Went for my first track day in the 12C at Autobahn Country Club's south course yesterday. I usually drive my Exige on track - which is quite a different animal than the 12C. My best time was 1:36.17 which is not all that fast but not too shabby given that I wasn't pushing it that hard. Some thoughts, driving in Track/Track unless otherwise mentioned:
The cornering limits of the car are phenomenally high. This is accentuated by the very inobtrusive traction control and brake steer. On the couple occasions where the rear broke free, the traction control stepped in just a bit to rapidly bring the rear back in line. As I've been thoroughly trained by the Exige to quickly countersteer, I'm not sure what the car would have done in the hands of a really ham-fisted driver but I suspect it would take care of you just fine.
Steering feel is excellent - a little lighter than my liking but no less communicative than that of the Exige.
Brake steer is amazing. I got used to this by the 2nd or 3rd lap. It seems like it is easiest to activate with excessive trail braking - i.e. brake much harder than normally while turning in, wait for the second bite from brake steer, then get right back on the gas and power out of the turn. It seemed like brake steer was more easily triggered in Track handling mode although it was still there in Sport mode. Sometimes it would activate when turning in without the brake, but it was much easier to consistently activate it trail braking.
Brake feel is a major weakness. I have the steel brakes and they were rather inconsistent. I think it is only partly a heat issue as the feel varied from corner to corner with similar brake pedal pressure. The occasional soft pedal and decreased brake performance reminds me of my Exige before it got stainless steel brake lines. I am pretty sure the 12C has steel brake lines so it's probably not that, but I wonder if there is something happening in the ABS unit. That said, letting everything cool off does restore the feel & consistency.
Unfortunately, all the electronic wizardry makes throttle steer difficult to impossible. The car is just really not willing to let the rear slide out. Perhaps if I ever get brave enough to turn all the stability control off I can evaluate this more - but the limits are so high that I'd have to be going far faster than I'm comfortable with. It is astonishing though how fast the car is and how easy it is to drive fast, pulling >1g in the corners.
Engine / tire heat is a major issue. While running on track I got failure warnings on all four tire pressure/temperature sensors that cured themselves after everything cooled off. Definitely let out at least 4 psi before going on track. More disappointingly, I was only able to run for 3 hard laps (about 6 minutes) before the engine coolant temperature warning came on. Autobahn is a pretty tight track and I keep the RPMs over 6k so I was running pretty hard, but still - 6 minutes is very short. I do wonder if the warning is overly conservative though as my first session out I wasn't expecting the warning & couldn't hear it over the engine, so I ran for nearly 40 minutes at full tilt without causing any harm to the engine. Incidentally, that 40 minute session burned through an entire tank of gas, so about 6 mpg.
Finally, I got a lot of compliments from everyone else at the track. Standard exhaust is very quiet from outside the car though. Inside, I think this is the only time I appreciate the Harry Metcalfe option - especially combined with the turbo whine.
Overall the car is mentally fast on the track. Is it more fun than my Exige? Hard to say - they're very different. In some ways the Exige is more challenging, in some ways the 12C is. The engine heat issue in the 12C is a real killjoy though. But I certainly can't wait to bring the 12C to Road America in October.
The cornering limits of the car are phenomenally high. This is accentuated by the very inobtrusive traction control and brake steer. On the couple occasions where the rear broke free, the traction control stepped in just a bit to rapidly bring the rear back in line. As I've been thoroughly trained by the Exige to quickly countersteer, I'm not sure what the car would have done in the hands of a really ham-fisted driver but I suspect it would take care of you just fine.
Steering feel is excellent - a little lighter than my liking but no less communicative than that of the Exige.
Brake steer is amazing. I got used to this by the 2nd or 3rd lap. It seems like it is easiest to activate with excessive trail braking - i.e. brake much harder than normally while turning in, wait for the second bite from brake steer, then get right back on the gas and power out of the turn. It seemed like brake steer was more easily triggered in Track handling mode although it was still there in Sport mode. Sometimes it would activate when turning in without the brake, but it was much easier to consistently activate it trail braking.
Brake feel is a major weakness. I have the steel brakes and they were rather inconsistent. I think it is only partly a heat issue as the feel varied from corner to corner with similar brake pedal pressure. The occasional soft pedal and decreased brake performance reminds me of my Exige before it got stainless steel brake lines. I am pretty sure the 12C has steel brake lines so it's probably not that, but I wonder if there is something happening in the ABS unit. That said, letting everything cool off does restore the feel & consistency.
Unfortunately, all the electronic wizardry makes throttle steer difficult to impossible. The car is just really not willing to let the rear slide out. Perhaps if I ever get brave enough to turn all the stability control off I can evaluate this more - but the limits are so high that I'd have to be going far faster than I'm comfortable with. It is astonishing though how fast the car is and how easy it is to drive fast, pulling >1g in the corners.
Engine / tire heat is a major issue. While running on track I got failure warnings on all four tire pressure/temperature sensors that cured themselves after everything cooled off. Definitely let out at least 4 psi before going on track. More disappointingly, I was only able to run for 3 hard laps (about 6 minutes) before the engine coolant temperature warning came on. Autobahn is a pretty tight track and I keep the RPMs over 6k so I was running pretty hard, but still - 6 minutes is very short. I do wonder if the warning is overly conservative though as my first session out I wasn't expecting the warning & couldn't hear it over the engine, so I ran for nearly 40 minutes at full tilt without causing any harm to the engine. Incidentally, that 40 minute session burned through an entire tank of gas, so about 6 mpg.
Finally, I got a lot of compliments from everyone else at the track. Standard exhaust is very quiet from outside the car though. Inside, I think this is the only time I appreciate the Harry Metcalfe option - especially combined with the turbo whine.
Overall the car is mentally fast on the track. Is it more fun than my Exige? Hard to say - they're very different. In some ways the Exige is more challenging, in some ways the 12C is. The engine heat issue in the 12C is a real killjoy though. But I certainly can't wait to bring the 12C to Road America in October.
