FFX - Frolic 2010

[Cisco]

Charade and Mas du Clos videos up on Gallery...

[robin]

What can I say - another great (if expensive trip) with a long list of thank yous due ...

* Thanks to the Ape for planning superb pre- and post- frolic mountain routes, booking all the hotels and supplying copious quantities of beer and coke opportunities and reminding us that we were supposed to eat.
* Thanks to Dave (wheelie) for all the cokes from the onboard fridge (p.s. I have your spare keys here - give me a shout so I can get them back to you) and for some Sat Nav rescues after I managed to not follow Neil on various motorways (I am getting old ).
* Thanks to all those that helped with my radiator (which was half the squad at one point or another).
* Thanks to Claude for supplying coolant out of thin air and Jean-Francois (spelling? - the LOT mechanic and in charge of the LOT van/tools/etc) for lending my his tools on countless occasions.
* Thanks to Yvo for sending one overnight so that I could at least take part in Pau if not Charade.
* Thanks to Spain and the EU road building fund for building some epic (and yet pointless) roads for us to hoon on.
* Thanks to usual suspects for some terrible chat and a lot of beers
* Thanks to Jouke & Etrimara for the waffles and not so terrible chat

As you know we left at 03:30 or so on Thursday morning to arrive in the Vosges for tea time, which was a nearly 900 mile slog, though not so bad with AC Two days in the Vosges saw us do most of the passes there, some of them twice!. It's a shame that many French minor roads are resurfaced in the summer by simply tipping huge amounts of gravel on the road and allowing the traffic to press the gravel into the molten tarmac ... not exactly an effective technique as most of the gravel ends up in the fields I suspect!! After a few rally stages like this, the novelty wears off

Friday night we stayed in Belfort at the unbelievable Golden Tuna (OK, not really, but that's what we called it) with an entrance hall bigger than my house and very much posher too. Had a few pints whilst Neil sent regular updates on roads, beer and "the local scenery" to DDtB for maximum wind up From there we headed to Clermont-Ferrand on Saturday morning - a hot run down the motorway (AC now on full chat) - followed a long trip around the local hills. Highlights of the day - a run around the old Charade circuit which is properly mental and a couple of runs up the Mont Dore hill climb circuit (look for Moneaux on google maps, D36 to Mont Dore). There were the usual comedy sat nav moments in Mont Dore's ridiculous one way system - we must have seen the same bemused tourists three or four times Here is a pic of what the Mont Dore hillclimb looks like:



(note, this is from google maps, not my camera!).

Sunday was Mas-de-Clos and radiator failure. Prior to the radiator failure, I was loving the circuit - the back "straight" and hairpin in particular were quite different in the Exige than they had been in Egor. I was starting to get up to speed when Nicola-kiss-of-death-Crozier gets in the car and the rest is history ...

Monday was Charade, though not for me as the Exige was sitting in bits back at the hotel. I was on duty as pit bitch for the day Andy Walsh managed to cook his brakes to the point where the pedal went flat to the floor at the end of the back straight, which his pax found amusing, but he wasn't quite so chilled about it! We trotted off into the country side to find some brake fluid and then spent lunch time bleeding his brakes as well the other Andy's who was experiencing similar brake issues. Meanwhile, Neil lead a pack of 2-11's around the old circuit again and across to the hill climb - Scotty and Emma came back with panda faces due to the amount of rubber and brake dust being used!. Highlight of the day for me was going around the circuit with Mass, a man blessed with little mechanical sympathy and an overwhelming desire to go sideways - I feel sorry for the car - but great fun On return to the pits I was chatting to him about how it was all a bit frantic and how if smoother it could be quicker, to which he replied "yes - but I like to drive drift style". Mass, you're bonkers - but a legend! Of course I had to do some laps with the Ape in the 135R and he didn't fail to push the car to its limits and sometimes beyond for maximum entertainment

Tuesday was refit radiator and then the long motorway slog across to the country to Biaritz to a very nice hotel and yet more beers. We missed the frolics in the pool that day due to late arrival, but at least we all got there in one piece after various distractions along the way (mostly involving poor Mr Walsh and his bowels). Highlight of the day must have been BigD falling asleep on the floor in the car park due to a slight hangover. The hotel cat decided it would be fun to lie down next to him and wind him up by licking and pawing at his face Pretty sure there are some pictures of that on some cameras somewhere, so will dig one out later. Lowlight of the day was aquaplaning off the motorway at about 45 miles per hour - after what felt like 2-3 seconds of gradually sailing off the road, I decided enough was enough and I was going to turn the steering wheel to try and "rudder" back onto the road - luckily the car reacted smoothly and we got back onto the road - poor old Andy Walsh was already suffering with his bowels, and I don't think this little expedition helped much

Wednesday was Pau. A fantastic circuit, as much fun as last time I was there, though actually not really any quicker in the Exige than Egor I think. It was a very hot day though and the tyres would go off quite quickly which limited the amount of lapping that was going on. Highlight of the day was standing in the paddock to see Scotty coming back in the 2-11 after he had been lawn mowing The whole front of the car was covered in grass (to the point that it was overheating!). In the evening I took pity on poor Andy G. and swapped cars for the run back to the hotel (an hour or so away) - so he had the v-max & AC experience whilst I drove the rattly death oven. One thing you notice when comparing the cars is the difference in throttle response - the smelly old K certainly has much sharper throttle response than the s/c toyota! The evening consisted of many japes in the pool and a large booking for one-size-fits-all-dinner (which meant that us veggies had salad and chips whilst the lucky ones had two steaks and two bowels of mussels ) in the hotel.

Thursday saw us part company with the rest of the gang - we headed off into the Pyrenees whilst they headed up to "hotel rape" as Andy affectionately named it After a very long day that involved an impromptu trip into Spain due to one of the passes being closed (and a chat with the Spanish police at a road block) we ended up in Lourdes where we had stayed years before. Incredibly we hadn't noticed the Indian restaurant across the road last time we were there, but we didn't make the same mistake this time! Dave's pictures from the top of Mount Donkey are typical of the insane views from the Pyrenees - words cannot easily describe the 360 degree panorama of dramatic peaks, some still with snow on them, azure blue skyline, the herds of semi-wild horses, cows and donkeys running around the place. We resisted the temptation for the obvious donkey punch picture ...

The next morning we set off back into the Pyrenees for a second trip over the Col de Tourmalet and the Col de Aspin (renamed Col de Mentalist after we realised how narrow the road is and how easily you can fall a long long way down) followed by a loop around to Toulouse - unfortunately one of the roads on our route either didn't exist or was a mud road, so we cut a section out of the route when we couldn't find a reasonable work around. On the plus side it meant we were at the hotel early for a change and went off in search of a pub to have a few beers. I think the pub we stumbled into was in fact a gay bar, especially as we got free drinks - I think the barman took a fancy to Neil Anyway, it was a nice pub, with AC and we got free peanuts, so we didn't care! An early dinner and off to bed - the plan was to get up and leave for 06:00 - as it happens, Neil did his excited puppy dog routine and we set off at 03:30 instead

The trip home was 1,150 miles from Toulouse which I wasn't looking forward to. This was made much much worse by 4 hours of extreme rainfall. French motorways are surfaced in one of two types of tarmac - mirror smooth or coarse. The coarse stuff is fine in even heavy rainfall - I suspect it has a porous surface that allows the water to drain away to some under-road drains. The mirror smooth stuff is, frankly, lethal. No drainage, inches of standing water, ... The best bit is that the surface changes from one to the other at random - so you're doing 85 on the coarse stuff and hit a wall of water as it switches to the smooth surface, where 50 seemed dangerous! 4 hours of that and the peripherique in full mental mode was beginning to get to me - luckily it dried up for the last hour or so and we hooned it onto the 13:50 crossing - not bad for 650 miles under the circumstances. The run up the road in the UK was remarkably easy - no real traffic north of the M25 and a spirited drive on the A701 saw me home for 21:00.

Now time to get back to work ....

Cheers,
Robin

[kenny]

I really, really need to get myself on Frolics next year.

[mckeann]

what an absolutely AWESOME trip.

I did the SE mountain frolic TM again this year with Robin, and Wheelie joined in after seeing how much fun we had last year.

Organising the hotels and routes was left until 3 days before we left, as per last year,despite saying i wouldnt be so lazy again. Suffice to say, next years frolic planning will be starting ASAP.

The mountain trip usually involves a massive first and last day of boring motorways to get to and from the fun stuff and leave as many full days for the Cols. This year was no different with approx 900 on the way there and just under 1200 on the way home. Hard work, but worth it to give 4 days of some of the best roads in europe, on top of 3 days of great tracks. It should have been 5 days in the mountains, but Robins lardy exige blew its radiator, and as always, we never leave a shed behind (unless its wedged under an armco barrier) so we spent tuesday fixing that, then had a boring motorway slog instead. It was nice to be able to able to start to repay the car fixing favours that Robin always does for me.

Highlight of the mountain trip was thursday where we did a solid 11 hours in the driving seat, and crossed from france to spain through the pyranees too many times to remember. At the top of the Col du Donkey, we encountered a road closed for repairs, so decided on a 100+ mile detour which was absolutely amazing.

