We did a Castle Combe trackday last Friday with Motorsport-events in the Golf.
Finaly bit the bullet and had a lesson with Erling Jensen (twice British rallycross champion and winner of many saloon car races at Combe and other venues). It was a bit of an eye opener, and definately the best £20 performance enhancer that I have spent on the car. It improved my overall speed and lap times considerably. I never knew I could get around camp corner in fouth gear at 75mph plus, the differance at Avon Rise and Quarry was a real eye opener when I took the right line and was braking at the right times. My main failing (apart from going too slow) seemed to be turning in too early. The differance in the feel of the car was very noticeable when I was getting things right and tyre abuse has been reduced.
The day was run as open pit lane all day and we never had to wait more than a few minutes before we were waved onto the track, and you could stay out as long as you wanted. The event was full but it looked like there was no more than 40 cars in total going onto the track, bit differant to the action days when there seem to be 40 cars on the track at any one session. We got the car out 9 times during the day and could have squeezed in another but the brake pads were getting very low and we decided not to risk it. The car didn't miss a beat all day. The wheels were getting so hot the centre caps just fell out.
We have now done well over 1500 track miles in the Golf and the only problems we have had have been a broken alternator belt and a split breather hose, not bad for a 12 year old 150k mile valver.
Best car park anecdote was from the boastful bloke in his Porsche 944. He was boasting that his car had a 2.7 litre engine, x amount of BHP, x amount of torque, nearly perfect weight distribution, dog leg racing gearbox, and he also had a 225bhp mini and a shed load of driving experience. On our second session we pissed past him at hammerdown whilst my wife waved to him out of the window. Priceless expression on his face back in the car park. Never pays to boast.
There were some nice cars going around including a 400bhp Noble driven by a husband and wife, they were getting up to 150mph at Avon rise!
Cheers
Paul
