Charles Morgan
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2010
- Messages
- 8,206
- Car
- Mercedes 250CE W114, Alfa Romeo GT Coupe 3.2 V6
Having bought Tudu's C55 AMG a few weeks ago, principally for the purpose of the odd track day and similar fun, it has sat on my drive somewhat un-loved, while the builders have daily added layers of grime, only partially washed off by the recent deluge. One of said builders, Ed, a 16 year old taking a year out of school, turns out to be the son of John Bussell, three times British Porsche champion, regular driving E types and DB4s at Goodwood Revival and a wealth of racing and tuition experience. So to get out of the mess and have a day getting used to the C55, I booked a day at Llandow with John.
Llandow is a small circuit in the Vale of Glamorgan, and the omens were rotten the day before as the drive to Wales was just awful, heavy driving rain and strong winds. My hotel in Cowbridge was comfortable, but with a menu so uninspired I looked through it four times and didn't fancy a thing. The cooked breakfast arrived in less time than it takes to cook a hash brown, which was a pity as it had a hash brown, and the tomato (an under-ripe nasty thing) had been so neglected it would have been burning down Croydon had it been human.
However, the weather brightened, and the sun shone all day (lunch was at a simple beachfront cafe at Llantwit Major, with magnificent views across the Bristol Channel to Exmoor). The Vale of Glamorgan is lovely rolling countryside, a part of Wales I had never been to before.
The first few laps diagnosed that I had no bad track habits and John settled in to teach me his technique of fast in, fast out. I had had little experience of the AMG at that point, and it soon became obvious that it was not going to be a limiting factor. Keen to see how well it braked with uprated C63 brakes on the front and SLK55 performance packs brakes on the back, John was equally keen to teach me not to use the brakes until I had built enough speed from getting the lines and positioning right, and then to use them to the full. Once that happened, it was obvious that the car was massively capable, John commenting the brakes would never be a limiting factor on the car.
Equally important, Tudu had put Bilstein coilovers on the car and this gave it superb body control, flat through corners, rarely unsettled and the combination of that and a very unintrusive traction control system made for little drama, only pulling the rear out slightly on a couple of occasions and then in an entirely controlled way. Having had a C32 the difference felt like chalk and cheese - that had agricultural handling, a traction control that was so nannying it killed the fun, and never gave me confidence except in a straight line. John felt that only the best drivers would gain much from switching off the ESP, and at the price of losing time from the back going wide, he couldn't see the point. So I wonder if the system itself was improved for the C55 or the suspension improvements keep the car so much better controlled the system doesn't need to intervene as much.
Llandow is small, a 1.25 mile circuit, and so the opportunity to build speed in the straights is limited, but it has tons of run off, no tyre walls or nasty corners, and so was a great place to learn. Oh, and we were the only people on the track for the entire day. This meant I had so much track time that learning was limited solely by my endurance. John is a fantastic tutor, patient, experienced and keen to show how to get the best out of the car. He thought the C55 was a super car, with the mods on it an immensely capable thing, the engine superb, and as he said, to get something better you would be looking at a used Porsche 911 GT3, for the price of which you could get 4 of my C55s. He suggested two improvements needed - a racing harness, and if the paddles could be made to operate faster (they are quite slow and as they were added afterwards I suspect the coding required may be an issue). He could not see the case for any more power, so that makes life easier.
By the end my speeds had risen immensely, as had my use of the excellent brakes, and the car just kept on delivering. Lines got better, fluency and control kept on improving, the whole adding up to much more involvement and felt safer as well as faster.
All in all, a great day. If you want to build your driving skills I highly recommend John - details here, Llandow (at £140 a day for unlimited use) excellent, and if any AMG or other track car enthusiasts here fancy a day there with tuition from John I am sure it can be arranged.
I was pretty knackered on the journey home though and there was little danger of being pulled over by plod. Having averaged around 6 mpg around the track, even the 160 mile drive home only got me back to 15!.
Llandow is a small circuit in the Vale of Glamorgan, and the omens were rotten the day before as the drive to Wales was just awful, heavy driving rain and strong winds. My hotel in Cowbridge was comfortable, but with a menu so uninspired I looked through it four times and didn't fancy a thing. The cooked breakfast arrived in less time than it takes to cook a hash brown, which was a pity as it had a hash brown, and the tomato (an under-ripe nasty thing) had been so neglected it would have been burning down Croydon had it been human.
However, the weather brightened, and the sun shone all day (lunch was at a simple beachfront cafe at Llantwit Major, with magnificent views across the Bristol Channel to Exmoor). The Vale of Glamorgan is lovely rolling countryside, a part of Wales I had never been to before.
The first few laps diagnosed that I had no bad track habits and John settled in to teach me his technique of fast in, fast out. I had had little experience of the AMG at that point, and it soon became obvious that it was not going to be a limiting factor. Keen to see how well it braked with uprated C63 brakes on the front and SLK55 performance packs brakes on the back, John was equally keen to teach me not to use the brakes until I had built enough speed from getting the lines and positioning right, and then to use them to the full. Once that happened, it was obvious that the car was massively capable, John commenting the brakes would never be a limiting factor on the car.
Equally important, Tudu had put Bilstein coilovers on the car and this gave it superb body control, flat through corners, rarely unsettled and the combination of that and a very unintrusive traction control system made for little drama, only pulling the rear out slightly on a couple of occasions and then in an entirely controlled way. Having had a C32 the difference felt like chalk and cheese - that had agricultural handling, a traction control that was so nannying it killed the fun, and never gave me confidence except in a straight line. John felt that only the best drivers would gain much from switching off the ESP, and at the price of losing time from the back going wide, he couldn't see the point. So I wonder if the system itself was improved for the C55 or the suspension improvements keep the car so much better controlled the system doesn't need to intervene as much.
Llandow is small, a 1.25 mile circuit, and so the opportunity to build speed in the straights is limited, but it has tons of run off, no tyre walls or nasty corners, and so was a great place to learn. Oh, and we were the only people on the track for the entire day. This meant I had so much track time that learning was limited solely by my endurance. John is a fantastic tutor, patient, experienced and keen to show how to get the best out of the car. He thought the C55 was a super car, with the mods on it an immensely capable thing, the engine superb, and as he said, to get something better you would be looking at a used Porsche 911 GT3, for the price of which you could get 4 of my C55s. He suggested two improvements needed - a racing harness, and if the paddles could be made to operate faster (they are quite slow and as they were added afterwards I suspect the coding required may be an issue). He could not see the case for any more power, so that makes life easier.
By the end my speeds had risen immensely, as had my use of the excellent brakes, and the car just kept on delivering. Lines got better, fluency and control kept on improving, the whole adding up to much more involvement and felt safer as well as faster.
All in all, a great day. If you want to build your driving skills I highly recommend John - details here, Llandow (at £140 a day for unlimited use) excellent, and if any AMG or other track car enthusiasts here fancy a day there with tuition from John I am sure it can be arranged.
I was pretty knackered on the journey home though and there was little danger of being pulled over by plod. Having averaged around 6 mpg around the track, even the 160 mile drive home only got me back to 15!.
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