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70+mph - Edd
I hope someone out there can help me . On the way home today I decided that I want to see how fast and how well my car handles at high speeds. Trying this out to the public highway is impossible for thereat of loosing my licene so the only option I can come to think of it a track day the problems however are:
1: My car is presently in a 1years free insurance with reanult and the insurance doesn't cover track days. SO how do I get insurance for the day and would having two sets of insurance on one car be odd/ illegal.
2: My car is a 1.5 65hp diesal so isn't exactly a world car performance car. So I don't want to try and race a Supra or other very quick car I just want to see how fast and well it handles for my own benefit and to for once see how much faster than the book it will achually go
3: I've never been to a race meeting or track in my life before and what exactly happens?
Any help please
Many thanks
70+mph - CMark {P}
Edd,
"you have mail"

CMark
70+mph - PB
I could save you a little bit of money:

1. At top speed in a straight line it will be noisy and not feel particularly fast.
2. Going around corners you will be appalled how little grip it has, and how slow it feels.
3. After 2 laps your brakes will scare you when they fade to nothing.

have fun anyway!
70+mph - Steve S
EDD,

Agree with PB - you might even kill it.

Why an earth would you want to do that to that poor little diesel?

If you want to have some fun, hand it in to the nearest police station and buy some track days using someone else's Elise or Caterham. Their insurance, their tyres - your fun!

70+mph - TrevorP
"I want to see how fast and how well my car handles at high speeds"

Do you? Really?

Or do you want to find out about and improve YOU?

The route I recommend is IAM, then RoSPA, then HPC.

Do that lot, then come back in 2 years and we can discuss.

As for "and for once see how much faster than the book it will actually go" - forget it. It won't.
70+mph - Blue {P}
Come on Trev, that's not true, my dad's mate has a 1.25 Zetec Fiesta and says that on a good open road he got almost 3 mph more than the book top speed! :)

A daft mate also managed to get 120 mph out of his 1.1 Fiesta by accelerating as hard as he could and then taking it out of gear going down a steepish hill (an open stretch of the A19) with a tail wind!
70+mph - smokie
Blue - remember that speedos mostly read over by a few so 3mph was probably actually UNDER max top spec speed...
70+mph - Blue {P}
Ah - You've got me there, but you've gotta admit, 120mph out of a wheezy 1.1 M reg Fiesta wasn't bad. Although apparently everyone in the car at the time was scared to death...
70+mph - Dave_TD
Hope they checked the car was 100% mechanically sound beforehand! I had to pick up a F-reg BMW 325i from a dealer a few years back, and bring it back down the A6 Barton-le-clay bypass.
The red mist came down, the needle went just off the top of the speedo, it took 3/4 mile to stop, got it back OK and no-one was any the wiser.
While the car was being worked on, a large nail was discovered embedded in the tread of the N/S/F tyre! When it was pulled out the tyre went straight down.
Needless to say, I drove it back much much slower, and I now check the tyres on anything I drive like my life depends on it.
And the speedo on a 325i is calibrated to 150mph.
70+mph - Paul Mykatz-Tinks
My post was the first reply here. Can someone explain why it was deleted?

I'm easily confused...............VERY
70+mph - Mark (RLBS)
I don't think I deleted it. What did it say ?
70+mph - Paul Mykatz-Tinks
I don't think I deleted it. What did it say ?

Mark, I said :

Try a high performace course in someone else's car.

Do they allow diesels on circuits? A rolled car, spilling diesel oil on the track would make things interesting.


It posted Ok, then disappeared next day. Wot's up, Doc?
70+mph - Mark (RLBS)
Sorry Paul, nothing in that which would have bothered me. Are you sure it posted ok ? If it did, and disappeared, I'll check with the others.

Failing that its possible that someone, including me, might just have dropped one.
70+mph - Dynamic Dave
its possible that someone, including me, might just have dropped one.


