Track Day in Loheac France

Track Day

Loheac, France

If you're one of the three people that reads my blog posts you may have gathered that my wife and I enjoy traveling and cars (the cars is mostly her - I could take it or leave it really). When we travel we sometimes make an effort to incorporate vehicular activities into our itinerary if possible. Sometimes it's renting local and/or exotic cars or finding events like car shows or museums to visit. We spent a few weeks in England and France a while back and while looking for things to do I found a car museum in the tiny town of Loheac in Northwest France. Upon further investigation I discovered that they actually have a racetrack there. I found a company that was putting on a track day during our time in Europe so with a little schedule manipulation we made sure we were in town.

When I say tiny town, I mean it. Loheac has a population of about 600 people or so and is about 30 minutes south of Rennes. The village is wonderful and we loved our hotel. The Manoir De L'Automobile (the museum) was just amazing! I'm going to do an entire post on that place so for this blog I'm just going to focus on the track day.

You might notice a couple things from this picture showing the museum in the front and the track behind it. One thing is that the entire place really is in the middle of nowhere - which is very cool. Another thing is that they don't just have one track. There's actually a Rallycross circuit (and school) and a carting track that both hold official races as well as 4X4 and quad tracks. The paved track is 2.5km. 

We got there early in the morning - it was only about three minutes from our hotel in the center of the village. It was a misty and damp morning - not what you want for a track day at all, but I didn't really mind. We just parked across the street in a field and walked into the track and checked in.

The track day was being put on by the Motorsport Academy of France. I had booked seat time before we went and I'll be honest, it was a little tricky. They don't really speak English and my French is almost non-existent. We got it done and I had my tickets before we left home. As with most track days the first thing you do is have a briefing with everyone that's going to be driving. We had ours in basically the attic of the only building at the track. It was a small group, but what made it "interesting" was that the briefing was all in French! Branelle and I sat in the back and just nodded until the end when the head guy started going around the room getting a verbal confirmation from each and every person that they understood the rules. When he came to us we were busted. To be honest I pretty much got everything he was saying. It was all standard track day stuff like how to pass and what the cones meant. Still, it was a little embarrassing - damn Americans! 

After the briefing we just waited for our turn on the track. It's a beautiful setting and even in the light rain it was very pleasant to just hang out and watch and listen to the cars lap the circuit. As much as I love Loheac, the museum and everything else in town, the track isn't great to be honest. It's a little flat and doesn't have any real visual markers so your brain can't subconsciously learn the breaking points, etc. It also has curbs - that means the people who own the cars put up cones to mark the path they want you taking to keep you (and their rims) off of them. I get it, but it's frustrating to see the natural apex and then have to ignore it to follow cones in and out of corners.  

I had booked time in two cars:  The Audi R8 and the Lamborghini Huracan. My first session was in the R8. I picked this one because I'd never driven one before and I was curious to see what one could do. At this particular track day you didn't have to suit up or even wear a helmet, but you did have an "instructor" with you at all times. My guy was cool. He was a bit stiff at first but he loosened up quickly and by the end of the day we were quite friendly. He spoke fairly good English, which was helpful. He realized I was comfortable driving fast and wasn't going to do anything stupid so he relaxed and hung out with me the rest of the day. 

The R8 was interesting. I'll say this - the brakes were amazing and it never felt like it was struggling for grip or power. However, the gear shifts were "clunky" and it wasn't as smooth as I was expecting. It's a very good car...but I just don't want one. It feels neither exotic nor common. I'm not sure I'd want to drive one all the time but it wouldn't excite me either. In this picture I'm passing a GT3 RS. All things being equal, the R8 would be no match for a GT3 RS on the track but track days bring a lot of different people together. I was pushing the car hard and that guy seemed to be less comfortable and just kind of learning how to drive the Porsche.

When we got done with the R8 my instructor asked me if I wanted to take some laps in an M3 with him. I jumped at the chance and we grabbed a couple other guys and headed out.

He basically took us on a drift session. It was fun but the car really didn't want to drift as much as I thought it would. I was sitting in the front but one of the other guys asked (in French) if he could sit there because he got motion sickness. I didn't mind, but I was thinking "Really?! Motion sickness and you're about to climb in an M3 to go drifting with a professional race car driver?"

Later in the day it was Lambo Time! I'd never driven a Huracan before. I've got some track time in older Lambos and they're awful. The Diablo, for example, is terrible to drive on the street but possibly even worse on a track - it's basically pointless. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was shocked at how good the Huracan was. When we first started lapping, my instructor was back to being a bit nervous, but it didn't take long before he just sat back and enjoyed himself. 

We basically spent the rest of the session just driving and chatting about things. He stopped instructing and just shot the breeze with me.

Here's a video showing one of the early laps. The Huracan is just amazing. The grip and acceleration just never seem to end. I put up the fastest lap times of anyone in any car for the session in the Lamborghini - by far - and I wasn't even pushing it that hard. I even fit in it fairly comfortably. 

When I booked the track day, I didn't actually book any driving time for Nel. France - French people - racetrack - I just wasn't sure she'd be comfortable with it. When we got there she was game so I booked her a session in the Mustang GT. I picked this car because it was the most traditional to drive - a stick. Rear wheel drive with no paddle shifting or wierd PDK or SMG crap. She had a good time and liked the 'Stang'.

I get a little nervous when Nel is driving fast. Don't get me wrong, she can drive just fine. It's just that she's like the Ron Burgundy of racing - "Ron Burgundy will read anything that is put on that teleprompter". Branelle Rodriguez will do anything her driving instructor tells her! She takes instruction behind the wheel almost too well...and sometimes the instructor doesn't keep up. If you tell her to speed up you also have to tell her to slow down. I once watched her slide a Jaguar F-Type off course and alarmingly close to a row of new XJs because the instructor didn't tell her to lift coming into a corner. Happily, everything went fine here and she seemed to have a really good time.