Mondello Open Day

[CByrne]

Putting this in the Other Cars section as sadly there were no FTO's at the event. (CJ feel free to move it if if fits better somewhere else)
Had a great day on Bank Holiday Monday in Mondello, an Open day with the full track open (not just the short clubman course)
Some great cars there - a 600bhp Escort RS, 700bhp Skyline, and a couple of real track cars, Westfields etc.
Other than that, a good few Scoobys, Evo's (all different series), a couple of Lotus's, 911's, Cossies, at least 7 Teg-R's...
For those not familiar with the open day, there are 6/7 a year (breaks for the winter, next will be March). Basically its 150 for a half day per driver head, one free passenger allowed per car.
Cars are grouped according to Performance - top end A's (Lotus, Porsche, Skylines, some Scoobys and Evo's), next best B's (Teg Type R's, lesser modified Scoobys, some highly modified saloons, C's (Out of the box Type R's, Civic SIR's, GTI's) to E class (1.3 Starlets with "go faster" exhausts) etc.
So on the track at anyone time performance is similar.
You get about 15 rolling laps for the half day (you can also do a full day), basically 1 starting lap and three rolling laps in each session, and then the next group come on and you let the brakes cool down!
Safety is paramount (though in the lower classes, the drivers tend to have less respect for the rules). You may only overtake on the left and on a straight, and if you are holding up a car, you must indicate to the right and let them thru. There were no contact crashes, a few minor offs but no damage done the whole day I was there.
It is a great laugh, and you really get to see how your car can perform. Id didnt bring the FTO, i wanted to get a feel for the track first, but cant wait for the next one. Well worth it, maybe the next open day we can get a few cars to show up the Teg' Rs which dominated in numbers!
As a passenger, I was in my bro's Lotus Elise, which was amazing on the corners, my friends S2000, which was the most fun car on the track (and needed the most concentration too with the back end) and my other mates Type R, which actually was very quick (he has done quite a but with it) on the straight, Impreza's not pulling away much from it.
Again, highly reccomended if you have not attended before.

[CJ]

I deffo want to get the Rex out on track at some stage to see what it can do, I think we should organise a meet in March to coincide with the next track day.

CJ