VXR Track day thread
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Soldato
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The way I heard it works is that in the pit lane they have a kind of bus stop queue for each car model, think they'll be up to 30 cars on the track, I'd imagine the majority would be Corsas and Astras so these queues would move quicker than say the vxr8. You do an in lap, flying lap and out lap upon which you return the car to the 'bus stop' and the next driver will get in, you can then either queue up for that car again or pick a different car.
The other part of the track day from what I assume is driving a skid car or practicing hand brake turns and whatever.
The other part of the track day from what I assume is driving a skid car or practicing hand brake turns and whatever.
Sirrel Squirrel said:
Yup it is the same this year, they did that last year. Someone over on Cliosport posted about the day:
just come back from donny, and it was a very good day got 3 goes in the astra (7 laps), 1 go in the vxr8 (3 laps), 2 goes in the corsa (4 laps), 1 go in the vectra (2 laps) and a fast lap in a astra with Tom Chilton and a fast lap in a corsa with Paul Wallace iirc, that is somthing to experiance they are nutters.
there was no real waiting for cars either iirc they had 5 vxr8, 6 astras, 6 corsas, 4 vectras, 1 zafira, 1 mariva, all you do is stand by a bus stop by the pit garage and when the car comes in get in.
they split everybody up into 2 groups of around 40 each group and it is 1 group on track for approx 90 mins while the others do the auto test and handbrake parking, and then it is swap round.
this was my first time on track and it was very good and having a instructor sat beside you does help and they dont hold you back.
got a goodie bag at the end as well with a vxr t shirt and keyring.
£95 well spent
Caporegime
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got my ticket today for oulton park, get in!
Associate
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whos doing donnington tomorrow afternoon?
im looking forward to it, just need to try and find my paper driving license :|
im looking forward to it, just need to try and find my paper driving license :|
Soldato
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Just got back from Donnington. Was a really good day, very well organised and everyone I spoke to from VX dealership owners to people who had just turned up for a cheap burn round in somebody elses car enjoyed themselves.
I thought there might have been a bit of hard sell on the cars but there wasn't at all.
I did the PM session which started with lunch 12-1, 15 minute safety briefing which mainly consisted of how to corner properly. The corners are marked with brake boards and cones at the turning point, apex and exit of all of the corners. Each session has 2 groups - in ours there were about 30 people and 30 track cars (including 2 used for passenger laps). One group gets 90 mins on track whilst the other group do "dynamic driving" on the car park, then you swap over.
As has already been said, the pit lane has a bus stop for each car plus one for passenger laps and people just get in and out as they wish. You get 2 flying laps plus your out lap and in lap. The instructors were all helpful and knew their stuff and there was no wait for anything really. Tom Chilton and Paul O'Neil were doing demo laps in an Astra and a Corsa respectively. The pair of them were racing each other with passengers on board and it was great fun. TC was on his 4th set of tyres and 3rd tank of fuel by the end of our session!
The dynamic driving was done using Astra 1.6 Design's and consisted of trying to handbrake turn parallel park between boxes and inflatables, and a timed mini-autotest course where you had to slalom some cones, spin into a cone garage, back out, dougnut round a cone and park in another cone garage at the end. Apparently I was a little too agressive and was 5 seconds off the quickest time, but I produced the most tyre smoke and burning clutch aroma!
If mechanical sympathy is your thing I suggest you don't go - the cars were all pretty much brand new with tops a few hundred miles on the clock and they were being hooned round a track, plus the instructors were telling people to turn the engines straight off in the pitlane and most VXR's are turboed. The 1.6 Astras were all under 100 miles and by the afternoon they had to bring new ones for the handbrake turns becuase the handbrakes were shot! I asked what would happen to the cars after the trackdays and apparently they'll get a new set of tyres and will sell as Network Q cars!
My thoughts on the cars:
Corsa VXR - Fast enough, very light and pointy, steering a touch dead but great fun to throw around.
