First track day in the 197. As a one word review- impressive. Genuinely cannot believe how well the car has done on track in comparison to my old R53 and Fiesta ST180's I have tracked.
The day was at Blyton Park (good track I think to test and learn any car). Whilst admittedly not the most exciting track in the world, it is still great fun with not much to hit thankfully! It was hosted by Trackday Solutions who generally host good days with me personally only experiencing 2 long red flag periods over attending their days for a couple of years.
Start of the day arrived and put the "race tent" up for tool storage and shelter from the wind. Much needed at Blyton as it is extremely open with no garages either!
In the above photo you can see the Clio missing the painted part of its fuel door as the solenoid is seized and required some persuasion to open! Thamkfully everything is intact and will be repaired either over Xmas or the in the new year!
First session was tricky in the car as it was exceedingly cold and we were taking the opportunity to clear frost from the circuit. Not ideal scenarios but the frost cleared quickly and allowed me to treat this part of the day as a wet weather track day. Allowing me to read the car and its behaviour at much slower speeds than what you would see in the dry. Unfortunately not many photos of the first session other than a winter edit but I am so off line in the photo I am too embarrassed to post it LOL!
Further sessions the conditions improved and allowed me to get faster and more confident in the car and even take some friends out who haven't really been on track before and both now have the bug and want to get on track themselves soon.
Despite this though I did have a few moments in the car. One at the first chicane when taking too much kerb and spinning the car! Rather funny in hindsight as it was me over driving the car that did it! Also had 2 saves- one going through Bishops (my mate described as Jason Plato on paddock hill in 2011- so I will take that!) The second was coming through unga bunga and had a lift off over steer moment coming through there- kept it point the right way though!
Some action photos of the day!
The last one is my personal favourite from the day!
All in all really impressed and happy with my choice of project car and look forward to seeing what mods can do to improve the car.
Though one thing the day did highlight to me is the car needs an LSD! Has anyone had experience with "Blackline" diffs in these cars?