Scottish Elises

The Lotus on Track day at Croft on Saturday tuned out to be wet - very wet. It started raining just as Tim and myself arrived at the circuit and continued pretty much non stop. The morning sessions were very wet, but I still really enjoyed them. By the afternoon it had turned into a monsoon with standing water everywhere on the track. I decided enough was enough when I found myself aquaplaning on the straight at 90 mph . On such a miserable day there did seem to be a lot of hanging about between sessions, but it is such a great circuit I am still keen to go back, hopefully for a dryish track next time.

Highlight of the weekend driving wise for me was actually after the track on Saturday. Went to visit some friends near Gatehouse of Fleet, and had an absolute blast on the way on the A711 coast road from Dumfries to Kirkudbright - a superb road and largely dry by early evening. The Exige felt so good I was belting along with a cheesy grin on my face thinking there was no car I would rather be driving. Times like those make Lotus ownership all worthwhile

Mark

It was indeed spectacularly wet - I knew that there was lots of standing water when I started pulling away from Mark on his 48s, instead of him overtaking me all the time....

But, though the standing around looking at the rain bits of the day weren't what we'd hoped for, I really enjoyed the day. Croft is a great circuit and would be awesome in the dry, but being so wet I was able to slide the car about all the time - even on the quicker corners - so I learnt lots & it was great fun.

Tim

ryallm wrote:Went to visit some friends near Gatehouse of Fleet, and had an absolute blast on the way on the A711 coast road from Dumfries to Kirkudbright
Mark

cracking road

Sorry to hear your trip was a bit of a washout - aquaplaning at 90 would certainly require a change of pantaloons for me!

I personally thought it was great fun. Well, once I put the VortX back on the trailer and ran the Elise for the rest of the day. Would've run the VortX all day if I'd had some wets. It was like driving on ice with the very old Fulda ditchfinders on and the slicks were definitely no good.

The puddles weren't that bad if you stayed off the conventional racing line. It was a perfect day for practising car control.

Think it helped that I know Croft really well.

Dan@JPS