A month ago I wrote that I had no idea how fast this car goes, because the speedometer is dead and past 120 your eyeballs shake too much to read anything. On Wednesday I found out: 146 km/h down the Killarney main straight, in a 2 decade old kit car, with my backside inches off the tar.
Let me be honest, I did not think the car would make it to lunch. After a month of preparation, countless laps of Killarney in a Caterham on Assetto Corsa, and Graham and the crew at SG Classics sorting exhaust manifold and heating issues only 2 days before, I was a menace in the sim and mostly praying in real life.
The first 2 laps were sighting laps behind the instructor, all very civilised. Then they let me go, and civilised went out the window. You come out of the last corner and plant your foot, the Kent motor screams, the exhaust crackles, and Table Mountain is coming at you over the nose with nothing but wind and noise around you. I was laughing like an idiot in my helmet.
I did 15 hot laps with a best of 1:58.34, and the temperature gauge did not even flinch. The scary part is that I was nowhere near the limit of what this car can do, and the car was bored long before I was.
On the road a Seven is a toy, but on a track it is an absolute spectacle. It weighs so little that you barely touch the brakes, and with a bit of throttle through the corners it grips like it is glued to the tar. No power steering, no electronics, every bump straight through your backside. When you get it right it is the best feeling in the world. When you get it wrong, it bites: I locked up the rears more than once, and the front end wobbled every time I shifted my weight mid-corner.
A massive shout out to Jaco, who turned a track day into race day. The bonnet was off before I had even stopped, and between stints he literally had the carbs apart, like a 1 man F1 pit crew.
I drove home smelling of petrol and grinning so hard my face hurt. It felt like a once in a lifetime experience, and the crazy part is that I get to do it all again next month.