Snetterton Shakedown 2

On 30th March we were at Snetterton in Norfolk again.  After passing my ARDS test in the morning (see previous post) we had more running on track. Mechanically the car ran well and reliably.

The day was an open pit lane event and there were really too many cars at the event. Track time was disrupted continuously by red flag incidents and lots of traffic.  Later in the afternoon we ran our race wheels and Toyo 888 tyres - however suffered some rubbing on the rear arches in hard cornering which will need more rolling and trimming of the inner wheel arches to fix.

Snetterton Shakedown

On Friday 24th Feb after a 5.30am wake-up we headed over to an open-pit lane trackday day at Snetterton for our shakedown test.

At the briefing meeting the organiser commented that the paddock resembled a race meeting rather than a track day due to the number and range of race cars participating. 

Everything from Ford Fiesta's to Britcar Ferrari's and Aston Martin's to Radical's were present and running on track together with an array of road cars.

 

After the mandatory sighting laps we got out on track and the car proved to be mechanically sound.  There were a lot of significantly faster cars on track so getting a clear set of laps wasn't possible until later in day.  Initially we had quite a lot of understeer which was reduced by lowering the front ride height and increasing the suspension stiffness.  We also dropped the tyre pressures consitently throughout the day.

 

Whilst still being reasonably slow compared to race times we did improve both car and driving ability significantly throughout the day.  Fuel usage was over 1 litre per lap over the approx 45 laps we completed.  A positive note was that the stopping power of the Brembo brakes and race pads was excellent.  We did manage to overheat the brakes at one point which will require a change of actual fluid and we will also upgrade to more expensive racing fluid at the same time.

Snetterton Track Day

Our 2nd track day was at the fast Snetterton circuit on Norfolk.  The car performed well achieving a max speed fo 120mph on the long straight and 60-70mph through the faster corners.

 

The car was evenly matched with some Lotus Elise's on track.  The Lotus's having better cornering handling, but the Porsche with superior power and braking.  

 

Track Day

Our first track day was at Brands Hatch, on the short but challenging Indy circuit.
The car performed and ran very well.  We did struggle with tyres and a little understeer in the corners, especially round Clark curve.  

The weather was great for the time of year.

Towards the end of the afternoon we were involved in an incident in the pit garage of all places!  A new FocusRS accidentally went into the back of the car and then pushed it into the pit wall. 

Both rear and front bumpers are damaged and the rear spoiler are even more distorted than before.

• The front tow-bar took the brunt of the impact against the wall and is pushed backwards into the bumper.
• The car still drives fine and we managed to get out for the last session of the day.

So after 5 weeks it's back to square-one, with another search for used replacement bumpers and a trip back to the the body shop.....