Give Mark a wide bearth until the methane disperses
70+mph - Paul Mykatz-Tinks
Sorry Paul, nothing in that which would have bothered me. Are
you sure it posted ok ? If it did, and disappeared,
I'll check with the others.
Failing that its possible that someone, including me, might just have
dropped one.

>>

Yup, definitely posted Ok, never mind...............
70+mph - dave18
120?!
I was amazed when my 309 indicated 125 on a downhill stretch of the M4 between Swansea and Camarthen. Probably about 115 realistically. No Fiesta 1.1 will do that!
70+mph - Steve S
Yeah, the only way it would do that kind of speed is if you pushed it off a cliff.
70+mph - Blue {P}
They just about did to get it there, and it took them a while to bring it down to a safe speed again, I think the speedo on mine goes up to 120.
70+mph - dave18
Surely knocking it into neutral at that speed is a) suicidal and b) would only serve to make it slow down? Surely no car will pick UP speed at anywhere near even 100 if put into neutral?
70+mph - Blue {P}
Well, this one did, it was going downhill and so as AFAIK could only gain momentum, of course a certain amount is likely to be exaggerated story telling by my mate. But whenever you mentioned it to people who were in the car at the time they said that they were fearing for their lives...
70+mph - Micky
Ah yes, Fiestas and hills. Back in the "good old days" when a Y reg was new - that's the old Y reg, I was passenger (navigator?) in a 950 Fiesta van, fully laden with ..... er .....things.
Downhill on the M40, 115 mph was indicated, I was instructed to inscribe a suitable mark on the speedo glass/plastic with a knife. A few hours later, going the other way, 60mph with engine screaming in the lower gears.

The 1100 van was far more powerful ...... well a bit more powerful ..... its all relative and size isn't important.

Isn't 100mph+ an imprisonable offence these days (?)
70+mph - dave18
Is there a link between Fiestas and wildly exaggerating speedos or is it just the frustrated owners? Fastest I've been in one is Mum's '84 (?) 1.1, it did 105 exactly downhill.
70+mph - Flat in Fifth
Well I've obviously missed out in life, all this talk of knocking Fiestas into neutral to get them over the ton.

Mind you I did once put a big ancient Luton van into neutral on the downhill bits on the M1 as the diesel was governed at about 40 max :-(

70+mph - Paul Mykatz-Tinks
Bit faster than that, I think, but still a governmental abuse of power.

The proposed penalties will mean a murderer gets a shorter time inside than someone whose negligent driving kills another.

Our leaders hate cars and the concept of personal mobility.
70+mph - PhilW
120 in a Fiesta?? bl**dy hell, I thought, must have been going over a cliff, the aerodynamics of a Fiesta allowing it to accelerate to 120? Engine braking at over 100mph? Must have also had a blooming high top gear or be pulling over 6000 revs, and with 4 people in? You must be kidding. Then I realised, silly me, I had read KPH as MPH!
PhilW
70+mph - dave18
Unless it was a 1.1, but with nitrous fed in. They were fearing for their lives when the engine blew up, which is why it was knocked into neutral.
70+mph - Peter D
Hi,

Find the Web site for your local circuit and look at the options.
You can take a circuit experience 1/2 day that will give you a full briefing, experience with an instructor in a performance car amy be some Karting and a formaula ford if that is your thing. You can at several circuits I know take you own car round either as part of that package or just you on the circuit.

Last time I instructed driver I think he paid £32 for two hours access to the circuit.

The smaller circuits, due to their lay out probably would not allow you to get up to the maximum speed without encountering a corner and you are on the brakes but handling and skip control would be acheived and a load of fun. Only do 3 or four laps at a time as you will start to melt road tyres and tear the rubber off.

Have Fun



Regards



Peter
70+mph - Darren
Edd

Try Bookatrack.com
they organise days at various tracks and can offer insurance for your car at around 100 quid a day (insurance only), this obviously makes it expensive to see the speed but gives peace of mind that if you get in the way of a track day hack then you will still have a car.