This most definitely is my winter of discontent. Never mind the calendar shows we’re nearing the end of March. I’m in southern Spain and the weathermen forecast warm and sunny weather. They very nearly nailed it, too: it’s only 10-15 degrees colder than they said it would be and the sun is nowhere to be seen. Rain, on the other hand, is omnipresent.
That greenhouse effect has messed up the seasons but of all the days in the year and all the places in the world, why here and why during this event? “Here” being the Ascari Race Resort in the mountains above Marbella, an hour drive from the beach, and the “event”, Bridgestone launching its new Adrenalin Potenza RE002 tire at said venue.
I better keep calm and carry on with the program. The track built by the car and motorsport fan extraordinaire, the billionaire Klaus Zwaart, has been divided in sections where the workshops will take place.
The first one, which does cheer us up a bit, is driving a Honda-engined buggy behind a Ford pickup truck pace car. Predictably, I’m too short to reach the pedals and the cushion that’s hastily put behind my back doesn’t help much.
No coping out or finding excuses but I do manage to have a small off-road excursion on a tight right-hander when, instead of the brake pedal, I keep on pushing the steering column. Take a deep breath, check I haven’t hit anything, then push the start button, coax the long gear lever into first, and we’re back on the Tarmac. In my defense, it was on off-road tires, not the Bridgestones we’ve come to test…
In spite of carrying the Adrenalin moniker, the RE002 is a sport performance tire available for 15- to 18-inch rims and placed below the S001 high-performance range topper. This explains the fleet of VW Golfs and Audi A3s that greets us at the second workshop. It is supposed to be the dry test handling but the track surface begs to differ, as it’s as wet as it gets.
No time for worries. I just strap myself in the driver’s seat of the A3 and drive off, with the instructor seating right next to me reassuringly guiding me around this section of the track. I remember this part from a Top Gear episode when they tested the BMW M3 versus the Mercedes C 63 AMG and the Audi S4. The two chicanes are negotiated with merely a flick of the wrists, using the wide and flat curbs, then brake-brake- brake-brake for the tight left hander and, before I know it, the course is over and it’s time to get out.
Early impressions are good. Bridgestone’s new tire features an asymmetric pattern design with a “pulse” groove and an in-groove “deflector” that are meant to break the water film and resist hydroplaning. So far, it seems to work as advertised.
A bit of spice is thrown in at our next stop, which is the high-speed ride in something more interesting, namely an Audi TT. I’m a terrible passenger but the much more experienced professional driver employed by Bridgestone for the event is keen to throw the German coupe around with abandon. At the same time, he explains to me how he’s intentionally doing all the wrong things but the tire is progressive enough to allow him to maintain control.
Still, I’m getting a bit itchy. We’re here to test a brand new tire and, until now, a couple of (short) laps are all I’ve managed.
The next course is as close as we’ll ever get to my goal. Four Golf MK7s are at our disposal, two of them fitted with the Adrenalin and the other two with Turanzas. Cones delineate our course that includes a slalom and we can jump from one car to the other in order to compare their behavior.
No minder on the right seat this time and no hurry; that’s more like it. It’s still too wet and the course is short but it’s clear that the cars fitted with the Adrenalin are more responsive to driver’s inputs and less prone to understeer than those riding on the Turanzas. (On a side note: is it me or, of the two MQB-based cars, the Golf is the one with the meatier steering?)
The rain has inevitably caused delays in the schedule so we move to the next workshop. It’s a slalom test with an S tronic equipped Audi TT. Each driver gets two practice and one timed run to the end and back, where he has to stop the car with the front wheels inside a designated area.
Dropping a cone earns you a five-second penalty. In my first practice run, I drop two. Way to go, Schumi… I raise the seat height a bit to improve visibility and the second one is much better. Using the handbrake to make a U-turn seems like a good idea at first but I decide against it as I might spin and lose too much time.
As you might have guessed I did manage to send a cone flying on my, otherwise pretty good, timed run. No trophies, then. John might not be very happy, but as far as I’m concerned, despite being totally soaked, I’m perfectly fine. Sure, it would be better if it were sunny to draw more conclusions about the tire’s dry performance, and if I wasn’t so rusty (ed’s note: this is no excuse, you should have done better!).
By Andrew Tsaousis
[Disclosure: Apparently, in their haste to fly me to Spain to try their new tire at the press event, the Bridgestone crew made a mistake and the card hung from the lanyard in my neck displayed the Union Jack. This resulted in me feeling perfectly comfortable in the rain and having a laugh with the lads from the British Isles who were perfectly nice and up for a banter.
Plus, I’ve suddenly discovered a, hitherto unknown, fondness for Aston Martins, dry martinis and Walther PPKs. My shrink says the constant flights must have shaken me pretty bad and, in my age, a pipe and slippers are more appropriate but, even so, I feel quite stirred by this realization…]
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