Hi, I have been thinking about getting back into motorsport actively for a while now and will be attending my local venue, Curborough Sprint this Sunday where they are running an "Intro to Sprinting" day.

http://www.curborough.co.uk/introtosprinting.htm

This is a relatively cheap form of motorsport and not very car damaging as you aren't on the track the same time as anyone else and therefore not subject to the sometimes erratic behaviour of other drivers.

It is something I am thinking of doing and if I do not sure whether to get something cheap and mechanically basic to compete in or perhaps run a Crossfire.

I just wondered if anyone else is interested in this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaWQCBMQPqc

 

Hi Paul...You really have come up with some excellent meet locations of late, although sadly not many takers, and now a Sprint day event..

Atfer watching the youtube video..it got the old adrenalin going and remindded me of the track days at Castle Comb and my V8 Marcos...now if I still had that baby I would be there Sunday.....but like you, I would perfer a different car for this event, so Sprint Day is one I will be missing.


Cheers

Ken.

 

I would just run the Crossfire guys, sprinting takes very little out of the car and tyres. I run in our club sprints/solos every month at Brampton Barracks, its not really a problem, I don't even bother to change wheels like I do for the track.

I'll try and pop along Paul if you are still going.

 

After reading Woody's thread, I would give it a try later in the year. As mentioned in an earlier post, we still have a few months June, Sept and Nov without venues planned, perhaps with more interest and numbers a Sprinting Day could be arranged.

I think Steve-UK will be up for this, so you have two already..

Ken.

 

Yep - It just took me about 1.5 seconds to say YESSSSSS!!!!!!

 

I will go along on Sunday and also find out about how we would run our own Crossfire sprint meeting at Curborough. I know that other car clubs, such a Aston Marton, Caterham, Porsche etc run their own events there.

 

I met up with Woody and Steve and had a great time. Shenstone and District car club who lay on this day for free put in a lot of effort and my enthusiasm for getting back into motosport is growing !

After going through what Sprinting is about, the regulations, safety kit, scrutineering requirements it was off to the track ! After a couple of laps as a passenger in an experienced driver in their car it was followed by a couple of sessions in your own car accomapnied by an instructor. The first session taken fairly gently but at some speed and the second a bit more enthusiastic but safely.

They weren't timing the runs but my terminal speed was around 85mph which having spectated there isn't bad even for a competitive run. My isntructor was quite impressed with the Crossfires speed and stability around the bends and hadn't been in one before. It was great fun putting the Crossfire through it's paces on a proper circuit, which was surprisingly different to the normal road.

To quote Woody it was nice seeing a "grid" of 3 Crossfires all lined up ready to go at a race circuit. There wasn't much chance to take photos as we had no accompanying spectators but Woody did manage to take a few on a film camera, so hopefully will have some pictures.

 

It was great to meet up with Beeblebrox and Steve UK again today. Beeblebrox has pretty much covered how the day went so not much to add really except that it was quite interesting to see the instructors have a discussion on which one of them was going to bag a Crossfire to ride in I think various motorsport plans are now afoot, watch this space....

Since all three of us were running in the same group there wasn't much chance for picture taking but here's the digital one's I grabbed of Beeblebrox. I'm still scanning the negatives in from the film shots so will post them up later.

 

Many thanks to Beeblbrox and woody for a great day - which started off very wet at home, but 65 miles later at Curborough Sprint Circuit, the sun was out and tarmac dry.
My only concern was that the automatic Crossfire may not perform well on the circuit, but, after using the TipTronic to pre - select 3rd, the car shifted through 1st, 2nd and 3rd with perfect timing and reved to about 5x100 at the finish line.
Apart from a bit of hard acceleration and some enthusiastic cornering, the sport is easy on the car, and its easy to see how sprinting can become adictive - don't knock it till you;ve tried it!

 

Just a few more piccies of the day now that I've scanned them in:

 

Woody... Great pictures..I certainly think the first picture with of the three crossfires is a contender for the 2010 calendar. Good sky contrast with the colour of the crossfires.

Ken.