High Speed Driving Days - North Weald 2025

[CaptainK]

Fully understand your concerns [you can hear a "but" coming, can't you?!] - but.... this is the last time, so it would be a one off and what a great set of memories! Bring the Vette - you know it's the right thing!!

On the subject of fuel consumption for a C3 Big Block, I have just dug out my original "Motor" road test from August 24, 1968 when they tested just such a machine. In those days, they calculated "touring" consumption by taking consumption midway between 30 mph and maximum speed less 5% for acceleration. The figure they calculated was 14.5mpg. However, given the max speed was confirmed at 145mph [with a 3.08 rear end], then the midway point is 87.5mph. So, if you cruised up at 60-65mph, you could well get around 18mpg or better. That sounds pretty reasonable in the circumstances! And, of course, a good long journey would do the car a world of good! I rest my case - thank you.

Handily, my 1968 Vette, despite the big block bonnet, is actually only a tiny 327/300hp model. Its also been modified by a previous owner to be running a 3.08 posi rear end, and the one and only time I measured its MPG on a run it was about 18mpg. That was before I changed carb as the previous (Carter) carb was having issues.

I have been seriously thinking about bringing the Vette this time - as I won't have a hotel bill to pay for this time, as staying with my wife's family as she's up with them handily at the same time (maternity leave, visiting with the baby for the week). So that's a good £50 or so quid saved for fuel. The issue stopping me now is the weather - I really don't know if I can do 220 ish miles each way driving the Vette in the rain. Its a hard enough beast to drive as it is - which is why I LOVE it for the driving fun - but over that many miles each way when raining? I'll see closer to the time. The FTO, despite also being "lively", is by far a more relaxing drive in comparison.

 

[CaptainK]

For a laugh, I used a fuel economy calculator online to see how much my 220 mile trip would be:
This assumes use of Super Unleaded at what apparently the website is the national UK average price of 148.29 per litre
Corvette at 18mpg: £82.38 EACH way.
FTO at 35mpg: £42.40 EACH way (to be fair, the FTO has been known to almost touch 40mpg on a long run, but 35 seemed fairer).

For reference, using normal unleaded at the national UK average of 135.61 per litre:
Baby Wagon at its value of 50 ish average mpg the computer says: £27.13 EACH way (though on a long run its MPG would be more, as 50mpg is its average over all types of miles I'm doing in it).

So yeah, cost of getting to the venue and back:
Corvette: £164.76
FTO: £84.80

So about an £80 difference in just getting there and back - which amusingly is MORE expensive than me taking the FTO and booking a hotel

 

[Forrest Gump]

On Tuesday this week we had the last ever (probably) High speed driving day at North Weald. It was again an excellent day with six Corvettes having great fun belting around the track. Manish C8, Mark and Dean C5s, Steve C4 and Kieran and me in C3s.
Hats off to Kieran (CaptainK) who made the correct decision to drive his ‘68 C3 all the way up from Taunton to Essex for the event!
A shame that Dave S couldn’t bring his famous C6 - Clive, but he was still managing very fast laps in his BMW daily driver.
I had an eventful day with numerous spins and other out of control moments. The power steering belt came of at one point which resulted in a spin when I found I could hardly move the steering going into a bend at 70mph (sorry for scaring Steve who was passenger on that run). I was also getting some rear wheel locking under braking which made things tricky a few times = another spin and clobbering a traffic cone during one lap. I‘ll Chuck in the “usual” that my tyres are possibly getting too old, (there's not much left of them now anyway!) Otherwise just down to a lack of talent on my part, but great fun nevertheless. A highlight of the day for me was Dave driving a lap in my car. He made such a better job of taming it than I can and a joy to watch his driving skill.
Congrats to Manish for flying the Corvette flag and recording the fastest time of the day, skilfully piloting his C8 to beat a variety of other sports cars.

 

[CaptainK]

Hats off to Kieran (CaptainK) who made the correct decision to drive his ‘68 C3 all the way up from Taunton to Essex for the event!
Congrats to Manish for flying the Corvette flag and recording the fastest time of the day, skilfully piloting his C8 to beat a variety of other sports cars.

The other side of Taunton too - about 440 miles round trip I think. I've yet to do the fuel cost calculation, but I was doing north of 20 mpg (my first "leg" of the journey - home to missus's mum's house in Wokingham - was about 140 miles doing 20.77mpg). Horrendous stop start traffic and rain though.

