With over 2500 miles under the belt, the car has been truly weathered for enthusiastic use. What better way to celebrate this than engaging in another trackday?

Bedford was a stark comparison to my first trackday with the 997, which was at Silverstone. Firstly, the beautiful weather assisted in getting the rubber up to optimum temperatures throughout which in turn provided the supernatural levels of grip that I’m still quite unused to. The two long straights at Bedford are connected by a high speed left right that had me attacking it at even greater speed as the laps progressed. The switchback letf right was so sudden, the grip demonstrated through this 80/90MPH section was bewildering.
Additionally, the long straights at Bedford made overtaking an absolute delight. The long straight in particular had me overtaking five or six cars in one sweep manoeuvre, so powerful is the the GT3. I really don’t believe the car is at it’s quoted power of 410BHP – it feels closer to 500 at times.

Bedford is set in rural surroundings, which makes its policing of the noise limits draconian in effect. So it wasn’t long before I was black flagged for breaking the noise limits, yet I wasn’t even in “Sport” mode. I was given one more chance to go out as they employ a “2 strikes and out” rule. So some creative noise manipulation later (didn’t use full throttle during certain moments), I was able to stay out and enjoy the day. As a result, my traction control remained on all day, but this isn’t any ordinary traction control. I was still able to enjoy some lairy power slides, but they can still bite. A comical spin when playing with Guy in his CSL proved that.

As the day progressed, so did my skills – the GT3 has limits beyond my comprehension and to assume to be close to those would be foolish. However, Beford has a range of dynamic (albeit bland) complex curves, hairpins, S-Bends and straights and linking these together became the most fluid of exercises I’ve ever engaged in in a car.

As I always do on a trackday, I left early, content with the knowledge that I’d been able to return home in one piece with another day of pumping adrenaline abating through my body.

I was at first a bit worried with it being an Easy Track day, as there were all sorts of cars present, from 20 year old Astras spewing smoke and oil, to Cavaliers with squealing tyres. But I couldn’t have been more wrong in my assumption as the day turned out to be incredibly well behaved and the cars on the circuit displayed a level of etiquette I hadn’t seen in years.

Looks like I need the clay bar again.