Fast Fun at Donington Park

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Well -

Something different here, I spent today with friends up at Donington Park Motor Circuit playing with a newly acquired vehicle...

The car is, we believe, the first privately owned Viper Competition Coupe in the Uk and what a blast!!

It is fully equipped with Air Jacks, Full Motec Instrumentation/logging and lots and lots of carbon fiber. My continuing diet stood me well as I found climbing in through the cage easier than acticipated and all belts fitted easily.

Whilst I did not get 'hands on wheel' today (has been promised for future outing) the experience was extremely enjoyable...

It was the owner's first time driving the car - having only collected it from overseas 10 days ago and with slicks all round (12" wide on front ) the grip was superb. It instantly gave an immense feel of security, as did the equally huge brakes. Its deceleration when requested was something else. Acceleration was good, although not spectacular, with a 520BHP lump up front and it was happy to be buzzed about all day with ZERO problems encountered (try that with most 40s....) passing just about everything (excluding some seriously quick Porsches with Pro drivers) and holding a steady 87 deg C on water/Oil temp...

So - lots of fun, thanks friends... and I look forward to it's next outing...

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Oh and as it was a 'noisy day'... there were a few other interesting cars there too, including these.

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Not sure what the lower car above was, but it was by far and away the LOUDEST car there on the day.

Also saw a nice Pro-Sport - an original enclosed version of Malcom MacAdam's spyder.

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

And a Porsche that you may remember from Malcolm's 'Britcar' experience last September... (this time with all its valves in place... )

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

One last look at the Competition Coupes brakes - no wonder it stopped so well!

[Malcolm]

Blimey, Paul why not make me feel bad about not getting to Donnington yesterday! Fab cars, all of them!

If those wheels on the Viper are 18 inch, then those discs must 14 inches across? And I would guess it has racing ABS so no wonder it stops well. The Porsche that I drove shown above had full racing ABS and those were also amazing brakes. Very good for trail braking. Difference between racing and road ABS is the speed of reaction and cadence braking.

[Naughty]

"As he was about to go out with Stig grinning at the wheel, Paul suddenly had thoughts to check how to make a quick exit!"

http://www.gt40s.com/gallery/file.php?n=406&w=l