Knockhill Courses

[monsterenergy]

I'm booked on a 1 hour performance driving course at Knockhill next week and hope some folk can give some pointers.

Where is the nearest Shell garage with V-Power to Knockhill?

Will obviously check oil and coolant levels in the car - but anything else I should check?

Will need to clean it and make sure there's nothing flying about inside.

How should I care for my engine and brakes best doing 10 laps of Knockhill at a time?

Should I take it easy and preserve my pride and joy - or is "spirited" driving ok?

Is a more or less standard STi built to handle me taking it on a track - even for just 2 x 10 lap runs?

What's a respectable lap time? lol

I've also booked onto the Rally Experience in their Impreza Turbo - really looking forward to that.

[g1983]

For v power there is a shell near east end park. home of dunfermline fc

hope that helps mate. not sure about closest. but close ish

Edited May 6, 2012 by g1983

[Phil MC]

The Rally Experience sounds great. What are the details/cost for that?

Just thinking ahead as it's my 40th this year and would love to do something like that rather than the usual supercar experience type thingy .

[paul555sti]

The closest station is just a few miles up the road after powmill. Just outside crook of devon.

[monsterenergy]

The Rally Experience sounds great. What are the details/cost for that?

Just thinking ahead as it's my 40th this year and would love to do something like that rather than the usual supercar experience type thingy .

Link to Knockhill Rally Experience

I wonder if they teach, "If in doubt... flat out"

Will be the first time I've driven a classic Impreza turbo since about year 2000 - when I first fell in love with Imprezas... CAN'T WAIT!

I got vouchers for my xmas - actually got from my missus and my folks - so that's why I'm doubling up on courses... I originally only wanted the performance driving but the rally sounds ace

Edited May 6, 2012 by monsterenergy

[weedman]

I did the performance driving course a few years back when I had a WRX blob and thoroughly enjoyed it - hopefully you will too.

Yes, make sure the car is fully checked over, de cluttered and filled with Shell's finest - amazing the amount of fuel you will go through.

My instructor was very good - from a sedate pace to get to know the circuit, she upped the pace through the session until I was going as fast as I felt comfortable with. "Spirited" driving is definitely ok - that's what you're there for. If my WRX could handle it you should have no worries in an STi. Went out for blocks of roughly 10 laps, and towards the end when the speed was up, the brakes were definitely going off towards the end of the run.

The only issue I had was with the description - "Peformance Driving Course". It wasn't really. It was an hour of fun designed to get you driving the Knockhill circuit as fast as possible. That was all I did, and it was enough for me. However, you don't often get the chance to drive your car in such a controlled environment, so you might want to investigate how your car behaves - what happens if I lift off in a corner for instance. Or play with your DCCD to find how different settings affect the handling.

I really wouldn't worry about a lap time - just enjoy yourself and learn a bit. (If you want to get an idea of lap times have a look at You Tube - loads of track day videos at Knockhill up there.) And if you want an experience, hand the car to the instructor for a couple of laps. I mean, I thought I was going quickly, but they're in a different league!

I came away with a big grin on my face - hopefully you will too. Let us know how you get on with that and the rally experience.

Good luck.

[johns]

Another option is an SIDC track day like the one we have booked on the 9th June. SIDC members can get 4 hours track time from 9-1 for only £115 and there is free instruction included from a Knockhill instructor as well

[monsterenergy]

Unfortunately every SIDC Knockhill trackday this year coincides with me being away at work :-(

[l137sws]

Was booked to do the Seat Leon experience but used my own STI hatch.

Got much more out of it as it gave me a feel for what the car can do. Instructor, Sasha Brunton, drove a couple of laps in car to understand it before lesson started.

Learned about balancing car rather than playing with centre diff, still managed to get traction control warning.

34 miles or so at an indicated average of 8.7mpg. New set of brake pads at the service the following week to replaced cracked and glazed ones that didn't survive.

Brakes will be your limitation if you use your own car, pedal goes soft very quickly.

[monsterenergy]

Well that was FUN!

Rally day was good, but nae long enough obviously! I hadn't realised it was kinda a competition against other folk... so when I found that oot I wanted to win lol!.

Hadn't driven a classic turbo in aboot a decade so was much fun.

Managed to bag a Knockhill runners up medal for finishin 2nd oota 13 too :-D

Next day I took myh own car on - like the previous poster said, my brakes were going spongy after 4/5 laps.

