Open-track days are awesome. For once, you get to take your car to the limit at a safe and supervised course and really push hard. No cops, no worries, and you still get the bill in the end if you screw up and stuff your car. Sure, the entry cost isn’t free, but just knowing that the cops can’t do anything to you if you hang the tail end of the car out on a corner should alone be worth the price of admission. Here’s the one big thing about track days, though: not everybody is a race car driver, and even worse, some of these people don’t understand just what the word “limits” means when it comes to car control. They may have heard of understeer and oversteer, but to them they are just buzzwords that other drivers use to sound important. Surely their brand-new (fill in the blank) will out-handle that old crate, right?
You will get to see it all in this video taken at Castle Combe, taken at Quarry corner. From a MkII Escort that pushes just enough to get into the grass (and is nicely recovered) to the Ford Fiesta ST that shoves it’s way straight into the tire wall without passing GO or collecting £200, there is all sorts of hoonery that takes place. Some of these “offs” are simply finding out where 11/10ths driving effort lies. Some of it, like the TVR Tuscan slamming into the tires, makes you wonder what was going through the driver’s head (besides the obligatory expletives). Signed the waiver? Got your helmet? Good…
High performance cars, low performance drivers!
True but they are lengends in their own minds.
legends!