I was back to Streets of Willows with some colleagues of my company last Wednesday. This was a field trip of race school as reward for a successful 2003 :-)
Not bad, and after driving with their Toyota Celicas on the same track as 3 weeks ago with my Birkin I got a new appreciation of the performance of a Seven. The Toyotas were well prepared with full cages, stiffened chassis, race suspension, good tires, harnesses etc. But with the same power as my car has (about 160 hp) they were sooooo lame.
The heavy FWD understeer made them pretty easy to control in the turns (unlike my car) but I was shocked how easy it was to spin them by minimal braking when not driving dead ahead. Happened twice to me and I did not like the thought of going around a street corner and having to brake for a pedestrian with this car.
Otherwise, good instructors and I leaned some new tricks like J-turns forward and backward on the wet skid pad. One thing that really bothered me was my helmet bumping against the (cushioned) roll cage all the time. An open car has some real advantages.
Oh well, maybe that should better be in "idle talk". But if you ever have the opportunity to go to the track in a very different car it is highly recommended. A real eye-opener!
Gert
Not bad, and after driving with their Toyota Celicas on the same track as 3 weeks ago with my Birkin I got a new appreciation of the performance of a Seven. The Toyotas were well prepared with full cages, stiffened chassis, race suspension, good tires, harnesses etc. But with the same power as my car has (about 160 hp) they were sooooo lame.
The heavy FWD understeer made them pretty easy to control in the turns (unlike my car) but I was shocked how easy it was to spin them by minimal braking when not driving dead ahead. Happened twice to me and I did not like the thought of going around a street corner and having to brake for a pedestrian with this car.
Otherwise, good instructors and I leaned some new tricks like J-turns forward and backward on the wet skid pad. One thing that really bothered me was my helmet bumping against the (cushioned) roll cage all the time. An open car has some real advantages.
Oh well, maybe that should better be in "idle talk". But if you ever have the opportunity to go to the track in a very different car it is highly recommended. A real eye-opener!
Gert
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