Was greasy with showers when I was on so pretty challenging - and didn't want thrash the car to death any hoo byt was great fun!

Everybody immediately thinks "more power" when they buy a Scooby but takin it on a track immediately makes ye think brakes and suspenions (and buying a classic turbo track car lol).

Will needa booka service when I get hame from work :-/

Right - fit brakes will nae go spongy after 5 laps? :-)

Edited May 17, 2012 by monsterenergy

[monsterenergy]

Got my rally pics back today - ye only get 3?!? Ach well, at least it's a memento... will maybe frame one with my runners up medal below and talk about how I coulda been a famous rally driver if it wasn't for <insert numerous excuses>.

[monsterenergy]

One of my laps fae Knockhill recorded on my GoPro Hero2 HD with suction mount. Takin it pretty easy but was still lots of fun.

Edited May 24, 2012 by monsterenergy

[lewisscoob]

Looking good min, how do you get your go pro footage from camera to youtube?

I have some footage I want to put up but the files are ENORMOUS! Just trying to find a way to edit them and reduce the size enough for them to be manageable. I used windows moviemaker but it was sloooooow.

[monsterenergy]

Looking good min, how do you get your go pro footage from camera to youtube?

I have some footage I want to put up but the files are ENORMOUS! Just trying to find a way to edit them and reduce the size enough for them to be manageable. I used windows moviemaker but it was sloooooow.

I used GoPro Cineform Studio that I found on the GoPro website under 'support'.

GoPro Cineform Studio Linky

You can use it to trim the start and end times of your videos and also change the quality and size.

It's a bit cumbersome, you need to convert to a GoPro kind of intermediate file, then export to an mpeg-4.

Prior to export, you can fiddle about with the screen shot and colour.

It crashed a few times on me - but not sure because if that's cause I was trying to do other stuff on my computer during the conversion.

It's still nae very quick but maybe quicker than windows movie maker.

[jef]

good read, ive done the seat leon cupr r tuition day

and it was an amazingly and fantastically enjoyable day.

i now have some "own car" tuition to use on the scooby shortly

the seat was ragged to within an inch of its life imo (until the instructor showed me how its really done) lol, but even at that it was 3-4 laps then a break - probably for mechanical sympathy id imagine, rather then driver sympathy

but when you take own car it seems to be double the laps before break time - is that negotiable?

am i mistaken? or picked up wrong, id rather 3-5 hard laps then a break in my road car ive got to drive home in

[monsterenergy]

good read, ive done the seat leon cupr r tuition day

and it was an amazingly and fantastically enjoyable day.

i now have some "own car" tuition to use on the scooby shortly

the seat was ragged to within an inch of its life imo (until the instructor showed me how its really done) lol, but even at that it was 3-4 laps then a break - probably for mechanical sympathy id imagine, rather then driver sympathy

but when you take own car it seems to be double the laps before break time - is that negotiable?

am i mistaken? or picked up wrong, id rather 3-5 hard laps then a break in my road car ive got to drive home in

I saw the folk driving the Leon's - they were warming up to drive a Ferrari I think.

Now - with it being my own car, I definitely wasn't wanting to "rag" it.

I discussed it with the instructor before we went out and he said it was my choice but said he wasn't going to tell me to thrash my car. I started with only map boost, but by end was up to [s#] full boost.

Now - I'd need to look back the videos but I don't think I ever did more that 6 laps at a time - even by then I could feel my standard STi brakes going spongy. So the 6th lap was a slow drive in lap to let the turbo cool and brakes begin to cool down. Then sat in pit lane for a wee chat with engine off and car in 1st gear with handbrake off to allow brakes to cool without warping the discs.

You are paying Knockhill for the time, you're not paying them wreck your car - so whenever you want to come in to let your vehicle take a rest - tell them. You pay them for the hour so how you spend it is basically up to you to a point. It's not a fixed set of 5, then 10 then 10 laps. No way my car could've handled 10 laps of performance driving.

I was trying to be smooth - and the instructor said by the end I couldn't have been going much faster through the corners without screeching tyres and actually scrubbing off speed. Aim to keep it smooth, this will protect your brakes and tyres, and I reckon you'll find it much more enjoyable than a worrying screeching lap.

I enjoyed getting performance out of my car - and not worrying that I was killing my pride and joy.