2012 clio 3RS RB7 #166

[peter]

Stunning photos Peter. Weather looks good
How much time per lap do you lose with extra 100kg?

cheers ben. yeah, weather was great. unlike today. raining horizontally.

i couldn't get below 3.14. last time i could do 3.10 easily. not sure if it's due to the extra 100 kilos alone. tyres didn't feel as good as last time, got quite a bit more understeer now. also, my driving wasn't as good as last time. a german racing school had the place booked for the day and they had the track sides covered with marker cones. i felt i was concentrating too much on those cones to choose my lines. for me, they were more a distraction than being helpful.

 

[Sean197]

Nice pics, so jealous that you can just nip out for an evening at Spa!

 

[sevenfourate]

Nice pics, so jealous that you can just nip out for an evening at Spa!

+1

1st picture is awesome. Cover material for any car-based magazine.

Glad you enjoyed Peter. Safely !

 

[///M]

My god that first photo!!!

Love your car mate. So jealous you can hit Spa so easily.

 

[Chris]

another month, another tracknight at spa-francorchamps.




and showing of my latest mod ...




had a 100 kilo passenger with me this time, so lap times obviously suffered. but we still had a great time and got home safe. first time i regretted not having a go pro (or similar). would have loved to show you, how the clio hustled a 964 up the hill ... and then left us standing on the straight.

Awesome photo mate, and love your latest mod

 

[peter]

thanks guys.

yup, very fortunate i live this close to spa. that said, i'm quite jealous of the number of tracks you have in the UK. would love to do a tour over there. shame the missus isn't into cars at all.

 

[peter]

this year's third 'tracknight' at spa.

weather forecast was no rain after four pm ... hah! forget it! heavy rain till half past five and light drizzle when we got on track at six. so on to a wet track and to make things worse, there'd been a 25h race last weekend, which left the track very greasy. needless to say, the car was all over the place. at first i couldn't get the tyres and brakes up to temp. things got a lot better after playing with tyre pressures, gaining confidence and finding where the grip was. brilliant how you can steer/drive this car on the throttle.

good thing about this kind of weather is, the car suffers a lot less of course. but best thing was, we were only eight on track! most of the time i had the place to myself.

 

[///M]

this year's third 'tracknight' at spa.

weather forecast was no rain after four pm ... hah! forget it! heavy rain till half past five and light drizzle when we got on track at six. so on to a wet track and to make things worse, there'd been a 25h race last weekend, which left the track very greasy. needless to say, the car was all over the place. at first i couldn't get the tyres and brakes up to temp. things got a lot better after playing with tyre pressures, gaining confidence and finding where the grip was. brilliant how you can steer/drive this car on the throttle.

good thing about this kind of weather is, the car suffers a lot less of course. but best thing was, we were only eight on track! most of the time i had the place for myself.

obligatory photo of proof ...

Spa to yourself for an evening. Regardless of the weather that's a dream scenario!

 

[Jimmy]

Good write up Peter, sounds like a great evening you had! Shame about the weather, but as Mes says: an empty Spa has got to be the perfect antidote to the bad weather

 

[peter]

... that's a dream scenario!

... an empty Spa has got to be the perfect antidote to the bad weather.

exactly. still was good fun.

before we were allowed to go on track, there were some GT3's (lambo's and ferrari's) testing. the speed at which they drive up the hill is mind-boggling. and that's in even worse weather than what we had.

 

[Big Ben]

As said Peter an evening at Spa most of us Brits only dream of!!

What tyres were you running?
AD08R's?

 

[///M]

exactly. still was good fun.

before we were allowed to go on track, there were some GT3's (lambo's and ferrari's) testing. the speed at which they drive up the hill is mind-boggling. and that's in even worse weather than what we had.

Watching the F1 cars going through Eau Rouge and up Radillon is my most memorable car experience. Looks like they're going to just take off and head into the sky.

Amazing place!

 

[sevenfourate]

Wow......yet again ! Rain. drizzle or not. I bet thats fun on a quiet track. How the heck was there only 8 cars out i ask Peter ???

If Kev finds this post he's gonna do himself an injury with the excitement and anticipation, as i gather he quite likes the place.......

