Not at home yet, I'll post tyre pics in the next couple of days

When I switched TC off I shaved 1.1sec off my best TC on time . I am of two minds here... If I was driving with TC off from the word go I'd most probably be quicker by the timed laps but most certainly there would be no tyres left to go home on . I think I am happy with driving practice laps with TC on and timed ones with it off. Down side is I had no time to perfect that throttle steering. I was blown away how much tighter I could take corners with throttle modulation on the long left handers allowed for much more grip leading to tighter lines and earlier full throttle without tyre spin.

I am well impressed you guys posted the times you did with TC on!!

That Yeti was seriously planted and being 0.051 faster than it doesn't really count . James's time looks even better in this context!

Jason almost made that TT-RS guy weep lol.

I ran TC off, however when really pushing the computer was still in there fiddling with throttle and especially with braking, if I threw it in to a corner fast and lifted off the brakes the onboard electronics would compensate and apply braking, So I was not totally unaided whilst in the driving seat.

I have to say I was expecting to be lower down the table than I was, I even had a passenger.

Anyone got a scan/pic of the practise final times? I have mine but its in the car (which is locked and busy having the battery charged up....)

I have to say I was expecting to be lower down the table than I was, I even had a passenger.

I wasn't surprised, they are a pretty capable car with some trick electronics and you probably make up a second or two per lap in gear changes alone.

Without a passenger I'd have expected you to be in the low 1:34's.

You also have some track experience.

Need to try again...

First How Fast in the damp a stock mk2 Fabia VRS beat everyone.

I want to try again!!! When are we going.

The ESP is still on James, no matter what you do... You can still get sideways though, I did! (and the yeti did massively! Lol)

The ESP isnt ever off even when "switched off". It just allows you to be more aggressive on the throttle, which is good as i think as the TC comes in way to early, cuts too much power and stays on for too long.

That's why I couldn't push any more as I was feeling the tyres going to chocolate and loosing grip. That never ending left hander leading to armco straight was the killer. I do not think I have it sussed out all. This is where the tyres got the most punishment and I was taking it really slowly. Funny enough with TC off and throttle steering I was able to get much better line with less tyre squeal.

My first trackday in the Fabia at Rockingham running stock Conti's SC2 tyres resulted in them being blistered very badly.

Jabo, great review of our day, as for brakes I feel the better pads are good enough to take the abuse the track situation creates, as for the bigger brakes i really don't see why?

I might even get red stuff for the next outing and I have to say the part worn tyres were the best thing I used, we left home with 3mm on both fronts and gave no mercy on the track, the front left got torched every time I accelerated out of the first hairpin with wheelspin in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear !!

Red stuff are road pads though so you will be in the same boat as Jabo with the pads getting to hot and suffering fade.

Regarding the inside wheel spinning up on tighter corners, this irritated the absolute hell out of me on all the tracks i did on stock suspension. The Rear ARB will get rid of that for you. Mine suffered badly when stock suspension(stage 2 power) at the hairpin@ Mallory park in the dry, however the next time I went Mallory it wasnt spinning up at all despite it being a soaking day and running worn semi slicks and running around an extra 40Hp!!

Every corner the car was squirming for grip as I took the BossFox approach and showed little mercy, for the next track day I will look at weight reduction (leave my lad in the pits or at home ) spare wheel out and back seats too, as for anything else with the Fabia II, I wouldn't change anything, I know I will never be number 1 as there are much faster cars there but, look at the line up, the 1.4 Rover had a blast and finished much higher up the results than I ever imagined and then there was the 1.7 SDI Fabia estate, he had a fantastic day on track and was grinning from ear to ear after his laps, the final reality check is BossFox, standard Yeti and we were slower than him, this says to me we need to learn to drive on a track before we start changing parts of our cars to go faster, just a thought. :think:

Bring on the next one, I will be there.

Ive never really bothered taking the back seats out apart from on the 1/4 mile but FWIW the rear bench seats, spare tyre and tools total 49kg, so it is a big difference.

You have hit the nail on the head with your plans though. you should be able to just attend a trackday with minimal work to the car. That is the basis of a hot hatch IMO. Brakes are something which need sorting on pretty much every hot hatch for a track as road pads struggle on track, obviously some cars handle it better than others. I have issues with the need to make mine go quicker and handle better so i can upset more expensive machinery then act as if theres nowt done to my car though lol.

Mine did 6 trackdays on stock suspension. I must admit i found the dry trackdays frustrating because of body roll, brakes and tyres, but i think the stock chassis really excelled on wet trackdays, that really was its trump card IMO.

Looks like it was a great day. If only A - I was closer to bedford rather than as far noth in scotland as you can go(well near enough anyway) and B - If only my car was fixed I could have made a weekend of it, especially as i have next week off of work.

Shame its going before i get another chance.

My timed bits - If you want to skip straight to building up to the timed laps, skip to 1:20 ish

Anyone got a scan/pic of the practise final times? I have mine but its in the car (which is locked and busy having the battery charged up....)

Impresive to see that Jason was within sniffing distance of the TT-RS at the end of practice.

Even thought the TT-RS appeared to have done the 8am session too so had more practice.

