After a foggy drive over to Abingdon we stood around for the MSE briefing in visibility of less than 50 metres nervously waiting for the sunshine to burn off the mist. It started clearing at around 10am and we were soon able to go out in groups for the sighting laps, and by the time the third group had completed their 3 sighting laps conditions were clear enough for the track to open fully.
The track at Abingdon is supposed to be one of the better airfield circuits and we certainly found some of the course quite challenging - particularly the higher speed left hander that leads into the coned section of the perimeter road, and the sharp left hander by the 'pits'. Conditions improved dramatically and by 11.30am it was a warm and sunny day, which made it easier for use to get some heat into the tyres - something that we were struggling to do in the much colder conditions at Keevil. The resulting levels of grip were very impressive.
We did make some minor changes to the damping settings on the coilovers, but we weren't really able to feel much difference in the way the car handled. Starting to feel like we were making a bit of progress with driving only to be brought back down to earth with a bump by the instructor (we both went out with the same guy*), who said that we were both taking advantage of the car's benign handling, which was allowing us to get away with some pretty ham-fisted driving! He was massively impressed with the way the car handled though
Time for an oil change now, before Hullavington at the end of the month.
* The instructor was Hamish who works at most of the MSE days - he was great.