At some point I will do a proper edit of all the track day footage from both days. But for now thought I would put the following two videos people have already seen to make a comparison between a wet and a dry lap at Spa. There was a good 30 seconds difference between lap times.
Dry
Wet
Side by side
Day 1
The first of the two track days started of with a 6-00 alarm to get up and get to the track for 7am and get set up and the car unloaded. Safe top say I skipped breakfast that morning after seeing the track up close and personal on a track walk the day before, the steepness of Eau Rouge in person and some of the track undulations was making me a little nervous even though I do feel like I've got a fair amount of UK track experience under my belt.
Sighting laps went off without a hitch and all nerves went away then when actually driving the car on track. At this point the track was still really wet from the rain the night before and the skies kept topping up the dampness of the track, this made for a slightly slower track speed which was great for learning the track and the lines.
11am rolled around and the skies brightened and there was enough of a dry line to be able to get the RSR dry tyres on for a quick session before dinner time.
The afternoon sessions brought a perfectly dry track and the lap times were dramatically reduced. There was zero queuing to get out on track and only one red flag all day interrupted play. With the circuit being dry I was out for most of the afternoon lapping and lapping until 5pm when the skies started the darken and started to rain slightly and the track started to dampen down once again, with such a good afternoon I decided to call it a day earlier than the 6pm finish time. Day 1 was a success. I'd learnt the track, had't suffered any mechanical and the car was in one piece. They were my two main goals for the trip.
Day 2
The second track day got off to a similar wet start as day one but continued to keep raining on and off throughout the day and because of that the track didn't dry up. I think there may have been a 10-15 minute window with a bit of a dry line that
@rupe30 managed to get out on for a while but I missed that in the garages having a break. Wednesday was great to share with everyone who made it out there from this forum too and meet a large group of members. The day pretty much went off without a hitch except the slight niggle that a few laps into the sessions before dinner I was finding it a little harder than usual to select some gears. Gave the clutch a little bleed during dinner and it was perfect all afternoon then, problem solved.
Also managed to get in some passenger laps with some of the forum members and also take out a number of them for laps around Spa too. Thanks for trusting me for a few laps!
Final photo from the end of the day minus the missing fuel filler cap which appears to have shot off somewhere on track. Will source a new one this week. Now after such a great experience I'm stuck with making the decision of what to do with the Clio. I did say to a few people that i'm considering selling it and moving onto something else which is potentially harder to drive and more of a challenge than the Clio. That however is still to be decided and at the moment I think i'm going to continue with the Turbo conversion for the end of 2018 when my new tow vehicle arrives.
