r200ti

As im a bit bored ill update the Mk2 ST review with its track performance. The car i took to the track was reasonably std, 290bhp (remap, intercooler, cais etc) and eibach springs with a thicker rear arb set to soft. And on Road tyres. It was a real mixed bag. What suprised me was it was incredibly agile. Direction change and turn in were a match for small hatches, infact id go as far to say evo like. And its braking was awesome, aided by its excellent electronics. The brakes also held up pretty well, for the weight and power I really expected them to go away after 2 laps. On the negative side with soft springing, 1.6 tons of mass (was carrying a 100kg passanger), no LSD and 380lbs of torque it just span up even through 4th gear. This made corner exits incredibly frustrating. The engine is great, even pulling all that bulk and having a bit to much torque and not quite enough power it still goes well and sounds amazing. Fit an LSD to it and i reckon the ST would be a potent track car considering its bulk and small turbo. Also re the electronics, while the ABS programme and ESP were amazing and did things I couldnt with an extra set of limbs the traction control was awful. Turning it off dropped laptimes by 2 seconds!! But did require a very delicate right foot. My conclusion of its track efforts are its typical 'road car'. Itll get beat not because it useless, it just doesnt do what a track car needs to do - get out of the corner as fast as possible. But considering its a cheap, extremely practical road car the fact I had no problems with scoobies or Clio 200's means its not as bad as many would think. And yes, without a remap and/or breathing mods (breathing mods can up it to around 250-260 before a remap)they are not quick cars. 220bhp + 1500kg dont go! J

That was the issue for him here, he didnt drive very smart. Pastor was wrong no doubt and i personally think the penalty was to soft. But Lewis should of let him go. He knew the pass was going to happen at some point, putting himself in a position to bang wheels when hes fighting for the title was silly. To me saying Pastor was wrong so Lewis had the right to throw away a heap of points isnt clever thinking. Its how titles are lost. Altough Pastor is turning out to be a real danger. Id go as far to say he should be on a warning by now and facing a ban.

yeh, true. But then i could get shown up by a Deisal. Works both ways If you do happen to need an extra body, dont forget me Id bring the Ford if that goes down better, I just like the thought of timed laps with road cars... J

ah pants. I could glue a skoda badge on? im not fussed

Im up for this if Im allowed? (non Skoda/VAG). Love timed events, huge fun as long as people dont get to serious! Will everyone be on road tyres? Or we using sticky stuff? I could also get some Rover boys interested if we need even bigger numbers? 1 - PastyBoy - mk1 Fabia VRS 2 - Bossfox - mk1 Fabia VRS SE 3 - vRS Joe - mk1 Fabia VRS 4 – softscoop – mk1 Fabia VRS 5 – jonny5ive – mk1 Fabia VRS 6 - vRS-Powered - mk2 Fabia vRS 7 - Missingmyvrs - octy mk1 8 - SimonK24 - mk1 Fabia vRS 9 – MarTTyn – mk2 Fabia VRS 10 – max132 – mk1 Fabia VRS 11 – Faboka vrs – mk1 Fabia VRS 12 - Adm – mk1 Fabia VRS 13. xa0sx - Fabia vRS 14. ROS5EY - Fabia vRS 15 - mr rooney - ibiza mk4 PD130 --- Non Skoda 16 – curly – mk2 Fabia VRS 17 - Andrew1991 - mk2 Fabia vrs 18 – LexVRS – mk1 Octavia VRS 19 - devonutopia - fabia mongrel 20 - M12MKD - Skoda Octavia combi 21 - Delcac - Octavia vRS 22 - skodanorman - Octavia vRS TFSI 23- darrenvrs - Fabia VRS 24- Beryl's Chief Pilot - Octy vRS Mk1 25 - FocusZtec - Yeti 4x4 1.8TSi 26 - Ad Lav - MK2 Fabia vRS Estate 27. Octimark - mk2 Octavia VRS 28. Reavenger - MKII Fabia vRS 29. Harry_vRS - Mk2 Octavia vRS TFSI (Date / Work dependant) 30. Ilmor - Mk1 Fabia vRS (Date / Work dependant) 31. R200ti - Rover 214 turbo (or Focus ST if the date is soon) ---Non Skoda.

Give it a go mate. Welding is huge fun, but very difficult to get the hang of. Its a bit of skill to do it right no doubt. And once you have a welder you can do allsorts. Ive made rad brakets (car), fitted new sills(car), fixed the bed (house, pregnant woman = broken furniture) and had tons of fun just welding random bits of metal together and only had it a month or so. J

Dragging a car will have little impact on the rear tyres, they will never get hot enough to fail, whatever the speed rating (within reason!) As said, pumping them to a high PSI to run on a small centre peice of tread will acheive the same thing. Although of course smaller wheels and tyres are lighter..... Also, re speed ratings on the strip the fronts could be sub 20psi which will effectivly take chunks out of any manufacturer speed ratings. 2nd gear starts are the way forward J