And at the other end of the scale with Manish doing the fastest lap in his C8 - don't forget I posted the slowest lap in my C3 (hey! I ALMOST beat that Renault Sport Clio !).

My fastest lap time was 1:23.72. I'm happy with that, considering I wasn't really pushing the old girl too hard in the corners - well aware that I still had 210 ish miles to travel home afterwards. She is pretty much all standard except an Edelbrock 600cfm Carb and Performer EPS intake, and 17 inch alloys, and 3:08 LSD diff. Not bad for the base model 327.

Was really glad I took the Corvette, despite the punishing fuel costs, as it was great to push it a bit more in a safe environment. Found out she's much more capable than I gave her credit for, and the grip is actually really good. And the best thing is that despite all the abuse, and long distance travel, she kept ticking with no issues (except at the end a broken bonnet release cable). Which is really good considering she only pootles around normally, doing hardly any miles per year. In the nine years I've owned her, I've done about 4000 miles in it I think.

Really hoping we can find something similar to do again next year. I'm addicted now.

Oh and I have dashcam footage, which I'll do something with at some point.

 

[Steven Smith]

Tuesday was a fantastic day to see how far we can push these cars in a safe environment .
If you don't spin it you're not trying hard enough as I was told
Just re-read the whole post regarding fuel economy, out of curiosity I reset the average fuel consumption before I did fast timed lap and checked it afterwards.
The below picture was the result, but the smiles it brought can't be measured.

 

[Fishy Dave]

With Clive still stuck in New York, my recently purchased, £1600, 150,000 mile BMW 330i was pressed into service. I fitted new EBC blue stuff brakes, wheels and Yokohama V107 tyres the day before the event. I'll post a video at some stage, but I was pleased I got into the 1:13's.

Andy kindly offered me a drive in his glorious C3, with a warning that the rears were locking up, something he'd demonstrated a number of times during the day. On the upside, all the gears were working, so on the very last run I hopped in and this is the result:

What an excellent way to finish something the club started back in 2019. Mark, Andy and myself all felt we wanted a way of encouraging Corvette Club owners to experience the handling and braking limits of these wonderful sports cars, in a safe environment. Tens of different members have come along to these handling days since then, some tried it once, others have become regulars, all have learned something about themselves or their cars.
For me, I have felt a real joy at seeing those lap times tumble, knowing that this also means our members are getting more skilful at handling their cars. We have also demonstrated to other drivers at these events that Corvette's really can go round corners!

 

[CaptainK]

In hindsight Dave, I REALLY should have given you the keys to my little 327 C3 to see how quickly you could get a mostly standard 1968 C3 base model 327 around the track. Didn't cross my mind at the time, and again with hindsight would have given myself a break from the tons of driving I had to do that day.

 

[Steven Smith]

In hindsight Dave, I REALLY should have given you the keys to my little 327 C3 to see how quickly you could get a mostly standard 1968 C3 base model 327 around the track. Didn't cross my mind at the time, and again with hindsight would have given myself a break from the tons of driving I had to do that day.

I thought the same thing afterwards, Dave should have set a time in our cars so we have something to aim for

 

[Fishy Dave]

Thanks guys, it would have been my pleasure, but we didn't have that many timed runs, so it would have been a shame to have taken one of yours away.

 

[CaptainK]

Here you go, you've seen Dave driving properly in Andy's C3, now watch novice me driving my 1968 C3 around the same track. Even though its a HD video, it seems to be a bit blurry on Youtube. Hey hum. Oh and apologies for the funny camera angles - the camera kept pivoting on the hanger attached to the windscreen.

 

[teamzr1]

Nice to see you guys have a "blow out the carbon" day !
Be nice if you had a longer test track though

Let's Go Fast, Boys !

 

[Forrest Gump]

Here you go, you've seen Dave driving properly in Andy's C3, now watch novice me driving my 1968 C3 around the same track. Even though its a HD video, it seems to be a bit blurry on Youtube. Hey hum. Oh and apologies for the funny camera angles - the camera kept pivoting on the hanger attached to the windscreen.

You did well Kieran. In car footage never captures the drama as it actually is in the car - the acceleration, braking and cornering forces (and also the bumps that really throw you around). The open nature of the track also belies the speed that we’re travelling at a lot of the time.

