Half day at Hullavington, 11th November 2005 (pictures by edpphoto.com)

I was not sound tested at Cadwell, but was a bit concerned about just how loud the Westy is. I contacted MSE who organise the Hullavington track days which are only an hour’s drive from me. I asked if I could come along to their track day just to get my car sound tested. They were happy about this.

 

Their limit is 100db, and I was certain I would fail that. But I wanted to know how loud it was so that I would know which track days I could attend, or if it was too bad whether I would need a new exhaust. But to my surprise it was 99db: much quieter than I thought it would be. Since I passed their test, I thought I might as well stay and have a bit of fun, so booked myself in for the morning. Great fun, though it was very cold and windy. The track was also very slippery till my tyres warmed up.

 

 

Got up to about 115mph down the main straight. Mark’s Lotus did 125mph here so I need to think about getting an aero screen if I am to get near him.  The trouble is that my wife has refused to get in the car if I put an aero screen on it.

 

I messed about with the car getting the tail out in the medium speed corners just to learn how to control it. It's really easy in the Westy, so I feel a lot more confident about committing to faster corners now. But I would have liked a bit longer messing about.

 

Unfortunately during my third session I developed a rather nasty rattling noise under the bonnet. It eventually turned out that one of the bolts holding the alternator on had fallen out! I think I may have forgotten to tighten it up when I put the engine back in. So it wasn't very bad news, but it was a very long thin bolt which proved too difficult to find before the morning's session ended, so I decided to head for home.

 

I then discovered that my clutch peddle had gone to the floor. Not sure how this happened, but adjusted the cable and it worked fine. It gave me a bit of a fright though. I think I’ll have to join the RAC for the next track day. Then if I have any serious problems I’ll be able to get home at least.

 

Planned upgrades (wish list really):