The tracks were good too. I've done mas du clos, charade and Pau before, and whilst i cant knock mas du clos and charade, Pau was the one i really wanted to go back to. It didnt dissapoint. I was flying round there in the little 135R, proving that you dont need lots of power, just lots of balls and very little imagination. Thanks to Adam in the R400, Sanj in thr 340RR, Andy in the 340R,and scotty in his 211,plus everybody else who i've forgotten, for giving me shots in there more powerful cars, to make me remember what i've been missing. Funnest/scariest moment on track was whilst ragging Andy G's 340R with Ed in the pax seat. To give some background, the first corner at Pau is a flatout 110mph downhill blind chicane in my 135R. As we approached it in Andys car, with an extra 40bhp and 50kg less, i shouted accross to Ed asking if it was flat in the 340R. He didnt reply so i assumed it was Thankfully, we made it through without too much incident. The next lap, having convinced myself it was indeed flat, i went balls out again but this time with a touch more kerb. A full opposite lock tank slapper moment ensued at approx 120mph, where Ed proclaimed he had never been more scared on track in his life. Job done. I stuck at it though and managed it flat ever lap after that, just with a touch less kerb.

I now have the tricky decision of wether i should stick with the slightly boring K series 135R, upgrade it to honda spec or sell it and buy an R400 for next years mountain frolic TM. decisions decisions.

[mckeann]

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... ges/4.html

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... es/14.html

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... es/49.html

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... es/94.html

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... es/95.html

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/trac ... es/97.html -- hehehehehe, classic photo

[Stewart]

Another epic Frolic over. Thank you to Paul, Claude, Jamie, Jamie Jnr etc for organising. I now know why it was labelled extreme

3,160 miles
4 great circuits
530 litres of fuel
Countless litres of water consumed
Boiling hot sunshine
Great banter
Good food and beer

Hôtel de Rape Bordeaux actually turned out a blessing because instead of staying there for 2 nights we were let out one night early for good behaviour and headed to the sanctuary of Ibis Le Mans. This in turn meant we were actually 5 hours closer to home than planned and managed to get home by 11:00pm last night -result . 850 miles yesterday which was a bit of a slog but traffic was virtually non existent.

Didn't do any mountain roads which other than the scenery didn't miss. Highlights for me were; the hotel at Anglet Biarritz, Pau Arnos Circuit, passenger lap with Scotty in the 2-11 at Pau and Walshy trying to come up with innovative methods of maiming himself using a litre bottle of water on the end of a bit rope.


I also have a video of same which I need to work out how to post.

My car was faultless although the AC did struggle to cope with 35+ degrees. I also realised that whilst I am very fortunate to own an exige I was also the only NA one there. I blamed this for my slow lap times . I need to have a serious think about cars for next year's Frolic although I suspect trying to keep up to date with cars is a bit like trying to keep up to date with the latest iPhad.

I'll stick some pictures in the gallery but the link to them all for those interested is here

[tut]

Great write up guys, especially Robins rival in length to War and Peace, and the Apes more succinct one.

Although I could not be there, it is good to see that you had such a great time. I actually miss the Alps Mountain runs more than the tracks, but the heat would have probably finished me off. Loved the pics of you looking out across the mountains.

No accidents and it looks as if S_E all came home under their own steam, so great result. A bit like TT though, you have to get through the anticlimax when you return to reality.

tut

[ruadh08]

Looks like you had a good trip guys! Good reports and photos. Very envious.
Robin, I bet you are glad you jumped ship to an aircon exige judging by the temperatures you came across, and of course the rain!

[flip flop]

Thanks guys for taking the time and effort to give us these quality write ups, sure im not the only one in living the adventure in spirit and wishing I was able to have experienced such a holiday.

cheers

[robin]

Yes, but with hindsight actually would have been happy going in Egor - the sc toyota is not very fuel efficient by comparison (still manages 30+ on the motorway, 20+ in the mountains, but 40+ doable with the little old K - at 1.50 euro/litre in some stations, that's actually a lot of money over a 4,500 mile trip!). and on the whole not massively quicker on track; in fact in the key areas of corner approach and mid corner speed it is actually a tad slower; throttle response is odd - when you lift off, the engine still powers for just a fraction of a second, which makes heel-and-toe slightly harder to coordinate - you blip the throttle and actually get a shove of power as you lift the clutch, even though you're off the throttle by then. Of course it is 200kg heavier and approaches corners with more pace due to the extra power, so you need more braking, and I suppose mid-corner speed must be a tad less - only really noticeable in slow corners where it can feel like you're trying to make a whale run through the corner rather than a Lotus

If you're happy to ignore fuel for a moment it is a superb road car for higher speed A/B roads - effortless speed due to immense amounts of torque. It also eats the motorway miles, whether at legal speeds or otherwise - because it's relatively quiet, comfortable inside, you can hear the stereo without earphones, the AC is nice when it gets hot, etc.

