VXR Track day thread
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Associate
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Just got back from the afternoon session at DOnnington, great fun, nearly gave a few of the instructers a heart attack though for not using the brakes 
Tom Chilton is a right nutter, sounds like a good bloke as well when I was talking to him, amazing driver
I saw Gibbos car as well driving off, thought I recongised it, but never clocked me that it belong to him!!
Tom Chilton is a right nutter, sounds like a good bloke as well when I was talking to him, amazing driver
I saw Gibbos car as well driving off, thought I recongised it, but never clocked me that it belong to him!!
Hi there
Yes I was there for the morning session. Got there nice and early so took some good pictures which I shall post up later.
Was impressed with how the whole day was planned out, very good show from Vauxhall and exeptional value for money.
Anyway on with the driving, the Autocross and handbrake parking stuff was OK, but I would have taken track time over this anyday. I did not to well at the autotest as I sat in the box for ages trying to find reverse and eventually the instructor pointed out you needed to press a button to engage reverse so that ruined my chances of a good time. The parking, first go I hit the brakes was just instinctive to try and stop. Second time I got it a lot better as in got the car in the space but did push the inflatable forward. Shame it was only 2 attempts because I would have liked to perfected that.
Onto track time, this was much better. There was something like 30 cars and 38 of us in our group and hence there was little to no queuing.
Zafira - OK my first car and I absolutely hated it. The handling was dire and I personally thought it had the worse torque steer. Plus the instructor was a right boring git as he told me to be more gentle with the car because I was changing up just before the limiter. Anyway the front wheels just could not cope with all that power whilst steering and slowing the car, not nice at all.
Astra - This was a lot better, I found it had the second worse torque steer of all the cars but was more willing to change direction quicker, the brakes were strong and it was not too shabby on the straights either. Certainly a good hatch, however in handling stakes I'd take an Clio 197 or Megane R26 over this anyday, but if straight line grunt is more of a requirement then this is not bad.
Corsa - A nice cool little car, certainly far superior to the more standard Corsa's and it changed direction well and did not really suffer from torque steer. It was definetely the best handling FWD car there but it was also one of the slowest as well.
Vectra - Rather nice inside for a Vauxhall and seemed to have many toys. I was expecting lobs of understeer and even though it certainly did understeer it was not quite as bad as I expected. However the car handled very poorly on the limit but it would happily slide around like crazy when provoked which was a bit of fun. The car certainly had turbo lag issues and you needs the revs ideally above 4000rpm or it was just dog slow. Still keeping it on the boil it was not bad but it certainly did not feel like a 280BHP car. Again the brakes were pretty good.
Meriva - Bloody awful inside, but to drive it was a well balanced package, it was slow, handled OKish for the type of car. My highlight of the day was catching a guy up in an VXR8 and my instructor saying keep up his ass because eventually he will indicate to let you pass. He did indicate indeed and I got passed which I was very proud about, poor guy in the VXR8 clearly was very scared of the RWD VXR8 monster for me to get past in a Meriva. Still my instructor was great he just let me get on with it, let me brake way later than the boards and use the gears as I wished, basically I think he wanted me to get past too.
VXR8 - It looks nice, its nice inside and the engine has got a nice note too it. Obviously I am use to RWD and as such was looking forward to this to see how it compared to the Mustang. Out of all the VXR's it was certainly the best of the bunch for me, also including the handling mainly because the front wheels are only doing steering and as such it was much more controllable in the turns. Also the fact the car is N/A has huge benefits over the turbo cars as the power delivery is linear and there is no lag. I got lucky with the VXR8 as no queue, come back in and just got right into another one parked up and then come back in again to find another parked up and no queue so jumped straight into that as well. So I got 6 full on laps back to back. The cars straight line grunt, power out of corners is good, you know its got 400BHP but the cars weight certainly hampens that acceleration and you can feel its weight in the corners too. Still the instructors were great with me and let me get on with it basically letting me use all the gears and brake when I wanted. The car turned in well and getting the rear-end out on corner exits was fun and easy to do. However the VXR8 seems to have one major issue and the instructor was just as shocked as me which is if you going down through the gears rather aggressively the car has a tendancy to literally just lock its rear wheels. So I was setting myself up for a corner, just like I would in the Mustang or any car and the VXR8 all off a sudden got sideways because the rear wheels locked after I dropped it down a cog and hence we had a fun moment but soon corrected it. The instructor did say it was nothing to do with me but seems an issue with some of the cars. Anyway I had much fun and was hitting around 120ish, possibly 130 by the Dunlop bridge on the back straight.
So would I buy a VXR well no I would not as I found all the FWD cars rather poor on handling and I did not like their turbo power deliveries.