I hope for Kimis sake Robert doesnt come back, if he is anything more than 50% as good as he was he'll make Kimi look very silly J

I didnt, but i remember some trying to chase down a mk1 vRS down urban roads in a Volvo T5 and failing miserably ok, the idiot in the octy deserved hanging, but crime/danger etc omited the actual chase was comical seeing 'trained' drivers in a much more powerful car getting made fools of by a kid in vRS! J

Problem with these is they are the opposite, Ive never seen a fast one as drivers simply dont seem to be able to lean on them hard enough. Ive also seen quite a few smokey ones on track days.. due to the nature of the engine it needs to be constantly at very high revs which cant be healthy. Id say something french if you want to get in and have some fun. Out of the box the pugs and renaults handle superbly. If your going to end up wanting to go faster then the Ibiza, throw some mods at it and it will eat a 172 - or a type R alive. edit: And yeh, mx5's seem good. Every person I see in one has a huge smile and is having a great time! J

Been thinking that, thanks for the tip J

What car are you using? This can make a difference in how long it takes to learn a set of corners. Im guessing these are twisty sprint tracks, not full size race tracks (where you tend to have plenty of time to think about the next few corners)? If so, yeh it can be tricky as your not able to plan your approaches and you dont get enough practise laps to figure out whats going where. Something to consider - we dont know the scale of your problem. Saying your doing timed events says to me your reasonably experianced/capable anyway!! Which makes giving useful advise tricky without seeing how your going J

What are acutally after mate, learning new tracks quicker or simply lowering your laptimes? J

I never carry a spare tyre Its a lot of weight and usually positioned rearward of the rear axle. And so rely on the goo stuff. Never had to use it fortunatly, Although tbh, unless your after better handling Id keep the spare, as said the impact on mpg will be negligible. On a road car under normal use aerodynamic drag is a much larger factor to mpg, the impact of 10-15kg on engine loading is tiny. J

Have fun mate, top guys at Apex. I plan to do a donnington with them before the end of the year. And yeh, epic thread topic spelling J

Driving to quick (tho often within the speed limit) on residential streets should be a banable offence in imho. It shows complete disregard for anyone bar themselves and is extremly dangerous. Also shows what a complete farce the Polices/states/goverments attitude on speeding is. You can loose your license doing 50 on an empty straight road a couple of times, but drive around blind corners and past kids playing at whatever speed you want and its fine. LOL @ didnt see double decker!! I had my daugters teacher tell me first onto a roundabout has right of way the other day (after i nearly drove into her).... tis scary stuff. J

New layout is great Colin, its low risk, easy but still fun. Ha, yeh, they are ok for old sheds J

Cool car the 3 I was tempted but tax put me off instantly, 250 is acceptable for a fast hatch 400 odd is taking the p 4wd doesn't automatically make a car handle better mind, it does make a car slower tho I'd sooner have the 3!

It was 2 laps, and thats the difference between hot and cold which is as big a difference as you can get. Notice he pulled out about 2 seconds within a few corners after that move - Alonso was sensible if you ask me, there was such a disparity in grip Lewis would of got him somewhere else. It was a good win tho, its the first time for a long time ive seen Lewis win with what isnt clearly the fastest car. Hopefully the season can continue like this and we can have more Hamilton/Alonso showdowns as they are clearly the best 2 drivers in the field. J

I wouldn't say Lewis made alonso look silly. Massive tyre difference and alonso didn't really resist much. And as good a drive as it was by lewis, like last year he will bin it as much as he wins. He needs to do this consistantly to silence his critics. And also stop talking so much shat like hes been doing !

Yes, there was a lot, lot more to him than 'just' being a supreme driver. Its what in my eyes stands him above the likes of Schumacher, Alonso etc. I find it sad when documentaries often lay a heavy focus on his aggression on the track. When in reality he was far fairer and less prone to hitting people than Michael or Lewis are and it was a tiny part of what he was and acheived. A proper legend. J

Last run of the day was lucky enough to get this, Nigel (mk2 golf, in car) follows me for a lap before his battery died. It was the first proper run we had together all day and was awesome fun. I have more power, but he has slicks and less weight (but with a passenger). When we swapped round and he led, again the gap held steady at around 1 second for the remaining laps. Its the first time ive ever put race effort into a track session and was awesome fun. (despite my car looking boring, i was trying bloody hard!) And I was mightly impressed with Nigel and his car. And his wicked on screen graphics! J

yeh, those mini cams are tricky to use. you dont really know if you got it right till you got it home! I also found the batterys dont last long, so the need a lot of charging (which seems slow) For the price id get 2 and mount in 2 places, or charge one while you use the other. Good vids tho And yeti on track - J

Type R's arent really all there made out to be. They dont handle all that well and the vtec means you have to redline them in every gear to get the 190 odd bhp they have working. J

They need to drop trying to fit diesal into the grid. Its apples and stones. The regs will always favour one or the other. And a straight matchup isnt possible as petrol wins using normal measuring methods. J