy.

Sounds a bit high for motor way driving..
69.9mph is as far as I go

Which route are you taking Dave?

if you guy's can add what area your in and i'll have alook whats the best meeting place for us all .

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo - Barnet
2. Mariocirillo - Watford
3. Marco20vt - Bedford
4. Sedicicvalve - Northampton
5. deannn_20VT
6. Tim42
7. Begbie

Its 80-85 Dave....

Not, Mines running like poo at the mo, If everyone else buggers off - you have me, lol

if you guy's can add what area your in and i'll have alook whats the best meeting place for us all .

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo - Barnet
2. Mariocirillo - Watford
3. Marco20vt - Bedford
4. Sedicicvalve - Northampton
5. deannn_20VT
6. Tim42 - Kent, so round the M25/M1
7. Begbie

if you guy's can add what area your in and i'll have alook whats the best meeting place for us all .

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo - Barnet
2. Mariocirillo - Watford
3. Marco20vt - Bedford
4. Sedicicvalve - Northampton
5. deannn_20VT - Hendon
6. Tim42 - Kent, so round the M25/M1
7. Begbie

SOUTH EAST/LONDON:

1. Nismo - Barnet , M25 , M1
2. Mariocirillo - Watford , M1
3. Marco20vt - Bedford , M1
4. Sedicicvalve - Northampton , M1
5. deannn_20VT - Hendon
6. Tim42 - Kent, so round the M25/M1
7. Begbie - Guildford, so A3, M25 (junc 10) / M1

Update on this

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place: Michaelwood Services M5 J13-14?
Time: 6.30am

1.Jon13
2.Hovedan
3.Minimetaller
4.Senny Dave
5.Flea
6.Chrissy

Further meeting en route
7.CC (Worcester J7?)
8.Jonny

All those going/meeting at Michaelwood services say aye

Aye

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place: Michaelwood Services M5 J13-14?
Time: 6.30am

1.Jon13 AYE!
2.Hovedan AYE!
3.Minimetaller AYE!
4.Senny Dave
5.Flea
6.Chrissy
7.Jamie (Jon13's mate-MX shed) AYE!

Further meeting en route
8.CC (Worcester J7?)
9.Jonny

Il be there... Less a Coupe

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place: Michaelwood Services M5 J13-14?
Time: 6.30am

1.Jon13 AYE!
2.Hovedan AYE!
3.Minimetaller AYE!
4.Senny Dave
5.Flea
6.Chrissy AYE!
7.Jamie (Jon13's mate-MX shed) AYE!

Further meeting en route
8.CC (Worcester J7?)
9.Jonny

SOUTH WEST:
Meeting place: Michaelwood Services M5 J13-14?
Time: 6.30am

1.Jon13 AYE!
2.Hovedan AYE!
3.Minimetaller AYE!
4.Senny Dave
5.Flea
6.Chrissy AYE!
7.Jamie (Jon13's mate-MX shed) AYE!

Further meeting en route
8.CC (Worcester J7?) Si, Junction 7
9.Jonny

anyone got a postcode for curborough ?

Why 6.30am? We will arrive there too early surely? Or is this in anticipation that a few people will be late/queueing for food/in the loos/checking their oil levels etc.

ok guy's where does everyone want to meet ? there is Toddington services on the M1 between J11 and J12 or Northampton services on the M1 at J15a that we will be stopping at to meet up with Sedicicvalve as this is the closes to him .

i would say 6.45/7.00am at Toddington services and 7.30/7.45am at Northampton services .

It take 1hr 45 from michaelwood according to Aa routeplanner..
Should give 15 mins for introductions and fetteling with cars should they need it?

Plus the M5/M6 rush-hour traffic

Yep, and for rush hour traffic and meeting a couple more stragglers en route!

And to allow time to familiarise ourselves with the new layout/organisation for the day.

No problem, will see you at the services tomorrow

guys if you can post what services your going to be at .

I'll meet you at either

i was going to try and link up with you on the m25 before we hit any of the services as we need a re-run , i'm 1-0 up as per on the way back from brooklands

Yeah yeah

I'll be coming from Junc 10 round to the M1, so you decide

I'm heading out from Oxford - is there a convoy I can meet up with ?
It will be a pretty boring drive by myself otherwise

Sean

Begbie i'll phonr you in the morning to see if i can meet up with you on the m1 .

Well, that was a nice suprise this morning.

Bumped into the convoy leaving Michael Wood Services on my way to work. Gutted i couldnt join you

Have fun guys!

1st dry Curborough in about 3 years?

Yes, will make a change to see some video footage without windscreen wipers clattering away

Have a nice day all and will see some of you tomorrow

Damn, dry Curborough and I am not there... Well, time to get my hands dirty under the car. Have fun guys and I'm looking to see some pics

Ditto guys.

Hope you have a good day and look forward to the pictures.

Ross

arse...

fastest Coupe so far, but my cambelt has just snapped

Nigel, just found out have bad news.

gutted for you mate.

ive got 20 valves sitting here all cleaned ready to go!!
can send them out for you asap!!

hope not too much damamged is done

Oh Bugger!!

Gutted for you Nigel.

Ross

Gutted for you Nige!

Nick

Oh no!

Not good news Nigel, sorry to hear it.

I hope the damage is minimal!

Now use it as an excuse to add more power along with one of JBT's quaife equipped boxes ;-)

Sorry ro hear Nigel time for an upgrade I guess.

Davie. The diffs are done by countrycruising (fcss) aswell

Tried and tested the best way forward for the quaife as Nigel needs his car everyday.

Ross

Im back - great morning session,

Epic 5-up outing in SennyDaves 740 bmw with a 180 spin,
MR2 Turbo did well considering me & my bro are clueless @ RWD!
Gutted for Nigel, Utterly...

Lovely to meet 'some' of the lads,

Chrissy.

Well - I'm waiting for the timings - I know Begbie was getting close towards the end of the day

So now to let the secret out....

I did two runs and over-shot the hairpin on both occasions, but I still did a 1.07 - this is down to the Quaife diff I now have fitted. I reckon if the cambelt hadn't gone, I'd have been below 1.05 later in the day

Paul at Motormech has worked hard to source a usable diff AND has solved the issue of getting seals to fit where the Viscodrive is removed

On the road (and the track, clearly), the difference is night and day - the way the car pulls into corners under the power is staggering

Motormech will be doing a forum group buy on this diff solution - I'll be starting a thread in the Handling section over the weekend with my feedback and experience of the last couple of weeks of driving it.

Back on topic - it was great to drive FishyDave's Caterham - so much grip and such a great turn-in. I managed a 1.07 on my first tentative outing, followed by a 1.05 shortly afterwards - a very easy car to drive quickly and utterly predictable, even when the back end wasn't following the front...

So - we're looking at another few weeks off the road and pressing the trusty old 16v back into service (it was due a rest after the 8 weeks and 3,500 miles it racked up while the gearbox and diff was being done).

However, hardest bit by far was telling Wifey - not happy....

Gutted to hear about your cambelt snapping Nigel

Thanks for the recognition Davie.
we are the only proper "tried and tested" fitter of these and I was happy to work with Nigel and Paul at Motormech who also successfully installed one.

Yet again we have made a solution in house to combat failures rather than keep blowing boxes.
So my advice would be to go to us or Motormech.

Also please note that there will be Quaife Failures In the near future as the Quaife diff is incompatible with the 20vt box for a reason that those experienced gearbox builders know.
Careful adjustments and alterations are ESSENTIAL on installation.

Gutted for you Nigel,let me know if I can help in anyway.

Oh no, Nigel! I am absolutely gutted for you. When was the belt done the last time?

Thanks John

I'm going to wait until the head is off before making a decision.

If its just valves, I'll be able to afford it, although I'll probably have the guides done as well, as they haven't been touched in 200,000+ miles

I'm crossing my fingers that I haven't damaged the pistons or my Barbz head

If the pistons or head are damaged, I'll have to take stock and think very carefully about whether I carry on pumping money into it

For the record, all belts were less than three years old and had done around 35,000

Hard to bear Nigel, hard to bear.

Fingers crossed you will be ok, and just valve and guides damage.

Ross

Home now.

Thanks to Paul and Nigel for organising another great day out at Curborough.
Great to see everyone again.

Top marks to Shawn for sticking at it until he broke into the 1.09s ( I thought we'd be there all night !).

Lastly Nigels belt fail has left a shadow over the day.
Nigel I've got my fingers crossed for you.

Sorry to hear about this, Nigel. My fingers are crossed for you that its just the valves

Sounds like you enjoyed your 7 drive though .... we'll get you switched yet

Hope everyone else had a good day, with no other major issues

Dave nice that your paying for Nigel's repair.

Sorry I couldnt make it,but too busy at work at the minute.

When's the next one?

Good point, when is the next one?

Feel sorry for you and wishing it's nothing major. BTW, do you remember what make they were?

I feel sorry for the people who are in experienced!!
Blowing these diff's (like the bloke you told us about) must be pissed off!!
But I would like to add te Quaife I stock at auto
Lusso is a DIRECT fit into the 20vt box!!

Nigel, I'm sooo gutted for you... I there's any thing I can do to help, let me know!!

Familiarity breeds contempt then amidst your fitters.

To the untrained eye Marco yes they do.
Coupe box wasn't designed for this diff,the Gta and jtd was.

If you won't listen to me then pm Nigel as he was willing to listen to the Issue that Paul spotted straight away.
There's people on the forum who will try and help you but there's other folk who refuse to listen and make mistakes based on arrogance or inexperience.

Again don't say I didn't warn you,this will be a costly route for those involved.

If I'm not at work till 4am again then I will talk to you about it tomorrow at the agm.

That's gone right over my head John

I'm not at the AGM.
Shame.. Next time
We shall see, I've had a spare box apart in the workshop and fitted with out issue.

But this I the fun of trying some thing new!

Exciting times

Okey dokey.

X

When you fitting it then?

Ross

Soon.
Why?

well marco il book you and joe to fit mine aswell after the trackday so i can see before and after handling.

Just wondering. John all doom and gloom, but I'm genuinely interested to see your car up and running again.

Ross

Yet, Jbt loves doom and gloom.. But if I remember correctly he is German so it's to be expected

Just kidding JBT!!

Well, that was a long old day. Left the house at 5:55am and back home by 7:55pm. Was a great day and think I will have to claim the fastest 16vt (only one there ) and the fastest viscous driven coupe too My time was only 0.1 behind Nigel's and even after some tips from Fishy Dave, I still couldn't quite get it right. Had plenty of sideways action into the molehill pretty much everytime, with me even spinning it on the corner and ending up backward in the dirt, shame I forgot to turn the camera on for this one

Will get the video up next week, but the microphone is fubar'd so it sounds horrible when playing it back on the PC.

Nigel, as per text, I hope the repairs are cheap enough for you to get everything back up and running

I hope the passengers didn't mind the slightly scruffy driving from me

Beggers your drivings getting better from the sounds of it

Thank you Nigel for your words.

What Nigel hasn't mentioned is that sadly I was driving his car when the aux belt broke. I was half way through a lap having braked at the end of the straight, changed down to 2nd, turned and started applying throttle. I heard a rattle which I thought were stones on the arch liners then no noise and christmas tree warning lights on the dash.
I am really sorry that this happened Nigel. Up to that point I had enjoyed the drive and thought a reasonable time might have been on. It had been a long time since I drove a Coupe on track, but in that short drive I was very impressed with your car Nigel. I know that it will return better than ever. Well done for getting the fastest Coupe time of the day Nigel, Begbie nearly beat it and given another couple of runs might just have made it.

I had good fun taking everyone out for passenger rides through the day, once I had set a time after lunch I was pretty happy with. Not sure I could have got below the 1 minute mark today, so was happy with 1min 02s and 3s with passengers. The Caterham was faultless throughout the day, only my tinkering with the setup made it slightly less fun (less power oversteer).

Well done to Sean for being determined to beat the time I set in his Coupe . Another good handling Coupe that was happy to wag its tail under braking.

Thanks for taking me out in the 16vt Alexis, good driving and a lot of power, really too much for this track it was just getting into its stride on the final straight. Would be up for a passenger ride on a trackday please.

Really exhausted and not writing very clearly, sleep now. Hope you all have a good night at the AGM.

Dave

Nightmare Nigel, hope it's not a sore one on the wallet

Nigel were your aux belts 3 years old?

An excellent day at Curborough. Thanks to all who helped book and organise it.

A real shame Nigel. Very sorry to hear and see this. Dave I am sure you know but it was not your fault. Doesn't make it any less upsetting though.

