Snetterton Track Day

Just completed my first track day, with my middle son in the Tuscan and it was brilliant; expensive, but brilliant!

The Tuscan ran beautifully the whole day. We could just about keep up with the fast guys and never felt like we were lacking in power, even though there were a lot of race prepped and super charged TVR Griffiths, Chimaeras and T350s etc there. Quite a few cars didn't last the distance however and had to be trailered home.

The upgraded brakes were really good and never faded once, even though towards the end I was really, really leaning on them very hard. I was nervous of cooking them at first, but needn't have worried.

The handling was very neutral indeed and neither end felt that it was going to do anything nasty.
We had a lot of controlled power slides though and I could squeak the front tyres or slide the tail out at will. We Steepened the angle of attack of the top blade of the wing and that did seem to help the handling, there were a couple of other Tuscans there all 'S' versions that have 30 more Horsepower than mine, but we could corner faster than them and they did not seem to have any more power on the straights.

The Tuscan used nearly 50 litres of Super Unleaded during the day, which was a bit of a shock!
I was using the shift lights though, and revving to over 6000 through the gears. We could just about reach 130 down the Revett straight and 120 on the start line Senna straight, before we had to brake hard for the corners with the car standing on its nose.

My driving certainly improved throughout the day and fortunately the weather was glorious and the track very sticky. I was very impressed with the Bridgestone Potenza tyres fitted to the Tuscan you could really depend on them.

The Tuscan throttle however has a vey long action and it hurt my leg after a while to push it all the way over and down. You also have to be gentle when changing down the box and wait for
everything to settle down and not force the stick through. Every lap we learnt a little more and got used to the car until we were flying round, choosing the braking points with care and sliding through most of the bends.

The Tuscan is truly an awesome car and very forgiving too. Not once did I feel things were getting out of control or beyond my abilities, which says a lot for the car! It is very tiring though and tonight we are both shattered. I feel I could have done better and there is much room for improvement, but probably 2 track days a year will be enough I think.

Snetterton is a great track and the facilities are very good and very clean. This Trackday was organised by Easy Track and the paper work and briefings and marshalls etc were all extremely well organised.

The Tuscan is being serviced and MOT'd tomorrow at Sebring in Wisbeech so we shall see what needs doing. I guess a new set of brake pads will be required at least! It is not the big 12,000 mile service, so I have everything crossed I won't get a horrendous bill.