AC BTCC Round 4 @ Silverstone - Sunday 26th November 2023

Medilloni · Nov 27, 2023

My apologies for not letting you know @Interslice Brian, lead-up to Christmas is manic for us

Douglas Aird · Nov 27, 2023

Shed 17 said:
P.S. Well done Doug on your first BTCC drive, nice driving

Thanks Paul. I have often wondered if my natural driving style might be suited to the front wheel drive cars and the Volvo, in particular, felt a good fit for me.

Qualifying pace was not quite there but in the race I made places and was able to keep consistent decent pace, pulling away from the cars behind. Another 0.5 seconds a lap would have seen me challenging for top 6, I think.

Hoping to make the rest of this series now.

Shed 17 · Nov 27, 2023

Douglas Aird said:
I have often wondered if my natural driving style might be suited to the front wheel drive cars

You will be in the Abarth or Swift before you know it Doug!

stigs2cousin · Nov 27, 2023

Shed 17 said:
You will be in the Abarth or Swift before you know it Doug!

Don´t joke around here, that´s a serious accusation !!

Kek700 · Nov 27, 2023

Noooooo I have enough problems with all the other FWD specialists.

thom462 · Nov 27, 2023

Had a blast with this one. Clean and close racing with several of you guys. It was the first time I was competitive in the BMW and in this series. Was able to do a 1.17.0 in practice and a 1.17.3 in race 2 on hard tyres. Next race will show if it was track related.
Thx all for racing.
Cu

thom462 · Nov 27, 2023

Had a blast with this one. Clean and close racing with several of you guys. It was the first time I was competitive in the BMW and in this series. Was able to do a 1.17.0 in practice and a 1.17.3 in race 2 on hard tyres. Next race will show if it was track related.
Thx all for racing.
Cu

KDiesel · Nov 27, 2023

Like Paul mentioned in earlier post I agree with him totally, Volvo is too much bop'ed and is most terrible to drive also which make it idiotic choice but hey-ho here we go.

Douglas Aird · Nov 27, 2023

KDiesel said:
Like Paul mentioned in earlier post I agree with him totally, Volvo is too much bop'ed and is most terrible to drive also which make it idiotic choice but hey-ho here we go.

I don't mind less BOP but personally I enjoyed driving it.

Douglas Aird · Nov 27, 2023

Shed 17 said:
You will be in the Abarth or Swift before you know it Doug!

I did give the Abarth a spin a while ago but couldn't get a good feeling with it. Maybe I like the Mazda a bit too much. I should give the Suzuki a try, though...

Douglas Aird · Nov 27, 2023

Kek700 said:
Noooooo I have enough problems with all the other FWD specialists.

View attachment 710243

Maybe we can have some more close battles if I switch to FWD and level the playing field a bit.

Shed 17 · Nov 27, 2023

Douglas Aird said:
I did give the Abarth a spin a while ago but couldn't get a good feeling with it. Maybe I like the Mazda a bit too much. I should give the Suzuki a try, though...

Give the Swift a go Doug, completely different from the Abarth and a lot of corner grip and exit speed. Just lacks top end.

Reik Major · Nov 27, 2023

KDiesel said:
Like Paul mentioned in earlier post I agree with him totally, Volvo is too much bop'ed and is most terrible to drive also which make it idiotic choice but hey-ho here we go.

Even more respect goes to John for winning the first races of the season with the Volvo. So with all respect for John's effort, the car can't be that slow, can it?

To me it looks relatively well balanced between these cars and small advantages/disadvantages seem to be more track related.

I mean being in a Nissan, it was really, really hard to overtake a Volvo driver like Carlos or a BMW driver like Hank, Henri and Thomas.

I was enjoying both races very much, having hard but fair battles especially with Hank and Carlos. Great door to door fights for a couple of corners.

Kek700 · Nov 27, 2023

Cannot argue with that, Reik is correct, never felt the Primera was disadvantaged at all, and all that were faster were actually faster. irrespective of car. faster as they always have been.

My only for ever gripe is not BOP, unusual I know, it is the stability of the Primera, i spend most of the time fighting the car and brakes are shite. but that has nothing to do with the BOP.
In fact i think it is circuit to circuit an equal of the Volvo and BMW.
if they equalled the Bop up between the Volvo and Primera, i would be forced into the Volvo for its stability.
My biggest head ache is no ABS, i lose so much time to those who can feel the brake pedal, but i cannot expect the race selection to be based around my disability.
And anyway i replace no ABS with a lot of F**K its.

Medilloni · Nov 27, 2023

Reik Major said:
Even more respect goes to John for winning the first races of the season with the Volvo. So with all respect for John's effort, the car can't be that slow, can it?

Aww shucks, thanks Reik

On thread.... I've joked about the BoP being too much on the Volvo, though I think it's fairly good - maybe a fraction less restrictor; it loses on top speed unless you sacrifice ratios/diff/toe.

The Volvo is a great race car - in practice it's always top 4 in practice sessions ("... and I caught a fish this big"

), it's good in traffic if you get a shove, forgiving handling, traction is awesome (too good, starts are hard work). It's a touch hard on tyres, but runs hards so well.

Just wish I could do more races, we've a biz that's busy from Sept to Dec, I should have planned better