Cambo and myself attended this yesterday. It was hosted by the triumph club and open to

Austin Healey Owners Club
Club Lotus Australia
The Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia
M.G. Car Club
Morgan Owners Club of Australia
Sprite Car Club of Australia
Triumph Sports Owners Association
MG Newcastle

We had 3 Jags on the day, Cambo and Myself in the X350 XJR's and nice XJS
We also had a number of Race instructors , 2 from the Jag club

We started early with a 5am meet at the outskirts of Sydney where Cambo and Myself drove the 2.5 Hours down to the track. We stopped just outside Goulburn for a quick rest and coffee where in the 4degC I picked up the dreaded air suspension warning. I ended up driving the whole event with the warning on
A quick scrutineering and back to the pits where we fitted the “fan mod” to cambo's car. This proved time well spent as Cambo had overheat issues and without the mod he would have had to retire.

For those interested the track website is here
Wakefield Park Raceway

The circuit map is here
Wakefield Park Raceway and http://www.wakefieldpark.com.au/wp-c...ompetitors.pdf

I did the fist 3 runs with the instructor in the car, the second run with the instructor driving
I did not video some of the runs as I had Torque on the main screen monitoring temps to assist Cambo.

Most of the runs I was concentrating on learning the track and get consistently nailing the lines so you can see the results in my last run where you can hear the TC cutting the engine all the way from the first corner off the main straight up into the second corner. Oh yeah mucked up a corner and made some bad remarks about my own driving, so sorry in advance

Wakefeild park is a very short tight track not at all suited to our cars. We can hold out own on the back of the track (nice to be big and Wide!!!) but give us a straight and they just see the back of us. I found I was blasting away down the 2 straights and getting caught up in the corners. Not surprising that really. I had lost of issues with traction, just could not get the power down. It was a bit better for Cambo with the LSD but tricky just the same.

On the carnage side. The XJS spin out on my rear bumper. I never saw him but we got it on camera thanks to the misses. We will post those on face book soon.

I had some lean codes come up late in the day. And the air suspension fault all day. Ive managed to clear that now but need to look at the adaptions and possibly replace the full load breather. Cambo needs to do some work on the cooling system, probably a new radiator, hoses and thermostat.

While on the coolant temps. I had my alarm set too low so it was triggering at 100degC. You will see that go off on the 3rd run. On the last run you will notice the temps are a lot lower and I was going a lot harder. The simple reason for that is the fan mod. For all the runs except for the last I was on the OEM cooling. IE I had the ecu driving the fan. For the last run I had it on full all the way. Big difference!!!! and this is what kept Cambo on the track where He managed to get up to 110 after 4 laps even with it on!

All in all a good shakedown for the SM100 in 2 weeks time but we both have some more work to do

Videos are posted here on utube
Sorry about my comment on myself on the last video!!!

All in all a great day and I can see a massive improvement in the 3 runs I have on video. Much thanks to the other members of the JDCA and the TSOA for organising the event

Cheers
34by151

 

Nice vids 34by151 one question, were you in sport mode for these? as when in mine when in sport it does not change up gears anywhere near as fast as yours appears to when going into corners, it holds the revs meaning when you come out of the corners no downshift and more or less instant power.

 

No to sport mode in Video1 and yes for the rest
I gad the TC on all the time as it was impossible to get around any other way

The only thing I can think of are the 100cell cats allowing it to rev

It seemed to rev as normal though

Oh yeah I had a Air suspension fault message the whole day. That would have locked the shocks in hard mode as well

Cheers
34by151

 

Hmmm, mine behaves differently then, I was having a 'play' with a lotus elise (twisty back road stuff) and on the twisties in sport the car kept the revs right up, 3 to 3.5 k min all the time so it was punching straight out of the corners with no down change needless to say he could not get away.

You need the 285s on the back that has transformed my traction, a lot less traction control intervention and much improved acceleration (still not great in the wet mind !).

Locking the suspension in hard mode would surely be an advantage on the track? Was the handling better in this condition?

 

looks like a fun day - nice videos

 

Was a very steep learning curve for me this weekend, a few frustrations (i.e. the overheating) but a few suprises too.

Here is another pic of the track layout, runs clockwise from the start/finish on the main straight;



It is all of 2.2km / 1.4 miles long, very tight & twisty. Basically the complete opposite of the Nürburgring & much more suited to smaller, lighter, nimbler cars than an XJR.

Turns 8 & 10 are the toughest for me, having to slow right down & understeer badly through them...Turns 1, 3 & 7 the most fun, no braking required just half-throttle to keep the car balanced.

Braking into turn 2 is also a hoot, doing around 180kmh / 110mph through turn 1 and then jump hard on the brakes slowing to 80kmh / 50mph for turn 2. Braking into turn 8 is also hard work.

It was great to have the instructors with us, the knowledge passed on was invaluable. They showed us exactly the right lines to take & really hammered it in, at least it's clear how we "should" drive, even if I can't put it into practise every time. James was a bit more disciplined than me, able to concentrate on the correct lines & control the right foot.

We even had the chance for one instructor (Tony) to drive both XJR's to gauge the difference between the two cars & get a feel for the modifications to the brakes & suspension.

I was the only car in the class D5 today (see the class regs HERE) so it's hard to get a feel for how I went.

Just as a comparison, a stock 550hp XFR-S has done a 1:07, today a 3.8L MK II from one of the club members (proper race car) did a 1:15, and a 4.2L XJ Series III (also race prepped) did a 1:18, although it was down on power due to some tuning issues. A lap under 1:10 is considered "fast". My best lap today was a 1:19.663, not slow considering the car, but not exactly fast either.

I'm really glad we could use this opportunity to get the cars out on the track, and i'm looking forward to the next event. Unfortunately the weekend of the Snowy Mountains 1000 clashes with the next Supersprint round. But there will be more opportunities to come through the British car clubs.

Thanks to Monika for the photos!

 

Way to go you guys, looks like you had a lot of fun and used your Jags as they were originally intended to be used. Lots of us talk the talk but you guys also walk the walk.

Stu

 

In the past, I spent a lot of hours on the track...

Looks like you had a great time!

 

That last video shows you starting to really get comfortable and increasing the speed. Looks like a fun day!

You're videos are inspiring me to do another track day soon ... my Vette needs to stretch its legs.