Anglesey Coastal circuit
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:11 pm
It's well worth a visit folks! I have never, and I mean never, had such fun in a car in all my life...
Absolutely fantastic track - a banked hairpin, fast bits like Church with loads of run-off followed by a long sweeping curved "straight" with a kink in it (about 110mph in the MR2), uphill braking into the slowest corner Rocket where showboating is actually compulsory, through peel (long fast exit over a blind crest) braking HARD downhill into the corkscrew (very steep downhill chicane thing which is just brilliant) followed by an off-camber tightening left which lands you in the pit wall if you lift off... it's all brilliant!
Saturday was supposed to just be the National circuit layout, which was ok in the AM, but in the afternoon they switched to Coastal which is amazing. All day Sunday was Coastal too.
60mph gusts of wind blowing in off the (rather spectacular) coast, and rivers of rain running across Church really made things "interesting". I had 1 spin coming out of Rocket which is basically drifting paradise, and I deserved it. However, 1 spin in 2 days of utter hooliganism is not bad... I even got black flagged for spending the day looking out the side windows more than the front...
Poor Simon spent the day with terminal understeer as his tyres were guff. Thankfully, my fronts were quite good (Dunlop SP Sports) but the back were mismatched import cheapo hedge-finders with no tread, so I had loony oversteer. Add the absolutely peeing rain, loads of space (only 20 cars turned up), a pocket-money rough-love shed, and I had the best motoring weekend of my life, bar none! Simon was a second or so quicker than me per lap, but I reckon I had more fun.
Seriously, if you haven't made the trek to Anglesey, it's well worth it!! Permagrin.
PS. A bunch (five?) of shiny new GT-Rs showed up on Saturday from an owners' club. One nice chap with a 560bhp example gave me 4 or 5 pax laps, which cost him 1/4 tank of fuel (yes, really
), so very grateful for that. Bonkers on the straights, a huge non-event in the corners: It just goes round, regardless of how ham-fisted the driver is (and he was ). Not my cup of tea, but I can see why they get so much hype.
Absolutely fantastic track - a banked hairpin, fast bits like Church with loads of run-off followed by a long sweeping curved "straight" with a kink in it (about 110mph in the MR2), uphill braking into the slowest corner Rocket where showboating is actually compulsory, through peel (long fast exit over a blind crest) braking HARD downhill into the corkscrew (very steep downhill chicane thing which is just brilliant) followed by an off-camber tightening left which lands you in the pit wall if you lift off... it's all brilliant!
Saturday was supposed to just be the National circuit layout, which was ok in the AM, but in the afternoon they switched to Coastal which is amazing. All day Sunday was Coastal too.
60mph gusts of wind blowing in off the (rather spectacular) coast, and rivers of rain running across Church really made things "interesting". I had 1 spin coming out of Rocket which is basically drifting paradise, and I deserved it. However, 1 spin in 2 days of utter hooliganism is not bad... I even got black flagged for spending the day looking out the side windows more than the front...
Poor Simon spent the day with terminal understeer as his tyres were guff. Thankfully, my fronts were quite good (Dunlop SP Sports) but the back were mismatched import cheapo hedge-finders with no tread, so I had loony oversteer. Add the absolutely peeing rain, loads of space (only 20 cars turned up), a pocket-money rough-love shed, and I had the best motoring weekend of my life, bar none! Simon was a second or so quicker than me per lap, but I reckon I had more fun.
Seriously, if you haven't made the trek to Anglesey, it's well worth it!! Permagrin.
PS. A bunch (five?) of shiny new GT-Rs showed up on Saturday from an owners' club. One nice chap with a 560bhp example gave me 4 or 5 pax laps, which cost him 1/4 tank of fuel (yes, really
), so very grateful for that. Bonkers on the straights, a huge non-event in the corners: It just goes round, regardless of how ham-fisted the driver is (and he was ). Not my cup of tea, but I can see why they get so much hype.
