I also have the Pagid RS4-2 blue pads, they are confidence inspiring. They work perfectly from cold and just get better when they are warm with a progressive feel to the pedal. You have to get them searingly hot before there is any fade.
Oh and how was Brands Marcus?
Brands Indy Circuit was awesome! - a really well organised event, good value for money and a great RS3 experience.
Only two downers were that I messed up using the GoPro camera so have no proper record of my driving experience evolution and that the two instructor sessions I'd booked ended up being both squeezed in at the end, rather than one being at the start. Regards the former, kept pressing the front button thinking I was doing start/stop but of course that is the menu button. Tw@t!
It was a road car only day, which I purposefully went for, as I've no idea of the track etiquette and didn't want the first outing to put me off going again. As things went, there was zero aggro, plenty of chatty and friendly folks with mostly non-supercars. It was meant to be non-competitive and for the most part it was.
Still, the first time you line up to come out of the pits, wearing the crash helmet, not really knowing what to expect, wondering whether the RS3 can hack it against the other Porsches, Ferrari and other unknown but probably highly modded motors - that's a bit nerve racking!
Shouldn't have worries though, put it into S and the car performed fantastically. Loads of tyre noise for the first couple of laps, plenty of "steady" signals by the marshals as the corners were taken a bit quick. Then gaining confidence, started to pick off the other drivers one by one, in a totally non-competitive way. I couldn't really touch a couple of the Porsches and the Ferrari, or a very fast white Mk something Escort but the rest of them were fair game and none could quite match the acceleration or cornering, once I got that sussed.
Lots of very interested guys back in the pits, some knew what she was, others didn't but wanted to know what mods had been done etc. None really, not that would make much difference in performance advantage anyway.
Only went out for 10-15 minutes at a time though, to give the brakes chance to cool down as you could feel when they had enough and at that point so had I. These race drivers must have amazing concentration!
Had the instructor session late on and he visibly/verbally revised his opinion of the RS3 upwards on several occasions. I think he'd not been in one before but had experienced A3s and S3 before and of course, it's incomparable. Tips were pretty obvious in hindsight but along the lines of slow in fast out, use all the track, unwind out of the corner etc. After two laps I already felt the difference. Had to give it a longish pause in between sessions as the brakes were smokin hot.
Michelin PSS tyres were very grippy, ESP kept me from spinning off on several occasions and I could imagine how much more fun it would be with this turned off but only if you know what you're doing...
Would defo go again, now that I know what to expect, the rules/etiquette, idea of driving principles etc. Also, to properly film it as I was absolutely gutted to get home and have nothing to show the missus. Would also like the functionality to see the speed/revs in the video, like I've seen a few times - how do you do this?