And for those hesitant about going on track for the first time, Bedford is absolutely fantastic. A great venue to lose your trackday virginity.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for any other events being arranged. To date the most fun I've ever had on 4 wheels was driving one of these things around a dirt track time-trial style (no racing) on a stag do event day. I reckon driving my own car round a track will be more hair raising on multiple levels

I can honestly say it was £25 well spent.

Every new track i visit, i always pay for the instructor. Worth every penny.

Some on board footage from the Brisk Rover of me chasing Pete at the end of the session

^^^ How to get the most out of your car at the track, it is all about the lines! Love it

haha was i that obvious. Its all going except the downpipe.

Will anything fit my V6 Golf? Brakes maybe?

If its Mk4 then yes, as will the alloys.

It is a MK iv, I have a set of 18" 9 spoke TT wheels on it and I also have the 17" BBS I used today, so sorted in the wheel department thanks. Might be interested in the brakes though.

Don't want to be rude, but could I suggest a PM if negotiating over parts?

PM sent, thanks for the prompt

Every new track i visit, i always pay for the instructor. Worth every penny.

Exactly the reason i did it.

Ok, this thread is starting to go to sleep as the event is done and dusted, on the day I asked Richard (Boss Fox) if I could follow him in his Yeti to learn the lines at Bedford as I had never been there before, here is a few minutes of me trying my hardest to keep up with Richard, he took off like an exocet missile!!! Enjoy catch the Yeti!

Looks like a good day out.

I wish id booked on now, would have been good in the MX me thinks..

Think the BriskRover will be a proper weapon with a bit more grunt! lol

Looks like a good day out.

I wish id booked on now, would have been good in the MX me thinks..

You'd have been barred in the MX

It was a great Briskie day out indeed!

That was my first time ever driving a "normal" passenger car on a race track of any kind. I've never been to Bedford Autodrome ever before either so you might say I lost my track virginity there . How excellent place to do it was. I will echo others here as agree that facilities and track were first class.

PastBoy deserves all the praise for organising it, thank you Sir! I was just behind you when you spun, went I the grass and as a result sustained turbo damage. I hope it isn't terminal and easily fixed!

Except from Sharkrider I think I was the only factory stock Fabia vRS (hatch and estate) on track. That includes all the seats and full size spare wheel on board. I am grateful weather was on a colder side as I dread to think what would've left from those super soft Dinlops if it was any warmer.

As you can see shoulder eaten away and each thread run has edges chamfered. I must admit I was trying very hard ...

Brakes took some serious beating and after the first warmup stint thick blue black smoke was pouring from both front wheels. It was so bad I had to take her out immediately to cool them down!

This picture shows front disc. Outer part is still bluish from massive overheat but inner part of the rotor is already showing better colours

Brake pads simply boiled. This photo is not the best but shows edge of the pad with "boiled and bubbled" pad material.

I am sooo glad I changed the fluid as it hasn't boiled and despite all that brutalising brakes are perfectly fine. Tested them at 6am on my way from Luton airport .

Brakes in general were the only thing on the car completely unsuitable for track work, they simply burn :(. They have enough stopping power when emergency brake assist is activated (brake pedal mashed against bulkhead and brake lights flashing) but this is not the way to use brakes and massively overheats them. James had yellow stuff pads and had no problems at all as you can tell by his times. Your times were great mate, congrats!

I have try that different brake assist setting (no time to do that on the track) as I think with track pads and track tyres I would be able to shave few good seconds of my time. Not to mention having a little bit of experience now and discovering how limiting traction control was massively regret I only switched it off for timed laps as I was able to go over 1.5sec faster using throttle steering compensation giving me much better lines in those never ending tyres killing left handers!!

I also drove the Nissan and Mark drove vRS. It is a beauty to drive! Mark's comments were mainly about how crap the brakes were lol. He was massively surprised by the power and handling as he was expecting much much worse from Skoda!

As for the handling I had no problems whatsoever. I really liked the feedback car was giving me and the only brown pants moments I had were when brakes were completely overheated and my corner entry speed too high. ARB and camber setting would save tyres and let me get on the power early by keeping dynamic load distribution better me thinks.

Engine did not overheat and oil was not getting above 120C. It however drum 300ml of the lube and done 186 miles to full tank of petrol lol.

As for the format it was absolutely perfect. For most of the time I felt like I was all alone on the track, only indicating for the TT-RS and when on my cooling down laps.

Times were not that important time and I was really expecting to be I the bottom half of the time sheets with no experience and bog standard car so I am chuffed to bits with the results!

Thank you again Mr Pasty for organising and it was a pleasure to meet you guys and have good chats with some of you, Jamie, Bryan, Richard and everybody else I talked to.

Mark told me it was a fabulous day Briskie crowd is ace and he will be doing it again.

To summarise only two things are needed.

1. Brakes need doing as OEM's have no thermal capacity to take track abuse. Bigger brake kit, track pads? I do not know. Jamie was very happy on his yellow stuff so perhaps this will be the first port of call and then VCDS setting.

2. Dunlops are too soft and ate getting shredded so need better rubber, preferably on some super light alloys, ones like Brimma had, but black of course.

I had whale of a time and thank you everybody!!!

Time for me to review my footage. I'll aim to post my "timed" runs as that was where my 1.29.8 came from. Not sure if it was the first or second of the two - suspect the 2nd when I had got the tyres red hot again.

My Tyres (dunlops) look worse than tgat Jab, they are destroyed... I'll post pics up later... I was happy enough with the brakes, new Tyres are my first port of call....

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.

Post your piccies Dave!

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 !!

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.

Here is me in the Fabia, pushing Craig in his 20 Valve Turbo 4x4 Octy, I had a great chase, managed to close him down a few times but did not have enough to pass him, at about 1.18 in this clip the Octy spouts flames from the exhaust, not to clear on the video but it did do it.

Thanks for the eventful few laps Craig.

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:

To be fair my Yeti is mapped to around 200bhp. It's not exactly standard as it has a bit more urge and revs far better to the higher RPM range now. The map Jabbasport put on is very smooth so it's a delight to drive.

But it is surprisingly capable, I had a bit of tyre wear on the edges and no brake problems at all.

Those tyres have done 10k miles, two How Fast? events and a Castle Combe brisky session, so down to about 3mm now.

It came with those as standard factory fitment. Pirelli P Zeros.

The chassis set up as standard clearly has hidden talents, it's just hampered by the electrical nanny which is what limits you.

And you were quicker, when you didn't have a passsenger.

2nd in practice and 5th on the timed laps, everyone really pulled out all the stops. Just as it hould be!

To be fair my Yeti is mapped to around 200bhp. It's not exactly standard as it has a bit more urge and revs far better to the higher RPM range now. The map Jabbasport put on is very smooth so it's a delight to drive.

But it is surprisingly capable, I had a bit of tyre wear on the edges and no brake problems at all.

Those tyres have done 10k miles, two How Fast? events and a Castle Combe brisky session, so down to about 3mm now.

It came with those as standard factory fitment. Pirelli P Zeros.

The chassis set up as standard clearly has hidden talents, it's just hampered by the electrical nanny which is what limits you.

Those tyres are really good. Did you drive with TC on or off?

Think the BriskRover will be a proper weapon with a bit more grunt! lol

Guess what I've just found on the bay

Those tyres are really good. Did you drive with TC in or off?

Honestly, I had it on.

In hindsight I should have practiced with it off, but only managed one run after taking the (heavy) seats out.

I wasn't going to do the timed laps with a newly unbalanced car and try TC off for the first time too.

I left mine on too. Got less wheelspin and seemed to get better solid pull out of the tighter corners