 

[Invetterate]

Another absolute belter of a day! In fact, a red letter day as Manish got FTD and finally got a Corvette ahead of that pesky Golf R [which is much better suited to that type of track], Andy had more arm twirling than a cheerleader, some real burn-out starts and the best spin yet, Kieran finally brought his Corvette and had a blast, Steve got to open his C4 up properly for the first time [and with straight-through exhausts, it sounded epic], David got to show us how to do it properly [again] and really enjoyed trying to control Andy's 383ci rocket [which developed a tendency to lock the rears with little effort] and Dean and I were locked in a C5 battle [and beat some Caterfields too!]

Whilst it is a great shame we won't be able to do this again, I have some absolutely fantastic memories from here and have enjoyed friendships on another level as a result. I have also learnt so much and even managed to get some power-on oppo going [not as good as David, of course!] but I was pleased.

Thanks to those members who have joined us over the years and who have found out just how good these cars are, whatever their age.

Maybe another venue will come to light although we might need to consider going up the scale a bit.

Snetterton anyone?!

 

[teamzr1]

Another absolute belter of a day! In fact, a red letter day as Manish got FTD and finally got a Corvette ahead of that pesky Golf R [which is much better suited to that type of track], Andy had more arm twirling than a cheerleader, some real burn-out starts and the best spin yet, Kieran finally brought his Corvette and had a blast, Steve got to open his C4 up properly for the first time [and with straight-through exhausts, it sounded epic], David got to show us how to do it properly [again] and really enjoyed trying to control Andy's 383ci rocket [which developed a tendency to lock the rears with little effort] and Dean and I were locked in a C5 battle [and beat some Caterfields too!]

Whilst it is a great shame we won't be able to do this again, I have some absolutely fantastic memories from here and have enjoyed friendships on another level as a result. I have also learnt so much and even managed to get some power-on oppo going [not as good as David, of course!] but I was pleased.

Thanks to those members who have joined us over the years and who have found out just how good these cars are, whatever their age.

Maybe another venue will come to light although we might need to consider going up the scale a bit.

Snetterton anyone?!

So Dave were you a good teammate and bounced the rev limiter at least a few times ?



I do cheat a bit with my 99 C5

.

 

[Invetterate]

So Dave were you a good teammate and bounced the rev limiter at least a few times ?

View attachment 31213

I do cheat a bit with my 99 C5

.View attachment 31214

Hi JR,

I didn't know the LS1 would rev that high! Obviously yours is cammed etc for that, but it is very impressive.

Yes - I had WOT red line changes going on! Might be a short circuit, but it gets your attention! I was approaching the 360 deg turn at over 90mph. Uses a lot of fuel but I save money on laxitives....

Cheers

Mark

 

[Roscobbc]

Capt K may 'dis' the power output of his 327 powered car........but he seemed to be doing quite well on that video - sounds nice too! - well done.

 

[teamzr1]

Hi JR,

I didn't know the LS1 would rev that high! Obviously yours is cammed etc for that, but it is very impressive.

Yes - I had WOT red line changes going on! Might be a short circuit, but it gets your attention! I was approaching the 360 deg turn at over 90mph. Uses a lot of fuel but I save money on laxitives....

Cheers

Mark

Hi Dave
When I did the heads for my C5, I went with roller rockers at 1.8 ratio
and duel Beehive valve springs

 

[CaptainK]

Capt K may 'dis' the power output of his 327 powered car........but he seemed to be doing quite well on that video - sounds nice too! - well done.

Its only because its in our nature to want more power..... and I just want it to be the "300hp" its labelled as. Granted that was "gross hp" back then, but meh, you know what I mean.
In reality, my 327 is plenty enough for me. Certainly quick enough for me, and gets around the track fine and revs up nicely etc.

And Andy, yes, the footage really doesn't show the drama - it was MUCH louder in the car than the footage implies, and the track surface there isn't that great. So you bounce and skip around a bit and you're trying to keep it straight when you've got WOT, etc.

But yes, it was nice to find the car was very well planted and given a few more laps and confidence, I think I could knock a fair few more second off my time.

 

[Roscobbc]

Just remember Capt.....the 327 engine was THE engine of choice for many years as an almost infinitely tuneable powerplant and will make-up for some of that torque loss that a smaller capacity engine can have by being a potential short stroke 'rev-box'.