Took the Golf (Mk 3 16v) to Colerne Airfield day last monday and it rained most of the day.
The track was soaking with standing water in a lot of places, they shut off the main straights for most of the day due to standing water and the need to reduce speeds a bit.
Made a nice change to be able to beat the big HP rear wheel drive cars around the circuit, they just couldn't get the power down. Most of the hot hatches were still belting around, big benefits for front wheel drive in those conditions.
The Golf performed admirably all day, 13 sessions completed and two spin outs. The car was wheelspinning in second out of the tight corners so perhaps need to think about some more negative camber on the front, also getting some wheelspin going up into third on the straights due to the massive amounts of water.
The best fun on the circuit was a lazy left hander taken about 60 in third, running wide on the exit under full acceleration and then hitting the water running across the track. You could feel all 4 wheels give up grip sliding sideways with the front wheels spinning and then you would gain traction and lurch forward with the back end twitching. Slightly unsettling the first few times but it became addictive for the rest of the day.
The back end on the Golf seems to be very unpredictable, you can get it to twitch out of the corners but once it lets go you are just a passenger, nothing progressive in it at all.
The exhaust rubbers have stretched again so had to put up with the exhaust knocking on the tight corners, they've lasted about 10 trackdays so not too bad.
Off to Abingdon in December for the last trackday of this year so will get the new exhaust rubbers put on and adjust the front camber.
Cheers
Paul
