Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2018 7:32:09 GMT
The final part of our 25th anniversary was an hour's one-to-one tuition at Silverstone. Turned out to be interesting:
Organisation:
A little amateurish, if I am honest. No-one at the gate knew what was going on, and we ended up being shuffled around the circuit a fair amount. One guy clearly thought we were there for an ARDS exam, but it was resolved.
Instructors:
Very good. Helpful, personable and clearly knew what they were doing. Mrs 12th's was a guy called James Littlejohn, who has a fair pedigree it seems. I didn't get mine's full name, I'm afraid. Happy to praise, but also perfectly happy to tell you what you are doing wrong and how to address it.
The car:
We'd originally booked their Megane (www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/driving-tuition/1-1-driver-coaching/), but these have gone. So, we turned up at a completely sodden track to be told that we'd be enjoying M2s, with their short wheelbases, fairly weighty noses (as the instructor described them) and tail-happy reputation. Cue pause for thought. Pre-drive the track was red-flagged as someone had an off, and cones were set up to define a chicane at the start of Woodcote as there was bugger-all grip there.
Format:
Three stints, all of between 15 and 20 minutes with breaks of 2-3 to collect your thoughts. Not bad for £400, I think.
The car:
Interesting. More grip that I would have expected under the circumstances, and with positives and negatives, as you would expect. Drawing valid conclusions about a car from a track session, let alone an unusual one, is difficult - but here's my two penneth.
Good. It had a strong turn-in, provided you were on the throttle. Without that, it was quite a pronounced understeerer in these conditions. The engine was pretty gutsy, and didn't feel too heavily turbocharged in character. Steering gave enough information to know what the front was doing, and to help correct slides, of which there were a few. Brakes were strong and didn't seem to fade, but then braking heavily enough was the thing I made least progress with, I think. Gear change was not really noticeable, which means it was pretty good. I think it's where there are issues that you have something to say here. Rev matching function worked well on track, allowing you to forget H&T and concentrate on braking.
Not so good. Well, I don't think anything about it was bad, but there were things that could have been better. It rolled a little more than I was expecting, but then the loads were high even in the wet. I know some roll can help you feel the limits. The steering was pretty good, but if I am honest the degree of connection missing was greater than I would have expected. There's a slight rubberiness to the feel, and I had more confidence in my own car's wheel which sends back much more detail and doesn't feel slightly sticky in the same way. The engine was gutsy enough, but didn't feel quite a strong as I was expecting. Occasional hesitancy when coming back onto the throttle as the turbos spooled, though not too often. It felt a little crude in terms of soundtrack too. Don't get me wrong, it was way better than a turbo four, but the soundtrack was not especially refined or soulful, indeed the top end was a little hard on the ear. I'd have altered the relationship between the pedals a little too, but that's nit-picking.
The interior felt built down to budget though - leather not great and plastics even less so. Hardly crucial on track, but more of an issue if you were buying one.
How did I do?
The instructor said that he wasn't paid to blow smoke, but that he thought I'd progressed markedly more than it would have been reasonable to hope. And Mrs 12th was pretty quick, too. I only lapped her four times, and one of those was whilst she found her feet and was being held back by the instructor in the first few laps. I found it both massively enjoyable, but also a little frustrating with hindsight. Trying to learn a new car, a track and wet lines at the same time was more than I could cope with, at least whilst trying to get steadily quicker. So whilst I did get quicker, I'm not sure I really nailed it as I hoped. Wet lines feel decidedly counterintuitive to me, whereas I think I've got a pretty good idea about dry ones and that's where my mind kept steering me (no pun etc). But the instructors kept pushing us to brake later, and drive harder. that doesn't happen if you are completely incompetent.
One good thing for the ego, though. The only other cars on track were Ferrari and Aston 'experiences', which is something I've never really fancied. You seem to be rev-limited and are not encouraged to push too hard as the cars are so valuable. The Ferrari was 430 (I think - I was concentrating on other things) whereas the Astons were new Vantages. So we kept lapping the drivers of theoretically much faster cars. I think that this suggested to those who'd come to watch that we were rather more 'handy' than was actually the case...
