Birthday Present - Knockhill Circuit
 

Just received a birthday present from my two offspring which is a performance driving experience at Knockhill (Edinburgh). Basically its 25 laps - 3 assessment, 2 demo by instructor and then 20 laps of tuition.
Any recommendations on how to prepare the car for the day? What should I check out? The brake calipers (front and rear) have been re-furbed in the last 2 years and the suspension arms etc have all been replaced over the last 20k but I still worry about brake judder when hot due to past issues (caused by stuck pads/pistons made worse by worn control arms). Pads are standard (Brembo pads front and rear) but is it worth going for EBC Red Stuff?

Any tips on how to ensure the day goes well are welcome. +++

Having done this on a few occasions (not knockhill),
The tips I would give you is upgrade your pads at least. I'm a fan of ferrodo DS2500 but they are not cheap. Whatever you do take the old pads with you in case you cook your pads on the track. Of course you'll need the tools to change them if you do and want to drive home!

The other tip is take an accurate tyre pressure guage. Check you pressure before you start and it's at manufacturers recommend level. After a couple of fast laps, with a bit of heat in the tyres check the pressure again. It should be approximately %10 higher. If less than lower the pressure by a couple of PSI. If it's higher than %10 increase the pressure by a couple of PSI.
It's all to do with side wall flex and deflection. To much and your tyres overheat, to little and handling will suffer.
HtHs
CtL

That'll be the second time that your car has done this at Knockhill - the first time during my ownership!

Because it's quite a small circuit, it's not that fast (although it can seem like it on the blind chicane!), so just go along and enjoy it! It's pretty tiring though, so be prepared to take a short break before you drive home.

Finally got around to doing this last week. A cold and blustery day but great fun. +++ Really learnt a thing or two about the car. Like how using the tiptronic buttons on the wheel is so much better than leaving it in auto sport. Whilst the box is OK in general use, it cannot anticipate a climbing curve. The car also really impresses with having been too late or too fast into a turn it will accept being dragged back onto the line without fuss or complaint.
The instructor thought it was fun too and was impressed by its power and handling.

Nice one +++

Looks like great fun David +++ Would love to do that myself some day.

There's something remarkably impressive about the sight of a D2 S8 on a race track. While it's certainly no Ferrari or Lambo, it has a presence and elegance to match any grand tourer, in my opinion.
But maybe I'm just biased ...


When I'm driving 'enthusiastically', I usually keep it in sport mode most of the time and use the tiptronic buttons to down-shift earlier into the bends, to give me a little engine-braking going in and to put me in the right gear for pulling back out of the bend. The rest of the time I find the TCU doesn't do a bad job of selecting the right gear (assuming it's in sport mode) although, as you say, there are some things it can't anticipate, such as a climbing bend.

One feature I would like to have on the tiptronic system is a way to go back to 'S' immediately after using the buttons to override the automatically selected gear. Other than to wait 30 seconds (or however long it is before it goes back to 'S' on its own), the only way I have found to force it back is to move the selector (eg into D and back to S, or to +/- mode and back). It would be nice to be able to 'resume' automatic gear selection with a single button press.

This took me back to my two 'Ring trips with Herman a few years back - which I intend to do again, now that MJ's fettled him. Using the triptronic buttons become like second nature pretty quickly (the Ring is a very long track....), the only real challenge being using them to change gear when you're also making a sharp turn :D.

Great fun though, and a real demonstration of the dual character of an S8.

The advice from the instructor regarding using the tiptronic buttons was to grasp the wheel at the spoke position and don't feed the wheel through your hands when cornering. There is a 130deg climbing bend on the knockhill circuit and even there you can still keep your trip and use the buttons to change gear. Your arms are crossed but you don't need to change grip👍

Agreed - and that was what I did at the 'Ring, though it was a bit of a challenge in the Karousel! :rolleyes: