Ok, firstly I should explain the long delay with this update.
All of the photos are on my work computer, and I have been having problems getting them off onto the interweb – and lets face it, stories like this are no fun with out pictures (you will just have to excuse the average quality of the pics).

Anyway, I have sorted out how to get the pictures, so here we go…

A few weekends ago we headed out to Pukakohe with a group of guys from work (as well as a bunch of strangers) for a track day. Given the fact that it was a chance to get out in the sun for a day, get some driving practise, have a BBQ, and generally just enjoy ourselves we decided to invite Maxwell along as well.

Maxwell admitted he had never been in anything doing much over 110k’s, so we thought he would enjoy the buzz 🙂

Now we expected to turn up being by far the slowest car (with our little squirtle being only a 1.8 auto). However when I say out classed, I was expecting a bunch of twin turbo jap imports and a few Holdens.

I didn’t expect to pull up an see Ferraris and V8 Race holdens being taken off their trailers!

So, we resigned ourselves to ‘never passing’ and just kept out of everyones way.

Now the morning started with rain threatening, and by the time we picked Maxwell up it was pissing down. We arrived at the track in the pouring rain – so much for hte BBQ in the sun idea! The upside to this though was that it did keep the speed down for everyone else (our was one of the few cars that didn’t have enough acceleration to spin the wheels even in the wet). It also kept the brakes nice and cool(ish).

Now at this stage in the story I would like to share the advice that my brother had given me the week before…
Pukakohe is real hard on brakes, especially the hairpin as you come off the back straight and into the hairpin at full speed. The danger is if you overheat the brakes you either don’t stop at the hairpin, or if you do then they will be too hot to stop you at the next corner (and then its into the wall). I’d brake early into the hairpin every 2nd lap to avoid cooking the brakes
Smart advise, so we were following it religilously.

So armed with this advise, and the wet weather we cruised through the morning with no brake problems, no traction problems in the wet (other than when I clipped a puddle while braking and spun) and smiles across our faces a mile wide.

The day really was working itself out nicely when the sun came out and we cranked up the BBQ 🙂

With a dry line appearing I took the car out to see what she could do with a bit of pushing – Sarah came for a ride. With some cornering at the limit onto the back and front straight, and the foot early on the throttle, and then late on the brakes we managed to get Squirtle around the clock to 162K. That was pretty much flat out, so after a couple of attempts and with the brakes heating up and starting to fade we headed into the pits to let her rest.

While she cooled off a bit we hopped in a couple of different cars just to have a ride in some quicker toys.

The end of the day was approaching, so we decided we’d have one more lap each and the call it a day… first up was Maxwell.

First lap out he was just cruising to check the car had cooled down OK. Took it nice and easy and the brakes seemed nice and responsive so once we hit the front straight it was all on.

We headed through the S bends of the front straight with a nice line and rocked onto the back straight… Maxwell was well on the way to setting a new “Land Speed Maxwell Record”. With the foot to the floor Squirtle happily sailed up to 155 clicks. A new Maxwell record was achieved and everyone was happy!

Or we would have been had the story ended there…

Maxwell hit his braking point and stopped the brakes… He stompped them further… He pushed them as hard as possible…

The were still a little warm from my thrashing. We were slowing, but not as quick as we should.

Things were tense, but when Maxwell turned the wheel it looked like we were going to get through safely… We carried roughly an extra 10k into the turn, and consequently carried a slight sideways slide through the first half of the corner.

As we passed the apex it was clear we were drifting off the dry racing line. As soon as the outside wheel hit the wet the slide through us wide. We rocketed over the wet ripple strips, Maxwell hit the brakes, but by now we were on the wet grase heading towards the wall.

In slow motion we slid towards the wall, scrubbing speed with every inch. This was going to be close!

With only meters to spare Maxwell took his foot of the brake in a last ditch effort to gain traction again. Sure enough we had scrubbed just enough speed and the wheels grabbed and slowly turned the front away from the wall. But by now it was to late. We both brased ourselves as the front corner deflected across the Armco barrier.

Our hearts sunk as the back end spun round at touched the wall. By now we had no perception of time or speed and both had horrid visions of the whole side of the car slamming into the wall. Instead we came to a stop with the back wheel arch only just touching the wall and no more. A lucky escape…

Maxwell went to jump from the car (I can’t help but think he was going to be sick – check out the pic below). I told him just to move the car as otherwise someone else would no doubt come around the hairpin, see us, end up missing their braking point with the distraction and end up sandwiching us with the wall.

We limped across the grass, over the track and into the pits. The car was driveable, but Maxwell was a right off.

I can assue you that if you have never crashed a car before, you do not want to start by crashing someone elses…

Mind you, as for as stories go, being able to say the first car he crashed was off the hairpin at pukakohe at 155K is not a bad way to go.

Of course the fact he crashed our car does mean that he is officially Beer Bitch at any gathering Sarah or I are present at!