Following Niges' request I thought I would provide a short post following my track day at Goodwood yesterday.
I went for the half day PM session as I wanted to only do a half day due to the cost and wear-and-tear on the car. It was to be a shakedown test for 'Project Ring' to see how the current set-up worked on a high speed circuit. Project Ring as some on you may know is an E46 M3. When I get a chance I will post details of the work undertaken so far on the projects thread.
The Goodwood trackdays are very well organised and it's a fantastic feeling to drive on such a historic circuit. The only concern is the very small grass run-offs - and any 'off' is likely to cause some serious damage (unless of course you're a highly skilled driver and can stay in control on the green stuff only taking out a pit-board sign.....)
There was quite a mix of cars there - and I counted about 23. It was a 105dB day and so they only allow 5 cars out on the circuit at a time. So the track was very quiet. Cars included an S3, a couple of M3s, an Evo, a scoob, a couple of diesel BMWs, couple of 911s, a couple of Caterhams, Frazer Nash (I think), etc.
The cars were on track 5 at a time on 15 minute rotations. The issue with this is there is very limited track time and there is alot of hanging around...and it was really cold to be hanging around. I think it would be better to limit to 10 minutes to allow for quicker rotations. That said, when you're on circuit the 15 minutes goes bloody quickly.
Tim and Ron popped in and it was good to see them - thanks for coming down.
The car was fantastic and much better than I had anticipated as the only tack time so far in it has been in the wet. The first set of laps was pretty twitchy as a consequence of new 888s, and the throttle control had to be fairly gentle on the corners. Once the first set was out of the way and they'd gone through a heat cycle they felt much, much better. I was able to drive out round quicker than I have in on this circuit the scoob. Dave Hollamby (who some of you know) joined me as co-driver and had a really great session in his first go in the car. We didn't unfortunately time the laps. Tim and Ron - did you time any of the early laps?
Maintaining speed and momentum is massively important for quick times at Goodwood and next time I'll definately be braking much later as we had no fade from the AP track set up. Top speed was down Lavant at near to 140mph. This could have been faster if I'd had bigger ones....
I didn't really take any photos, but here's a couple. If you're thinking of doing a track day at Goodwood I'd recommend it. I'm not sure I'd fancy it in the wet though with RWD......
Hope the photos work..