Lovely pic

 

[peter]

What tyres were you running?
AD08R's?

yup. AD08R's. they really struggled finding grip. i do believe that wasn't only because it was wet, but because there was a lot of rubber and grime on the track from the 25h fun cup race (google it) the weekend before. i ran michelin cup 2's in the wet last year and those coped better, but it wasn't half as greasy out on track than this year.

there was a previous gen focus ST out there (brought on a trailer, so possibly been tinkered with), didn't see what tyres it ran, but it equally had difficulty finding grip. the guy could drive though, couldn't keep up with him. two porsches (one older 964 and a 997 turbo) were bloody fast on the straights, but nowhere in the corners. sliding all over the place.

Watching the F1 cars going through Eau Rouge and up Radillon is my most memorable car experience. Looks like they're going to just take off and head into the sky.

last time i saw F1 at spa was the test day in 2007 (no GP in 2006, so they organised an extra day of testing a couple of months before the actual GP). insane speeds up eau rouge and the raidillon. in 2015 i went to see the WEC prototypes and i can clearly remember being blown away by how fast those things accelerated out of the bus-stop chicane.

 

[peter]

How the heck was there only 8 cars out ...

because most sh*t their pants just thinking about driving in the wet at francorchamps. only a couple of fools were brave enough. i got there quite early and saw only one other car (scooby impreza), so went inside into the office and asked if we would run. 'absolutely' was the answer i got.

i quite like driving in the wet. i only got to know how the clio really behaves at the limit after driving it in the wet. speeds are much lower, so more time to react/experiment.

 

[///M]

last time i saw F1 at spa was the test day in 2007 (no GP in 2006, so they organised an extra day of testing a couple of months before the actual GP). insane speeds up eau rouge and the raidillon. in 2015 i went to see the WEC prototypes and i can clearly remember being blown away by how fast those things accelerated out of the bus-stop chicane.

Ahh the good old days. When the engines still sounded like the devil unleashing screaming banshees and there was the ridiculous concept of a thing called testing!

Big WEC fan over here mate. Support Toyota because of the Buemi / Renault connection. Big fan of him in the FE too. But there are loads of drivers and teams I follow. I always shout for Manor in LMP2 because I'm a big fan of Lowden. And obviously AF Corse in GTE. Do you have someone you follow?

Would absolutely love to see WEC at Spa. We did Le Mans for the first time last year. Absolutely blown away. Maybe next year.

 

[peter]

Do you have someone you follow?

no, not really. just like the competition in general. too bad LMP1 is in a sorry state (numbers wise), after audi decided to leave. porsche and toyota look like they are evenly matched. slightly more biased towards porsche, but i was rooting for toyota (and kobayashi) at le mans this year. frankly, i don't care who wins as long as they fight hard but fair. LMP2 looks healthy. love it they made the cars faster for this season. a bit more diversity on the chassis front would be good though. not a fan of the BoP system in GTE, but probably the only way for an (ageing) vantage GTE to compete with/beat a ford GT or a ferrari 488. the cars look mega.

i do like andre lotterer. no nonsense kind of guy. shame he drove for audi all those years. happy he's in a porsche right now.

 

[Pav]

good write up..must great living so close to the church of Kev

 

[peter]

good write up..must great living so close to the church of Kev

it is.

 

[///M]

no, not really. just like the competition in general. too bad LMP1 is in a sorry state (numbers wise), after audi decided to leave. porsche and toyota look like they are evenly matched. slightly more biased towards porsche, but i was rooting for toyota (and kobayashi) at le mans this year. frankly, i don't care who wins as long as they fight hard but fair. LMP2 looks healthy. love it they made the cars faster for this season. a bit more diversity on the chassis front would be good though. not a fan of the BoP system in GTE, but probably the only way for an (ageing) vantage GTE to compete with/beat a ford GT or a ferrari 488. the cars look mega.

i do like andre lotterer. no nonsense kind of guy. shame he drove for audi all those years. happy he's in a porsche right now.

Quality post Peter. You're a proper fan I can see. It sounds a bit pompous doesn't it but most people who are into WEC seem to be more fans of the whole thing rather than gung-ho supporting a team or driver. It's just a very very good show.

Totally agree about BoP but needs must. I really don't like the sandbagging though. Ford effectively cheated in my eyes last year at Le Mans.

Speaking of Le Mans, we were on the finish line last year when they broke down. We had seen them getting the Japanese flag ready behind the podium less than a minute earlier. Incredible scenes. Never seen a hundred thousand people absolutely stunned into silence like that ever.

And I wish SOOOOOO much that Renault would enter the RS:01 in GTE. Obviously the resulting homologation requirements would be a pretty amazing side effect too!