So the car survived, without any real issues
Was a little apprehensive when I arrived yesterday morning, given that most cars seemed to have been trailered there on the back of a work's van - The lad next to me seemed genuinely amazed that I was willing to "put something as nice as that on the track with us!" (
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Briefing lasted under 10 minutes, and was rather different to anything I've had from LoT / KH ("Now lads - No sneaking your mates out in the back seat"..."Remember and keep your helmet on at all times when you're on track"..."Tie wraps aren't suitable towing eyes"..."If you continually overtake on the right into / through corners, we might sin bin you for 15 minutes" etc
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Track itself is fun - Surface is decent, but a lot of kerbs are of the corrugated type, so best avoided in a road car. No real high speed bends, but it's technical enough to be enjoyable.
As for the traffic - People seemed a little less inclined to move off line for you, and expected you to 'pass' them almost race style. This led to gaggles of 5-6 cars all closely bunched, a couple of feet from each others bumpers. (I could picture tut in the midst of them!!
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Lots of overtaking either side - And I saw one contact incident, when an E36 M3 spun in front of a Toyota Starlet, which was so close he had nowhere to go and stoved in the BMW's rear 3/4 panel, tearing the front off the Starlet in the process.
Quite a lot of spinners (had a few spin in front of me) - And some very committed driving (people up on two wheels over the kerbs, BTCC-style)...Everyone seemed very friendly in the paddock though, and I had an enjoyable pax session with one of the local 'hands', who helped me work out some lines I was struggling with.
The Mini was decent enough - First FWD car I've ever driven on track, and RWD is definitely much more fun.
It will lift off oversteer with the stability control disengaged, but this also disengages the traction control which made the car melt the front tyres out of every corner on the power (worse with 'sport mode' engaged, which made the throttle almost too eager). The middle stability setting seemed most effective, till I'm more familiar with driving the car smoothly.
Brakes were mighty, but I think it's on the original 26k old pads, as they started to crack & disintegrate after some abuse. I cut my sessions accordingly, as I need to drive it back to Scotland on Sunday... Looking at Carbotechs, but might just stick with the OEM Brembo pads, as it's mainly going to be used on the road.
So in summary, it's a fun little track, if anyone ever gets the chance to drive it - There were a couple of Elises out in the morning, and two Exiges out in the afternoon, as well as a 996 GT3, so it's not a total shed fest / hot hatch day.
Power isn't the be all / end all out there - A Caterham R400 would be mighty around Mondello...
Hmmmm
Shoddy cameraphone vid (Excuse the cr*p lines, but you get the idea...
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Watch on YouTube
