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So where were all the Octavia's?
It was only me and David flying the Skoda/Octavia flag
(I'll post a few photos later tonight)
On arrival I was hugely disappointed,
I took my semi slicks down in the back of the wagon
but I had forgotten my hub centric rings for these wheels
So I had to run with my road tyres which is an ugly proposition
My first track session confirmed my fears,
mushy turn in and lots of tyres noise
It really took the edge off the car performance for me
I've never been on the Wakefield track before
The end of the main straight is very busy
I was arriving at the kink doing ~175kmph
The braking area did not seem to have a lot of grip
The ABS was working pretty hard
A lot of people were getting the car out of shape,
leaning on the left front and locking the rears
For most of the day I was consistently slowing down too much here,
It was not until the last two sessions that I took turn 1 faster and used more corner exit road
The infield left turn was a beggar for me all day, always arriving too fast
It was a bug bearer for a Grey VR6 who was sliding the rear pretty much every lap
(He fell off the track at this corner and the hairpin)
At the hairpin onto the straight,
I didn't attack the braking zone but I consistently turned in too fast,
Car and tyres not happy with me, slow onto the straight
Overall, I was not on my game
The car can definitely do better times (on road tyres) with better thinking & driving
The semi slicks would have aided confidence and enjoyment while knocking another two seconds off the time
My best lap was 1:16.65
David (Diesel) did a respectable 1:19.2 (142km peek speed)
I ran wide onto the ripple strip and was really impressed with the performance of my Eibach/Bilstien shocks
They followed the ripple contour and made a lot of tyre noise but it was not transmitted into the car
The last session of the day was a mixed bag of entrants all grabbing more lap time & fun:
Guy driving the APR VW Golf R came up on me very fast,
I ran wide (off line) into a corner and used my indicator to tell him to take me on the left (racing line)
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he shot past and disappeared into the distance - he clocked 1:08!
At the flat out right hand infield turn prior to the hairpin,
I was overtaken by Rudi in a massively modified VW Bettle running full slicks and doing 1:07.5 times
He turned in, clipped the apex with the right front, then pushed the throttle to induce a 4 wheel drift all the way out to the edge of the track
It was a great driving display, hat's off to him!
It was only me and David flying the Skoda/Octavia flag
(I'll post a few photos later tonight)
On arrival I was hugely disappointed,
I took my semi slicks down in the back of the wagon
but I had forgotten my hub centric rings for these wheels
So I had to run with my road tyres which is an ugly proposition
My first track session confirmed my fears,
mushy turn in and lots of tyres noise
It really took the edge off the car performance for me
I've never been on the Wakefield track before
The end of the main straight is very busy
I was arriving at the kink doing ~175kmph
The braking area did not seem to have a lot of grip
The ABS was working pretty hard
A lot of people were getting the car out of shape,
leaning on the left front and locking the rears
For most of the day I was consistently slowing down too much here,
It was not until the last two sessions that I took turn 1 faster and used more corner exit road
The infield left turn was a beggar for me all day, always arriving too fast
It was a bug bearer for a Grey VR6 who was sliding the rear pretty much every lap
(He fell off the track at this corner and the hairpin)
At the hairpin onto the straight,
I didn't attack the braking zone but I consistently turned in too fast,
Car and tyres not happy with me, slow onto the straight
Overall, I was not on my game
The car can definitely do better times (on road tyres) with better thinking & driving
The semi slicks would have aided confidence and enjoyment while knocking another two seconds off the time
My best lap was 1:16.65
David (Diesel) did a respectable 1:19.2 (142km peek speed)
I ran wide onto the ripple strip and was really impressed with the performance of my Eibach/Bilstien shocks
They followed the ripple contour and made a lot of tyre noise but it was not transmitted into the car
The last session of the day was a mixed bag of entrants all grabbing more lap time & fun:
Guy driving the APR VW Golf R came up on me very fast,
I ran wide (off line) into a corner and used my indicator to tell him to take me on the left (racing line)
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he shot past and disappeared into the distance - he clocked 1:08!
At the flat out right hand infield turn prior to the hairpin,
I was overtaken by Rudi in a massively modified VW Bettle running full slicks and doing 1:07.5 times
He turned in, clipped the apex with the right front, then pushed the throttle to induce a 4 wheel drift all the way out to the edge of the track
It was a great driving display, hat's off to him!
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