Bedford Aerodrome opinions?

[Icsunonove]

Has anyone driven the Palmersport Bedford Aerodrome either on a corporate day (four little circuits) or on a trackday (one giant circuit). If so, what did you think of it?

[skinthespin]

Not been there myself, but from what ive seen and heard from others its a good surface so won't eat your tyres, but is pretty featureless as its built on a runway, so no hills and dips. I think if youve spent time at the likes of Donny, Oulton and Brands you may get a little bored.

Lots of run off though and unlikely to damage the car, maybe more of a beginners circuit?

[jonb-]

Loads of run off, the GT circuit has a few interesting corners and is long enough to keep you amused all day and it's a very wide safe track.

I enjoy my days there.

[Redrummo]

I like Bedford autodrome. As said its got lots of run off and its nice to lap and challenge yourself without worrying about coming off and hitting something. No barriers etc... Great to push and learn about yourself and the car.(I did/have/will continue to )

Compared to the more interesting circuits like oulton/cadwell it wontr be anywhere as interesting to drive but its still a worthy visit and id recommend it. Beginners will benefit from learning in safety and more experienced can enjoy a number of its corners and really throw the car around!
The surface is tarmac not normal airfield so ok with the tyres too.

[Icsunonove]

Interesting...

My post was actually retrospective as I had driven the full 3.6mile track on a trackday the day before.

I found the whole place totally disorientating. Much, much more so than a coned airfield track. Initially they had marked out three cones on each corner: turn in point, apex and exit. But a lot of these soon got knocked out of the way.

In addition the place is totally flat and devoid of visual indicators. And finally because it is used 5 or 6 days a week for corporate hospitality (and therefore for safety) the apex and exit curbs are extremely shallow meaning they are really difficult to see.

As a result I was finding it quite hard to judge my braking points and almost impossible to judge the turn-in point.

And once the apex cone was knocked out of the way and because of the huge concrete run-off on the inside and outside of the corners and the shallow kerbing you could basically drive where you wanted.

Mind you, still didn't stop me from having a big moment at over 100mph On the superfast huge long straight on the back of the South circuit, got it all wrong on the left right kink, spun straight over the run off area and onto the grass, splattering the car in mud

[thepasty]

We're doing bedford on november 4th, I'll try and get some incar footage for the peeps who are interested.

We're doing it with the lotus on track club, great people, great cars and only £90 for open pits all day fun.

[jonb-]

Ooh, could you sponsor me to join LoT?

[Redrummo]

Could be interested. however it says on their site that the event is full?

[thepasty]

Yer its full...

it would have been nice to have another 2T there, those little elises are gonna run circles around us, the standard of driving is very good at LoT days too ... with the older elises we might have the edge through the faster sections... its going to be an interesting day.

I cant wait!

[jonb-]

I've yet to find an elise that's troubled me on track and i must have come across about 50 different cars on track now, they can't ALL be badly driven though i'll happily accept most of them are. Even most exiges have been slow.

I'd love to do a LOT day to see what they're really about as i'm sure the standard of driving is much better but I need someone to sponsor me to join as i don't know any Lotus drivers.

[thepasty]

Above you ask me to sponsor you, which puts me in an awkward position, we havent actually met, I dont know how you drive or anything so sponsoring you would defeat the point of having the sponsor system.

sorry

Not wanting to rub your nose in it but if their are any members of LoT who want to get on the day I think theres two spaces left.

[jonb-]

That's a fair point. Hopefully we'll meet on a track at some point soon and I can 'prove' myself.

[thepasty]

I hope 'prove' wasnt ment as a dig...

[jonb-]

No, sorry, totally sincere.

I apostrophed prove as I don't feel as it wouldn't really be a proving session, more a getting to know and enjoying track based activity session but I couldn't think of a better way of putting it.

[skinthespin]

The guy at donny I was chatting to in the gray elise is pretty quick Jon, I managed to keep ahead of him but only just, and thats 'just' 160bhp, most are pretty slow though like you said.

If there are any places left let us know, oh, and theres another donny day the day after if you fancy a re-match Jon, might even be dry so you can stay on the circuit......

[jonb-]

Very good Simon.

I'm up for a donny, but as discussed we should book the day before to ensure dry running. MSN me later about dates etc.

[Icsunonove]

For those that haven't been, here's what you do on a corporate day. Four circuits like this:

(Click on image)




And these are the speeds you will expect when driving this circuit in their school cars.

But on a trackday they join all the circuits up. It's flippin' huge



I hitched a ride with the instructor for the siting laps and after we'd done a full lap I told the instructor I really wasn't looking forward to doing it in the Elise with only 130ish hp due to the huge long straights. He told me to stop fretting and that the Elise would be one of the quicker cars around the track. I somehow doubted it with all the Porsches, Ferrari's etc that were there.

But to be fair he was correct. The extra power of the supercars was slightly negated by their exit speed from the corners and most of them seemed to brake miles before I needed to.

[lower]

I quite like bedford, i've been there twice now. There is huge amounts of run off, but it does take a while to learn the track as its so big. there are some interesting corners, some easy, some hard, and i kept getting 'lost' on the first morning i was there when i forgot where on the track i was.

but a great place for 'gooning' and much better than an airfield.

[Icsunonove]

and i kept getting 'lost' on the first morning i was there when i forgot where on the track i was

Ahhh, it's not just me then, that's a relief!

And we had three drivers and an afternoon session only, so not much tracktime each.

I might go back and have another go.....

[Sidewinder]

I did a Palmer day there the other week, and loved it to bits!

This was using all the four circuits (in a variety of different cars) rather than the single large circuit.
On reflection, the flatness was a problem as you had to rely quite heavily on memory for the corners as it wasn't very easy to see what was approaching and how to set the car up line-wise to take full advantage. By the time you had got an idea of the corners, it was time to move on to the next car/circuit.

Am quite tempted to do a trackday there in the tubby purely for the gooning possibilities (as per Richard's post above) and to finally break the tubby's track virginity!