My driving experience at Goodwood

[sayerbloke]

Yesterday, I was at Goodwood motor circuit for a driving experience.

Warmup laps were done in Alfa 159s. Passenger rides were done in Mini Coopers. Because they were running several different events that day, it meant there were classic cars, modern cars and race cars dotted around the pitlane/paddock.

I'll do a writeup of my thoughts later, but for now here are some of the pictures

[As usual with Webshots, the navigation/image sizing controls and captions are shown to the right of the image ]

[MOSE]

Some great looking cars there

I've been invited along to the VXR track day at Brands on 24th May (bout time I took a sicky), and we get to drive the VXR range of cars. Will be intersting to see how the simple brake and suspension mods change the handling of the car when being thrashed around the track.

[sayerbloke]

As promised, here's my thoughts about the day

The experience:

3 warm-up laps in the Alfa 159, 3 laps in the Corvette, 2 passenger laps in the Mini.

The circuit:

I found the Goodwood circuit slightly harder to learn than the other circuits I've driven, but I enjoyed the layout once I'd done a couple of laps. It has a nice combination of medium and high speed corners.

The organisers:

From the outside, the event didn't seem as well organised as the last couple I went on, but it wasn't a problem. As usual, they regularly checked you were still enjoying yourself. The instructors did a good job and everyone around seemed to be having a good time.

THE CARS

The Alfa:

Big news first; It was fitted with the 2.4 litre diesel engine. Turns out we can add Alfa to the list of companies who knows how to make a good diesel because the car was smooth, refined and powerful. I spent the 3 laps with the car learning the circuit rather than concentrating on what it was like to drive, but I do remember a couple of things. The gearbox [and indeed, all the other controls] felt nice to use. I don't know if it was because I didn't spend enough time getting my seating position correct or if it would always be the case, but I found I couldn't easily move my right leg between the brake and accelerator pedals because I kept clipping the roof of the footwell. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt though because I found I was sitting a little too far forwards to really get the lock on the steering wheel through one corner and that the 'A' pillar often obscured my vision. Turn-in could have done with being a little sharper too, but as this is a saloon car and there were 4 of us in there maybe that's overly critical. Alongside some of the other cars I've driven, the actual experience behind the wheel of the Alfa will probably be rather forgettable, but I will be able to remember it as the first decent diesel I've driven.

The Mini:

I was a passenger in the Mini for two laps while it was being driven by the same instructor I had during my time in the 'vette. For a front wheel drive car, it handled very well indeed. It seemed quite... "pointy" would be the best way to describe it. He could really attack the circuit with it. I've a new found respect for them!

The Corvette:

If I didn't enjoy driving the Corvette, not only would it have made the whole of this experience a disappointment, it would have shattered a dream that started back in 1998 when the C5 Corvette was released. When I drove a Viper last year, there were a number of things I wasn't keen on so I was hoping [praying even] that this big American would be better...

...And it didn't let me down. In the Viper, I couldn't get comfortable and the seat wouldn't go quite far forward enough for me to fully depress the clutch without stretching. In the Corvette, the seats were endlessly adjustable using the electric controls on the side and I was soon comfy. In the Viper, the pedals felt like you were kicking pieces of rolled up mat. In the Corvette, they had a much more meaty, quality feel to them. The Viper had all the refinement and NVH qualities of a racecar, which held a certain attraction but would get wearing quickly in the real world. In the Corvette, we had a discussion without really needing to raise our voices... With crash helmets on... in full convertible mode... at 120mph. But that's enough of the comparisons with the Viper, which itself did have a number of good points.

I was expecting the Corvette to be quick and it was. I was expecting it to handle well and it did. What did surprise me was how good the gear change was. I've heard it referred to as agricultural so I wasn't expecting much but I found it a joy to take through the gears. Looking at the gearlever, I thought it would be a much longer throw than it actually feels like when driving. The brakes feel firm and inspire confidence, forward visibility is great and I was impressed by how the HUD isn't at all distracting as you only seem to notice it when you actually want to.

Downsides? Well, I didn't find any during my short time with the car. I don't suppose it did anything quite perfectly but equally I can't really fault it on anything. Saying it doesn't handle as well as the Noble or that it didn't feel as violently fast as the Diablo are hardly the end of the world. It reminds me in several ways of the Mercedes SL55 I drove, actually.

I loved it