driveGTi.com Victorian days details:

[STV4SYT]

Woohoo, i just booked in for superbike school on the 5th march. done a few ride days b4, but since i sold the bike its been a struggle. golf helps but can never replace.

[Peter Jones]

Well, I managed not to make too big a fool of myself. The car and I survived the experience.

Damn those MK Vs are fast! Mind you the MK 1 pulled up in similar distances during the braking runs.

The sway bars served me well in the slaloms and through the corners, I would have been all over the shop without them.

The full track runs were exhausting but awesome fun. For this level of course we were sent out with about 30 seconds between cars. I never managed to catch the car in front, but the car behind me never caught me either. There is no way I could keep up with the straight line speeds of the R32s, GTIs, TT, RS4 or indeed any car out there but I pushed on through those bends a little harder than some.

The motor didn't skip a beat, The box in this car is really tall so I didn't often get out of third gear which was seeing me out to a max of about 90MpH. I had more legs but they'd shortened the straights and I ran out of wind up space.

The brakes were probably the weakest point. GTI Discs up front and std drums on the rear. I don't think the rears were doing anything at all. I checked a few times and they were stone cold. I did however find all the smoke that's built into the front brake pads and had to do a slow lap every now and then to cool them down.

The brake fluid looks cloudy now, I'll flush the system tomorrow.

All in all an awesome day out, I'm going to sign up for the level 4 course in May.

In the meantime I think I'd better do some work on the brakes and maybe invest in some new tyres.

I'm exhausted now though, I reckon those drivers with power steering, traction control and ABS have got it too easy.

More power would be nice but power = speed and the brakes aren't up to it yet. Specifically I'm going to need to find some more torque this motor revs hard but doesn't pull well. I was changing gears when the tacho needle hit FULL on the fuel gauge which is a tad over 7000RPM. Maybe I need a bigger scaled tacho!

Love the sound of those R32s!

Mistakes? Yep lots of 'em!

Under steer? - Check
Over steer? - Check
Witches hats? - 3 wounded, one hostage - that one had to pulled out from under the car.
Too fast? - Check
Too slow? - in abundance!
Overheated brakes? - Yep there's no smoke left in 'em now!
Airborne? - The odd wheel lift now and then.
Hitting the wrong pedal? - Yep
Silly Grin? - Guilty

If it's true that we learn by our mistakes I must be some sort of genius now.

I did manage to stay out of the garden and not take out any roadside furniture which is always a bonus.

Of course If I was a perfect driver I wouldn't need to go on the course in the first place.!

I reckon driver training is too overlooked in tuning a car. This is money far better spent than on some of the stupid gadgets we love to stick on our cars.


Enough rambling for now.

Pete

[Jarred]

hahahah lol (literally) good to see you had fun and the ebay special was up to the challenge! I think you need to get a sticker, or nick name your car the ebay special in a more permament manor!

It will be interesting to see how much difference the mkIII booster makes, and maybe some grittier pads.

Glad to hear you had a ball though. I'd love to do it myself, bu I'm afriad my car would fall apart!!