Wet Track days...love em or hate em?

[kirstin s]

Hi guys, just want to get some feed back on wet track days. do you find them fun or just too dangerous? Which circuits do you least like in the wet?

[SonicShadow]

Depends on the attendees. If it's club organised / exclusive, then IMO they can be great fun. If its a general track day (arrive and drive type thing) then I'm NOPE-ing the hell out of there.

[RossP]

Went to Donington last Sunday and the weather was mixed and the track varied enormously throughout the day, from grippy to slippy (on the same lap!).

I actually rather enjoyed it and it's easier on the tyres and brakes.

If it rains all day it's not much fun though.

[HustleRussell]

Love 'em! Although I admit that I'm a little more cautious around wet Oulton Park (Shell Oils/Druids/Old Hall), Cadwell Park (Hall Bends/Old Hairpin), Castle Combe (Avon Rize/Quarry)or to a lesser extent, Thruxton as it's just so quick.

[chris7676]

Prefer dry, on any circuit.

[wackojacko]

They are more fun to slide about on, however.... speed on a dry circuit is far more exciting.

[Clark3y]

Fun for doing silly powerslides, but for me the novelty wears off relatively quickly especially after being black flagged and given a bking.

There is more satisfaction for me in going fast, can't say I've ever considered wet being dangerous, if anything I'd say the opposite is true given the speed is much much slower in the wet.

[Elderly]

wackojacko said:

.... speed on a dry circuit is far more exciting.

Sums it up for me.

[Olivera]

You learn a hell of a lot about car control when trying to press on in the wet, unless you are one of those who just park-up or granny drive around the track.

[mattdaniels]

I like wet days in general. Very educational, both about car control and how the wet line differs from the dry line. But overall, my favourite is dry days. No getting soaked / drying off / demisting the car to worry about.

[AshVX220]

Brands in December was soaking wet, but great fun. Castle Combe last August seemed to be hugely slippy for some reason slippier than Brands, but still fun.

[Herman Toothrot]

I like wet airfield days, had a ball at Abingdon this summer with areas of 1" deep standing water, I was the only one out on track for about 20 minutes.

[spyderman8]

Depends on the circuit. If there's bags of run-off like Bedford or Snetterton, its a great way to learn grip limit control, but unless you're a driving god I'd avoid places like Brands. From personal experience, gravel trap visits are expensive.

[juansolo]

Love them in cars with windscreens and roofs. Can be a tad moist otherwise. Still it's never stopped me going out.

[flobalob]

I thought I,d hate them before having done one but just before the end of the year did both Cadwell and Bedford GT circuits in the wet and it was surprisingly good fun. Very challenging and you can go a lot quicker than you would imagine (with half decent tyres on ). It also evens up the field a lot, as its always quite fun overtaking some very expensive and fast machinery in my little 14 year old jap hatch. Gagging for a dry one now though.

[Trev450]

AshVX220 said:

Brands in December was soaking wet, but great fun. Castle Combe last August seemed to be hugely slippy for some reason slippier than Brands, but still fun.

Combe is always very slippery when wet irrespective of the time of the year.

[Richyvrlimited]

Far FAR prefer wet trackdays, driving the car with it on it's tip-toes and constantly making corrections to keep in in a straight line is far more fun for me.

My last day at Oulton Park I was passing pretty much everything, (which included an lot of EVO's and Impreza's, - probably says an awful lot more about their ability than mine though).

One thing that soured the day though was I overtook a fellow MX5 before druids and then proceeded to have a bit of an un-intentional 4 wheel drift around the corner. The MX5 I'd just overtaken X5 then promptly binned it trying to keep up and I got black flagged and told by the Marshall(s) to slow down - kinda soured the rest of the day for me, but I still rate it as one of my best ever track days. That'd never have happened on a dry day as there just isn't the power/grip ratio available to make the car react like it did.

I should add though that I've had much more power in the same car (MX5). In that case wet track days were a lot harder work with very little opportunity to actually use 100% throttle, so I can see where people come from when they prefer dry days.

Similarly if your driving a FWD car I can see it being more frustrating than fun.

[edward1]

I used really enjoy them in the TVR. As has already been said you learn alot more about car control, having said that when you get it wrong a trip over the grass (hopefully nothing more) is much more likely. If it is properly wet all day it can get a bit tedious. y favourite track days have been donny and cadwell, both days started dry then changed to wet and dried off towards the end of the day by which time loads of people had gone home.

[gruffalo]

Ok so long as it dries up, otherwise I get frustrated with not being able to use the brakes, power and corner grip I know the car has in the dry.

A few damp sessions in the morning can be fun controlling the car but I prefer dry every time.

[sbridgey]

I like them both for different reasons, in the wet it is quite fun trying to find the limit of grip and finding grip where others can't, I did Llandow in the soaking wet and it was superb, my clio just flew round and i was shocked how much grip there was with road tyres and stock suspension.

Dry days are good for outright speed and simply going as fast as possible, I did oulton park in november and knowing the grip was going to be the same lap after lap really made it much easier to keep consistent and just go really quick.