Been a while, but I have been busy in the meantime.
So, it was finally in sight. The day I'd drive my own car around my local track: TT Circuit Assen. I grew up about 10 minutes away from there, so I visited many times. I have seen the track evolve, getting much more modern the last 10 years. Of late, the infrastructure around the track got updated, so access is sorted out very well.
I started to prepare on Friday. I fitted the OEM wheels with the Yokohama AD08R's, gave the car a checkup: fluids, suspension, brakes. I wanted to wash the car, but the ground temperature was below freezing so I didn't want to create a bobsleigh track on the drive. Drove into Assen to brim the tank with V Power, check tire pressures and get a liter of 5W-40 just in case.
The next morning after a good breakfast and feeling confident, we headed out to the track. The Yoko's are a little stiffer, especially at these cold temperatures. We arrived nice and early and got tickets. The trackday was organized by renowned Race School
www.rsz.nl. From 12:00 til 16:00 every hour would host three 20 minute sessions. First session would be Tour, second Sport Medium, third Sport Fast. From 16:00 til 17:00 would be two 30 minute sessions. The last 30 minutes would be Sport Medium and Fast combined.
The nice thing is that you can decide which sessions to get tickets for, provided they are still available. It is of course still early in the race season and the paddock didn't look overly crowded. I decided to go with 12:20 Sport Medium and 16:30 Sport M+F. Depending how it went I was planning on doing one or two sessions in between.
There I was, in the staging area, waiting to go on track. I had TrackAddict enabled on my phone, so I could get lap times determined by GPS and an OBD2 scanner go log car parameters from the ECU. Driving to the end of the pitlane, I went in concentration mode. I didn't feel fear or worries luckily, I was just excited to get underway.
First laps on track were bonkers. I had people trying to warm their tires, drifting. I knew the track well, but noticed small road cambers I had not noticed that well in the sim. Once things spread out more, I could explore the car a little more. This Clio is so capable. Quick enough in the straight line, but by no means the quickest on the straights. The brakes inspire a lot of confidence. The lack of understeer was staggering. Only in some corners when pushed beyond the ideal entry speed, or the off camber "Mandeveen". Also not a lot of power understeer or torque steer. The only second gear corner is "Strubben". The fronts are traction limited there. Towards the end of the session I started exploring a bit more. I had traction control kicking in out of "Strubben". I was braking a bit later, starting to get a feel for trail braking. The rear then becomes really mobile, which I noticed when the tail kicked out at the on camber entry of "De Bult". I felt it was not going to spin round, but enough for me to want to correct the steering to the center for a fraction and at the same time the stability system applied some brakes in a subtle way. It didn't spook me, but gave me an idea of how much leeway the system gives before taking control. It also didn't make me go wide. It gave be a big grin on my face, haha. A lap later the session was at an end. A half inlap and a short drive through the paddock to cool the car, I parked up again.
Ecstatically I got out of the car. This car proves you don't need RWD to have fun. A well honed FWD chassis is just as mobile and pointy as a good RWD. Seeing as the car stood up well and I felt confident enough that Sport Medium was about my speed, I decided to buy two more tickets for the 14:20 and 15:20 group. The 14:20 session went well. As I was fairly confident I knew the characteristics of the Clio, I switched off the traction and stability systems. In "Strubben" that meant I had to control the throttle, but in most corners I would get more drive out. I was more precise with the brakes so I didn't get the rear to step out too much. Braking into "Geert Timmer bocht" required more precise steering. As I was right behind a Peugeot 106, I got a black flag and went into the pits. Turned out my transponder wasn't working. By the time the marshal was done with me, the session was over.
In the 15:20 I wanted to find some pace. I was braking sharper. Trying to maximize the exits. I was finding the gearbox to be the most limiting factor of the car. Ratios are well chosen and not bad suited to Assen. But the shift is very notchy and won't go into the next gear quick enough when upshifting. So I'm going to change the gearbox oil for a high performance oil. I had a few laps more and the heat was done.
My friend chose to sit out the final heat, so I had 30 minutes with the lightest the car had been all day. I had 40% fuel. I also noticed how the paddock was already less crowded than before, a lot of the drivers already heading home. Apart from the opening 2 or 3 laps, which was a traffic jam. I had a clear track for the whole session. The Clio still going strong, no brake fade, tires still gripping the same, coolant temperature rock solid at normal operating temperature. Such fun. I don't think 2 laps were the same though as I was still exploring the track. The lap times were quite consistent though. 6 minutes left in the session, a loud beep in the interior. The fuel light has come on! I look at the onboard computer and it tells me I got 18 km range left. Hmmm, this might stretch to the end of the session. Knowing there is a petrol station right at the edge of the paddock, I decide to risk it and press on. As I am on the back straight going into "Ramshoek" the computer shows "-------" range. But I see the checkered flag coming on the start/finish straight and cruise for half a lap back to the track exit after "Veenslang" and make it back. Filling up I noticed that I could only get 45 liters in, so I still had 13 liters left. The fuel sender is probably not coping with this kind of use.
Awesome day, what an experience. Can't wait until the next one
. I did not get much usable footage or pictures of me on track. My friends only had phones with them. However, there was a professional photographer around. I managed to track down his photos, enjoy:
