2009 End of Season Report
With the Arosa now off-road (and track) for the Winter it’s time to recap and update on the years events and activities for the little ‘Ring meister.
Following the comprehensive rebuild and repair at the end of the 2008 season, the first outing for the Arosa in its ’09 guise was at the start of April at a CGTI sprint event at Curborough. Here the benefits of some weight loss and the R888 rubber were immediately evident, allowing the 1.4 16v to get right in amongst the lap times of the more powerful 2.0 16v’s and 1.8T’s.
Only a week later, I took the Arosa over to Germany for the first of many ‘Ring trips this year. Once I had my new JahresKarte in hand I set about reacquainting myself with the thirteen odd miles of track draped over the Eifel Mountains; which proved to be quite a task.. the Winter improvements to the car resulted in me having to re-learn lines, braking points and appropriate corning speeds when compared to 2008. Put simply, the Arosa now had so much more grip, I was not only able to brake later and harder, but less! The car could carry so much more speed through the corners that the improved experience took me 30 or so laps before I felt comfortable and back as one with the car and what it could now do.
It was also great to catch up with a number of regulars and familiar faces over the course of the weekend, of which many got to enjoy one or many laps in the passenger seat of the Arosa. There were a few camera crews knocking about during the course of the weekend, and I found out during a later trip that some clips of my car approaching the barrier and driving by were featured within a looped video in the new Devils Diner!
During the six day trip I clocked up 67 laps, which coincidently was the break even point for buying a JK in 2009 – the rest of the year would be a bonus then!
Following the Easter trip, I drove the car back to the UK in order to check it over and fix a few things before returning to Nurburg a month later at the start of May – following which the Arosa would then remain in Germany for the rest of the season.
The first week of May saw my second trip to the Green Hell of the year, also set to last for six days. This was to be the quiet trip of the year; and also the wettest! Although rain did prevent track action for me on a couple of occasions there were the usual mix of familiar faces and also some nearby places to visit that helped occupy me during times of closure or bad weather. When conditions were good, some fantastic lapping was had due to the lack of crowds during the week.. some of which were neck and neck with Dale from RSR in his MX5 (which was a co-member of the 116bhp club until he stuck a turbo on it later in the year!). Very entertaining stuff, with ducking and diving occurring throughout the laps we had together – something that could not have gone on if it had’ve been busier! All this action bears a price though, and before the trip was out another new set of front discs and pads were fitted as the previous set expired at Bergwerk and subsequently I had a nice set of scored discs by the time I exited the track!
How long did the set last? Trackdays at Cadwell Park, Donington Park, Curborough and about one-hundred ‘Ring laps – so not too bad, but certainly not as long as those the year previous, the extra grip was resulting in increased wear.
So far, so good; I returned home leaving the Arosa where it belongs, in Germany.
Later in May saw the Arosa featured on
www.speedhunters.com as part of their Nurburgring special, see article link below:
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/05/21/car-feature-gt-gt-seat-arosa-nurburgring-special.aspx
My third trip of the year wasn’t until the 20th June, some six weeks after my previous trip. This was a short four day trip, but basked in great weather and decent opening times. Once again the Arosa was put to good use, putting in back-to-back laps, providing plenty of passengers with an alternate ‘Ring experience and embarrassing much greater machinery! With a season and a half’s track activity in hand however, a time had to come where things started to wear out..
Towards the end of the trip I noticed how at times (usually just manoeuvring) I was struggling to cleanly get gears. Needless to say, it required looking at before the next trip, so I booked the car into a local Nurburg garage and expected the clutch to be at fault. This being the Eifel (where German efficiency does not apply), progress was slow; however the mechanic and I agreed that things looked OK for another sixty or so laps, so we left things as they were for my August trip.
Another six weeks then passed between my trips until the usual SCN/CGTI August trip rolled around. I returned to Nurburg and the Arosa, happy that all seemed well for another five days of action as upon inspection, gear selection seemed OK. I opted to monitor as the trip progressed. Once again, the usual barrage of laps ensued, and with two new R888’s up front after finally wearing out two of my original four from the start of the year; things moved up a gear. Combined with my experience over the year thus far, and the new-found front end grip, I was able to push on to what felt like another level.
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