Brands Hatch HSCC Superprix Testing

Well, our first race weekend has been and gone....And what a weekend!

It actually started on Thursday afternoon a Llandow circuit in South Wales. The plan being, to get there for lunch but we had problems with the brakes which had to be sorted first and so we arrived at the track a 4pm, just as the rain started. So the first time the car would hit the track would be in the wet! We had 2 hours tracktime to check the oil pressures, oil temperatures, get the engine run-in, check for leaks and generally make sure everything worked as it should.

I didn’t even get to the end of the first lap before there was a problem. Whilst braking hard for the tight ‘bus stop’ bend, there was a horrendous judder and noise from the front! After getting the car back to the pits, what we found was not a mechanical fault, but that the wings were biting chunks out of the front tyres when the nose of the car dropped under braking. As we were tight for time, we simply raised the front suspension by a couple of inches. Not ideal for a race car, but it did solve the problem and didn’t appear to effect the handling (in the wet at least).

So how did a swing axle Beetle handle on crossply tyres in the wet?....Staggering! You could throw the car into a corner (even through puddles) and it would stick. There was a tiny bit of understeer, but after a few laps I had even forgotten that it was wet! The rear didn’t lose grip once in the whole 2 hours, you could floor the gas mid corner and the car would just catapault out of the bend with no slide or traction problems!

A couple of rounds during the season are 40 minute, 2 driver races with a pit stop half way through for a driver change, the next one being the Oulton Park Gold Cup on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Jeff Culkin, as an Ex Just Kampers employee with a long racing history has been charged with sharing the drive. Jeff is used to racing Alfas and MG Midgets, so now was a good opportunity to give him his first experience of a rear engined car.

Jeff had his doubts as to whether a Beetle was the right choice to compete in Classic Touring Car racing, so having driven the car myself I was keen to see he would get on with the car. Jeffs never driven a Beetle before, but he settled into it very quickly and despite the damp track was putting in some good laps and when he came back in the pits, the smile said it all.

Before we knew it, the 2 hours was up, but we’d learned a lot about the car. Pressures and temperatures were fine, the engine was great, the handling was far better than even I was expecting and it was clear that GAC had built one hell of a car.



Early the very next day, we were at Brands Hatch for a full days testing on the full Grand Prix circuit. This consisted of 4x 25 minute sessions spread over the day. With no other saloons testing that day, we were put in with the HSCC 60’s and 70’s ‘Roadsport’ cars which are GT cars like Porsche 911, Porsche 928, Lotus Elan, Lotus Europa, Marcos, Morgan, Corvette Stingray, Jaguar E-type etc. These sessions gave me a chance to learn the circuit and as the day went on, gradually bring the speed up and try to see just how fast this Beetle was going to be.

The lap times that we are aiming for are the ones set by the Mini Coopers that we share the 1300cc class with. On the Brands Hatch GP circuit the Minis are lapping between 1:55 and 2:04, so off we go for the first 25 minute session.

With instructions to stay below 6000rpm on the new engine I went out on the track. The roadsports cars were fast! so I had to keep my eyes on the mirrors, but interestingly they weren’t much faster in the bends and in fact on one corner in particular (Sheene Curve) I could actually make up time on the Lotus’s and E-types! And amazingly I found that I could out brake every single car on the track, not by a little, but by around 3 car lengths!...These CSP brakes are awsome!

Soon the 25 minutes were up and I headed back to the paddock to see what my times were. 2:30 I was told! Hmmmm 35 seconds off the pace....”WHERE AM I GOING TO FIND 35 SECONDS?” This was worrying. Maybe Jeff was right...perhaps a Beetle was the wrong choice after all.

The brake pedal was a bit spongy in that session, so that was adjusted and it was time for the second 25 minute session. This time I was allowed to use 7000rpm, and what a difference!...The engine suddenly came alive! It was clear that this engine liked to rev. It pulled so much stronger out of the corners and I was having to brake much harder due to the higher straight line speeds. Best lap time 2:08!...I’d knocked 22 seconds off my previous time, we’re getting somewhere.

The 3rd session didn’t go so well. For a start I had my first spin. This was at Westfield Bend which is the only corner that the car didn’t feel comfortable taking. Its a fast right hander which drops steeply into a large dip which makes the car light and unsettles the car. I was approaching this corner and I could see 3 cars coming up on me in the mirrors. I kept to the racing line and stayed on the gas like you are meant to, but unfortunately found a Lotus Elan right next to my door just as I was turning into the corner and with another Elan and a Marcos running directly behind it.

Squeezed out, I had to reduce the throttle and turn a little tighter to stay out of the gravel, unfortunately this coincided with the car going over the brow of the hill. The combination of all these factors and the weight of the engine over the rear proved too much for the rear tyres and even with an arm full of opposite lock, it was too late. I was sent spinning two full revolutions down the hill. I’ve seen too many spun drivers collected by following cars and didn’t want to be one of them, so thinking quickly as the spin started, I depressed the clutch pedal, so that the engine didn’t stall and I was soon on my way again, thankful that I had stayed on the tarmac and not buried it in the wall or gravel trap.

Lesson learned, I carried on putting in the laps. This time I could use 7500rpm and the car felt quicker again, but second gear, that had been jumping occasionally earlier was now jumping out of gear all the time which was on 5 of the corners and it got so bad I had to use 3rd gear instead. The result a 2:15 lap was the best that I could do. The gearbox was costing us at least 7 seconds per lap.

We decided to skip the 4th session in order to save the gearbox for the race on Sunday. We were going to need a miracle to have any success in the race.

Well...a miracle is what we got!..and I’ll tell you all about it in a day or so.

Stay tuned

Ian