First (mini) track day

(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

13 days ago, I took the Exige to the track for the first time. All I can say is that the car is mindblowing on the track and until you drive it there, you have no idea of what it is capable of. The track day happened in the second half of a meeting of the Portuguese Lotus Club. See a full report of the day on the Cluib’s blog here.
The day started with a *very* ealy rise. I picked up my friend José Gil in Benfica at 6:20 am. I then picked up to M100s on the first highway stop towards Oporto and a black Esprit halfway through.



(Photo credit: Paulo Canedo - i think)

We arrived at Oporto and had breakfast at the Lotus dealer’s premises. Huge number of Lotus there… unbelievable turnout for the meeting. I was really happy.



(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

We started driving towards Vila do Conde – a city with a road circuit where Lotus ran in the 60s. After a short pit stop we went to the karting track where many of the cars would taste ‘racing tasrmac’ for the first time. It was an almost magical trip. I was leqading the convoy – looking «in the rearview mirror and seeing a bunch of Europas, Elans, M100s and a few Elises and an Exige… wow!
After lunch, Manuel Pinheiro and I led the laps. I drove the car as hard as I use to do on the street but not much harder. Basically braking late but not carrying too much speed on corners. I only lost control of the car once, but was able to hold it from spinning. It was fun, but nut really all the superlatives that I had heard about how this car behaves on track. I was soon to find out that the fault was the drivers’, not the car! Look at the poor racing line :-(




(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

My times were as follows: 1'04"031, 1'05"366,1'04"230, 1'03"651, 1'06"073

Second time around, I basically looked at the car and told it: ‘I’m going to have some fun with you, slut!’ (sorry about the graphic language, but that’s how I felt!)



(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

OMG! OMG! OMG! I did carry more speed this time. I just grabbed the car by the scuff of the neck and drove the hell out of it.



(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

Still not brilliant, but much better. The sense of exhilaration that I felt during the 5 laps and afterwards is impossible to put into words. Finally I drove the car like it deserved. Finally I drove like it a Lotus driver would drive it.



(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

Oh yeah!!!!! Do you know how much faster I was?! Almost 5 seconds faster!!! My times were: 1'01"619, 1'00"397, 1'00"449, 59"661 :), 1'00"172 on a kart track.



(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

I was really proud of myself and I did make the top 10 times for the day. For me, this was a big accomplishment because I drove the car in a completely new way.



Like I should, like a race car for the road should be driven! It was a metamorphosis, a quantum leap. Can’t wait to take the car to the track again.