I took Mike from MWM's dad out for a few laps in my clio turbo at Bedford today.

I was just cooling my brakes down to come back in though and happened upon Mike so decided to switch the cameras back on and follow him for a while to get a bit of footage of him in his ITBs and 438 cams clio as he was going quite well, then after I cruised past him on the straight at part throttle (me, he was flat out I think, lol) I spotted a big group of cars up ahead and decided that as my brakes were cooled down nicely now I may as well give his old man one last flying lap before we came back in (had been out for about half an hour straight at this point!) especially as there seemed to be a few cars up ahead which always makes it more fun.

I chased down the group of cars, got past most of them and then set after an M3 and an Escort Cosworth who were both going pretty well.

Then as I was passing the Escort Cosworth on the main straight I couldnt quite get clear of him as although I was quicker at lower speeds (due to power to weight I would imagine) once we were well over a ton, we were really evenly matched and I just couldnt pull away from him.
I didnt want to stamp on the brakes with him right on my bumper so I decided that I would really leave it late to brake for the chicane thinking that I'd then pull away from him as he got on the brakes and I didnt and it would give him some space, however he brakes really late as well so when I did get on the brakes I just didnt get rid of enough speed breaking that late (first time I'd really pushed my car down the straight so was perhaps carrying a bit more speed than I expected, not been doing about a buck and a half in a clio there before, lol) and I ended up getting a MASSIVE sideways slide on as I went through the chicane still well into the 3 figures, and I was pretty lucky to manage to catch it TBH.








The interesting snippets of rearward footage:




Clio 200 overtake

Clio overtake

Clio overtake

Focus RS overtake

M3 overtake

Overtake car that then spins trying to keep up

Overtake escos then sideways

 

Cars looks nice and flat though corners mate! You boys love cutting the S out that's for sure

 

Thanks mate. Yeah I prefer treating it as an I than an s. lol.

I love the rearward facing clip of me pulling from the m3, it really shows off the clios pace well as that's a fast car to be leaving standing like that!

 

Only seen first vid and you should have been black flagged for that overtake , as that not good really, if you couldn't pass and get back on racing line and brake safely for corner, then you should have lifted and slotted in behind him

Think safety first on track, it's not a race

 

that silver clio looks like it goes well too
liking the cameras,what type are they?

 

Yeah silver one going well,

Chip your seems to be going well, only problem with vids is just doesn't give the true sense of speed, handle nicely too

 

Incorrect Spiky, if you've got enough speed for an overtake on a trackday, then once you've got past, or it's obvious that you're getting past, it's the duty of the person being overtaken to give you a hand and back off a bit. As you said, it's not a race.

 

Exactly this tbh, I overtook him a good couple of hundred yards from the bend so if you go by the rules from the briefing he should really then back off to assist in letting the faster car pass. Only thing I did wrong was that once I overtook I should have ignored him being so close and just got on the brakes as I normally would do, not worried so much about how much space I was leaving that I outbrake myself.

 

In fact I've just watched the rearward video again and I was past him about 400 yards before the corner!
The 3 black board you see WELL after I was cleanly past him were 150, 100, 50 markers!

I was only just over halfway down the straight when I overtook him.

 

If you listen in briefings they say, only pass if the car in front has signalled to let you do so, and I'm guessing if he was still flat out he didn't

 

They're always saying in the briefing that if someone comes arseholing up behind you, don't be proud, let them pass as you may learn a thing or two by following them.

In this case the lesson was brake a bit earlier for the chicane!

 

Yeah that's mikes throttle bodies and cams one. He was flying. It was surreal how easily I could follow him, was only at quarter throttle most of the time.

 

At Bedford, they assume that people are experienced enough to do their own overtake manoeuvres as its not really a have a go joe take your mum's c-max out at ford fair kind of track

 

Totally wrong for this day which you weren't even at and clearly you know nothing about!
In the briefing they specifically said "at some trackdays people say only pass with demonstated prior consent such as an indicator, here though we are happy for you to go past without waiting for that and then the car being overtaken should ease off"

 

Is it a MK1 Clio Chip?

 

I've just timed it off the video, i pulled alongside him for him to allow me past a full 14 seconds before entering the bend and 10 whole seconds before my normal conservative braking point!

 

Ph1 mk2 mate. The first of the Clio 172s.

 

Ahh ok, my mate has MK1 1.8 turbo conversion, pocket rocket it is

Yours goes very well

 

I still prefer the looks of the mk1 clios too. And they feel rawer to drive.
I'm putting a Honda 1.8 turbo in my mk1 later on.

 

They dont do that at Bedford your told in the brief you don't have to wait for any signals etc the faster car has right of way! As the racing line is on the right at Bedford theres no question what so ever the Escort should have backed off my guess would be he didn't like a Clio getting past

 

Looks like the Escos had the same idea of out braking you as he locks up and goes off as you spin, some good camera footage.

Silver Clio lines didn't seem as clean as yours and maybe he could of let you by earlier as you did seem quicker from the footage, always hard to see the full picture unless you are there. Looks like you all had a good day though

 

some good entertaining racing going on there by the looks of it shame the public viewing area is pants or I would have combined the day with a PF meet to support you guys on track

 

The only reason he locked I am sure mate is cause I got it wrong in the chicane so he panicked and got on the brakes mega hard, im sure if I had made the chicane he wouldnt have locked.

Just one of those things though, we were perfectly civil with each other after.

Thats Mike, one of my best mates, his dad was in my car and my mrs was in his car, I'd flown past him early on then slowed right down to cool my brakes, then I caught him back up again and just decided to follow him for a while, he knew full well I could get past anytime I wanted so he didnt need to move over, I was just following him to get some footage, you cant really see in the video how much he was chucking it around as I didnt get close enough sadly (problem with the gopros, too wide aspect) so you cant see quite how much he was lifting a wheel etc and sliding it about just playing with it, he can be a lot tidier than that but was just having a bit of a play.

Yes mate, was a great day, other than I spent half of it re-attaching boost pipes, need to get the pipework flared now its running a lot more boost, never had a problem before.

 

rubbish.

nothing wrong with that manouver. no danger whatsoever. in fact i think chip had bags of room after overtake.

great vids by the way chip. il be watching again later with headphones in and a glass of lambrini, lol

 

Club msv still pics of the day -
http://www.msvtphotography.com/?Acti...&ppwd=46073xnt

 

How did you find them loader??????????lol.

To be fair all the clio's seemed to be going really well, seem a good tool for the job. Trouble is i was bored of watching them as there was so many.

Some other nice bits of kit out there aswell, loved the CSL bmw.

Should of pestered you Chip for a passenger ride, but never met you before.

 

Cool vids.

 

Chip are you really that suprised you spun out having all 4 wheels on damp weed covered corners ? Im it didnt happen moire looking the vids but the car goes well though

 

Your Clio was proper motoring when you came past me mate, looked and sounded very strong. That clip pulling away from the M3 is pretty impressive.

I walked away from the day please my old barge survived and with a realisation I need more supportive seats and bigger brakes. Oh and more power

 

Good videos. The old Clio certainly doesn't hang about, gutted I couldn't get up to Bedford on Saturday.

 

That's the line I've taken the last couple hundred laps including twenty times earlier that day without spinning in the same conditions so yes it would surprise me if it spun had I not being going too fast. Speed was the problem, I out braked myself, nothing more and nothing less IMHO.

 

Great vids ,

 

Awesome clips mate .. Some proper pace on that !!!!

 

Brown pants on that spin!
Top vids mate.
Good to see you are still alive too, haven't seen you on here in a while!

 

Thanks lads.

Not really into fords much these days so not been on here as much, but still lurking about occasionally.

 

Cool vids Chippa

Clio certainly goes well. Nice sideways moment as well. Well held.

 

Thanks Rich, good to see you still on here too.

Let me know if you ever have a monday evening free, that tends to be my only spare one these days.