Not to mention the Yeti was in 2nd (Skoda) place...

Not to mention the Yeti was in 2nd (Skoda) place...

I was second last

I am so grateful to Will for turning up, although he was a little too close for comfort

To me Brim, you are an example of what the event is all about.

You turn up every time, have a lot of fun and don't take the whole thing too seriously.

Here is a clip for Pasty, at the wheel of the MK ii, totally unfamiliar and then to get a phone call too lol! All whilst his pride and joy is being loaded on a tow truck.

Not sure if anybody mentioned it and if it was only my impression but most of the time I felt like I had the whole track to myself! I think the numbers were perfect and the HowFast? format works really well. Come to think about it I would not want to do any more laps on my current setup for sheer mechnical sympathy - I really felt it for the brakes and tyres at times...

As I was driving my vRS past the event I had, a very subjective of course, feeling that she was more eager to accelerate. Not sure if this is just psychological or if there is any mechanical truth in it.

For the risk of sounding like a broken record I would seriously encourage all of you to try going for a session of proper two stroke direct drive racing go-karts (not the corpoprate chuggers rubbish) at some time. I am up for organising it. Sharing a kart for an hour between two drivers so 30 mins each (and unless trained your body will not kindly take to more than that) works out cheaper than HowFast?. Added advantage is that you do not have to worry about your brakes, tyres, turbos etc . Let me know if there is any interest.

If I still have my car the next time there's a How Fast? I'd be tempted. I won't be that quick as apart from Combe I don't have much track experience but my times are consistent. It's only a bit of fun and as Richard said Brim take the right approach in not taking it too seriously.

We've had the practice times, we've had the hot lap times, now we have possibly the most important table of all (for obvious reasons), the improvement between practice and hot lap times

01. +5.317 - Bryan (Brimma)

02. +1.786 - Dave (Dave And Lolli)

03. +1.509 - Jamie (James I)

04. +1.366 - Dave (sharkrider)

05. +1.071 - Peter (Jabozuma)

06. +0.931 - Jason (devonutopia)

07. +0.832 - Pete (skud vrs)

08. +0.708 - Xav (Xavier)

09. +0.688 - Andy (ilmor)

10. +0.172 - Richard (BossFox)

11. +0.152 - Craig (CRAIGROBBO)

12. -0.358 - Joe (VRS Joe)

13. -0.369 - Mike (M12MKD)

14. -0.823 - Haydn (niceyellow vrs)

15. -2.046 - Cliff (PastyBoy)*

16. -2.661 - Will (ickleginge)

* I put Pasty down just so that he didn't feel left out, but as we know, he was driving a totally alien car for his hot lap, courtesy of James

Blimey, that's some improvement Brim!

On that basis you'll be 2nd next time!

Blimey, that's some improvement Brim!

It's been the same each time I've been.......obviously far too conservative and protective of my car in practice

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It's been the same each time I've been.......obviously far too conservative and protective of my car in practice

You proved you can do it, we know you have it in you, just let go of the inhibitions and let it rip! 5 secs improvement, that's like adding 100hp NoS kit , brilliant stuff!

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It's been the same each time I've been.......obviously far too conservative and protective of my car in practice

Know exactly what you mean.

Great improvement though

I realised a strange thing driving to and from work today. Doing all the antics on the track including pretending to be a sailing yacht (according to vRSy ) and nearly outbraking myself from just above 100mph I felt much more relaxed and safer than driving I public roads...

We've had the practice times, we've had the hot lap times, now we have possibly the most important table of all (for obvious reasons), the improvement between practice and hot lap times

01. +5.317 - Bryan (Brimma)

02. +1.786 - Dave (Dave And Lolli)

03. +1.509 - Jamie (James I)

04. +1.366 - Dave (sharkrider)

05. +1.071 - Peter (Jabozuma)

06. +0.931 - Jason (devonutopia)

07. +0.832 - Pete (skud vrs)

08. +0.708 - Xav (Xavier)

09. +0.688 - Andy (ilmor)

10. +0.172 - Richard (BossFox)

11. +0.152 - Craig (CRAIGROBBO)

12. -0.358 - Joe (VRS Joe)

13. -0.369 - Mike (M12MKD)

14. -0.823 - Haydn (niceyellow vrs)

15. -2.046 - Cliff (PastyBoy)*

16. -2.661 - Will (ickleginge)

* I put Pasty down just so that he didn't feel left out, but as we know, he was driving a totally alien car for his hot lap, courtesy of James

Yay I came near the top in one list!! Thanks Bryan

now for the picture of my knackered tyres.....

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bloody useless plastic tyres boiled...... my Maxxis never did that on the nurburgring or at Castle combe.....

I was going to get some RSR's but my wheels didn't sell.... may drop the price to £450 with 2 maxxis and 2 broken dunlops (but 2 newer wheels....) http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/275984-fabia-2-vrs-alloys-black-maxxis-z1-tyres-min-6-mill-tread/ then at least I can have the fronts maxxis the rears wern't too bad...

They are poor, considering they have Sport Maxx stamped on them. Good luck with the sale.

It was a bit like bringing a knife to a gun fight, being in the SDI. But you're welcome Brimma, any time.