Goodwood yesterday
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:12 pm
Through a mate-of-a-mate who had hired Goodwood circuit for the day yesterday for a PR day for his customers, I finally broke my RS4 trackday virginity. I've tracked quite a few cars before (including some of my own), but having not bothered with trackday insurance (£249 
), never having driven Goodwood before, and also forewarned here about standard brake fade, I took it relatively easy to start with.
After a few laps with an instructor and a few sighting laps of my own I finally, after six months of ownership. realised what this car is about. Enough torque to hold higher gears through corners, enough grunt to reach 130mph on the straight, and handling just the right side of "soft" made for some pretty spirited laps.
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g5.jpg[/img]
Unfortuantely the brakes did go off pretty quickly, so I had to ration the laps just as I was picking up the pace. There was another RS4 there :
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g3.jpg[/img]
English owner, lives in Milan, imported his 4 from Germany, who had exactly the same problem, but didn't ration his laps and his brakes "gave up" at about 2pm.
In between I managed to blag a drive in this race-prepped FocusRS
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g4.jpg[/img]
Fun to drive, but not the involving steering fight I had imagined. Felt surprsingly big for a mid-size, but all that power through the front wheels is quite an experience!
I also blagged a lift in a F355 Spider, which even with 4 silencers on was breaking the noise limit
and which interestingly also suffered badly from brake fade (who's bashing Audi now eh? 
), and also a few laps in a GT3RS which was awesome, although I'm told it tended to spin at even the merest sniff of a painted kerb! (photos of both cars to follow).
All in all a great day, and I heartily recommend a track session to any other 4 owners yet to take the plunge. On the drive home I felt so much more confident with the car, how to use the power, how to balance the weight for the back road twists and turns (and yes I did overtake everything in sight ). Now, about those Porsche brakes......
), never having driven Goodwood before, and also forewarned here about standard brake fade, I took it relatively easy to start with.After a few laps with an instructor and a few sighting laps of my own I finally, after six months of ownership. realised what this car is about. Enough torque to hold higher gears through corners, enough grunt to reach 130mph on the straight, and handling just the right side of "soft" made for some pretty spirited laps.
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g5.jpg[/img]
Unfortuantely the brakes did go off pretty quickly, so I had to ration the laps just as I was picking up the pace. There was another RS4 there :
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g3.jpg[/img]
English owner, lives in Milan, imported his 4 from Germany, who had exactly the same problem, but didn't ration his laps and his brakes "gave up" at about 2pm.
In between I managed to blag a drive in this race-prepped FocusRS
[img]modules/pnCPG/Coppermine/albums/userpics/10595/rs246_norm_g4.jpg[/img]
Fun to drive, but not the involving steering fight I had imagined. Felt surprsingly big for a mid-size, but all that power through the front wheels is quite an experience!
I also blagged a lift in a F355 Spider, which even with 4 silencers on was breaking the noise limit
and which interestingly also suffered badly from brake fade (who's bashing Audi now eh? ), and also a few laps in a GT3RS which was awesome, although I'm told it tended to spin at even the merest sniff of a painted kerb! (photos of both cars to follow).All in all a great day, and I heartily recommend a track session to any other 4 owners yet to take the plunge. On the drive home I felt so much more confident with the car, how to use the power, how to balance the weight for the back road twists and turns (and yes I did overtake everything in sight
). Now, about those Porsche brakes......