its not really Motorsport, but it is track based... thought i'd post it, since i've not been around for a while.

Yesterday (Monday) I took my beloved Racing Puma on Snetterton race circuit. Afterall it is where it belongs, it runs prototype suspension set up for the track, and so I got the opportunity and I went.

One of the BEST days of my life, and my car held up perfectly, it was one of the fastest cars out there, not in a straight line (although it wasnt slow), but in the corners it was eating not only cars twice the price or more, and track only prepared cars, and when it was in the pit garage it got all the attention, everyone complimented it, I took a couple of people out and they complimented both the car, and my driving (that made me feel great! :D - apparently very smooth, fast, good racing lines, competant and amazed it was my first time out).

I thought i'd include a couple of pics from the day. I paid for 15 mins of instruction time, seemed worth it, its amazingly different out there, and I found new limits to the car, it really opened up, stretched its legs (or wheels), cleared its throat (although the backfiring was constant and a lot louder!! :D), like a caged animal being set free, sounded amazing and showed up a lot of track day "know-it-alls" which was nice. I also found new limits for myself too.

This is with the instructor, my first time i'd ever driven on a race track. you can see how little body roll there is and how well set up the car is for amazing conrering! :D

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9600/dsc7083rx1.th.jpg (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7083rx1.jpg) http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2592/dsc7084dh9.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7084dh9.jpg) http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2758/dsc7111yg3.th.jpg (http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7111yg3.jpg) http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6899/dsc7112tz1.th.jpg (http://img339.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7112tz1.jpg) http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/9803/dsc7139vp9.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7139vp9.jpg) http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5086/dsc7160yw7.th.jpg (http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7160yw7.jpg) http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1488/dsc7174jv2.th.jpg (http://img128.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc7174jv2.jpg)

This time i'm taking a guy from the 306 GTI-6 club (they invited me as a guest) on the circuit
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/338/dsc8497er1.th.jpg (http://img117.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc8497er1.jpg) http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/9375/dsc8520si1.th.jpg (http://img125.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc8520si1.jpg) http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/5427/dsc8538wu1.th.jpg (http://img125.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc8538wu1.jpg) http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3395/dsc8599of9.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc8599of9.jpg)

It was an amazing day, anyone looking to do a track day I would recommend it, but take into consideration the stress on your car and there is a lot to think about.

Truly awesome day, great fun, and I feel I have really made the next advancement forward :)

Looks like you had a good time :)

that's awesome, man. bringing cars to real tracks is probably the funnest part of owning a car. i brought my integra to a couple tracks out here in california, and it's a blast. btw what car is that?

...my beloved Racing Puma ...

As he says... it's a Ford Puma.

that's awesome, man. bringing cars to real tracks is probably the funnest part of owning a car. i brought my integra to a couple tracks out here in california, and it's a blast. btw what car is that?

Its a Tickford Racing Puma, its one of 500 made, only about 400 left. Its quick, but it really excels in the corners, it runs a set of Prototype Bilstein dampers developed for just this car, and wide 17" rims with Toyo T1R's on. I have an under strut brace fitted too to increase the rigidity yet more, and it is lighter than a standard Ford Puma despite the Tickford coachworks body kit. also has wider tracking than the standard car. It runs a modified 1.7 engine pushing about 165bhp, (factory tuned) which, as I mentioned many times before, backfires a lot, particuarly on the overrun, and thats just on the road, on the track i'm sure there were the odd flames from the back end!!

and yeah, it really brings the car to life! Its also satisfying when you pass people and all they see is a Puma! (although most people notice the lower wider stance than the standard car, and the noise is the biggest giveaway!), but they just think its body kitted, and i take great pride in knowing that its impressive from a technical point, more than appearance (which does hold huge road presence and looks stunning when its clean :p)

Sweet dude, Snetterton's a tight track, right?

^I thought it was the one made from an old air port with a whole bunch of massive straights separated by a turn or two. Used to be the official Aston Martin club track didn't it?

Either way it looks like great fun in a great car. Your passenger looks his having fun in the 3rd pic :p

That sounds awesome man. It's always great when your first experience goes that well.

Have you thought about what you're going to do next? 16x8 wheels and a little lower?

Any tips from the instructor that you completely never expected? I seriously wouldn't know what to expect if I went for training. I'm pretty sure my seating position, arm positions, hand positions would all be hugely wrong. I'm sure my steering would be wrong as well as my gear changing. To be honest, I don't really know.

Congratulations though, the car looks superb on the track.

Man, I would love a track day, but I would be uncomfortable about pushing my car that hard for extended periods of time, so if I ever go over to a track I would prefer to race something that was built to race, like a Porsche GT3 which is alot more comfortable at redline than a Ford Focus, for example. Glad you had fun, anyways.

Wow, your car looks cool, too bad it isn't sold over here. Anyways it looks like you had fun.