The VXR8 was the best of the bunch, not too impressed about how it can lock the rear wheels on a downchange because that could get you in a whole lot of trouble on the road. The VXR8 was comfy and nice but power wise it felt slower than the Mustang. On the handling side the Mustang just feels so much tighter, has more grip and far better steering than the VXR8 had.
Still the day is great value for anyone seeking a cheap trackday and wants to experience a few different cars.
I also went out with Paul O'Neil and Tom Chilten and let me just say those guys are crazy but they are very quick. Plus when I was out on track they were the only guys who ever overtook me, I was never overtaken by anybody else but did plenty of overtaking myself.
Some of the instructors are a bit anal making you brake at the boards when you could safely brake later wheras others were perfectly fine and let you get on with things.
Yes I was there for the morning session. Got there nice and early so took some good pictures which I shall post up later.
Was impressed with how the whole day was planned out, very good show from Vauxhall and exeptional value for money.
Anyway on with the driving, the Autocross and handbrake parking stuff was OK, but I would have taken track time over this anyday. I did not to well at the autotest as I sat in the box for ages trying to find reverse and eventually the instructor pointed out you needed to press a button to engage reverse so that ruined my chances of a good time. The parking, first go I hit the brakes was just instinctive to try and stop. Second time I got it a lot better as in got the car in the space but did push the inflatable forward. Shame it was only 2 attempts because I would have liked to perfected that.
Onto track time, this was much better. There was something like 30 cars and 38 of us in our group and hence there was little to no queuing.
Zafira - OK my first car and I absolutely hated it. The handling was dire and I personally thought it had the worse torque steer. Plus the instructor was a right boring git as he told me to be more gentle with the car because I was changing up just before the limiter. Anyway the front wheels just could not cope with all that power whilst steering and slowing the car, not nice at all.
Astra - This was a lot better, I found it had the second worse torque steer of all the cars but was more willing to change direction quicker, the brakes were strong and it was not too shabby on the straights either. Certainly a good hatch, however in handling stakes I'd take an Clio 197 or Megane R26 over this anyday, but if straight line grunt is more of a requirement then this is not bad.
Corsa - A nice cool little car, certainly far superior to the more standard Corsa's and it changed direction well and did not really suffer from torque steer. It was definetely the best handling FWD car there but it was also one of the slowest as well.
Vectra - Rather nice inside for a Vauxhall and seemed to have many toys. I was expecting lobs of understeer and even though it certainly did understeer it was not quite as bad as I expected. However the car handled very poorly on the limit but it would happily slide around like crazy when provoked which was a bit of fun. The car certainly had turbo lag issues and you needs the revs ideally above 4000rpm or it was just dog slow. Still keeping it on the boil it was not bad but it certainly did not feel like a 280BHP car. Again the brakes were pretty good.
Meriva - Bloody awful inside, but to drive it was a well balanced package, it was slow, handled OKish for the type of car. My highlight of the day was catching a guy up in an VXR8 and my instructor saying keep up his ass because eventually he will indicate to let you pass. He did indicate indeed and I got passed which I was very proud about, poor guy in the VXR8 clearly was very scared of the RWD VXR8 monster for me to get past in a Meriva. Still my instructor was great he just let me get on with it, let me brake way later than the boards and use the gears as I wished, basically I think he wanted me to get past too.
VXR8 - It looks nice, its nice inside and the engine has got a nice note too it. Obviously I am use to RWD and as such was looking forward to this to see how it compared to the Mustang. Out of all the VXR's it was certainly the best of the bunch for me, also including the handling mainly because the front wheels are only doing steering and as such it was much more controllable in the turns. Also the fact the car is N/A has huge benefits over the turbo cars as the power delivery is linear and there is no lag. I got lucky with the VXR8 as no queue, come back in and just got right into another one parked up and then come back in again to find another parked up and no queue so jumped straight into that as well. So I got 6 full on laps back to back. The cars straight line grunt, power out of corners is good, you know its got 400BHP but the cars weight certainly hampens that acceleration and you can feel its weight in the corners too. Still the instructors were great with me and let me get on with it basically letting me use all the gears and brake when I wanted. The car turned in well and getting the rear-end out on corner exits was fun and easy to do. However the VXR8 seems to have one major issue and the instructor was just as shocked as me which is if you going down through the gears rather aggressively the car has a tendancy to literally just lock its rear wheels. So I was setting myself up for a corner, just like I would in the Mustang or any car and the VXR8 all off a sudden got sideways because the rear wheels locked after I dropped it down a cog and hence we had a fun moment but soon corrected it. The instructor did say it was nothing to do with me but seems an issue with some of the cars. Anyway I had much fun and was hitting around 120ish, possibly 130 by the Dunlop bridge on the back straight.
So would I buy a VXR well no I would not as I found all the FWD cars rather poor on handling and I did not like their turbo power deliveries.
The VXR8 was the best of the bunch, not too impressed about how it can lock the rear wheels on a downchange because that could get you in a whole lot of trouble on the road. The VXR8 was comfy and nice but power wise it felt slower than the Mustang. On the handling side the Mustang just feels so much tighter, has more grip and far better steering than the VXR8 had.
Still the day is great value for anyone seeking a cheap trackday and wants to experience a few different cars.
I also went out with Paul O'Neil and Tom Chilten and let me just say those guys are crazy but they are very quick. Plus when I was out on track they were the only guys who ever overtook me, I was never overtaken by anybody else but did plenty of overtaking myself.
Some of the instructors are a bit anal making you brake at the boards when you could safely brake later wheras others were perfectly fine and let you get on with things.
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Gojira said:
Sorry mate, didnt see this before I left, I didnt remember anyoner wearing a godzilla tshirt tho
I thought some of the instructors were very friendly, they all said the same thing about me tho, too aggressive when steering and breaking far too late,
think im too used to go karts!!
I was at the afternoon session at Donington today making a prat out of myself, I loved the track racing, I thought the astra really good and it was the car I enjoyed driving the most. I sucked at the handling though 
I messed up my first 2 handbreak turns a lot but my third one was ok, it was massive fun mind and I didn't expect to be able to do it well as I've never done one before. The timed circuit part after the reverse I couldn't get the car back into first which cost me loads of time and I looked like an idiot I loved the whole day and you got so much for your £95 it was great.
I messed up my first 2 handbreak turns a lot but my third one was ok, it was massive fun mind and I didn't expect to be able to do it well as I've never done one before. The timed circuit part after the reverse I couldn't get the car back into first which cost me loads of time and I looked like an idiot I loved the whole day and you got so much for your £95 it was great.
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Zenith said:I was at the afternoon session at Donington today making a prat out of myself, I loved the track racing, I thought the astra really good and it was the car I enjoyed driving the most. I sucked at the handling though
The only problem I found with the instructors is that thy all told you diffirent things, I always used to brake before a corner then turn
There were some nice cars in the carpark to, some guys S2000 alarm kept going off, wonder whos that was
Yeah I found that a lot as well and as I have zero track experience it was a bit confusing.FishThrower said:The only problem I found with the instructors is that thy all told you diffirent things, I always used to brake before a corner then turn
There were some nice cars in the carpark to, some guys S2000 alarm kept going off, wonder whos that was
Glad to hear that people are having fun at the days. I must admit that I didn't bother booking on one as I assumed that they'd be Panda Pops. Only comfort for me is that I wouldn't have been able to make it to any of them anyway as the UK is currently like a foreign country to me.
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SoliD said:
you should do, its great fun
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I'll be there tomorrow afternoon wearing... um... jeans... and shoes... er yeah.
I'll be in the black CTR. Come say hi so I don't feel like a peon.
I'll be in the black CTR. Come say hi so I don't feel like a peon.
Think I am gonna wear 3/4 pants and a blue polo top. I could wear my Deportivo Wanka football shirt Got back at 6, great day out loved it, well worth the £95, loved the corsa, had a go in Tom Chilton Astra and Paul O'Neil Corsa.
Was it the new shape, was behind you pulling into oulton park? I ended up in yellow group.
Shaz]sigh[ said:
Was it the new shape, was behind you pulling into oulton park? I ended up in yellow group.
Last edited:
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And did you attempt the VXR8? Also, how was the ratio between cars/people etc.
Liverpool-Lad said:
Yeah went in the VXR8 twice, could have gone in it more but the Corsa was more fun to drive imho.
Car ratio was great, longest I waited was about 1 minute for a car, 28 cars where there and 30 people in the group, took out a Meriva and that was awful to drive round the track.
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Hah, I was going to try the Meriva first to get used to the track a bit 
Got back around an hour ago I had in order.
2 laps in the Zafira VXR
2 laps in the Vectra VXR
2 laps in the Astra VXR
2 laps in the Corsa VXR
1 lap in Chiltons car
2 laps in the VXR8
6 laps in the Vectra VXR
Total laps 17.
2 laps in the Zafira VXR
2 laps in the Vectra VXR
2 laps in the Astra VXR
2 laps in the Corsa VXR
1 lap in Chiltons car
2 laps in the VXR8
6 laps in the Vectra VXR
Total laps 17.