Well, the weather at Castle Combe on Saturday duly obliged - the forecast was for continuous heavy rain for the morning, giving way to blustery showers and then gale force winds.

The day was organised by the National Blind Children's Society and the Stroke Association - the idea being that a few of the great and good from the world of motor sport bring a few interesting toys along and drive members of the public around in return for a donation to the charities. Heading up the drivers was John Surtees, who very wisely given the conditions had picked a BMW 540 for the day.

Anyway, I arrived at the circuit about 9:30 having picked my way through heaps of wet leaves and the occasional small branch on the lanes that approach the circuit and signed on. There were only two other Loti present, both Elises; another silver one which disappeared early on and a yellow one driven by Simon Taylor which transpired to be the Autosport Magazine long term test car that he had borrowed for the day.

The track opened at 10:00 and the organisers let us out for a few familiarisation laps and, yes, I needed them. First problem was that the brakes didn't work - they seemed to have cooled/saturated nicely in the wet and cold and weren't biting at all for the first third or so of the braking zone; the second problem was that there was a lot of standing water on the circuit to splash through, especially on the exit of Quarry and Tower bends and the third problem was that I had never driven the car in conditions as bad as these, even on the road so I had no idea how it would react when we ran out of grip.

Castle Combe is a pretty straightforward circuit - it's the perimeter track of an old airfield and is almost a triangle with kinks in two sides. From the pit lane exit the track goes gently downhill through a flat out right hander and then climbs up towards Avon Rise, You turn slightly left, brake before the blind crest, release the brake pedal as the weight comes off the wheels, then brake hard again and turn immediately 270 degree right through Quarry, trying not to run too wide on the exit - there are no gravel traps at Castle Combe and in most places the tyre walls are horribly close to the edge of the track. Flat out through Farm straight, brake but don't change down for the easy right through Old Paddock and sweep left through Hammerdown before going hard on the brakes again for the 110 degree late apex right that is Tower. Hard on the power again, very gentle right though West Way, but still accelerating all the way to Camp, where the brakes again come in very useful, but not too hard as it's not quite a 90 degree right, use all the width again on the exit as you pass the pits and then go round again. With only three proper corners in 1.84 miles you might guess that on a good day it's very fast here - the Elise runs out of puff but a quick car will supposedly see 150mph into Quarry. Scary!

Anyway, five laps accomplished without incident and it's time for the public to arrive - I take two people round, neither of whom have been in an Elise before and both say they're impressed with the handling - I emphasise that my car is completely standard except for the uprated clutch footrest. It's still raining hard and I deliberately hold the speed back to 80mph max. to avoid any unfortunate instances. Visibility is getting worse as well, especially when Mr Surtees goes past and we end up following a big cloud of spray with a red foglight in the middle. I try braking for longer and going slowly into the big bends then accelerating harder to see what will happen... surprise, bit of understeer but otherwise no dramas.

Decide to do another familiarisation session without passengers and push it a bit further... try & remember where the big puddles are forming as the Elise really seems to feel them - I get one rear wheel in the wet exiting Tower and the fell the revs rise with no increase in speed before the grip comes back - stays on-line though. The car seems to benefit from careful timing of the off-brake and turn-in or else we just get loads of understeer and have to back off and wait for front end traction, but it's all nice and predictable.

I come in and am nabbed by the organisers - apparently Simon's Elise doesn't seem to have any gears and he doesn't know anything about it.. can I help? I go and meet Simon - he explains the car is stuck in a gear, probably 4th and the gearstick feels disconnected from anything else. We go & find some shelter and pull off the moulding at the base of the gear lever, but all seems well. You can't see any of the engine end without getting under the car and removing the undertrays, so we adjourn to Circuit Motors adjacent to the track and beg use of one of their full lift ramps and some tools. We drop the rear tray and it all becomes obvious - the roll pin that fastens the linkage to the gearbox selector has worked itself loose, but fortunately is still present, so we poke it back in, secure with a cable tie to prevent re-occurrence and put it all back together. Success!

