Hi All
Last week I took my Golf for its first Track Day at Snetterton and I thought I would post a few thoughts and Pics.
I was also there with my Old Man with his Nissan 350z and drove the two cars back to back.
It was a dry day and about 20 degrees (should be good fun but not for the tyres) I was very impressed with the Golf it was very quick in fact a bit quicker than the 350z down the straights and was more than a match for it in the bends as well, it had good traction out of the tight corners and the ESP wasn’t intrusive at all, I thought it would be better than the 350z until I drove it.
What I found when I drove the 350z is that it highlighted a few shortcomings on the Golf and they were.
1. Brakes I had much more confidence on the brakes (brembo) on the Nissan the felt more stable and let me brake a lot latter.
2. Body Roll You could really tell the difference between a low two seater and a high hatchback the Golf rolled a lot more, the tyres screeched for there life but they were silent on the Nissan, and the tyres also started to melt on the nearside on the Golf (snetterton High speed corners are all right handers).
3. Fuel economy believe it or not the 350z was better on fuel but only a small margin Golf 10mpg Nissan 11.5mpg.
Saying all this though I didn’t find it anymore fun in the 350z but it is just more accomplished on the track but at least I could take more people to the track.
The one point that was better in the Golf was throttle response the Golf came out of the corners a lot faster where as you really had to wind the 350 up.
Thanks for reading this also has anyone else done a track day in the Mk5
Cheers
Simon
