13 June 2006 - First Drive,
Bruntingthorpe
Today it's off to Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome and Proving
Ground in Leicestershire for a first drive of the car. We are using
Bruntingtorpe's smaller loop which is a fairly simple track of runway
straights joined with a curve at one end and a tighter series of corners
at the other, using half of the facility's famous 2 mile straight. The
Jedi is fresh out of the box so today will be a shakedown of the car,
as much a chance for me to get used to it.
Unloading
the car out of the Jedi truck provides the first excitement of the day
as it's my first chance to see the MSportUK livery. The colour we chose
is a perfect match for the MSportUK purple and the whole car looks exactly
as we hoped. A real accomplishment by the Jedi paint guys since we gave
them a colour reference and a biro-scrawled Post-It note with our ideas
on!
Jedi director, Frazer takes the first drive to bed-in
the brakes and make sure everything is running as it should. While he
completes a few laps, I take the opportunity to grab an action pic or
two.
First time back in the car since the fitting and it's
all snug with the fitted seat and harnesses, plus three layers of Nomex
racewear. It's also noticeably more difficult to sort out belts with
a helmet on, but the Jedi guys are on hand to strap me into place. Frazer
talks me through the various switches and the sequential box before
I head out onto the track.
For the first session, getting used to the gear change
and the feel of the car through corners is the focus, and takes a lot
of concentration, but I get a few laps in before returning to our makeshift
paddock under Brunty's resident Boeing 747 (an early -200 model formerly
used for hostage negotiation training and now home to various noisy
birds and insects). The Jedi team are on hand to give me pointers about
line and gear changes and about how I should be taking the circuit's
sweeping left-hander considerably faster than I have been.
Back in the car and, having discussed all the finer points,
my gear changes are sounding a little smoother which is allowing me
to concentrate on getting up a decent pace. The speed itself is fairly
hard to judge on a wide airfield, but i'm soon hammering around and
having enormous fun. The lightweight chassis combined with slicks and
downforce mean that the twisty sections can be taken at improbable speeds,
the car happily turning in wherever I point it. I'm sure that some of
the corners could be taken faster still, but it's a real joy to turn
in and feel the tyres holding tight through the right-left-right-left-right
and out at speed onto the main runway straight. Quite unlike anything
I've driven before - like a kart, and then some. I even did as I was
told and kept it flat through the left-hander, hard on the throttle
in top and it turned in with relative ease, somewhere near 120mph. Grin
fixed firmly in plane, I head in to let the car cool.
The last task of the day is to practice a standing start
- someting i'll have to do twice within my forthcoming double-header
raceday. The start is a fairly simple matter of getting revs up to around
the 10,000rpm mark and when the lights go out, feeding in the clutch.
The aim is to light up the back wheels for a fast get-away, avoiding
bogging down and a "granny start". The first attempt is more
successful than I'd expected, pulling cleanly away, but the second is
better, laying down two black lines and getting a real flying start.
Perfect - that's what I'll need at Snetterton.
To finish off, we do a quick lap of the circuit chasing
a camera car to get the motion shots on the photos
page, then it's back to the jumbo to pack it all away.
The Jedi had been exactly as I'd hoped it would - a real
joy to drive and easily the best fun I've had on four wheels. I'd recommend
having a go in one of these cars to anyone - if you ever get the opportunity,
grab it with both hands - it'll bring a huge smile to your face for
days after. It's only ten days till my next drive, and I can't wait.