Back to the track and time for one more outing before lunch. The rain has continued to fall and there is now a lake at the exit of Quarry - the new line seems to be to turn in very square and aim to go straight through the water, otherwise I just get even more understeer. Watching other cars go through in the rear view mirror is spectacular. There is now a big puddle alongside the pits as well, so keep back from the edge here.

Adjourn for lunch, bought by Simon as thanks for helping with the car. We have an interesting chat about old racers, especially David Purley, and compare notes with one of the Chatham Healey 3000 drivers - his car is sliding everywhere as you might guess and apparently leaks much worse than the Elise.

Back out after lunch and amazingly the rain stops for half an hour or so and a dry (drier?) line starts to emerge. I push the entry speed into Camp up gradually, but stop at 90mph when we get a bit of a fishtail on halfway round - not a day for heroes. Highight of this run was missing the pit lane entrance - I slowed down gradually to what I thought was a reasonable speed but when I tried to turn in nothing happened. Whoops. Go round again and brake a bit harder this time...

Unfortunately during the rain then descended again with vengeance, and after a couple more trips the red lights came on. The field adjacent to the approach to Avon Rise had flooded across the track. I'd been adjusting line and speed to compensate but the pool of water had now become a river with a noticeable current pushing the car to one side as you go through, and the organisers had decided caution was in order and called it a day.

Strangely enough, although I was now very wet and the car had about half a pint of water slopping around in the bottom, I drove back to my hotel with a big smile on my face - I think I can now say I've learnt something about how the Elise handles in the wet,and hopefully my driving will be better for it.

Postscript : I drove home on Sunday with the roof down and blue skies everywhere. England!

1999 Update

Back to Castle Combe with Club Lotus. This day is an excellent first introduction to track driving, and as Combe was the first circuit I ever drove, (in an MGB with the Austin Healey Owners Club in 1991... two spins and one big end bearing!) I always like going back as a sort of benchmarking exercise. It's always oversubscribed and track time is limited to two guaranteed sessions but it's a nice day out.

The circuit has gained two bends over the winter, one after Quarry called 'The Esses' and another after Tower called 'Bobbies'. Both are right-left type chicanes, with tight entries and flowing exits and I like them! They make the circuit a bit more Elise friendly by breaking up two of Combes huge straights which tended to favour very powerful cars. Bobbies especially is very tight on entry and cars that can start putting power down early without pushing themselves off line do quite well.

I started the day by scrouging a passenger ride with another Elise driver named James who kindly took me round for a spot of reconnaisance. We had been warned that the entries to the new bends were difficult to see, and I agree. The old circuit is still there, blocked by a staggered barrier and it tends to draw the eye - you have to anticipate the turn ins are or risk going straight on.

My first go (with James as passenger, returning the favour) went reasonably well - I started at the back of my group of 6 and managed to work my way to the front in the allotted 5 laps, including lapping a very slow Lotus Carlton. Tried a few lines through the new bends. The Esses is comparitively open, so you can go in quite fast, clip the apex kerb and straighten it as much as possible. Let the car run wide on the exit and the move back over to the left so as to make the next stretch through old paddock a single turn. Bobbies by contrast is much tighter and has a dip at the apex. Enter slowly and get the car lined up neatly before applying power or you will be on the grass at the exit, and be aware of the dip!

Second session after lunch I started behind a modern Caterham and in front of a V8 Esprit. We all had passengers, but I still caught the Caterham reasonably easily... he seemed to be turning in earlier than I was, and I was getting a better corner exit speed. However, I wasn't quick enough to get by and the V8 was by now up behind us both so we let him through, and shortly afterwards the Caterham driver let me by as well, and I was able to pull away from him. However,  a thunderstorm then intervened quite spectacularly, forcing everyone off the circuit and flooding the track and paddock to a depth of about 3 inches in 15 minutes. (see Vivian's site for pictures of the rain!)

The rain stopped play for about an hour, but I did manage to get out for one more wet session which I didn't enjoy much - my concentration was waning and I felt very apprehensive especially having watched a blue french registered elise spin off twice in one lap so I decided to call it a day.