Big day!
After all the months of working on the car it was finally time to get it out on track for the first time. We chose Snetterton as it is both local and at least one of us has recent experience of racing there, although Paul had to learn both the car and the track Matt has competed there this year albeit on the longer 300 circuit. In addition we also had BMW Performance Magazine in attendance to do an article on the car, after all it is the only BMW powered CR1 in the country.
We knew we were going to be starting at the bottom of a very steep learning curve. Apart from the runs at Gosfield neither Matt nor Paul had driven anything like this before. Slicks, downforce, left hand drive, sequential gearbox (manual shift, no flappy paddles!) and a lot of power, it was a lot to deal with.
We decided to run the car ‘out of the box’ rather than make any changes and Matt was delegated to take the first run. With a track temperature of about 10 degrees C, cold tyres, cold brakes and a gearbox that likes to warm up before it will shift smoothly it was always going to be a challenge. “I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew there, I really felt out of my depth.” was Matt’s comment following his first outing. Paul was up next and came in feeling very much the same.
Although the drivers had to take most of the blame it was also clear that the cars setup was all over the place, so working from the feedback from the drivers Rob and Mick started to make some changes.
After a break for a photo-shoot (the car not us!) and lunch the afternoon sessions got under way and went well, Both Matt and Paul were starting to feel more at home and the setup changes had made a big difference to how drivable the car was and we had gone from feeling like a mobile chicane to keeping pace with the Caterhams that were out on track in the same session as we were. There is still a lot of pace to come but it is clear that we are on the right track. All in all a very successful day.
Go to our facebook page for more photos and videos from the test day!
Thanks to Performance BMW magazine
