Bedford Track RS Evening..
South west Circuit - 2.8miles..
after a nice sensible 10min safety briefing (take note snetterton not the half hour of rambling experienced at your track) we headed across to the garages to make our way for a couple of sighting laps.... ive driven this track before but in two halfs when i completed in the plamer sport porsche and single seater evening event (well recommended) but they had joined the two tracks together and that makes the south west circuits..
there were about 30 cars of all various RS versions, a nice mix. plus some retro cars RS had brought along in addition to the latest rs cars to try for 15min sesions (free!!!)
the event was really well organized, with freindly chatty rs sport and motorsport vision guys, along with free tea/coffee & cold drinks...
no looney muppet drivers, or boy races in stripped out BMW driving beyond their capability....
The first shakedown was at snetterton in a wet/damp situation, where the car was a little lively to say the least... as some pointed out o should have disconnected the rear ARB for way less lift off uncontrollable oversteer
no issues with that here though sunny and warm, a few rain clouds all around but missed us completely bar the odd few spots at one point..
mods since last time are the instalation of roll bar, seats, harness, plus full strip out..
car performed faultless, brakes didnt cook, tyres TR1 didnt melt although was limiting to 15min on off sessions..
top speed was 118 (speedo rear) down the back straight standard 172 with no mods yet to anything at all.. with a self imposed redline of 6200..
after first session i checked the tyres and they were about 40PSI!!!! so we dropped the air out to 32...
the handling of the clio is just EPIC, its so much fun.. through the fast corners with tremendous change of direction... the track has some amazing sequences which excite & thrill.. see below.
the clio builds up confidence the faster you go, a dab on the brakes and turn into the faster corners, the car squirms feels on the edge, drifts, but always pulls through,,, the new seats belts add to the thrill keeping you in check inspiring confidence to go faster.. through the corners..
i dont think you actually realise just how much energy you have to put in to keeping yourself in the standard seats & belts when corning hard on track.. racing seats, harness & steering wheels just add to the touring car feel...
i do think that i may need to stiffen / lower the car as a future mod... but i will have to take a ride in a car already on trick suspension, as at this stage the car is so much fun to drive , i wouldnt want to make it sterile..
no oil used, tyres look great with the obvious rubber track use look.
Track and my lap review.. (see pic) Im no racing driver but we all like to think we are
into the first corner with hard brake at at the 100-75m mark, too fast and you will run out of corner on the exist, acellerate to through west two, lift off and throw it into west three scrub off some speed into west 4... get this right you get a great exit from 4, come into three to fast and you compromise the exit line... flat out through 5 & 6 lovely sweeping g force pulling corners, lots of lines and nice high speed direction changes...
pick a braking point into 7, for quick left right, easy to run on in the first part.. blast up to west 8, stay to the right much longer than you think turn in by or past cone (turn in cone position feels unnatural)and then accelerate out, this is definitely the fastest line. obviously you couldnt do this if you were racing as your competitor would sling it up the inside i would imagine. the difference between the this tight in and accelerate out, against my own just sweep it round the corner in a big arc was a whopping 10mph at the end of the straight!!!
down the straight, plenty of time to big your self up for a late brake for the best sequence of corners on the track..
hit the brakes hard, the car squirms left to right off the brakes, pick the line , turn, turn, accelerate, move over to the right and through south three..
this was soooooo much fun, on the edge of adhesion, high g load, this is where bucket seats and harneses, just give you the proper support you need. you dont have much time to control your grin/laughter, shouting before south 4... easy to scare yourself here after the epic previous bends, found myself way to hot on several occasions, but actually the car just took it.. so lots more time to be found.. south 5 has a nice small dipp in the apex which kind pulls the car into the tarmac, gives a terrific scrub, slight bounce feeling when on it.. photographer was on the outside here... needless to say tried special hard and cocked it up completely. lots of tyre noise, and over shot the exit by an embarrassing amount... (tarmac run off here
))))
hoon along the straight before a what feels like a tightening right.. you need a good exit here to accelerate up to west 12, did get this flat out on the last few laps, heart in mouth, for sure, along the short straight and hard on the brakes into turn 1 again.... EPIC
