Thursday 14th June 2012

PH Blog: Rockingham in the rain

Riggers gets all in a fluster trying to master a wet Rockingham in an Astra VXR

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Perhaps it was inevitable that I was going to make a hash of driving the Vauxhall Astra VXR around the soaking wet Tarmac of Rockingham. The last time I went round there, after all, was in a Caterham SP300 R, with slicks, downforce, an LMP2-busting power-to-weight ratio and - most importantly - a bone-dry track.

Rockingham on a drier day

Compared with that, a road-going hot hatch was always going to be a somewhat -er - different experience. But Vauxhall had gone to the trouble of setting up a proper, MSA-approved sprint around Rockingham (much as they did with the GTC last year), and yours truly is a sucker for any form of competitive motorsport.

In fairness, there is some relevance here: Vauxhall expects that its new 280hp Astra VXR will be used at least occasionally on track days, so it would surely be pretty interesting to see how it would cope with the fast sweepers and big-stop hairpins of The Rock. Would it hang in there with terrier-like tenacity (like the best Renaultsports), or would it feel a bit woolly and cook its brakes and tyres in a couple of laps?

We'd have loved to find out, but several days of constant rain over the weekend rendered the 'driest postcode in the UK' rather soggy. And one thing I can guarantee you is that most people would not venture out onto a wet Rockingham during a track day. The potential for carnage is just too great.

We were only going one at a time, however, and a very firm insistence from Vauxhall that the ESP was to be kept switched on made things a little less precarious. Even so, I can honestly say it was one of the most nerve-wracking few minutes of my life.

Fourth place'll do...

Which is weird, because looking back at the video it seems, well, a bit tame. Perhaps part of the explanation is that Rockingham, when it rains, appears to get its asphalt replaced with linoleum, which robs the car of both traction and grip. The other problem was undoubtedly that I just attacked it a bit too hard. In fact, the only bits where I actually made some decent fist of things being when I followed the sterling advice of the instructor for the day, BTCC driver Paul O'Neill.

So what did we learn from the exercise? Three things: 1) that a wet Rockingham is more slippery than an eel covered in Vaseline, 2) that ESP slows you down but definitely save your blushes and 3) that it's always wise to take the advice of a professional racing driver...

Riggers

 

[JonathanLegard]

Matt - here are the times from yesterday in the dry.



1 Mark Hales
2 Matt Saunders
3 Ben Barry
4 Adam Towler
5 Stacey Vickers
6 David Hooper
7 Chris Auty
8 Stephen Park
9 Robin Brown
10 Dan White
11 John Slavin
12 Bruce Booth

[Riggers]

You're just posting that to make me jealous!

[LHD]

Good effort Riggers.

Rockingham in the wet is a handful as a massive spin in an XKR will attest.

[KM666]

well to be fair you did pull 0.8 Gs in the corner just after 3:25, in the wet on road tyres id say thats a fair effort.

Edited by KM666 on Thursday 14th June 17:37

[HedgehogFromHell]

What about the car?

[405dogvan]

What is the awful grinding noise - please don't tell me that's not a technical fault on the car or the video???

[Studio117]

What an incredibly dull sounding engine!

[Riggers]

405dogvan said:

What is the awful grinding noise - please don't tell me that's not a technical fault on the car or the video???

Brakes. It had been hammered fairly hard by that point...

[gmh23]

Studio117 said:

What an incredibly dull sounding engine!

My thoughts exactly, might be better in person

[IanJ9375]

Dude from Top Gear Russia had some fun on the Ring in it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd...

[swifthobo]

Rockingham hmmm forgot that place existed is it any good Trackdays? never really hear a great deal about it.

[jp7152]

Looks like quite a good effort to me

[carl_w]

swifthobo said:

Rockingham hmmm forgot that place existed is it any good Trackdays? never really hear a great deal about it.

Bookatrack run days there.

[Charge99]

Looks like a twitchy car, reminds me of driving my Honda S2000 in the wet, but that didn't have ESP! Plus my Renault Sport Megane was nearly as bad with the ESP off. My Mk5 Diesel VW Golf on Goodyear was quite unflappable though round Bedford Autodrome in the wettest trackday I've even been on. Quite interesting times in the hot hatch market, with the ST too, whilst I like the Golf, something has to happen to stop the £30k to £40k Golf becoming acceptable! It's not like they are particularly reliable anymore either.

[HedgehogFromHell]

grinding noise under acceleration appears to be the turbo! not impressed with it as a whole.

[All that jazz]

Brakes sound absolutely fked, like the pads are down to the metal.

[robinandcamera]

Rockinham is so slippery when when it is crazy. Hardly what a heavy hatch with that much power only going to the front wheels, relying on a diff to make it drivable, needs

Fair play to them for putting the diff in this car though and not going the electronic route.

[IanJ9375]

HedgehogFromHell said:

grinding noise under acceleration appears to be the turbo! not impressed with it as a whole.

Most of the reviews have complimented the noise - and also the car as a whole, the ring lap I linked earlier looked good to be fair

[Ryan9078]

Nice to see speed displayed in her majesty's MPH for a change...it all makes more sense that way.

Good effort Riggers. Looked a bit like me doing normal speeds last time I decided to go with a budget tire option lol

[Riggers]

Ryan9078 said:

Looked a bit like me doing normal speeds last time I decided to go with a budget tire option lol

Ha! That's what it felt like, actually...