mjheathcote
Centenary Club
- Messages
- 9,046
What a day!
Did the day with my friends with a 997 Turbo and Clio 200 thingie, plus a nice guy from London with a new Toyota GT86. Me in the Maser of course.
Andrew Walsh the instructor turns up in a GranTurismo, his daily drive! I have previously done his driver training day at North Weald on a concrete airfield, but this is relatively new.
The whole day was on track, high speed braking practice, induced oversteer and correction, and trailing braking. Then free time on the whole circuit, just the four of us, complete bliss!
The induced oversteer was something else, forcing the car into a slide and trying to correct it. A few times ended up whale tailing down the circuit ending up facing the wrong way!
I had to pump my tyres up to 50 psi for I was starting to destroy the sidewalls, which is quite normal for a big heavy GT.
My friend in his front wheel drive Clio totally destroyed a front set of tyres, the rubber overheated and peeled away exposing bare canvas, however it was his own fault for overdoing it a little with insufficient rest time.
At the end of the day Andrew took me around the circuit in my Maser. OMG OMG OMG! I didn't think it was possible for my car to handle how it did with a professional at the wheel...I was hanging on for dear life with the seat belt cutting into my chest. A real eye opener and just shows its totally down to the driver.
As a fellow Maserati driver Andrew then warmed up his GranTurismo and took me around the circuit again, for more OMG's!!! He didn't have too, a true gentleman.
A really good day that I would recommend to everyone, hopefully if I can remember 10% of what I was shown it will have been worthwhile.
Did the day with my friends with a 997 Turbo and Clio 200 thingie, plus a nice guy from London with a new Toyota GT86. Me in the Maser of course.
Andrew Walsh the instructor turns up in a GranTurismo, his daily drive! I have previously done his driver training day at North Weald on a concrete airfield, but this is relatively new.
The whole day was on track, high speed braking practice, induced oversteer and correction, and trailing braking. Then free time on the whole circuit, just the four of us, complete bliss!
The induced oversteer was something else, forcing the car into a slide and trying to correct it. A few times ended up whale tailing down the circuit ending up facing the wrong way!
I had to pump my tyres up to 50 psi for I was starting to destroy the sidewalls, which is quite normal for a big heavy GT.
My friend in his front wheel drive Clio totally destroyed a front set of tyres, the rubber overheated and peeled away exposing bare canvas, however it was his own fault for overdoing it a little with insufficient rest time.
At the end of the day Andrew took me around the circuit in my Maser. OMG OMG OMG! I didn't think it was possible for my car to handle how it did with a professional at the wheel...I was hanging on for dear life with the seat belt cutting into my chest. A real eye opener and just shows its totally down to the driver.
As a fellow Maserati driver Andrew then warmed up his GranTurismo and took me around the circuit again, for more OMG's!!! He didn't have too, a true gentleman.
A really good day that I would recommend to everyone, hopefully if I can remember 10% of what I was shown it will have been worthwhile.