And did you say you beat some track prepared cars? Wow, your car is seriously fast, it would be funny to see the reaction of the driver of the track prepared car being overtaken by a small Puma!:D

that sure did look like fun was supposed to go last weekend for a track day(s) but couldn't make it so will be going next month will be my first time also.

Live the dream, kid. I hate you (j/k).

Stop learning = start dying. A friend with a modded 318is nearly soiled his nappies when an instructor in a stock E30 325i + DOT/RR tires took him for a couple of laps at RdATL. He said the car was never in a straight line from turn 3 through turn 5; but was 10 seconds quicker than his trick stuff.

i would love that man, im jealous the most i have done is gone go-karting and believe me i had the best time of my life so id love that.

ah, your nice car, i remember that nice looking car, and it just goes with the track so nicely, the pictures, very nice, it just blends to the track and all those good stuff, lovely pictures, seems like that you have a great time...i hope i could do that sometime...

great; you must have really enjoyed yourself... whenever i hear about people's recent car purchases, test drives on the streets, i envy them, coz im only in my second year of high skool in australia and i cant drive or buy anything :mad:...

^ You can start saving and in 2 years time you can go buy yourself a car but too bad that you'll get restrictions on your L's.

Congratulations!!! Its great that you finally tracked your Puma. It looks very beastly and I'm sure it sounds like one. I can picture your wide grin behind your helmet.

I was thinking of going on a track day with my friends but I think i'll wait untill I get a sports car before I attempt that feat. They have AE86s and Silvias. I can just imagine myself understeering round the corners in my front heavy V6 and thats no fun at all.

Dont push your car too much or else it might bite you back. Take care when your on the track. Its not about your ability but its about the ability of the person in front of you.

awesome dude, cool to see sum ppl putting their skills to the test on the track and not just ranting sum BS about street racing...

i cant wait for my first track experience...

Man, I would love a track day, but I would be uncomfortable about pushing my car that hard for extended periods of time, so if I ever go over to a track I would prefer to race something that was built to race, like a Porsche GT3 which is alot more comfortable at redline than a Ford Focus, for example. Glad you had fun, anyways.

I know what his car can do and trust me, it would give quite a few Porsches a scare round a track.

I would love to take a car to the track one day but at the moment that isnt likely to happen.

There is a lack of decent tracks where I live and a ute isnt the most appropriate vehicle to thrash at the circuit....Though it would still be fun.

sounds like great good fun, and tht all you cn ask for on a good track day.

im sure that one great day will have you hooked, lol.

Not surprised you enjoyed it! Track days are the most fun you can have, almost.
And if you (or others) have a chance to drive with an instructor, take it. Don't be egotistical thinking you know it all - you WILL learn something useful every time with an instructor.
I bet you will be on the track again - right!?!?:D

Looks like a great day out! How much did you pay for the instructor + use of the track?

PS: Were you in Monaco yesterday (01/04/07)? Cause I saw a blue Lotus Elise, right-hand drive with English plates pass by in front of my place.. I remember the second part of the (private) number plate saying "JON" on it. Any chance that was you?

^I thought it was the one made from an old air port with a whole bunch of massive straights separated by a turn or two. Used to be the official Aston Martin club track didn't it?

Either way it looks like great fun in a great car. Your passenger looks his having fun in the 3rd pic :p

Yeah, I think it was the AMC's track.

Not surprised you enjoyed it! Track days are the most fun you can have, almost.
And if you (or others) have a chance to drive with an instructor, take it. Don't be egotistical thinking you know it all - you WILL learn something useful every time with an instructor.
I bet you will be on the track again - right!?!?:D

I have much to learn definately!! and I will definately be on track again soon :D :D

Looks like a great day out! How much did you pay for the instructor + use of the track?

PS: Were you in Monaco yesterday (01/04/07)? Cause I saw a blue Lotus Elise, right-hand drive with English plates pass by in front of my place.. I remember the second part of the (private) number plate saying "JON" on it. Any chance that was you?

the day cost £160 for most people but I got for £125, it was open pit lane, so you could spend as much time on circuit all day as you liked, and the instruction was £30, definately worth it I would say.

And sadly, no I was not in Monaco, I was supposed to be there in 2 weeks for the top Marques show, I have VIP passes from Gumpert, but I have just had an even bigger opportunity in Florida tht same weekend, so I will be flying out there to play with some pretty expensive and rare cars intead. Very sad though because I love Monaco so much, I will be there in the summer a couple of times though :) I might take my Westfield or maybe the FRP you see in the pics in this thread, then again I might jsut fly there, we will see, they dont give us Lotus's to travel distances like that :(

Yeah, I think it was the AMC's track.

and finally, yes, it was the old AMOC track, converted runways or something, but its all nicely resurfaced and done properly now :)

woo never saw a car like that before and it looks cool and looks like you had a lot of fun