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Spent a couple of brilliant hours at Calder for the GTI track day today.
No skid pan so they had wet up a corner for us using a water truck.
Procedure was drive up to a start line just before corner, stop, then flatten it and try to keep it flat all the way around the corner.
First time did it in a Mk 5 and amazing how quickly the understeer started and how severe it was. Then had 3 shots in a Mk 6. Huge difference and was actually getting a bit of oversteer happening. Great way to highlight one of the significant performance differences between Mk5 and Mk6.
Then over to shortened Calder circuit for some laps in the car. Got the speedo up around 170 at the end of the straight. Brakes were sensational and control through corners was even better than I expected.
Unlike some drive days, faster drivers were allowed to overtake the more cautious and so we were able to go hard for all the laps. Was over way too soon.
Lastly we piled into the car for a seriously fast lap. These guys demonstrated how lame the guest were.
The professional drivers with us were all top level drivers. I had James Brock for the understeer exercise and he was excellent. Other drivers included Scott Pye and Luke Youlden.
I am pretty keen to do a track day in my own car after this. Despite a lot of people bagging the GTI as a track car I thought it went really well. Don't have much to compare it against as I have only ever driven Formula Ford and gocarts on a track before.
No skid pan so they had wet up a corner for us using a water truck.
Procedure was drive up to a start line just before corner, stop, then flatten it and try to keep it flat all the way around the corner.
First time did it in a Mk 5 and amazing how quickly the understeer started and how severe it was. Then had 3 shots in a Mk 6. Huge difference and was actually getting a bit of oversteer happening. Great way to highlight one of the significant performance differences between Mk5 and Mk6.
Then over to shortened Calder circuit for some laps in the car. Got the speedo up around 170 at the end of the straight. Brakes were sensational and control through corners was even better than I expected.
Unlike some drive days, faster drivers were allowed to overtake the more cautious and so we were able to go hard for all the laps. Was over way too soon.
Lastly we piled into the car for a seriously fast lap. These guys demonstrated how lame the guest were.
The professional drivers with us were all top level drivers. I had James Brock for the understeer exercise and he was excellent. Other drivers included Scott Pye and Luke Youlden.
I am pretty keen to do a track day in my own car after this. Despite a lot of people bagging the GTI as a track car I thought it went really well. Don't have much to compare it against as I have only ever driven Formula Ford and gocarts on a track before.
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