A bit under 3 years - they were due for replacement at the next service.

A lesson to be learned here I think - Aux belts should be replaced at 2 years or 24,000 miles, or even annually if your paranoia knows no bounds....

The real reason for me not coming down was that you can claim the fastest 16vt round Curborough

did you not have a modded pulley or one of fleas belt guards nigel?

I'm not sure that Nigel really needs any more "hindsight" ideas.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151054544766987.416348.512461986&type=3

Check that out guys.

Luke.

Nice car pictures there Luke

Thanks Luke thats a great record of the day.

And if you sequence them quick enough they make a great vidio

Great pics Luke

Cool pics Luke. That squirrel was lucky

Just a quick post to say thanks for all who organised the day!

And especially for letting me tag along in my MX5hed.

Cracking day and track was a great fun little circuit even though I did eat a tyre so a new set required for Llandow next week.

Only met a couple of people from FCCUK before but everyone was very friendly and a credit to the club!

Thanks again and hopefully see you all at another one

Jamie
(Badly driven mx5 owner)

Oh and almost forgot thanks to Dave for the passenger laps was fairly nippy

Another great day made better with the rain staying away.

Thanks to FishyDave for the passenger rides - immense driving coupled with great car - absolutely superb !!! Definately taught me a thing or two.

Thanks to SandyTim for his efforts to help me break into the 1min 9 secs. It was hard work but it paid off in the end. Cheers!

Lots of familiar faces - Proccy, Porky, CountryCruising, HoveDan, Leighton, Nigel, Ecrab........etc....all top blokes.

Obviously as others have mentioned Nigel's cambelt going was the only bad part of the day. Really feel you Nigel - hope its not too bad on the wallet.

Oh yes , nearly forgot, two great passenger rides in SennyDave's 740i barge was a real laugh. Good driving there Dave.

Thanks for the photos Luke

You're welcome mate, pleased you enjoyed it.

Just remembered the comedy moments of peoples glasses flying off with the force of braking at the end of the main straight (including Joes).

Great day thanks too everyone that attended. Gutted about Nigels car, I've got the times so I'll post up soon with the results.

What a great day, lots of fun sliding about I didn't expect to have that much fun on that little track Nice to see the usuals and meet some new ones. Looking forward to a more sorted car next year to try and get close to Fishy

Just about everyone that drives Curborough comes away saying the same thing - ridiculously simple track to look at, but fiendishly difficult to get right (and great fun trying...)

As usual a good day, excellent value for money. Thanks to Porky Paul for organising it again. Sorry about Nigel's car.

Bit disapointed with my times, couldn't manage to get to get into the 1.07s. considering the last time in the dry I achieved 1.07.04 in a less powerful car,

It was slippier this time - definite reduction in the grip levels, especially going into the Molehill

Cheers Luke, excellent photos

awesome ride Dave, many thanks from myself and Jake

Highlights of the day for me were cutting my times down in the 2.4 from the morning sessions at 1m 12sec to 1m 10sec in the afternoon.

Having a ride with Jonny and Dave

Seeing Sean's expression when he finally beat Dave's time that he set in his own car, pmsl

Getting a drive in James's and Jon's, and riding 5 up in Dave's BMW barge setting a 1min 15sec time

Downside....

Nigel loosing his engine

A great day at a very testing little track, you've got to get it right to get a good time.

Paul when you get a chance can you list the time sheet please

I have no doubt you'll give me a fair bit of competition next time Jonny. Getting the handling set up will give you more confidence to push even harder, plus you know the circuit now.

Curborough pics courtesy of Little Dan

VIS 2.4


Paul


MX5... braking


BMW barge.


Tim cocking a leg


Dave's bullet


Barry roll


Nigel's


If you can't see yourself there's lots more photos of Curborough here.

I'll try post the results up tomorrow when I've got time.

Cracking photo's from little Dan there

Thanks Paul

Dan is quite handy with a camera, the link only shows 100 of the 2000 he took on the day

Does Dan still have all of them?I see what you meant about the nearsIde front rim
I'm after all pics of mine if Dan still has them?I'm up for negotiations..

I'll pm you his email address

Cheers m8!

Can i have it too please, Joe?

Me 3 please

Pm'ed you guys

Me also please

the photo of Senny Dave 740 is classic

Sorted