Went to Cadwell park at the weekend. Bit of a last minute booking but it gave me chance to properly test out the new engine, coilovers, brakes and tyres. Ive not done Cadwell in a car before so met up with Marc Kemp for a bit of inside knowledge.
We went out in his diffed 200 first, even though the track was damp the speed that he was carrying was absolutely mental. It was great to learn the lines he was taking and also see just what can be done with a Clio in the right hands. We then went out in my Clio and he loved the power...
The biggest smile of the day was the cars that the Mistress surprised on track. Down Park Straight and round Chris Curve the car easily had the legs on a few Evos, a Focus RS and an M3. The car performed faultlessly all day.
The brakes really showed there stuff especially at Park Corner where by the afternoon I was going from flat out in 6th and leaving it until the last marker before stamping on the brakes, into third and round park right up to the Gooseneck flat upto 5th.
The BC coilovers also performed fantastically. I adjusted the damping throughout the day but found the best setting was around 18 clicks from soft (of 32 settings). One thing I did notice was a diff would definitely benefit the car especially in the slower corners like the Hairpin and Barn. It would have also helped drag the car round better at Coppice, which in the morning I was braking but by mid afternoon I was going through flat.
The tyres were also very impressive, for each session I did around 8 flying laps and only once did the tyres feel like they were going off through Chris Curve but I think that was more down to tyre pressure as they were well high when I came in. The combination of soft on the front and medium on the back worked really well. The back end was twitchy at the limit but so controllable.
Unfortunately I don't have any videos but I have a few pictures, more to come.