Thruxton skid pan experience in my Evora.

[Phaeton91]

Thruxton skid pan experience in my Evora.

Not sure if this is the right place but happy for it to be moved if necessary.

When my wife asked what I wanted for Christmas I opted for Thruxton’s “skid pan experience in your own car”.  Quite reasonable in price, I wanted to get a much better feel for what the car does past the limit of grip.

I’ve done a bit of drifting before in MX5s and 350z’s and was expecting something a bit between that and the circular skid pan at Benz world which is really a wet donut circuit. 

Thruxton is quite different.  It’s not flat for a start and so you get adverse camber, and either the road falling away or climbing with little or no grip.  The grip or lack of it is also inconsistent all the way around the circle.  This is intended to introduce real world sudden momentary loss of grip as one might experience on a roundabout or a bend.

Hence, the objective at Thruxton is to just drive at a steady speed in a circle and aim to react to what the car does, with the freedom to then try all of the drive modes in a highly controlled environment.

The car’s reaction could be a combination of understeer, oversteer, complete loss of grip under braking or a combination of all. Speed wise, we are talking about 2nd gear and at no point did the revs get beyond 4k.   Due to the highly polished surface, this is supposed to mimic a much higher speed loss of grip. 

I initially kept the sport button off. The traction control works by braking the appropriate wheel to try and bring the car back in line.  I very quickly wanted to get out of normal mode because the ABS was kicking in constantly.  The problem though was that it hardly corrected the car at times due to there being complete lack of grip (ABS needs at least some grip to work) and the vibration from the brake pedal just got annoying.

In handling terms the car was very understeer prevalent even with brand new Goodyears on front and part worn PSS on the back.  The rear would also then come round but when the rear did go it wasn’t too snappy.

In Sport mode the ABS is still quite active.  I’m sure the slip tolerance is much higher but I still felt that it was trying hard to control the skid but not achieving much because there was such a lack of grip.  Potentially, winter or all season tyres would have made a huge difference just to be able to get some purchase on the front end, but again, understeer was very prevalent unless being very provocative with the accelerator.

Race mode, turns all the traction off it seems.  I didn’t hear the ABS kick in to correct a slide although ABS definitely remains on under braking which is a relief (and maybe even a legal requirement).  I didn’t get any sense that Race mode learnt from the first oversteer event - perhaps it was just too slippery, but it was actually a much more enjoyable experience doing the circles in race mode simply because the car was not seeming to work aimlessly to correct slides.  I’m sure if there was some grip, or if perhaps I was on winter tyres, it would be different, but as a result of this I stayed in race mode for much of the time.

There are also parts of the P shaped circuit which are wet but not icy smooth and on the occasions I tried to kick the back out with moderate revs. I was surprised how stable the rear was - again, understeer was order of the day, unless I had a lot of angle in the steering.

In summary, very low grip induces mainly understeer which was not too scary.  After a few understeer moments and initially trying to add more lock, the thinking brain kicks in and straightening the steering helps get things tidy again.  Trying to turn in on adverse camber have even more understeer to the point it was uncontrollable and the car just kept going straight. Unless of course, the front near side wheel hit the slippery patch mid turn - this gave immediate understeer but then as soon as the rear touched that same patch (signifying black ice) it all switches round pretty quickly.  
 

Because of the time of day (8.30am) I had the whole thing to myself to do as I pleased and I think I really got a better feel for the car than I would have got in 1000s miles of normal driving.
 

Hopefully I will never experience slip levels like that on the road but it was well worth doing and for £125 it was good value I felt.  It was also not hard on the car due to low speeds and the highly polished surface.  I’d recommend it therefore.

 

[EuropaSman]

@Phaeton91 very interesting write up. I'm booked in with the Lotus Drivers Club to do a 1 hour session on the Thruxton skid pan in early August. It only cost me £44.  I won't be taking my Evora though, my Elise will go instead.

[Phaeton91]

Sounds like a bargain.  Usually they have two cars at a time alternating for the hour.  I think sometimes it’s good to have an enforced break so that you can reset, rethink and go again.

[jerzybondov]

Great experience - thanks so much for sharing!

[TdM]

Due to the engine position, there isn't much weight over the front so at low speeds and with little weight transfer, as you experienced, you will get understeer. Add power... More understeer. Possibly not the best skidpan to get the best idea of balance.

I find that the Evora is quite well behaved (tends to understeer) in most situations. If you are pushing on with some trail braking you can add well controlled rotation then pick up the throttle to sit the rear down maintain some drift and drive out.

For a true feeling of what happens with the Evora when it surprises you, you either need a left right rapid change, preferably off throttle or cresting in the middle of a turn. Both tend to upset the Evora (first more than second) due to the height of the engine the first can put you into a drift that can take some time to recover because you can REALLY feel the engine dragging the rear out. The second 'levers' the car over and tends to upset the tyres it's not the most pleasant sensation.

[Phaeton91]

Thank you.  That’s a really good explanation.  I can easily picture what you mean although it’s not so easy to think of a place where it can be experienced - safely!

[Bruss]

Look for a track with a fast left right or right left and then build speed lap by lap. Make sure there is a good run off area though. You can try recovery or you can bow out of the corner and use the run off. End of the main straight at Catalunya is the sort of thing.

 

 

[Phaeton91]

Thanks.

I suppose the little chicane at Bedford would be a safe place to try it - maybe over exaggerate the steering around it rather than ride the kerb.

The really obvious one that does come to mind is Hatzenbach on the Nurburgring, right - left before the straight up flugplatz especially as it has a crest mid transition - but there’s zero run off so as Ted Lasso would say - that’s far too rich for my liking.  

[jerzybondov]

Staying flat over the crest at Schwedenkreuz would also be hair raising I expect with these handling characteristics - you’ve got to be very careful to manage the weight transfer when you get on the brakes for the fast left just after.