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Update 04/07/2020 - Bedford Autodrome Trackday Video #1 Here's my fastest lap from the day with data overlay. For some reason full throttle only shows as 80%, treat this a flat out:

Update 04/07/2020 - Bedford Autodrome Trackday As I'm sure most of your are aware and have been in a similar situation with the Coronavirus situation and lockdown, I found that I've hardly used the car except for a run once every two weeks to keep the battery topped up. That work for the first two months until I needed to go into work one day and the battery was flat, typical. I then jump started it at the weekend and it's been fine since. I might look at getting a jump start battery, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Anyway due to the lack of use the car has had and the announcement that trackdays will be allowed in June, I decide to get one booked. I didn't want to book on one too early in June due to the main restrictions still being in place. Unfortunately most people didn't care about this and it meant most trackdays got booked up pretty quickly and I missed out. However I noticed the OpenTrack added an extra date for Saturday 4th July at Bedford Autodrome. So I and @willclarke promptely booked the day. Now to the trackday, upon arrival I was greated by a member of OpenTrack sat in his car at the entrance, he instructed me to park in the regular car park and sign on, in the usual place. The regular forms you need to take with you and briefing have both been replaced with online versions. To be honest this is much better as it saves alot of hassle in trying to remember to take the forms with you. It also helps remove some of the urgency to get to the track before 8:30 for the briefing. The sign on, consisted of standing behind the person in front at a 2m distance, the sign on area had perspex screens up in place and the sign on team only need to know your name and see your drivers license. The sign on area was one way so you had to go out a different way to the way in. I then drove round to the garages to unpack/get ready. I was then meet by anyother GT86 owner Mike who was attending and we had a good chat. Social distancing stayed inplace for most of the day. On to the track time, the first session I was aware I needed to bed in the new brake pads, this didn't go as well as intended due to Bedford having so many long straights which allow the brakes to cool, and the fact I had the VSC on Sport mode. This meant the rear brakes got hotter than the front, which caused a moment on the main straight when the rear locked up before the front calipers. I did a few laps and it started to settle in, I then came back in to the pits to let the car cool. The 2nd session I turned traction control off fully which help as the rear brakes weren't heating up so much. I didn't have any issues from this point on. The stopping power provided by the new pads is excellent and I'm happy with the purchase. This helped to give me more confidence in the car. I'll report back on the pads after the next trackday. If you've been following the build you note there have been a number of changes since the last trackday in Feburary, these are the new Seat, new wider wheels and tyres, TRD fins and new brake pads. Overall these changes helped make a massive difference to the car. I can now carry more speed through the corners and I'm not rolling around in the seat so much, this has helped give me a better feeling and controlability. In some cases I found that I was over slowing the car for some corners and this meant I lost the balance and it washed out. Looking back at my footage I can see that I've improved by 6 seconds from my previous fastest lap with the new setup and there is still plenty of time of the table. I'll link my fastest lap video below, as you can see I have a small oversteal issue towards the end at corner 18 (2:55 on the video) where I lose grip for a second and this killed my momentum, plus I definitely think I can go faster through that corner. A sub 3 minute lap should be possible. The new setup also seems more consistant as my laptimes throughout the day are now much closer together, when I got a relatively clean lap. Here's some pictures from the day:

Update 27/06/2020 - New Brake Pads At the start of the year I was looking forward to attending a trackday with Javelin at Spa Francorchamps around March / April time. Because this was scheduled to be a two day event I thought it best to look at getting some new brake pads. My existing front pads were becoming fairly low and I didn't want to run out of brakes at the end of the Kemmel straight for example. Currently I was using the original Ferrodo DS2500's my AP kit came with, I did swap them out for Endless MX72 pads for 6 months at one stage, however I found the Endless pads lacked the thermal capacity needed after several hot laps on track. So I swapped the Ferrodo's back in. I've kept the MX72's as my spare/emergency set. This now left me with a choice, do I buy Ferrodo's again or get something different. I like the Ferrodo's as basic track pad but I felt they lacked some feel / bite, as it turns out this is a common complaint from other reviews of them. So I started to look at other options, there is quite a good selection of pads available in the correct fitment for the AP calipers. I narrowed it down to the following selection: Pagid - RSL29 Winmax - W5 PFC - 08 Carbone Lorraine - RC6E Three of the pad choices are an edurance race compound, so should have excellent durability. In the end I decide to go for the PCF 08 pads, for a couple of reasons: 1. @Deacon had swapped to them last year and he's using them in the stardard caliper without issue or any overheating. Which I think is amazing considering he's still running the OEM calipers. 2. The Nurburgring GT86 Cup cars run these pads in the VLN races. 3. Cost and Availability, at the time they were the cheapest option for a complete set (Front & Rear). 4. I could source them from @James@Amber, all the other pads would mean ordering from a new supplier and I'd rather not have to deal with an unknown company if they sent the wrong size out with the short amount of time before the trackday. (For reference: Partbox also stock the PFC pads) 5. Being an endurance pad they "should" work from cold. Unfortunately however the Coronavirus situation happened and that meant the Spa trackday got cancelled, so I never got round to fitting them until now. I'll report back on the pads once I've had time to try them out. Here's a couple of photos during the install: Front PFC 08 Compound on the left & Ferrodo DS2500 on the right. Fitted: Rear PFC 08 Compound on the left & Endless MX72 on the right. Fitted - Just missing the pins which hold the pads in place.

Like what? I see no assumptions, only statements (except the fact that having only just bought your new car, that I doubt you've driven it hard on very wet surfaces - given it's July, that's probably a fair assumption?)

If you are still attending simply jap, received this from Beaulieu. Dear Club Stand Organiser, I am emailing with regards to Simply Japanese, originally scheduled for Sunday 26th July 2020, to confirm that this will be going ahead on the same date of Sunday 26th July for 2020. The format of Simply Japanese will change to ensure the safety and welfare of participants, visitors and staff and in line with Government guidance to prevent the risk of infection from Covid-19. As such, we will be not be able to accept club stand bookings for any of our Simply rallies in order for us to feasibly park in a socially distanced manner, and to avoid any large gatherings of people. Ticket numbers will also be limited to 500 per Simply, and available on a first-come first-served basis for all new purchases. All participants will need to pre-book and print their tickets to allow us to manage capacity and avoid any payment transactions with staff on arrival. This will hopefully make for a swifter entry on the day. Participant tickets already purchased will be valid for the new date and are factored into the maximum capacity. A communication will go out to these ticket holders shortly. New tickets will go on sale today, please see the Simply Japanese webpage for further details. Kind regards, Charlotte Charlotte Mountain Events Manager Designate Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry for the late update ! Have the car since Wednesday and I absolutely enjoy it !!

Seen the one with a V8 Ferrari engine?