Donington!
Not strictly a Clio post, but it was INTENDED to be a Clio day. until it wasn't.
So it became a GT3 day...
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I did say one day i'd give
@burrellbloke a ride in it, so the exhaust tips arrived (titanium JCR silencer tips.. lovely blue shade when bedded in!), the Cup 2s were fitted and the front numberplate 'fell' off. Was great to see such a range of cars, with
@EthanMenace @burrellbloke @AndyP - and the 6000 school kids watching Jimmy Broadbent on a simulator in garage 99. To be fair, they were all nice, but i drew the line at passenger laps for the sim racers who wouldn't risk their own car, hah.
shiny blue tips:
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some action shots... Track Obsession photos being as good as ever:
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Vids:
Firstly gently following the guys in the clio to try and learn the lines, see what the GT3 is all about, and somewhat enjoy trying to catch the clio .. working our way through traffic. Clio is much more confidence inspiring in the corners ... probably because i know the clio, and i can afford for it to hit a sausage curb. GT3 wins in the engine dept, as you'll see when you put your foot down fully vs
@burrellbloke on the back straight.
Second vid is a later session with a 'fast' lap and
@burrellbloke on board, despite a lot of traffic and more examples of people on the weird 'slow line' on the last chicane before the pits (you cant really see it but the clio wasn't going to lift to let me through, so you can't confidently turn across the chicane). Fun to see the GT3 vs the Clio with ethan doing his fast laps during that session.
trackday was generally pretty good - though lots of red flags, and i was mostly taking it easy anyway. I think the GT3 will get some camber before i take it out again and actually push it. It's definitely interesting driving a car with that much power and brakes - spent most of my time assessing whether the overtake was safe or not, even in the fast lap i'm constantly hesitating over whether to accelerate or just float behind someone.. and equally whether i can outbrake safely without pissing them off ('that twat in a gt3 again!').
as mentioned in the other post i also found (in 27c heat..) the Cup2 seemed to fall off after 4-5 laps and started to hit 35psi .. really noticed it starting to run wide (all 4 tyres). It's controlled and well balanced .. i guess you'd hope so given it's a porsche... but on a narrow section of track somewhat uncomfortable. The tyres also need quite a bit of work to get hot.. duno if that's just the size of them or something lol. The evening session had a few acquaintances in GT4RS and GT3RS who said similar things about the heat and Cup2s.
Again you see the optimal lap time based on my best lines being significantly different to the achieved times, i suspect this will be pretty common for tracks on my first visit. Look forward to going back! Overall very happy, the fact the GT3 can drive there in comfort, flip some switches and do those laps with full A/C blasting out and 9000rpm, and then drive home without issues is brilliant.
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JCR just put a nice Brands Hatch GT4 youtube video up which to me is a great advert for a GT4.
