Driver development day..

Had a great day out yesterday with the M3 on the Driver Development Day at Prodrive.

I think the old girl knew what was coming though.

For a track novice like me it was money very well spent having an instructor giving me the confidence to really attack the corners, I must admit to being a bit nervous before we started, mainly due to my desire to keep the car in one piece.

However after the instructor had a few laps I was absolutely amazed what my own car was capable of. I have been around a track a few times in my previous Evo2 and been passenger in many cars, including Richard Baxters DTM and with Chris Wadsley in his Sport Evo, but certainly I have never driven any car like I did yesterday.

With every lap I grew that much more confident and the "fear" of stacking it disappeared.

There were sessions on the skid pan, a circle sprayed with water/oil and a straight section covered with basalt tiles and also kept wet where you could practice controlling a snaking car.

I also had sessions on the adverse handling" circuit, a really twisty short track that really got the adrenaline pumping as you want to really attack it.

I would really recommend this to anyone that could benefit from instruction.

Now, the car has (probably) never been driven like that and after the first 6 laps of the Tower Circuit, the petrol light came on, I thought thats stupid because I filled up the and before and track driving isn't THAT thirsty. We came in and I asked them to put in 35 litres and had a coffee. Went out again on the skiddy bits and there was a right old stink of petrol, petrol could be seen coming out the overflow. It seems there was still half a tank left in it before, so looks like the sender or whatever is playing up now.

On the way, stuck in traffic the temp went up to the last mark and down to the first a few times, the slow speed fan is now not working, the high speed one does though. I replaced the double switch in the thermostat housing last year, I hope the fan hasn't packed up.

All in all had a great day including some spirited laps in the back of a CSL. Cheers.