► Month seven with our Ginetta G40
► And we’re back at Silverstone
► Taking the Ginetta karting
I took the G40 back to Silverstone this month, and drove flat-out around the GP circuit again. Sort of. I’ve been for a spot of simulator training at iZone Performance, a kind of driver perfection laboratory tucked away in Silverstone’s technology park. Sim work’s only a component part of what the iZone centre’s all about; co-founded by international Touring Car winning machine Andy Priaulx, it aims to turn quick drivers into winning ones by setting to work on everything from balance and motor control to nutrition and interpersonal skills. After a crack at some of the harder-than-it-looks reflex-testing equipment in the gym area (designed to train everything from brake-pressure feel to peripheral vision), I find myself inside one of iZone’s high-tech simulators wearing a fetching pair of eye-tracking glasses. I’m driving a virtual Ginetta, just like the one I arrived at iZone in, on a virtual Silverstone – the same layout the G40 and I won races on for real just a few months ago (CAR, August).
I think iZone commercial director Neil Riddiford probably realised he’d perhaps coached higher-calibre hotshoes than me when I blundered into the end of the pitwall within seconds of setting off. ‘Without wishing to be rude,’ he says, gently, ‘I think perhaps you’re treating this too much like a game…’ Because rather than some kind of epic PlayStation, the simulator at iZone is a training tool, first and foremost. Take the eye-tracking software. You know those drivers who bumble around fixated on the corner they’re in, rather than the one ahead? Turns out I’m one of them. ‘We’re programmed to aim our vision low,’ Riddiford explains. ‘When we’re walking we’re looking for obstacles, at school we’re trained to look at our desk, on the road we’re watching for brakelights and potholes.’ He aims a laser pointer at where my focus should be, and it’s rarely lower than the horizon line. Rather than looking at a corner’s apex, I’m X-raying through bridge parapets and grandstands towards sections of track that aren’t even in view yet. And here’s the thing – I’m a full 2.5sec quicker on the lasered lap than before. Yes, Silverstone GP’s a long circuit and I’m still getting used to the simulator, but it’s startling stuff nonetheless. Riddiford likens it to switching from dipped beam to high beam at night on the road. That’s not the only revelation of the session. Suggesting I’m overthinking things, he asks me to call out letters from the alphabet at random while I drive. The result? My second-fastest lap of the session. Bizarre. ‘Our subconscious knows how to drive,’ he says. ‘Quite often you may drive home and barely remember any of the journey. Sometimes we can go faster when we don’t think about it.’
I’ve never been so keen to stay in a classroom, but the G40 and I had another appointment. In a genius moment of tenuous link-building, want2race competition organiser Ben suggested I retrace the steps a typical entrant would take – all get an iZone session, and the majority qualify at a major karting centre. So I was headed to Daytona Milton Keynes for a track session with a difference. How many times have you been at a kart circuit and imagined driving a car around it? Or whether one would even fit? If any car’s going to feel at home on a miniaturised track, it’s our Lilliputian G40. Turns out it relishes it, in fact. Daytona’s flowing 1360m layout is larger than you’d think, enough to get some serious weight transfer going on in the quicker corners, snick third gear on the back straight and even, once I’d got over the fear of bumping into any barriers, use the locking diff to slide around a bit. Brilliant. Chance also to explore a long-held theory of mine: that any kart (even a lawnmower-engined rental jobbie) will be quicker round a small circuit than any car (even a darty racing one). Slick tyres and ant-spec centre-of-gravity beats horsepower any day, surely? Well, bang goes that one. I went around two seconds slower in a brief run in one of Daytona’s have-a-go four-strokes than I did on my best lap in the Ginetta. Not the most scientific of tests, admittedly; I was being extra careful in the car, and only had time for a handful of laps in the kart. A great endorsement of the G40’s nimbleness though. And if I’d only thought of calling out a few random letters while lapping, it might have gone quicker…
From the driving seat
+ G40 loves a good racetrack – any racetrack
+ Real car easier to drive than a simulator
– Turns out my driving has room for improvement
– Lack of ventilation makes the cabin a tad toasty
Logbook: Ginetta G40 GRDC
Engine: 1800cc 16v 4-cyl, 135bhp @ 5000rpm, 110lb ft @ 4500rpm (est)
Gearbox: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Stats: 6.0sec 0-62mph, 130mph
Price: £39,960
As tested: £35,940
Miles this month: 448
Total miles: 4463
Our mpg: 25.5
Official mpg: n/a
Fuel this month: £97.90
Extra costs: £0