We arrived at the circuit in time for signing on and the driver briefing and then had the usual problem of how to get 7 people out for the (obligatory) sighting laps as the BMW only takes 2 people and the Aquila was still in the lorry! Eventually using the BMW, someones road car and the company van we all managed it.
We unloaded the Aquila and while 2 of us went for a recce in the 328 we set up the corner weights and the rest of the equipment and did a ‘before’ check with the Aquila.
The guys reported that the circuit was very slippery in places. Paul took the Aquila out for it’s first run on the wets on what did turn out to be a damp and slippery track, it all went without incident except for the usual struggle with the cold gearbox which, as usual, was reluctant to perform down shifts. The rest of the day went according to plan, Rob made small adjustments to the Aquila but on the whole the setup changes he had made had improved the handling particularly in the faster corners, although we still suspect that the front springs may be too hard. It dried sufficiently for us to change to the slicks late morning which was good as we had been running those tyres last time and it allowed us to compare the handling more accurately. We had a small drama just before lunch when the bracket holding the gear cable to the center tunnel snapped in half, we were very lucky to find a chap with a workshop at the circuit who kindly welded it back together for us (Cheers Chris!) Mid afternoon we noticed some clutch slip and decided to bring the car in for the day, we suspect an oil leak from the gearbox may have lubricated the clutch plate!
The BMW 328 continued to run faultlessly, with a few minutes rest between sessions it literally went round and round, racking up about 300 circuit miles on the day. Towards the end of the afternoon we started to notice an increase in understeer as the tyres were coming to the end of there life, not bad considering they have done 5 track days similar to today.
