woohoo! ...did my first trackday

[smarjoram]

What an amazing experience - if you haven't already, you should try it.

I went with a few friends to the Llandow circuit in Wales. It's only small - a mile long - and on the day we went it was blowing a gale and the rain was coming down pretty heavily. Still, it made us a bit more careful and I'm pretty sure we learnt much more about the handling characteristics of our cars than if it had been dry. The other good thing was that we had the whole place to ourselves.

There was a racing driver on hand who came along as a passenger, and drove my car too. He'd tell us what gear we ought to be in and where we should be on the track. He also made my day by saying how well my car drove - he really enjoyed it.

The thing that surprised me was how well the car handled in the wet ("watch out for porsches in the wet" was nagging my mind before we started) but at no time did it catch me unawares. Sure, I slid a lot (the tyres bear witness to that) but I could always feel it coming on gradually. One fast corner was perfect for controlled drifting and by the end of the day I was using the throttle to deliberately get the back out and counter the understeer under acceleration. What a blast.

My friends had fun too - one had a Lotus Elise and another a Mitsubishi Evo 6. THe person who organised it was testing his rallycross car - a Ford escort with over 600bhp. It's in the guinness book of record for accelerating from 0-60 in 1.89 seconds. He didn't do much driving though - the slicks weren't ideal : ) The Evo was stunning - the grip is phenomenal - but it was the only car that spun. I put it down to the driver being able to drive wherever he wanted and therefore ending up in tricky places off the racing line sometimes.

Things that would have helped are...
stiffer suspension
a bucket seat (I had a bruised knee from wedging myself against the door in the twisty bits)
a lsd would probably have helped a bit in the conditions

[Jocke]

Bee careful it's very addictive...

I been testing it to for a couple of times and the 11's must be the funniest car to go around tracks with, i think that every time i push my car a bit i learn something new..

The one's who organised this thing for you probably knows my friend, he has a ford Escort with 734,5 bhp. "it's a small world.."

/Jocke

[Jim Richards]

Sounds like you had a great time. This track stuff sure is addictive. I just did my first Driver's Ed last month and had a blast. First on my list are some safety items...fire extinguisher, roll bar, etc.), and I need to learn how to heel & toe downshift.

[Deeks]

Sounds like you had a ball !!
Out of curiosity, how did your friend's Elise compare to your 911 in the conditions ?? I imagine they'd be pretty similar ???

[smarjoram]

Jocke - he probably does know him - Sweden's one of the few places where he can race his car without weight penalties and so on.

Deeks - I think we were all fairly close speed-wise. The 4WD Evo was probably quickest and the Elise was slightly quicker than me round the many sharp corners. If it was a longer circuit I maybe would have had more of an advantage (top speed was about 100mph on the two straights). Here's a plan of the circuit...

http://www.llandow.com/circuit.html