Astra VXR - Didn't enjoy it because with the seat on its lowest setting my head brushed the roof and it was bloody uncomfortable with a helmet on. Drove well but easy to provoke understeer if you weren't careful with the power, but it was easily controlled. Had I been able to fit in the thing properly (I'm 6ft 3) this would probably have been my favourite. Engine was nice and punchy.
Zafira VXR - Loved it. Engine is pretty much the same as the Astra and the handling wasn't much different - needed a slightly gentler touch when changing direction but loads of grip and poise. The ergonmics were great for me - the gearshift fell exactly to hand, the higher driving position was no problem and it all felt just right. If I had 3 kids I'd be down the dealers putting my order in tomrrow!
Vectra VXR - Really wanted to like this car as I love super saloons and have been tentatively thinking about the possibility of one for my next car. Having sat in the demo I'd decided I could live with the interior (never liked any Vectra interior) if the rest of the car was up to it. The writing was on the wall when the top guy from VXR was running through superlatives about the range and the best he could do with the Vectra was "Its very fast in a straight line". It is very fast in a straight line, but it does have a chronic understeer problem and you really can't use the power out of the corners because if you try to you just get tyre squeal and it pulls off line. The steering is a bit light and the feedback is lacking too which all adds up to a car that is just no fun whatsoever to drive. The engine is brillant but the only thing I could see the whole package is good for is getting yourself sent to prison for 160mph on the motorway because on a twisty B road it would be neither quick nor any fun.
VXR8 - Big Australian muscle car with a 6 litre V8 - you could drive this thing round the whole track in 4th and it would still hit 130mph on the back straight and power out of the corners. I didn't push it too hard and although you could feel the weight in the corners the power was immense. The average MPG display was showing 8mpg! Nice motor if you own your own oil refinery.
I thought there might have been a bit of hard sell on the cars but there wasn't at all.
I did the PM session which started with lunch 12-1, 15 minute safety briefing which mainly consisted of how to corner properly. The corners are marked with brake boards and cones at the turning point, apex and exit of all of the corners. Each session has 2 groups - in ours there were about 30 people and 30 track cars (including 2 used for passenger laps). One group gets 90 mins on track whilst the other group do "dynamic driving" on the car park, then you swap over.
As has already been said, the pit lane has a bus stop for each car plus one for passenger laps and people just get in and out as they wish. You get 2 flying laps plus your out lap and in lap. The instructors were all helpful and knew their stuff and there was no wait for anything really. Tom Chilton and Paul O'Neil were doing demo laps in an Astra and a Corsa respectively. The pair of them were racing each other with passengers on board and it was great fun. TC was on his 4th set of tyres and 3rd tank of fuel by the end of our session!
The dynamic driving was done using Astra 1.6 Design's and consisted of trying to handbrake turn parallel park between boxes and inflatables, and a timed mini-autotest course where you had to slalom some cones, spin into a cone garage, back out, dougnut round a cone and park in another cone garage at the end. Apparently I was a little too agressive and was 5 seconds off the quickest time, but I produced the most tyre smoke and burning clutch aroma!
If mechanical sympathy is your thing I suggest you don't go - the cars were all pretty much brand new with tops a few hundred miles on the clock and they were being hooned round a track, plus the instructors were telling people to turn the engines straight off in the pitlane and most VXR's are turboed. The 1.6 Astras were all under 100 miles and by the afternoon they had to bring new ones for the handbrake turns becuase the handbrakes were shot! I asked what would happen to the cars after the trackdays and apparently they'll get a new set of tyres and will sell as Network Q cars!
My thoughts on the cars:
Corsa VXR - Fast enough, very light and pointy, steering a touch dead but great fun to throw around.
Astra VXR - Didn't enjoy it because with the seat on its lowest setting my head brushed the roof and it was bloody uncomfortable with a helmet on. Drove well but easy to provoke understeer if you weren't careful with the power, but it was easily controlled. Had I been able to fit in the thing properly (I'm 6ft 3) this would probably have been my favourite. Engine was nice and punchy.
Zafira VXR - Loved it. Engine is pretty much the same as the Astra and the handling wasn't much different - needed a slightly gentler touch when changing direction but loads of grip and poise. The ergonmics were great for me - the gearshift fell exactly to hand, the higher driving position was no problem and it all felt just right. If I had 3 kids I'd be down the dealers putting my order in tomrrow!
Vectra VXR - Really wanted to like this car as I love super saloons and have been tentatively thinking about the possibility of one for my next car. Having sat in the demo I'd decided I could live with the interior (never liked any Vectra interior) if the rest of the car was up to it. The writing was on the wall when the top guy from VXR was running through superlatives about the range and the best he could do with the Vectra was "Its very fast in a straight line". It is very fast in a straight line, but it does have a chronic understeer problem and you really can't use the power out of the corners because if you try to you just get tyre squeal and it pulls off line. The steering is a bit light and the feedback is lacking too which all adds up to a car that is just no fun whatsoever to drive. The engine is brillant but the only thing I could see the whole package is good for is getting yourself sent to prison for 160mph on the motorway because on a twisty B road it would be neither quick nor any fun.
VXR8 - Big Australian muscle car with a 6 litre V8 - you could drive this thing round the whole track in 4th and it would still hit 130mph on the back straight and power out of the corners. I didn't push it too hard and although you could feel the weight in the corners the power was immense. The average MPG display was showing 8mpg! Nice motor if you own your own oil refinery.
Associate
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Nice write up! Im looking forward to next week now. 
How many laps/goes did you manage on the track blueboy?
How many laps/goes did you manage on the track blueboy?
Soldato
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sounds awesome
Soldato
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I think I did 3 runs in the Vectra, 2 in a VXR8, 2 in the Corsa and 1 each in the Astra and the Zafira, so about 18 full laps in total plus 18 in and out laps, plus a demo lap with each the racers. The time flew by really. You are free to choose your cars as you wish so if there is anything of particular interest you can do multiple runs in that. They did say the VXR8's were 1 run each until the last 20 mins but they didn't stick to it.
Forgot to mention - they take your photo on your way out of the pits first time around and they give you a print free afterwards, and on the way out you get a bag with a VXR polo shirt and pin badge on the way out.
Forgot to mention - they take your photo on your way out of the pits first time around and they give you a print free afterwards, and on the way out you get a bag with a VXR polo shirt and pin badge on the way out.
Wow it sounds even better than I had hoped for! Sounds like you get a huge amount of track time for the money.
Sounds like it'll be a tight squeeze for me in an Astra - I am 6'7"
I feel sorry for the poor buggers that buy these cars from Network Q.
Sounds like it'll be a tight squeeze for me in an Astra - I am 6'7"
I feel sorry for the poor buggers that buy these cars from Network Q.
Whee!
Just got back from Donington.
Got a couple of pics of Gibbo's 'stang when I arrived, and heard it leave
Got to drive all the motors, and I'd really rather like a VXR8 please
The Vectra did indeed handle like a tank, and I didn't like the Corsa much, but I may have been out in that too early (second car I drove, and I was still getting the hang of the track)
The rocket-propelled sheds were good fun - I even managed to pass a couple of things in the Zafira
The Astra, though was definitely the best of the "sensible motors". The Engine was great, and it just felt planted on the track.
But the VXR8 was the most fun, by a mile. I want one, but it ain't going to happen
The autotest and the handbrake parking were great fun, even though I was useless at the autotest!
Best afternoon out I've had in ages - thanks Vauxhall!
Alan Woodford
Just got back from Donington.
Got a couple of pics of Gibbo's 'stang when I arrived, and heard it leave
Got to drive all the motors, and I'd really rather like a VXR8 please
The Vectra did indeed handle like a tank, and I didn't like the Corsa much, but I may have been out in that too early (second car I drove, and I was still getting the hang of the track)
The rocket-propelled sheds were good fun - I even managed to pass a couple of things in the Zafira
The Astra, though was definitely the best of the "sensible motors". The Engine was great, and it just felt planted on the track.
But the VXR8 was the most fun, by a mile. I want one, but it ain't going to happen
The autotest and the handbrake parking were great fun, even though I was useless at the autotest!
Best afternoon out I've had in ages - thanks Vauxhall!
Alan Woodford