Off to the 'Ring this weekend.

Just back from a fun couple of days in the Eifel.

Yesterday I left home in the Pug at 9:15am after an early morning jog, dropping by the tip on the way to drop off some cardboard and weigh it on the weighbridge (an added bonus which I only realized when I was there ). Well at 1205 kg (rear seats removed) with a full tank I though it wasn’t that bad.

I left Haarlem at 9:30 and was at the ‘Ring in just over 3 hours of gentle crusising.

There was an RCN practice on (race cars) so I parked in the field:



Then headed into the car park for a quick wander:



After a spot of lunch at Breidscheid I headed to Sliders where I was staying to start on the beers and watch the Rugby….

After a late finish I woke up this morning to a cold misty scene, some of the cars brooding outside Sliders:



JJ’s Mk2 G60 golf (~220bhp…)



Max and John’s RX7s:





Nice wheels:


I waited about a bit then headed up to the track car park at about 11am, still foggy with the odd bit of drizzle and a wet closed track:





I prowled the car park a bit and spotted this tidy M3 with some more nice wheels:





I also spotted this UK GTi-6 in the car park.



Finally the fog cleared enough for the track to open, after half an hour or so I headed out for a slightly damp lap, Wehrseifen was fun but in general I quite enjoyed the 306 on track, the first time I’ve had it out. First lap was slow, 11:22 but then it was damp and I was on ditchfinder P6000s.. Next lap came down to 10:15, and the third was 10:04 and pretty much dry. I had a further 3 laps, getting used to the ’Ring in a car (normally I do it on the bike) but without timing, I only wanted a flavour of how fast I was going. I took it quite steady, gentlish braking and keeping out of the Karussel to try and save wear and tear on the car. I only did single laps too, stopping after each one for at least 15 mins to allow brakes and fluids to kill (overkill possibly?). Anyway I’ve found one shot of me on track, pansying around the top of the Karussel:



And a shot after lapping in a less foggy car park:



I packed up at about 5pm, headed back to Sliders to pick up some bike tyres before heading the 200+ miles home.

A fun weekend and pretty chuffed with the new Pug in almost standard trim (strut brace only). Looking forward to trying it with Pagid pads and R888s fitted for Easter (and to having the bike there too ).

Tim have you smoked those P6000s? What size are they?

They actually still look suprisingly fit, although the air temp was in single figures brrrrrrr....

They are 195/55/R15s and a bit slippy but I'd say they were reasonably progressive when they broke away although the famed lively rear end was in evidence.

The focus is shod with a mixture of tyres. Theyre all pretty new but i'll have to see how good (see bad) they are in the wet. Wanli's on the front with one Goodyear Eagle and some other odd make on the back. I had P6000s on the first MX5 and I thought they were ok. Reasonably progressive like you said, although in the wet with RWD then had a tendency to step out. A set of Conti's might be another option.

A couple more action shots:

Nice one Tim...

And a couple more action shots, apologies if you're bored, but I was very happy with the little Pug:

Looks very tidy I must say, Ive always been a fan of the 306, think its a pretty timeless design even if the interior is a bit dated. If I hadnt ended up with this hearse of mine, i'd have bought a Pug. Some really nice looking XSi's about.

The pug looks like it corners remarkably flat. Bit lacking in grunt I imagine......

It's better than my old Seat Leon diesel for grunt! It's quite a revvy little engine, 167 bhp at just over 7k rpm, but compared to all the porkers and beemers there it's nothing. It pulls pretty well up Kesselchen, the long uphill section, sitting at about a ton.