Octavia at MRT Track Day - Marulan

[Martin]

Firstly, a huge thankyou to the MRT Team for hosting the day and providing both technical advice and driving tuition - fantastic job guys (really nice bunch of blokes to mingle with for sure)

So three of us trekked down to this event, what a cool thing to use Friday for

(The photo is taking ages to sync - it will get there eventually)


I have to say, this is one of the shortest, tightest and busiest tracks I've ever been on
After a little tuition I settled into a nice rhythm
My new brake kit struggled a little in the morning as the pads have not been broken in (in anger)
By the afternoon they were lasting longer and performing very well

There was a very fast (modified) Mazda 3 MPS doing 42.4 second laps
There was a tricked out Subaru STI doing 45~46 second laps - going pretty hard
I was clocked at 48.5 seconds so I certainly didn't let the team down

My max speed was 118.5km/h (which is a lot on such a little track)
Most of the time my max boost was ~20psi (but there were a few 26psi spikes)

While the Toyo R888 semi slicks are not a really great tyre, having so much more rubber on the road was very helpful
I could get on the power pretty early (Tigger could not, the instructor lit up his inside front Conti, huge smoke)
I was a little concerned running semi slicks at the front and road tyres at the rear
Several times the front did bite and tuck in too hard for the rear but it was easy to manage thanks to the inherent good handling of the Octavia

Here is the obligatory YouTube video of a few laps
(When I pull off the track you can hear the diverter valve go off)
MartinOctaviaMarulanMarch2013 - YouTube

The volume is not very loud because the GoPro camera is inside it's protective case
If you turn the volume up you can hear a beep or whistle when I'm on power/boost
Apparently that is very loud outside the car and entertained the spectators
I was dubbed the "Whistling Skoda", we later decided to call my car the "Scud Missile"

I took Tigger for a few laps so he can compare his car versus what mine is doing

Fuel consumption for the day was 16.5 litres per 100km
That includes the 2 hour drive down there - so the track time was even worse

Hell of a lot of fun, I'm knackered, off to bed!

[Dutch77]

The 'Scud' definitely looks like it moves quicker than stock these days.. nice clip and seems like a good circuit and day (I'd heard the name but never seen it before).

[Mysticality]

The two decent pics of the group!





Video of the Scud! Screaming Skoda!! - YouTube

[cbay]

awesome stuff guys!

martin, loving them rs4-style wheels!

[Martin]

Video of the Scud! Screaming Skoda!! - YouTube

Man, you can hear the whistle right from the hairpin, awesome
(One day we will have to work out what it is - that came with the StageII tune)

martin, loving them rs4-style wheels!

Yeah mate, I have really warmed to them now and prefer them over the Golf R replias
They not only look good, they have heaps of room for big brakes

[Martin]

Removing the semi slicks gave me a shock this morning

This is what they looked like before the track day:



This is what they looked like after the track day!



They've taked an absolute hiding on the outside edge
Reminds me of all those years ago playing with Fiat's, Alfa's and Lancia's at track days
The dreaded FWD Macpherson strut system burring the outside edge of the tyre, grrr

[Martin]

Another thing I learned at the Marulan track day was brake pedal kick back due to ABS operating
It happened a lot and can be a bit confusing as to what is happening

[gldgti]

camber plates!

Good stuff guys, nice to see some skodas out there on the track.

[kaanage]

They've taked an absolute hiding on the outside edge
Reminds me of all those years ago playing with Fiat's, Alfa's and Lancia's at track days
The dreaded FWD Macpherson strut system burring the outside edge of the tyre, grrr

Yeah, par for the course with a stock front end - even with most camber plates, you won't get enough negative camber to prevent the shoulders being chewed out.

Fiat's, Alfa's and Lancia's eh The older ones with double wishbone front ends were much better in this regard (though to balance things out, you had to put up with the live rear axle or de Dion if you had a posh Alfa )

Another thing I learned at the Marulan track day was brake pedal kick back due to ABS operating
It happened a lot and can be a bit confusing as to what is happening

This would tend to indicate that your front brakes are way over spec'd, especially given that you were running semi-slicks.

[Martin]

Yeah, par for the course with a stock front end - even with most camber plates, you won't get enough negative camber to prevent the shoulders being chewed out.

Fiat's, Alfa's and Lancia's eh

Yeah - the Fiat X1/9 was the only one that didn't chew the tyres out like this
But given how low that car is (mid engine also) it's a very different package

This would tend to indicate that your front brakes are way over spec'd, especially given that you were running semi-slicks.

I do think I have more braking power than needed - hur hur hur - LOL

There was one corner that had a rough entry, that was the one where I was consistently having problems with ABS
I didn't find a clean line into that corner, inside tyre thumped through the rough stuff and ABS dealt with it, outside tyre was fine