F... f... f... frosty physics!

7

It looked nice out there, but the reality was something different for this Sunday mornings outing. It was showing + numbers for the air temperature and yet the frost layer would suggest otherwise, strange. The meet was on though, and with the Southern Kit Car Club making a traverse across two counties to sample the delights of Farnham station and then on to breakfast at Loomies, there was no way we couldn't be there...so survival clothes were donned and preparation for the challenge commenced.

Now, when I say frost layer, I mean a micron or two of invisible glass under the more obvious, but randomly placed, dusting of white, which you'd attempt to avoid. But this stuff was inconsistently laid down in a murderous minefield pattern of 'now you see me now you don't'. 

The fresh experience of  'drive with that roll of the dice, suckers!' caught out more than a few of the early learning Tin Top drivers.At least 5 of the players had scored low in the points before I'd even completed the 10 miles to the RV at 7.30am. It's not a good time of the day to be trying to extricate the broken bits of your Clio or Megane from the verge/hedge/fence that seemed to be the equivalent of the out of play area in this team event.

I haven't worked out why most participants on the losing side seemed to be female (just an observation!), I'm also not sure as to the meaning of the one armed semaphore flapping that goes with the post event debrief whilst on the mobile ;-?

Farnham station soon saw the arrival of the SKCC, some of them having been 'on the blat' since 6 am...(correction :5am!). Impressive considering the attrition rate already observed in my first 10 mile stretch.The report was that it was worse over our way, if that's not too disparaging just as we're planning to throw ourselves at it's mercy!

The deliberation time did allow for a moment or two of traction testing tho:

Time spent with a coffee at the station and a shuffle of i-Phones to download a 'find the local cafe' Ap revealed neither the location of a nearby sausage (wrong ap) nor a thawing in the Killer Ice Event Phenomenon. So the Blatference continued for a bit longer...standing around in cold car parks on a Sunday morning, I could feel the H1N1 virus molecules building a case against the defence.

     'Still a bit slippery isn't it?'

'Do you think the triple 8's will cope?'

'Have you found that Cafe Ap yet?'

'Are those CCTV cameras on?'

'Did you really come all that way without a hat?'

'Aahhtchoooo!'

The lure of breakfast had us back on the road and heading for the original breakfast stop, Loomies, a funereal pace being set as we searched for the main ingredient of car physics: traction.It allowed for time to take in the surroundings though:

• Cyclists on the dual carriageway, each in turn waiting for the other to pick his teeth out of the gutter whilst losing more core body heat through ever more holey spandex.
• Two Buzzards feeding on roadside matter, hardly flinching at the snail pace parade of idling 7's
• A sign offering Bulls for Sale.The boot sadly not big enough today.
• Chawton End: where Jane Austin lived and wrote some of her novels , wonder if she could hold a pen wearing gloves in these temperatures.
• A big old owl in a tree, more interested in thawing mice than slipping 7's.
• A Peugeot, frozen mid hurdle of a five bar gate, the driver:  sat pensive, perched alongside.
• A horse box on it's side, no horse kept inside.

Even in the sun the stuff persisted, the worst of it not visible at all.

But here's the thing, whilst all else on the road struggled to keep within the boundaries, the 7s remained predictable and collectable.Traction was minimal , further exacerbated by road/track tyres, but, breaking from sliding to static friction didn't unsettle the cars enough for the momentum not to be caught and controlled. At any time and at varying speed, the momentary loss of grip under acceleration or braking was instantly sensed and captured. Realisation that this balance and feedback was available at such a micro level in hugely unpredictable conditions, further emphasises the wide band capabilities of a car with the inherently right design qualities. No traction control, ALB, DSC etc to artificially broaden the car's dynamic user range, just proper physics designed-in from the start...unlike the 'improper' physics which the weather Gods had cooked up for the day!

Discussions over the well earned breakfast concurred on this, the main fear on the road being the barrelling metal coming in the other direction, of which we would have no control.

Empathy went out to the half dozen bikers who'd made it for breakfast, we were told that some of their number were to have a late breakfast at home, once the recovery truck had collected the big pieces from the pitch. No major injuries reported. Camaraderie of the shared challenge brought free discussion amongst the survivors of both camps. Like a winter mountain restaurant only accessible from a hazard strewn black run... and with another black run still being the only way down! Each new arrival spoke of their experience and incredulity at the unexpected conditions.I mean, you really wouldn't have ventured out on a sports bike if you were expecting those conditions surely??

So, with reference to the 'This can't be for real?' weather headline to the previous posting... no it wasn't, not in the way that most of the Sunrise collective on this particular morning were expecting!

However: we counted them out , and counted them all back in.... the slowest Blat in our history, but a success non the less.  

Cheers to Mark and the guys from the SKCC for giving us the incentive to get out there and test our resolve.Let's do it again when the roads are dry and the breakfasts are bigger ;-)         

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