So my on-track experience.
1) For car lovers these are fantastic events, even if you do not participate, there is quite some car excitement around these events.
2) With the driving itself was less impressed as I thought I would be. Yes the cars are fast the cornering is impressive and the breaking breathtaking, but I was careful in the end.
3) Really happy to have done it, might have regretted it if I did not take the opportunity while I can do this.
First, the track:
Chenevières is a 2 year old track, very wide at all places (12m I believe).
The outside was not usable, due to an incident with the Lamborghini Diablo VT, that had a conduit that let loose in the morning and dirtied the whole track.
The braking points were marked with 2 cones, as well as the racing line, the latter with cones that made gates like in a ski slalom.
The briefing was quite standard, some interesting discussion on the racing line, which I had not seen this extreme in hairpins till now (although it is the line I drive at Eiger when I think of it).
Another thing is degressive braking; after starting to brake, go fast to the maximum = just not slipping and then let go (it is not a lot normally) more and more afterward.
They also stressed "no engine braking" since this is not helpful for reliability of the car, this behaviors is not really what I see in GT5p top times. On top of the reliability argument engine braking would allow less control then normal braking. Not discussed there, but is seems that the only reason for engine braking is to avoid overheating or wear on your brakes.
I drove a Ferrari 360 Modena F1.
This car is powerful 300 kW. You do not have it for its lovely interiour, as a matter of fact it was more Spartan then I expected.
The low roof together with the fact I had to wear a helmet, made that I was almost completely flat in the car. Actually I had taken my helmet, but did not even fit in with this one so had to take one of their helmets.
Inside you find 2 pedals and 2 fixed flaps on the steering wheel. I did not dare left foot braking, which I do on my G25.
Since we were instructed to keep our hands on 09h15, I kept using the horn unintentionally.
My experience:
This is one great car, it goes fast, it keeps going and through the chicane it felt like glued to the road. Almost no roll and reaction on any input is very direct, well except for ...
the F1 gearbox that you operate keeping full throttle (like I do on the G25) and feels quite slow in reaction. It seems to think before shifting, but the change is fast and loss of couple is very limited.
Images here just for general admosphere info:
Now is there a big difference between the physical reaction of the car on the road and in simulators like GT5p?
Well I believe in the 4 rounds I did I was far from the limit, but well over any legal limit in speed. I felt a lot less G-force and frame movement in this car, then I do when pushing my day to day car, probably due to the hard suspension, which is to my believe part of why I was less impressed then expected.
The most impressive was starting to brake in a slight turn at high speed, where the whole car started to shake a little. Oh yes and the reaction when starting the car gives the impression it wants to jump away, quite a character as reaction on throttle.
Oh one big difference from GT5p was the instructor, aouch....
Break on 3, 1 .. 2.. 3 ... shift to 5th, ....
Do not shift down this early, ...break harder ... turn in faster ...
Do not go over the rumble stips again or ....
All in all you do feel they are there for the security of all, not only the cars, and they do help you progress.
One instructor, 25 years old, but already a retired single seater pilot, admitted that Gran Turismo had one of the best physical models around. He also liked Dirt2 a lot for the physics on dirt roads.
There are the other drivers (here no punters, hooray) on the track; where some are fast (the pros giving racing speed experience to some) some are slow, they block your speed, since you can only pass on instruction of the instructor. The fast drove the blue prototype cars (Hayabusa engine 450 kg) you can see below:
I had already gone round a track with a pro on the circuit in Zolder years ago so did not take the "racing speed experience". From my memory, the drive in Zolder was in a Westfield Lotus 7 replica with 1.6 4cyl Ford engine and the G-forces in fast corners are nothing for me.
Conclusion:
* very fun thing to do, overall happy to have done it
* sad about the price and number of rounds you get on the track
* I actually was less impressed since I know what these cars can do from GT5p, already had the g-forces experience and with the limited number of rounds was still very careful.
* it is good to do a "racing speed experience" sitting next to a professional driver, so that you experience the g-forces in full at least once.
, with the next organisation
