Anyone else track their car?

[Phil]

Well, we've got a topic for our first car, our dream cars and we have one for photography... and this being a F1 forum, I thought there might be other members who might regularly go to the track with their car.

I drive a Lotus Exige and do about 1-3 track days a year. Living in the northern part of Switzerland, we do have a few race tracks within reasonable distance, which is a plus. The video I'm about to post is from last year from a small track called Anneau du Rhin (situated around Colmar in France close to the German border). It's small, but the tight corners make it an especially great track for my car, or Super 7s. Apart from AdR, Hockenheim or the Nürburgring isn't too far away (4-6 hour drive roughly). Then in France we have another gem in Circuit de Bresse.

Anyway, long story short, here's the video:



For those interested, the car is a Lotus Exige (2005 model), but supercharged by Bemani. It roughly produces 280bhp and weighs in around 930kg (fully fueld, but sans driver). The car I'm following in the video is a friend of mine who drives the newer Exige V6 (2012 model).

Any feedback is most welcome. Or if you indeed track or were waiting for the perfect excuse to share some pictures of your car, please do.

Phil

[Phil]

Come on guys, don't be shy

[CBeck113]

Nope, not at the moment - I have a Hyundai i40 wagon with 850km and an Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTI with 200000km...neither would be interesting on a track, and I'd only try it with the Corsa. It will take a few more years (possibly the replacement for the Corsa) before I can acquire an interesting, trackable alternative (my son will be in College starting this summer, but here in Germany). I am very keen on an Ariel Atom to be honest, and wil swing by this summer when we drive to Paignton, England...maybe they'll have an interesting used car for me.

The Exige looks like a blast to drive, but with my back problems I don't know if I could get back out of it . I tested a Mazda MX5 with my son, and while being quite fun, I couldn't take that as a daily driver. I would, however, suffer through with the Atom - summer and winter, just because I'm so possessed (aka sick).

[GSBellew]

Nothing as interesting or exotic as you, but I've had my own car at Kirkistown in Northern Ireland a good few times.



I once co-owned a mk2 GTI home made track car which was great fun:



VW Ireland let me drive this round Mondello on a rainy December day back in 2009



Hope to take the Polo to Mondello some day over the summer to stretch its legs a bit.

[Phil]

Oops - completely forgot about this topic.

Nice cars there GSBellew! Some of these older Golfs are seriously quick on track, especially when they are cleared out.

Anyway - here's another video from my last track day at the same track again (but a slightly different layout - this time the long track):



Best lap: 1:46:22
Top-Speed (GPS): 217.8 kmh

These are okay-ish laptimes from what I gather. Reckon I have a few seconds of untapped potential in me; i.e. braking later/harder after the long straight - but not really keen to go off the track at over 200kmh, so I've been generally quite cautious around that part. Could also be a bit more agressive on some curbs (especially the right-left-chicane) and a bit quicker through most corners (I'm rarely at the cornering limit, but slightly under - but I tend to be a bit quicker when NOT overdriving the car). It was a fun day though - only had 3 short sessions in the afternoon and the tyres overheat quickly (and it's tricky to get them in the right temperature range - then to have a lap without traffic too for a good time).

Also been using Harry's laptimer (brilliant app btw) which seems to be surprisingly accurate (compared the timers lap delta with the recorded camera footage). Going to look into external GPS transmitters for my next trackday.

Anyway, hope you like.

[tuj]

Yup, I've done a number of track days.

This was on the Nurburgring in a rented Mercedes:



I did 2 seasons of autox in an RX-8 and 3 seasons in a Miata:



I also did two track-days at Mid-Ohio in my RX-8, and I'm going to do a track day this weekend in my 135i.

[J.A.W.]

The trouble with taking your road car for real hard track caning - is that you quickly realise how
compromised ( slow & piggy) it is.. & then you want to spend on it, or spend more on a track-only machine..

[Tim.Wright]

Speaking of the Nordschleife, I managed 17:30 BTG in a rental ford transit with 2 couches in the back.



Does that count?

[Phil]

A 17:50 is probably not too shaby. Wouldn't that equate to around an average speed of ~65-70kmh? In a van, that's probably not bad at all (ignoring that Sabine Schmitz attempted to beat the 10 minute mark with TopGear, but that was absolutely nuts...).

[Tim.Wright]

I took it easy, particularly in the high speed sections of fuchsroehre and kesselchen and because I didn't want to damage the couches.

As far as excuses go, that's probably a new one in the racing world...

[knabbel]

Took it a few times to the track, both in Assen (MotoGP track) and Zandvoort (Former F1 and current DTM track) this is at Zandvoort:

[Bonker T]

I track my car a few times a year.
My car is a 1999 Subaru impreza with around 260-270hp.
Usually i go to Zandvoort too, i think my fastest lap was a 2:10

Here's a random session, start at 2:30 to skip the warm-up.


Last time i went to Circuit Zolder in Belgium but i kinda ruined my brakes...

Nordschleife is high on my to do list with this car:)
I drove there once like 7 years ago with an mx-5, but that was pretty slow.

[livinglikethathuh]

Tracked a Seat Altea 2.0 TDI in IstanbulPark once... ONCE.
The car felt so bad in the track, understeered like sh1t, front tyres overheated and struggled for grip at corner exits.
After tracking it, now the car feels like the pit limiter is on, trying to obey traffic laws

[GSBellew]

Today at Mondello Park in Kildare FIA Grade 4, a group of us hired the track for the afternoon for a closed session.
Unfortunately the weather was not the best but it was still great day.

[youtube]loxkEITAByA[/youtube]

http://youtu.be/loxkEITAByA

This was the camera car: