Stephen Dobie, one of the Evo team, recently attended the Drifting & Over Grip Limit Handling Course with his colleague Adam Shorrock.  Read his blog here. 

The Perfect Lap Club

Is now officially launched.  The Perfect Lap Club is for you if you want to receive an exceptional service on the track. This EXCLUSIVE club is limited to a maximum of just 40 Members during 2010. To qualify for entry each Member will have completed a minimum of 4 hours training with CAT i.e. Track Day Novice or above. As places are limited, join early to get the most benefit from this exclusive club created just for you.  Full details here.

Competitive Drive

This is an exclusive opportunity we are offering to our Academy clients. Using our Caterham 7 Road Sports A enables you to enjoy the excitement of being a driver in a competitor event without having to worry about wear and tear implications to your own vehicle. Tyres, brake wear and other extras all contribute to the cost of competing. Driving our Caterham 7 allows you to concentrate on the race at hand!  More details here.�

The latest edition of the regular enewsletter from Millbrook Proving Ground "The Right Track" features our very own Chief Instructor, Colin Hoad.  The Right Track regularly talks to opinion formers across the industry. For this issue, we talk to Colin Hoad, Chief Instructor for CAT Driver Training.   To subscribe to The Right Track sign up here.

Last issue we discussed how you can use the accelerator pedal to help micro manage the available grip from your tyres, when driving your Evo on circuit at its limit of adhesion. We also focused on how correct use of the accelerator will aid your recovery from an understeer or oversteer scenario. Let’s now consider what part the steering wheel plays in the equation.

In order to achieve optimum speed throughout a lap, your aim on circuit is to drive your Evo in, through and out of each corner at grip limit. To achieve this you must optimise your apex speed at each and every corner on the circuit. But don’t forget, the nearer you get to your vehicles limit of adhesion, the less chance you have to correct a mistake. And by the nature of the speed you are carrying through the corners, the opportunity to make an error also ramps up. You should expect a degree of understeer or oversteer, and the ultimate Evo experience, equal lateral acceleration, a four wheel slide.

It is not often you get the opportunity to experience a “first”. Something unique that has not been done before! Well it might surprise you to know I am about to do just that. I have just been handed the keys of the new Peugeot 5008, the French manufacturers “first” Compact MPV. Carefully crafted to bridge two worlds, compact is a generic term used by the motor industry to describe a small saloon. While MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle) implies a car for the family - a work horse designed to cope with the demands of family life. Surely you can’t have your cake and eat it?

Leaving Perry’s in Bletchley the 5008 feels light and easy. Building the speed up to 30MPH through the town, the steering feels responsive, accurate and untroubled by the low speed traffic and larger steering inputs needed to negotiate the tighter junctions of the town environment. The turbo diesel power plant produces 150 BHP and, as you would expect from a diesel, a lot of its pulling power (torque) is at a nice and low 2000 RPM, so you don’t need to work the engine through town to cover ground efficiently. 6 speeds in the manual gearbox ensure performance and economy, and for those not looking to swap the cogs by hand, automatic and electronic gearbox control are on the options list.