For twistier roads (like hairpin ascents) it isn't quite so effortless, but some of that is down to some suspension problems I think - it has Hoffmans Nitrons on it which should be very similar to what Egor has fitted (same spring rates - something like 500/750 - cannot remember exact rates) - but in order to stop it bouncing uncontrollably over uneven surfaces at speed (and even on track over kerbs) I had to wind the dampers up to 4 clicks from hard, and even then at the bottom of the Pau chicane it was taking 3 oscillations to stop bouncing!! It also has a tiny amount of droop travel - I have yet to measure it, but it's one or two pumps of the jack max - I think this shows up in lost rear traction exiting tighter corners - e.g. hairpin ascents - but also in general airborne antics when cresting bumps at speed - e.g. the big jumps at the start and end of the A701. I need to fit modified brackets to the rear (same as Egor got just before last year's FF) - apparently Nitron might now be supplying such things - about time too! Then we'll see if it improves any - I don't understand enough about the way these things work to know if increasing the available travel for the damper rod will allow me to soften off the dampers, or whether I'm stuck with such a hard setup because the car is so fat

The striped yellow look got a lot of attention too - loads of people stopped to look at it, leered out of side windows on the motorway, etc. I had whole coach loads of kids glued to the windows staring and waving. Really gets a good response, which is nice.

Yes, the 340R would have been a bit hard to live with - no AC, reduced range due to silly gearing, earphones mandatory if you like your hearing, etc., and whilst I did enjoy my hour or so in Andy's sweat box, an hour was enough

Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

I now have the tricky decision of wether i should stick with the slightly boring K series 135R, upgrade it to honda spec or sell it and buy an R400 for next years mountain frolic TM. decisions decisions.

Well you have been the Honda route before, and a Se7en would surely be a killer to run all the way to deep south of France and back, so just stick with the challenge and reward of the boring old K, plus the chance to prostitute yourself over anyone else's cars where they are crazy enough to let you

Nice writeups so far, everyone. Can't agree more with Robin's observations on French m-ways' Jekyll and Hyde character in the wet. Bonkers. Only in France (although the British roads are also starting to go this way..."whisper tarmac" they call it and it is indeed lethal in the wet)

[Andy G]

Bet you wish your wheels were like mine

Thats to Mrs C for the pic

This pic sums up frolic for me!!!!!! Genuis. Might bore you all with a tale of Xtreme later once the 1300 + emails, tennant issues, late Ferraris and stores thefts have been resolved - the joys of post holiday blues

[campbell]

Cracking pic!

Sorry your holiday return is a nightmare, know the feeling from days of old.

Sadly this is what you get for being a general European Playboy

[Tom]

Another epic trip comes to an end , but it was a (very hot) cracker

Huge thanks go to:

AndyG for a shot of the 340R at Mas du Clos. The circuit was great, but the car was even better. I'd never driven a 340 before and I absolutely loved it. Loads of feedback, and so delicate and precise. A joy to drive, and I'd have stayed out all day in it if he'd have let me. I wouldn't be surprised if a 340R turns up in the Paine brother's garage before long....

Donald for a shot of the Evo at Charade. Never driven one of these before and holy moly it's fast. Came out of the pit-lane and round turn 1 and nailed the throttle. About a second later and someone's hit the warp-speed button . 450bhp is fcking fast. Immediate thought is I NEED this sort of power in my life . Donald said aim for the biggest part of the kerb (and at Charade they're huge) and then just chuck it in. Wasn't brave enough for that so made do with about 1/4 of kerb. Takes a bit of getting used to this car as you have to throttle earlier to beat the turbo-lag, and you have to try and rev match the gear changes so you don't confuse/stall the turbo etc. 6 or 8 laps and I'd used just over a quarter of a tank of fuel . I need the power, but I'd have to sell the house to pay for the fuel

Ali Crozier for a shot of his Exige at Pau. Brilliant car and another top circuit. Grip and turn-in are amazing, and with the previous 2 cars also I'm now starting to think I might be in need of some stickier tyres (and maybe some more power). Brakes take a bit of getting used to because of the servos but definitely work

Mass for a shot of his Exige at Haute Saintonge. I didn't realise on driving this car that the toe-links were a bit knackered but it was a great circuit to finish on. The cambers were great for some sideways action, and despite trying I couldn't quite manage going over the hill flat in someone else's car (although I've a feeling I might have managed it once....).

And finally to everyone else for the banter, beer and general camaraderie

For anyone thinking of doing a Frolic that hasn't (or didn't go this year DDtB ) you really should. They're awesome!

Sanjoy and Scotty, I'm really looking forward to having a go in your cars at the AMP3 trackday

[campbell]

For anyone thinking of doing a Frolic that hasn't (or didn't go this year DDtB ) you really should. They're awesome!

Some classic memories in there Tom, thanks for sharing.

Missing out on Frolics to date is not for lack of motivation, by any means