ScottL
08-22-2008, 07:40 AM
I did the event at Silverstone yesterday afternoon.
Was great to finally drive the car - even though we didn't get to take it round the circuit.
The day consisted of 3 exercises + a session on the roads around Silverstone in a road registered Dallara spec car.
We started off with a threshold braking test. Accelerate up to about 60 in second gear (in 3.9 seconds!) then brake hard at a marker cone. The car has no ABS so you have to gently modulate the pedal. Found it quite hard at first but with a couple of practices it got easier. The next part of this test was a stupidly tight first gear slalom. Kinda pointless!
Next up we did a figure 8 which was open enough for 2nd or even 3rd gear. There were two cars for this exercise - a factory standard car in orange and a black car with nothing more than tweak to the front toe settings. The orange car had too much understeer with soft turn in. The black car was much better - more neutral and quite nice turn in. I found both cars quite difficult to hold in a drift. With practice and a more delicate touch it started to come together and I managed a couple of nice drifts.
Then we moved on to the road drive. I really enjoyed driving the car on the road. It's very easy to drive (apart from poor rear visibility) and feels very secure. It's also comfortable, can deal with bumps and generally rides very well. Very cool watching the inboard dampers and pushrods working away. The car only has a small aero screen so I was very surprised to find minimal wind buffeting - even at 100mph+. It started raining heavily at one point during my drive. Apart from rain on my helmet visor I was completely dry when I stepped out 10 mins later. I guess the airflow carries the rain over the cockpit.
Final event was a short track laid out with cones. Got a chance to push the car a little. You could just about begin to feel the aerodynamics at work. Ended the session being driven round in a continuous drift by Dennis Retera - one of two KTM factory race drivers in attendance - very skilled driver.
Some general observations about the car - 5 of the 6 cars were non road legal early factory cars. All were of a very high standard. Everything was working and nothing went wrong during the day. The cars feel very strong and durable.
The ergonomics are very good with the exception of the instruments (legibility not great, although the red change up light is good) and rearward visibility. The adjustable pedal box is very well designed with a large range of movement. Likewise the steering wheel reach/rake. We had a wide height and weight range in our group and everyone was able to get in and get comfortable in the car immediately.
All the cars were on Michelin PS2's. With the exception of the black car, all had factory standard (soft/safe) setups. Clearly as it comes out of the box the car is pretty soft. I reckon a good geo, a remap and some sticky tyres will sharpen the car up dramatically. Looking forward to finding out very soon as my car (number 77) is due to arrive in 3 weeks.
Was great to finally drive the car - even though we didn't get to take it round the circuit.
The day consisted of 3 exercises + a session on the roads around Silverstone in a road registered Dallara spec car.
We started off with a threshold braking test. Accelerate up to about 60 in second gear (in 3.9 seconds!) then brake hard at a marker cone. The car has no ABS so you have to gently modulate the pedal. Found it quite hard at first but with a couple of practices it got easier. The next part of this test was a stupidly tight first gear slalom. Kinda pointless!
Next up we did a figure 8 which was open enough for 2nd or even 3rd gear. There were two cars for this exercise - a factory standard car in orange and a black car with nothing more than tweak to the front toe settings. The orange car had too much understeer with soft turn in. The black car was much better - more neutral and quite nice turn in. I found both cars quite difficult to hold in a drift. With practice and a more delicate touch it started to come together and I managed a couple of nice drifts.
Then we moved on to the road drive. I really enjoyed driving the car on the road. It's very easy to drive (apart from poor rear visibility) and feels very secure. It's also comfortable, can deal with bumps and generally rides very well. Very cool watching the inboard dampers and pushrods working away. The car only has a small aero screen so I was very surprised to find minimal wind buffeting - even at 100mph+. It started raining heavily at one point during my drive. Apart from rain on my helmet visor I was completely dry when I stepped out 10 mins later. I guess the airflow carries the rain over the cockpit.
Final event was a short track laid out with cones. Got a chance to push the car a little. You could just about begin to feel the aerodynamics at work. Ended the session being driven round in a continuous drift by Dennis Retera - one of two KTM factory race drivers in attendance - very skilled driver.
Some general observations about the car - 5 of the 6 cars were non road legal early factory cars. All were of a very high standard. Everything was working and nothing went wrong during the day. The cars feel very strong and durable.
The ergonomics are very good with the exception of the instruments (legibility not great, although the red change up light is good) and rearward visibility. The adjustable pedal box is very well designed with a large range of movement. Likewise the steering wheel reach/rake. We had a wide height and weight range in our group and everyone was able to get in and get comfortable in the car immediately.
All the cars were on Michelin PS2's. With the exception of the black car, all had factory standard (soft/safe) setups. Clearly as it comes out of the box the car is pretty soft. I reckon a good geo, a remap and some sticky tyres will sharpen the car up dramatically. Looking forward to finding out very soon as my car (number 77) is due to arrive in 3 weeks.