I had an absolutely brilliant day at Millbrook on Saturday with the Scoob.

For anybody who is looking to improve their car technique (road driving and handling), this is a great way to do it.

I had access to the high speed bowl (speed limited to 130mph but that feels fast enough when the barrier feels like it's right next to your ear!), the outer handling circuit (like a mini track but with deliberately difficult corners, off camber, double apexes, tightening bends etc.), a wet skid pan and the hill circuit.

The most interesting bits for me were the wet skid pan and the hill circuit; I really wanted to get the scooby to "let go" and slide to see what it did. After several minutes of trying, moving the DCCD to the rear/leaving it in auto etc., and getting the lorry to come out and re-spray the pan, the car just would not let go !! Even Don Palmer couldnt' really get it going - the only way was to put all the torque to the rear, accelerate hard, lift and turn in and then accelerate hard again, and it just about sort of let go a bit. That is a very grippy car !!!! And I must check my tyres !!

The hill circuit was really useful as well as being loads of fun - as the name implies it is a hilly circuit set out like a road - minimal run-off (armco, trees etc.), with some difficult corners. I found it really helped with my limit point analysis (the limit point of a corner, not the limit of the car), and my judgement of how fast to take a bend, as well as learning a lot about the scoob - after 45 minutes of driving round it (3rd gear on-boost most of the time, steep descents into tight bends) the brakes were fine, tyres were fine, car was fine - not bad for a lardy road car, although 9-10mpg was the price I paid! The most fun of all though was fulfilling an ambition of mine (ok I am easily pleased) to "get air" - never found anywhere safe on the road to do this, but there's a place on the circuit you can do it - scooby jumps well

I can really recommend it to anybody - there are a number of driving coaches who can get access to Millbrook and it is a really useful (as well as fun!) place to go.

Oh and I did get a passenger ride in a Carrera GT around the hill circuit - my god that car is something very special !

No pics I'm afraid as you aren't allowed cameras there.

 

Sounds like fun!

The Scoob does jump well... I used to love that feeling of all 4 of its feet hitting the floor and just launching into another bend.

They are hard to get out of shape too! My tried and tested method was to launch hard into a bend, lift off, then feather the throttle to control it. Such a nice feeling!

Never keen on doing it in the wet on the road though - used to scare me a bit then

Awesome machines

 

Nice write up, the Scoob is a great car on the sort of hill circuit you describe, it's true habitat.

It's still a car I look back at with fond memories, from classic through P1 and new age blob eye I was addicted!

Even now I look at them - trouble is they make me very badly behaved!

 

 

Sounds like fun, who organises it?

I'm itching to have proper play with my Legacy but until I can guarantee torrential, brake and tyre saving rain, normal track days are out.

 

MBK I wasn't sure how the Scoob would handle - hard on the brakes and it's a heavy car (compared to the 7 lol, it's about 100kg's more than the S) but it didn't suffer on the brakes, and no body roll or rocking under braking etc. - fell in love with it all over again !!

GE - I'll give you the details on Saturday