Donnington National - Evening Session Video

[bigsid]

Hi all. Just did an evening session at Donnington on 26th of May. This was my first trip to that circuit. I'd been told by a couple of people that the Clios are a bit underpowered for the track, but I had an absolute blast. Chatted to a couple of other Clio owners who came over to say hello. Everyone was very friendly. Anyway, I've got a short video up with some of the highlights, enjoy!

BTW, video is NSFW due to my potty mouth.

 

[R20BTG]

Thanks for posting the vid, I'd be interested to hear more about the car setup. Tyres, suspension, geometry etc.
I notice it appears to be stripped out, is it purely a track car?

 

[R20BTG]

Ignore that, just seen you have a progress thread, gonna have a read

 

[mattrs182]

Great day, I was there in a blue 182 but our power steering decided to give up just after lunch

 

[bigsid]

Ignore that, just seen you have a progress thread, gonna have a read

Haha, yeah but I can give the main points here for convenience. The car is largely stock;

Engine and drivetrain are stock.
Stripped interior, half cage (for harness mounting more than anything).
4 point TRS harnesses, Cobra seats.
Federal 595-RS Pro 225 tyres.
Std. Cup shocks with H&S springs.
Milltek cat-back exhaust.
Powerflex gearbox, engine mount and rear trailing arm bushes (purple).
Std. brake calipers. HC Brembo disks front and Winmax W5 pads (these are GREAT!)
Std. rear discs and PBS ProRace pads.
Pure rear camber shims 1deg.

 

[Big Ben]

Hi all. Just did an evening session at Donnington on 26th of May. This was my first trip to that circuit. I'd been told by a couple of people that the Clios are a bit underpowered for the track, but I had an absolute blast. Chatted to a couple of other Clio owners who came over to say hello. Everyone was very friendly. Anyway, I've got a short video up with some of the highlights, enjoy!

BTW, video is NSFW due to my potty mouth.

Really enjoyed that. Love the bloopers!
Carrying some good speed there...especially the old hairpin in 4th

 

[NickD]

Got some serious understeer going on there, but good stuff, you enjoyed it. Try and be smoother on the steering input, if you "throw" it on, you shock the tyres and limit the grip.

 

[bigsid]

Got some serious understeer going on there, but good stuff, you enjoyed it. Try and be smoother on the steering input, if you "throw" it on, you shock the tyres and limit the grip.

Yeah I was struggling with understeer in some corners. This is only my second track day. I really need COVID to be done with so I can get some tuition


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigsid]

Couple of things I've realised:

1. I need to clean the inside of my windscreen.
2. I spelled Donington wrong in the video

I was also wondering about my rear camber shims. Previous track day was Blyton, and while I wasn't quite as brave, the only major difference to geometry is the introduction of the 1deg rear camber shims. At Blyton I had no understeer and very little tyre squeal. So either, I was driving faster and more aggressively at Donington, Blyton has stickier tarmac (unlikely, and both were warmish dry days) or adding negative camber to the rear has caused a bit more understeer. Is that possible? It sounds plausible...

 

[NickD]

Donington does have, or so some would say, funny tarmac. However the principal is that your tyres only have so many "grips." If you have a maximum of 10, and you try to use all 10 in cornering, then there is nothing left for acceleration or braking. And the other way around, if you are trying to accelerate or brake, you then can't have all 10 for cornering. Typically a FWD car will understeer as all it is all going on up front. Understeer, apart from pushing wide on the entry of a corner, totally limits the application of power on the exit meaning you have to compromise a lot of things to get through the corner. If you can limit the grip of the rear of the car, either through mechanical means, so suspension set up and alignment, putting extra pressure in the rears or by technique you will get more rotation on the car which means you can point the wheels straighter sooner and reduce the "grips" use for cornering. Putting camber shims in has the effect of presenting more of the tyre to the road when the car is leaned over thin the corner and so increasing grip which will stop the rotation and induce more understeer. You would use such things in combination with other suspension mods and so, yes, I can well believe you will induce more understeer. Get booked on Blyton, you can have tuition.

 

[bigsid]

Thanks Nick for the detailed reply. I'm going to run the camber shims at Bedford in a couple of weeks, but I'll try adjusting my driving style and see what's what. Before my next trip to Donington (assuming me and the car survive Bedford) I'll take the shims off and see what the difference is.