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Fuck Silverstone
Warning: This one gets a little sweary

It all started well enough. About 4 weekends of prep, catching up on all the outstanding jobs. Which included the not insubstantial cost of new discs for the front and a couple of sets of pads. On top of that Colin fabricated a new bracket for the rear wing to replace a broken one. We finally installed the AIM camera that plumbs into the logger, and we got a huge list of little jobs done. It'd been about 10 months since we last used it so we wanted to make sure it was all tip top.

Roll on the track day... It started well, then Colin was flagged for noise. We had tripped the drive-by meter at a barely believable 109db. Considering that on Oulton's gear we make 103db on the internal silencer we didn't think we needed the add-on 2nd silencer. The noise man got wind that we had another silencer and hadn't fitted it, and wanted to send us home there and then. Not very friendly.

Indeed, he gave Colin a proper bollocking that lasted 5 mins solid by my watch and wanted him to send members of his 'team' over so he could continue bollocking them (that would be me I suppose). As it was Colin was Colin; nice, non-antagonistic, humble, and eventually the noise man agreed to let us back out again with the add-on can fitted.

Add-on silencer fitted so out I go and have possibly one of the most fun track sessions I've had in my life. I was out 50 mins solid and only came in as I was starting to feel guilty for hogging all the track time. Colin had a few goes also then lunch came around. During lunch it had rained torrentially, and we managed another session, before it was my turn to face the noise man.

His first words out of lips (he was on a proper power trip and very much enjoying it) was 'You're going home!'. Now with the add-on silencer we make 96db on Oulton's gear. Yet here we were being flagged for 108.5db. Not only that, we'd just done 40 laps between us with EXACTLY the same setup without tripping the meter once (I have the video to back it up). The noise man was having none of it, showing us the evidence in the form of a picture of our car next to the db figure.


Rather excellent pic this, check it out full size with clickage

Now I admit I drove off at this point as, quite simply I'm less tolerant of arseholes than Colin is, and this guy was in full little Hitler mode by this point. I just didn't see the point in staying and having my time wasted when it wasn't going to make a blind bit of difference.

I can only assume their noise meter caught a bang on a gear change or something like that, because there is no way in hell our car is 109/108.5db. It even makes me think that that might be what got us in the morning. Anyhow, it ruined our day, so fuck 'em. I've no intention of ever returning, either on track or to watch. All of which would have been avoided with a bit of common courtesy and politeness. Hell, being sent home is one of those things. In 15 odd years of doing this it's never happened to us before, but it's one of those things. You just don't need to be such a prick about it.

Anyhow, have a lap from the new camera. Not sure what's going on with the ripply effect, might just be interference. But loving the data. We should be able to get the brake on there too with a bit of fiddling. We're also missing the best lap display, that'll get added as it makes finding a decent lap a nightmare otherwise (so I didn't bother).

The lap I've chosen is eventful because at this point in the day it was patchy. Full wet is fine, but when it's drying and you have odd greasy patches, it can be a bit unpredictable. As such we have a back end lock up at one point and the wheels spinning up at another. Plenty of traffic and not enough bravery so it's not going to set your world on fire.

Roll on Italy! That's our Euro trip this year and indeed, we're toying with just spending our cash on them from now on. Better tracks and nicer people.


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