Originally Posted By Peter J
Originally Posted By Alistair
Peter I gather you were at the Castle Coombe track. I remember it as a bumpy little beast with high speeds. As a matter of interest how did the suspension handle the bumps. Given its pedigree I would expect it was a good surprise ?


Bumps..what bumps?

Seriously, it was amazing and with more track knowledge and more "balls" it would have been massively fast. I left the car in Sport Auto... most of the time it was in 2nd or 3rd, with 4th on the long straight past the pits and into Quarry.

The brakes just laughed at the work they were doing...I was braking later than all of the trads, yet taking the corner slower, then losing them as I pulled away. My problem is that I don't know how the car feels at the limit and don't have the balls to explore.

With Charles in his 4/4 on Quarry the car was starting to drift at about 60, Tarka was on rails at 50 at the same place. So how fast would I need to have been going to get the car to drift?

So, I suppose I need to go out in a Plus 8 with someone who can demonstrate, but I'm not sure if my neck would take the lateral G.

Further evidence of lack of effort... After 50 or so laps there was no obvious wear on the tyres: contrast with Charles' 4/4 rear tyres showed clear evidence of wear and the surface was hot and sticky.

Even after a quick run when I got back to the paddock the rear tyres were not even hand hot and not really soft.

So obviously I wasn't stressing the car. Didn't use much fuel, either. About 15L for 50 laps, or 95 miles. So 28mpg..normal road use.... surrender



I am impressed with the 110 up Avon Rise (I will not tell you how fast the Ultima is at that point).

As for the limit on the +8 it is not scary at all when it starts to to get there. The grip, balance and handling is much better than many would think.

If you want to look at improving your speed round Castle Combe there is some good tuition here: https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/pages/merlinmotorsport-videos#122307605

You should be taking the modern car line through Avon Rise and Quarry. You will pull 20/30 meters out of most track day drivers just round Quarry. I try to be aiming for the traffic lights before the top of Avon Rise and have the steering wheel straight over the top so the car goes light with no steering input. Let the car load up again and hard on the brakes.

Peter you should come to Silverstone next time we go as the track is wider and it has modern safety, Castle Combe the walls are hard and with very little run off which is not the best place to explore the car. Or do a "Car Limits" day at North Weald.


Morgan +8
Morgan Club Sport