Spa road trip

johnymd

Club Member
It felt very stable, even on the sweeping bends. Drove straight and felt planted. The wind noise was high and the tyres were all out of balance from the track session so it was shaking quite a bit.

I'll upload the incar view latter this afternoon of that over take.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Johny,

Not sure if you've recovered your SD files yet but here are a couple of suggestions ..

1. Put your card in a sealed container and put it in a fridge (NOT freezer) for an hour, then plug her in and go quick before she heats up. I've had cards that have become heat sensitive over time and this has worked for quickly copying files off.

2. Alternatively - In windows find a command prompt (type CMD in the run box) then go to the drive that he SD is allocated i.e "E:" and type "chkdsk /f" which scans for corrupted sectors and corrects them.

3. Try one of these apps. What windows or iOS consider corrupt typically still has 95% if the data it's simply that they are not able to deal with a file whose "checksum" does not match the file. The 1s and 0s making up your video are still there and something less dumb / more forgiving than standard software can read it. Assuming of course that your SD hardware has not gone too faulty on you.

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...y-tools-for-sd-cards-usb-drives-and-more.html

Or ...

http://wikihow.com/Rescue-Files-on-a-Corrupted-SD-Memory-Card-with-PhotoRec


Finally, when you have all your data, put that card in the next bonfire you see!
 

johnymd

Club Member
Thanks for the advice.

I used to try 1. on hard drives but had limited success but I'll give it a go.

Already tried 2. It runs and finds no problems but then you cant access anything on the card untill you plug it back in again.

I'll keep trying. I do have some vid from my phone and a couple were on my other sd card. I think its just the last session that on this card that I want.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
It felt very stable, even on the sweeping bends. Drove straight and felt planted......

I would think your front snow plough ;) helped a lot by doing it's job.

I would feel uneasy about about travelling that fast in case someone did something silly or I had a mechanical failure or puncture. That's old age for you, no wonder the WW2 pilots were clever kids!

If you went into Germany you must have been very close to the 'ring.
 

andrew muir

Club Member
Hi Johny
Looks like you were having fun out there, bet your brakes were pretty hot after all that braking for the Ferraris, didn't realise they were that slow.:D Some awfull driving by them!:(
You looked a lot quicker this year through the bends (grippy tyres?) especially through Blanchimont.:thumbs:
Be carefull Johny as the speeds you are now hitting,if you lost it would be serious!!

Thats a well quick car now!!:thumbs:
 

johnymd

Club Member
Hi Andrew
I did have fun but always have an eye on what others could do. As seen in the vids, I tend to back off a little when aproaching others untill I'm sure they know I'm there. Although I would like to put in a quick lap, its near impossible to do that with slower cars on the track. I managed a 3 min dead last year and the best this year was 3:06 but I could have been quicker in sections. Tyres are on there last knockings and a little old but still grip well. I've changed the rear spring rates and increased the rear camber from last weeks castle combe which made a massive difference. The car is now totally balanced front to back on grip and very easy to drive fast round corners. Still looking for improvement though. With regard to the autobahn run, I wanted to do it the once and without breaking any laws but will probably not do it again. It was still pulling well at 159 and I guess it would pull past 170 but I wont be trying for that unless its on an open airfield.

Here's another clip of one lap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nonNm6H9Bg
 

zNathan

Well-Known Forum User
Nice driving John, knew your Z was quick but didn't realise it was THAT quick! Was that session a novice or skilled one? It's crazy how nobody knows what side to let people past on isn't it..

About the lost files, try this:

Open the SD card location then in a separate window go to Control Panel --> Appearance and Personalization --> Folder Options.

This should open a separate little window with a few tabs across the top - go to 'View' and look down the list. You want to UNcheck the box titled 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)'

Only do this briefly whilst in the SD card location that you would expect to see your video files.

What this does is basically show files that may have been deleted previously if for some reason the card decided to delete them.

Re-check the box in your folder options once done!
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Just watched your first video John.

Whilst I am in total admiration of your driving and car I think you are just too quick for those Club sessions. It's like a Premiership footballer playing in a Sunday league.

You are a lot quicker these days and that is evident from your cornering where you are driving the car through hard.

You are at race pace (I'm sure many of the cars racing would be slower) but you are having to negotiate very slow cars and that is risky (that Porsche on the brow comes to mind). If you were racing you would have to have ARDS training, protective clothing, helmet, no passenger etc etc. Also the people on track with you would have gone through the same training. You are coming up against complete novices who haven't even had a briefing about overtaking or lane discipline . Can you imagine a race with someone driving around in a Sunbeam Alpine filming over the screen and waving to mates!

You need to book some trackdays - you and your car deserve them.

I know these sessions are great fun and I don't want to be a kill-joy John but it's so obvious to anyone watching the video that you are too quick. I bet the marshals have opinions too.
 
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johnymd

Club Member
Matt was too busy trying to fix his car to follow us. The autobahn was only 15 miles away so it was too tempting. Ring is close. Saw some signs.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
.................You are at race pace (I'm sure many of the cars racing would be slower) ....................

I've looked at the race results John:

http://peterautoracing.alkamelsystems.com/

Last year you did a 3min lap and I assume that was with Matt as passenger. Without a passenger, seat, belts, carpets etc and on a clear track (or at least similar paced cars) I reckon you could lap in at least 2.55.

Based on that time you are quicker than many many cars - a rough guess is 66% of the whole entry and you could have won at least two of the races (Touring Cars and historic Italian cars like the winning Ferrari 275GTB of the very quick Vincent Gaye).
 

johnymd

Club Member
Interesting. The 3 min lap last year may not have been on my own but I still feel I could be quicker. I tend to brake early then coast and brake again at the ends of the faster straights. At the end of the day, its not racing and I'm only timming to see if I'm improving.It's all about enjoying the circuit for me.
 

johnymd

Club Member
I dont think i'd have the time to commit to something like that Nathan but I had considered it once. I think my very limited disposable income may be a problem too.
 

madda

Well-Known Forum User
John,

If you were interested in ToTB, SXOC have always entered a few cars and I am sure they would have you on their 'team'. It's only one event so not much of a commitment. Let me know.

We were talking Spa times at Japfest. I think I make mine about 3:12 on a very wet track. So much fun, but kinda cheating in my spaceframe kitcar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyJF0outTTE
 
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