Goodwood circuit guide
Discussion
I'm taking my E30 to Goodwood next month and although I have been before, it was a few years back now. I wondered if someone with more experience would be kind enough to write out a lap, corner by corner?
My overriding memory was of my braking too soon and turning in far too early, so some proper guidance would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
My overriding memory was of my braking too soon and turning in far too early, so some proper guidance would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
Top tip
Their are permanent white boards with a black cross on marking the apex's of each corner, this is especially useful at Madgwick and Lavant, the 2 tricky corners.
These are extremely helpful in getting your lines correct. Have a look on Youtube at on boards an you will see them.
Great track, so much fun.
Their are permanent white boards with a black cross on marking the apex's of each corner, this is especially useful at Madgwick and Lavant, the 2 tricky corners.
These are extremely helpful in getting your lines correct. Have a look on Youtube at on boards an you will see them.
Great track, so much fun.
Goodwood is a great circuit so I'm sure you'll enjoy your day there. Goodwood is often underestimated as quite a simple circuit but its got some real subtleties to it that take an average lap to a great lap.
Having tested, instructed and raced there a few of my quick tips and thoughts on lines below:
Madgewick:
A challenging double apex right hander. The braking zone and entry to the corner has a right hand fade to it and this often mis-leads to where the actual turn in point is and you find people either braking for the fade or being tempted to turn in too early. Depending on the car I would tend to ignore the fade, pick my turn in point for the actual corner and brake to this by partially straight lining the fade. This means your braking is being done in a straighter line than tracking the left hand side of the circuit and also make sure that as you roll off the brake pedal you do it nice and progressively. You often see people having a sharp stab at the brakes here, springing off the pedal causing the front suspension to bob up which, shifts the weight back in the car and results in understeer. The key to Madgewick is to be progressive and smooth with your inputs. The actual corner is a double apex right hander, made more complex by a crest in the middle. You should be missing the first apex (3-4 feet probably) and aiming to be on the second apex. Therefore its a slightly later turn in than you might expect but making sure you are on this later apex allows you to get onto the throttle nice and early (a trailing throttle from the moment you roll off the brakes and feeding in progressively so by the second apex, or before if you can, you are flat). Getting on the power early is key here as it controls you speed all the way down to No Name and St Mary's. If you hit the first apex you tend to miss the second and then run out of road on the exit. Go in deep, turn in smoothly, predict the crest as it will make the car move around and look for that second apex before unwinding the lock and letting the car out to the outside of the circuit. Its a great corner, faster than you might feel initially and ultimately the braking becomes quick smooth to check your speed and control the weight in the car but to allow the car to run and maintain momentum.
Fordwater:
Ultimately a flat out right hander unless you are in something enormous or really soft in which case it might be a confidence lift. Start with a lift and build up from there, I have seen people manage to get it very wrong, usually by panicking! Fairly straight forward but watch that you don't run out of room as the circuit falls away slightly on the exit and sometimes you find people run out of room here as they've not allowed for it.
No Name and St Mary's:
This is where it starts to become interesting! The critical bits as I see it are to maintain as much speed through No Name as possible but acknowledging that you want to have a nice progressive, smooth approach to St Mary's which is the adversely cambered left hander. Two corners, a fast right hander and then a left hander which falls away from you, but you need to think about the two corners together. I tend to have a light (sometimes left foot depending on what I'm driving) brake for No Name, looking to check the speed but you are still well committed at this point, a smooth wide turn in, holding tight to the right hand side on the exit, trying to keep the car as flat as possible for the entry into St Mary's. I have been known to use the grass on the apex at No Name on occasion, but I'd not recommend it unless you are really confident with the car. The short straight (which is still a right hander really I suppose) between No Name and St Mary's is a balance of maintaining as much throttle as possible before going hard on the brakes, a down shift or two and looking for a nice wide turn in to St Mary's. I always try to be back to the right by the concrete slip where the old taxis way used to be). St Mary's itself is a fairly straight forward left hander and if you balls it up its usually because you've ballsed up No Name before it and either approached it too fast or too far to the left and are scrabbling around on the brakes. It has a curb on the apex, you can use it but it can upset the car, especially with the adverse camber and the key here to pick a line off the corner that sets you up well for the slight right hand rise back up towards Lavant. its easy because of the camber to run out of road on the exit and I've often seen people that for me take this too wide. I tend to be 3/4 of the way across the circuit on the exit looking to set the car up for the run up the hill towards Lavant. The trick part is that the apex is where the curb is but you need to hold onto the lock slightly longer than you would naturally as releasing the car on the apex tends to be what causes you to run out road, hold it a little tighter and then release it as you see the grass on the left step back.
Lavant:
Lavant is really two corners, I tend to refer to them as Lavant In and Lavant Out. The first is a fairly straight forward right hander, it has a curb on the apex and exit, I tend to avoid them. The critical bit here, just as with Madgewick is getting onto the power early and progressively. A good run out of Lavant In dictates your speed all the way to Woodcote and is key to a decent lap time. Lavant Out is another right hander, looser radius and often flat or taken with a slight confidence lift. The key here in both parts is to use all of the circuit width available to you to enable a nice smooth line and to get onto the power early. The biggest factor here is generally getting someone to look far enough through the corner.
The Lavant Straight is simple, but it does have a left hand fade to it and then a right flick half way down which can catch people out if they don't know the circuit and are trying to watch cars in their mirrors. If you are passing another car on a track day it's worth being aware that sometimes you might get a squeeze! It's a straight but its not!
Woodcote:
Woodcote is a corner that is frequently made far more difficult than it needs to be. It looks like its a double apex right hander... its not. Simplify it is my advice. Focus on the second part of it and treat it as a single apex right hander. Ignore the first apex, use the outer edge of the circuit between the two apexes as your turn in point. Particularly when you are racing here, aiming straight at this point on approach and braking to this point and not the first gives you a critical additional 10-20 yards on the power and often means you can duck down the inside of someone into here on the brakes. Look for a nice solid apex to the curb and let the car get back out wide, feeding in the power. The curb here can be tempting but I'd avoid it as it often catches people out and causes wheel spin as you are hard back on the power by this point.
Chicane:
The Chicane is relatively straight forward but the exit is really important for your speed over the line and down towards Madgewick. Different drivers have different styles on the entry, some take the classic line, wide entry with braking before the turn in, some aim straight for the first apex and brake in a straight line to the apex, flick the car in and across to the second apex by which time, with either line you want to be firmly back on the power and feeding it in. Avoid the curb, unless you are super confident in the car, but it tends to slow your exit rather than aid it.
Hopefully a decent lap in the bag...
Having tested, instructed and raced there a few of my quick tips and thoughts on lines below:
Madgewick:
A challenging double apex right hander. The braking zone and entry to the corner has a right hand fade to it and this often mis-leads to where the actual turn in point is and you find people either braking for the fade or being tempted to turn in too early. Depending on the car I would tend to ignore the fade, pick my turn in point for the actual corner and brake to this by partially straight lining the fade. This means your braking is being done in a straighter line than tracking the left hand side of the circuit and also make sure that as you roll off the brake pedal you do it nice and progressively. You often see people having a sharp stab at the brakes here, springing off the pedal causing the front suspension to bob up which, shifts the weight back in the car and results in understeer. The key to Madgewick is to be progressive and smooth with your inputs. The actual corner is a double apex right hander, made more complex by a crest in the middle. You should be missing the first apex (3-4 feet probably) and aiming to be on the second apex. Therefore its a slightly later turn in than you might expect but making sure you are on this later apex allows you to get onto the throttle nice and early (a trailing throttle from the moment you roll off the brakes and feeding in progressively so by the second apex, or before if you can, you are flat). Getting on the power early is key here as it controls you speed all the way down to No Name and St Mary's. If you hit the first apex you tend to miss the second and then run out of road on the exit. Go in deep, turn in smoothly, predict the crest as it will make the car move around and look for that second apex before unwinding the lock and letting the car out to the outside of the circuit. Its a great corner, faster than you might feel initially and ultimately the braking becomes quick smooth to check your speed and control the weight in the car but to allow the car to run and maintain momentum.
Fordwater:
Ultimately a flat out right hander unless you are in something enormous or really soft in which case it might be a confidence lift. Start with a lift and build up from there, I have seen people manage to get it very wrong, usually by panicking! Fairly straight forward but watch that you don't run out of room as the circuit falls away slightly on the exit and sometimes you find people run out of room here as they've not allowed for it.
No Name and St Mary's:
This is where it starts to become interesting! The critical bits as I see it are to maintain as much speed through No Name as possible but acknowledging that you want to have a nice progressive, smooth approach to St Mary's which is the adversely cambered left hander. Two corners, a fast right hander and then a left hander which falls away from you, but you need to think about the two corners together. I tend to have a light (sometimes left foot depending on what I'm driving) brake for No Name, looking to check the speed but you are still well committed at this point, a smooth wide turn in, holding tight to the right hand side on the exit, trying to keep the car as flat as possible for the entry into St Mary's. I have been known to use the grass on the apex at No Name on occasion, but I'd not recommend it unless you are really confident with the car. The short straight (which is still a right hander really I suppose) between No Name and St Mary's is a balance of maintaining as much throttle as possible before going hard on the brakes, a down shift or two and looking for a nice wide turn in to St Mary's. I always try to be back to the right by the concrete slip where the old taxis way used to be). St Mary's itself is a fairly straight forward left hander and if you balls it up its usually because you've ballsed up No Name before it and either approached it too fast or too far to the left and are scrabbling around on the brakes. It has a curb on the apex, you can use it but it can upset the car, especially with the adverse camber and the key here to pick a line off the corner that sets you up well for the slight right hand rise back up towards Lavant. its easy because of the camber to run out of road on the exit and I've often seen people that for me take this too wide. I tend to be 3/4 of the way across the circuit on the exit looking to set the car up for the run up the hill towards Lavant. The trick part is that the apex is where the curb is but you need to hold onto the lock slightly longer than you would naturally as releasing the car on the apex tends to be what causes you to run out road, hold it a little tighter and then release it as you see the grass on the left step back.
Lavant:
Lavant is really two corners, I tend to refer to them as Lavant In and Lavant Out. The first is a fairly straight forward right hander, it has a curb on the apex and exit, I tend to avoid them. The critical bit here, just as with Madgewick is getting onto the power early and progressively. A good run out of Lavant In dictates your speed all the way to Woodcote and is key to a decent lap time. Lavant Out is another right hander, looser radius and often flat or taken with a slight confidence lift. The key here in both parts is to use all of the circuit width available to you to enable a nice smooth line and to get onto the power early. The biggest factor here is generally getting someone to look far enough through the corner.
The Lavant Straight is simple, but it does have a left hand fade to it and then a right flick half way down which can catch people out if they don't know the circuit and are trying to watch cars in their mirrors. If you are passing another car on a track day it's worth being aware that sometimes you might get a squeeze! It's a straight but its not!
Woodcote:
Woodcote is a corner that is frequently made far more difficult than it needs to be. It looks like its a double apex right hander... its not. Simplify it is my advice. Focus on the second part of it and treat it as a single apex right hander. Ignore the first apex, use the outer edge of the circuit between the two apexes as your turn in point. Particularly when you are racing here, aiming straight at this point on approach and braking to this point and not the first gives you a critical additional 10-20 yards on the power and often means you can duck down the inside of someone into here on the brakes. Look for a nice solid apex to the curb and let the car get back out wide, feeding in the power. The curb here can be tempting but I'd avoid it as it often catches people out and causes wheel spin as you are hard back on the power by this point.
Chicane:
The Chicane is relatively straight forward but the exit is really important for your speed over the line and down towards Madgewick. Different drivers have different styles on the entry, some take the classic line, wide entry with braking before the turn in, some aim straight for the first apex and brake in a straight line to the apex, flick the car in and across to the second apex by which time, with either line you want to be firmly back on the power and feeding it in. Avoid the curb, unless you are super confident in the car, but it tends to slow your exit rather than aid it.
Hopefully a decent lap in the bag...
Edited by TimCrighton on Thursday 12th April 11:15
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