Seats Problems

[davidbolton]

Possible theory?

The Seats were out in the wet for the first time at Croft.

They struggled in all 3 races, especially with the brakes.

Having never run in the wet they just couldnt get the thing braking properly with the weight of the diesel engine over the front etc... totally different from the petrol car.

Obviously telling people Seat Diesels dont brake well (how it would be conceived) doesnt sell cars. So after making up a story with the team Plato sheepishly told the Media the wrong brake pads had been fitted. Yeah thats believable by a professional race team and why didnt they change them for Race 2 and 3? :confused:

[daveylad1978]

It wasn't the first wet running in 2008.

[davidbolton]

Yeah true Donnington was wet wasnt it. :rolleyes:

[kezbabybabe]

Possible theory?

The Seats were out in the wet for the first time at Croft.

They struggled in all 3 races, especially with the brakes.

Having never run in the wet they just couldnt get the thing braking properly with the weight of the diesel engine over the front etc... totally different from the petrol car.

Obviously telling people Seat Diesels dont brake well (how it would be conceived) doesnt sell cars. So after making up a story with the team Plato sheepishly told the Media the wrong brake pads had been fitted. Yeah thats believable by a professional race team and why didnt they change them for Race 2 and 3? :confused:
From what we heard on the scanner the settings for the Brake bias came from SEAT Sport Spain (WTCC Team) so not even the SEAT Sport UK Team knew what to expect.

Also this is the first time a "full" wet setup was used, as the 3rd race at Rockingham was too late to make a change to a full setup.

It's a very steep learning curve with the TDi as it's not been run on these tracks before, apart from the WTCC GB round.

[GioFan]

i think they should have stuck with the dry setup probably had more chance of staying on track that way, and not running into the back of people

[bigred]

a dry set up and wet tyres means just about no grip in the wet so teams dont have that option. they must somehow in the time available soften the setting to allow the wet tyres to be "worked" and hence get some temperature and grip

[Noodles1970]

Possible theory?

The Seats were out in the wet for the first time at Croft.

Having never run in the wet they just couldnt get the thing braking properly with the weight of the diesel engine over the front etc... totally different from the petrol car.

:


I could have sworn i got soaking wet at Rockingham this year during the thunderstorm.................. :rolleyes:

[bringbacktheolddays]

I could have sworn i got soaking wet at Rockingham this year during the thunderstorm.................. :rolleyes:
And donnington and brands!! LOL

[kaisersalsek]

donny was just the right level of wet for me, enough to see the cars going into redgate at about 2mph, but not enough for them all to fall off the track every corner. More Donny wet please.

[Eunos]

Yeah true Donnington was wet wasnt it. :rolleyes:

Aswell as Brands and the Rock.

Infact to my Knowledge, Thruxton has been the only Rain Free Sunday we've had this Season... Disgraceful.

[tankman40]

Hi

Surely when they devoloped the road car they tested it in the wet? Think the brake pads & disks are differant on a race car.:) :) :cool:

[kezbabybabe]

Those other rainy days were not as strong as Croft, where it was the first time they ran a full wet setup.

Most of them were wet but drying and with Rockingham there wasn't enough time to set the car up for full wet.

[Concho]

As a newcomer to following the BTCC this season, you've just made me think of a question regarding testing. I know the teams are basically not allowed much tesing of their cars, but is there anything to stop the Seat team, for example, getting a Leon FR TDi road car and upgrading it themselves and testing setups etc etc then taking the ideas back to their competition cars?

Sorry if it's an obvious answer, couldn't find it written anywhere.

Plus they must have some ideas about the wet, I was at Rockingham in the storm of race 3 and JP still managed 6th in that race, so why did they mess up so much now?

[obsessivecompulsive2]

Possible theory?

The Seats were out in the wet for the first time at Croft.

They struggled in all 3 races, especially with the brakes.

Having never run in the wet they just couldnt get the thing braking properly with the weight of the diesel engine over the front etc... totally different from the petrol car.

Obviously telling people Seat Diesels dont brake well (how it would be conceived) doesnt sell cars. So after making up a story with the team Plato sheepishly told the Media the wrong brake pads had been fitted. Yeah thats believable by a professional race team and why didnt they change them for Race 2 and 3? :confused:
I;m not here to argue the point and lots of opinions have been posted already ,but for what it;s worth JP fully explained that the brake pads used were of the wrong COMPOUND.

Without going into technobabble basically this means that the level of heat required for the brakes to operate properly would not be achieved with a hard compound brake pad fitted in wet conditions.