1 year ago

Castle Combe archives

Regular visitors to this site may have wondered recently if they had been sent back to 1990, in a new Ashes to Ashes,or back to the future type epic, only featuring cars, what with the number of old lap times appearing for Castle Combe! Why you ask?

Well in the 1980's and early 90's, track days hadn't caught on, but the car mags sometimes held handling events or road tests at a track and frequently used Castle Combe. It was close to the M4 and being a fast circuit allowed the cars to stretch their legs. Ive been through my old mags and updated some old Autocar and Car Magazine handling features for you. I find it fascinating reading. For example, the cars didn't really get much faster between the 80's and late 90's. As far as I know, the track didn't change until 1999, so the times are fairly comparable. If you check the lap time for the Golf GTI Mk2, its on a par with the Ford Puma, some 13 years later. The old Strada Abarth easily beat the Renault 19 16 valve from 1991. Similarly the 964 carrera tested by Car in 1990 was similar to the 996 Carrera 4 they tested in 97.

I think it's only this decade with the popularity of track days and the obsession with the Nurburgring that lap times have really fallen. Suddenly cars seem to have taken a leap in the performance stakes too.

Well, I hope you enjoy reading the lap times for the old Castle Combe and take a trip down memory lane with these older cars.