Pembrey Track Surface

[Scooterman]

I was slightly confused by the poor handling of my car was at Pembrey. No changes from Croft, we did discover that the rear shocks were completely ineffective, but fairly sure that was the same at Croft. Did anybody else find the surface of the track very tricky? Was the temperature and the amount of rubber on the circuit responsible for changing the feel of the car? I haven't driven on a dry circuit with less grip. Frankly embarrassing watching my on board footage from Pembrey, all over the place.......

[RLambert]

I thought it was quite grippy and had no problems at all.

So, it's either your car set up or your driving......

I'd go through all your suspension and get the shocks rebuilt or replaced then do a geo, then you'll know you'll have a decent starting point.
Make sure you have a newish set of tyres
Then go out and do lots of testing!

[Alec Graham]

I often wondered what was on page 2 of the racing driver excuses book!
I always get through with the classics
: Someone had dropped a patch of oil right on the apex:
:these tyres are getting too hot:
:the sun was in my eyes:
: that barrier is much closer to the corner than it used to be;
Have always stood me in good stead.

[Scooterman]

How very arrogant of me to suggest it was the car.........  Croft was just a lucky one, normal service has been resumed with me back towards the rear and complaining about my car.

[Pete Sparrow]

Adam.
We did suffer from understeer at Pembrey but also had shot tyres so to be expected I guess.
Consensus is that the track was OK ish (considering the trucks were out, it could have been a lot worse) so it might be worth checking the car. I know your budget is limited so testing is difficult. You may have a broken spring, chassis issue, loose arm (when was the last time you checked them all??) or any one of a million other faults. I check our car every race and you'd be surprised what I find wrong and sometimes i'm not aware of it until i physically find it.
I am more than happy to help you with any set up questions you might have, I think I'm safe in saying that I've got the hang of it now so fire away.
As for the book of excuses, from what I remember Alec has quite a library on the subject. I still think you should start with the basics and work forward from there.
Hope this helps.
P

[Scooterman]

Apologies for my agitated response. Shortly after I became disoriented and couldn't speak properly. Was taken to hospital, turned out to very low blood sugar. Back to normal now.

Thanks for the advice chaps:-) 

[steve walford]

I did find that when I was with a pack of cars in the 2hr race the grip seemed to come and go in that I would make a few places and get towards the front of the pack then suddenly lose the places I had made and then be struggling to cling on to the back of the group only for a lap later for it all to come back together and I would start to make places again.

I put this down to the tyre temps getting hotter when I was in the pack and throwing the car around and sliding a bit then cooling off a bit when I was out of the pack and trying to drive smoothly and catch back up.

although I have possibly made this assumption as I have never had this problem before and we were trying the tyres with a bit more pressure than usual.    anyway that's my latest excuse made :)

[Paul]

My memory of Pembrey is that it is not a very smooth surface ,so shot rear dampers could well be the key Adam.This should be your starting point assuming you haven't been hit hard on a rear corner and bent an arm like Ian Arnold had after Oulton Park,this can easily be checked by running a string down either side of the car.