Thruxton is awesome!

[DaveWS]

Unfortunately my Turbo did have troubles - /viewtopic.php?t=193067

But during the laps I did get in, wowser! Vid: youtube . com /watch?v=HthSzm89IMc

You definitely need your brave pills. For the first couple of laps I was pretty tentative, and with most of the circuit being quite open and flat and with such fast and long corners, it takes a little bit of time to figure out lines and stuff. I was reminding myself to look as far up the circuit as possible to plan ahead which helped me and I'd also watched some youtube vids so it wasn't long before I was more comfortable.

Church corner is definitely awesome and you really can carry insane speed through there as long as you don't lift mid corner - best do get braking done really early and carry speed and throttle to keep it more settled. Despite that I had a few moments anyway but nothing too unexpected, and I saw 105+ mph in some laps.

The truth is though that the whole circuit is edgy:

Through Allard I was only teasing the brake, then flat heading to the first chicane with the car moving around a decent amount. Segrave was flat with a shortshift to 4th, a slight brake for Noble with the car moving around again over the bumps, and again through Goodwood, with the car loaded up for ages.

The final chicane really tests your bravery but and it's pretty ridiculous how late you can brake there, unfortunately I didn't have enough laps to really find out.

I went with a friend who took his MK3 and kindly (foolishly?!) let me out for a few laps. The MK2 is much more lively through the high speed stuff - in comparison the MK3 was super composed, and extremely good on the brakes. I much prefer the driving position and feedback through the wheel and pedals with mine though!

I'd say don't hesitate if you're thinking of going to Thruxton, it really is awesome, and I've driven Silverstone, Combe, Bedford and Blyton but only Donington really challenges it. Just make sure your car can cope with the sustained cornering load through all the right handers!

[SonicSW20]

Thruxton is one of if not the fastest circuits in the UK, not a lot of room for error at the speeds you can reach there!

[DaveWS]

Returned to Thruxton on Thursday with my friends MK3 roadster, and he was kind enough to share the driving. Obviously less power than the Turbo, but she's awesome on the brakes and very nimble!

Got home and put together a side by side video comparison between the two. The MK3 is actually quicker through Goodwood and the final chicane!

youtube . com /watch?v=RwQAnYlWwnY

Also posting the full lap:

youtube . com /watch?v=oWOXcccZJNo

[pbmr2]

you took better lines in the mk3 which would have helped. maybe that's because it looks like the mk2 was moving around much more so picking the line wasn't as easy?

the mk3 is very nimble and light, that's not going to make up for the power loss on a track like that

[DaveWS]

Yeah the lines were indeed better with the MK3, and I only had 15 or so laps in total with the Turbo so there was definitely time still on the table.

I was planning to lower the ride height on the coilovers but the engine issue cut my running short. I'm sure with an optimised setup it would be better behaved and more settled.

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How much

Is it track days only
Or
Do they open for testing?

I'm from Poole and itsthe closest to me