On Friday I went to Snetterton for a trackday, with the Mazda Rotary Club, (mostly RX-8s).

Initially the track was wet, so it was a matter of feeling up to the limit of grip at both ends in the slower corners. The FD controls its weight so well, and the steering is so natural, that it's really quick and easy to catch slides - the S13 used to tend to lurch about a bit and be a handful to gather up, the FD just maintains its poise and is very controllable. Once I missed my braking point for the first corner and piled in a bit fast. I trail braked to the apex, at which point the inside wheels were on dry tarmac and the outside on wet. The car just slipped into about 10 degrees of oversteer, and came back really easily.

Had a little run with a 996 GT3 which was being rather tentatively driven on the patchy damp surface, so I caught him up easily. More surprisingly I seemed to be slowly closing on him on the straights, which I wouldn't expect - perhaps he was in too high of a gear.

I got a brief instruction session, which was really helpful. Apparently I was braking hard, then coming off the brakes too suddenly, causing the nose to 'bounce' up and go light just at the point of turn in. This was causing understeer, so I would grab a bit of extra lock, then leading to oversteer as the front bit again. Anyway he showed me how to brake smoothly and the better lines to take for some of the less obvious corners, and it was amazing how much smoother, faster and more controlled I felt on my next run.

Snetterton was surprisingly a really fun track, despite being a flat airfield - there are lots of early and late apex corners, and a couple of great combinations, including coming off the straight at 130mph into a fast left that then leads straight into a tight 90 right.

The FD drives so, so nicely on track. The engine is smooth and pulls hard from low down all the way round to the redline buzzer, and however hard you push it, you always seem to have options to rotate the car a little more and tighten the line, it never falls into plough-on understeer, it's just always responsive. I think the fairly short wheelbase means more front-rear weight transfer, so the cornering balance is very sensitive to throttle and brake - so it's really responsive, but also perhaps more sensitive to ham-fisted braking. It's hard to describe how sweet it feels on the limit.

The FD has cost me rather a lot in the last twelve months, FMIC and radiator upgrades being part of that, but it's totally worthwhile to be able to drive such a great car on track. Now I need some better brake pads, and to plan my next circuit outing!