Brands Hatch shakedown

Brands Hatch's Summer Wednesday's are back so I booked a taster session to give the 944 a good shakedown!

A good friend of mine came along as co-pilot and to enjoy his first track experience. We signed in, did the drivers briefing then had the noise level tested - and passed at 96 decibels. We even got a sticker! Each stage was building towards our time on the track and so were the excitement levels!

When the first round of cars hit the circuit for their sighting laps we rolled the TheHoff into one of the empty garages to wait our turn at 6pm...

Our chariot certainly looked at home!

Soon enough it was our turn so we fired up and burbled our way down the pit lane and joined the queue of other cars waiting behind the pace car for our 3 sighting laps after which the pace car would reel off and we'd continue for 20 minutes lapping the Indy circuit.

Exiting the pit lane and swinging into Paddock Bend and into the infamous hill was quite a moment - after 4 years off the road it had finally come to this - the first time I would drive my own car on a world famous circuit. I've drive at Brands Hatch before on track days with BMW M3's and single seater Audi Palmer's but this was new territory and I was feeling very excited although tentative - that's why I had purposely booked a taster session on a Novice track evening to test the 944 in a safe and controlled environment.

The game plan was to slowly build up heat in the brakes and tyres and get to know the car. From the off I was impressed by the handling, noise and exceleration - TheHoff was feeling right at home.

After roughly twenty minutes and approximately 17 miles of slowly building up confidence, overtaking some slower cars, mastering the corners and becoming more comfortable with higher speeds our outing came to a very satisfying end.

I'm happy to say that TheHoff performed flawlessly - which was a great relief. It's one thing driving your modern classic sports car on the roads - it's quite another thrill entirely doing it on a circuit such as Brands Hatch after you've rebuilt most of it yourself.

Happy days!

Comments

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