For those of you that don't know, MIRA is the test-track of the Motor Industry Research Association and is basically a large banked, oval high speed test track with various complicated inner test circuits, all designed to test the handling and performance of road cars in just about every kind of road surface, condition and contour imaginable. The track remains a closely guarded secret so we weren't allowed to take any photos or video footage ourselves, so photos are limited to those from official photographers and press at the venue.

This was our first event last year, so it was a return visit for myself and Big Dan. The stages seemed pretty similar to last year, from memory, with a few minor changes in layout and a different order of running. The surface was the usual good quality tarmac, intermingled with some concrete sections - including the infamous 'handling circuit' which includes off-camber corners, rumble-strips, undulating braking areas and the wonderful 'rollercoaster' (well, that's what I call it!). Also, due to the cutting of some sections, there was an impromptu short section of tarmac strewn with chunks of stone, which made for an interesting excursion onto the grass at one time!

It was actually quite interesting to see how the 205 performed against a car that, admittedly, I'd been hankering for originally. The cut and thrust of it is that our standard 1.9 205, albeit with a very short ratio gearbox, is pretty much on par with a standard 1.6 106 GTi on the straights (at least I presume it was standard - I would imagine so).

The first stage was terrible, on my part. I fudged up just about everything, including the hairpin right in front of everybody when I tried to 'rush' the gearbox and ended up without getting any gear at all! One thing I must remember is that the gearbox prefers a slow, deliberate selection rather than a panicked thrust. Still, you live and learn. Stages 2 and onwards were a lot better and we started to settle into a rhythm. A strange problem with the brakes meant that occassionally I wouldn't get the pressure on first press of the pedal, which did nothing for confidence when approaching hairpins at full pelt. Later on I just worked at a double-press system, pressing the pedal early on just to confirm whether I had pressure before hitting the bend. The problem disappeared towards the end of the day, but the psychological damage had already been done and I continued the double-press system just to be safe!

Half-way through SS7 we lost power steering... investigation seems to point towards the hydraulic ram itself losing a seal, but we need to investigate further really as it may be a split hose. We had to do SS8 without power steering, which meant I ended up doing a little workout with the steering (bloody heavy with a 1.9 rack, grippy 195 tyres and a plate diff!). Despite the steering, I started to get some confidence in the brakes and coming into one hairpin I lent on them REAL hard. The grip was great, the brakes hauled us down to speed in no time... but I pressed so hard I bent the brake pedal. Note to self : need to re-enforce new brake pedal before fitting. We got to the end, though, so can't complain.

We're still waiting for official results but at last check we were 27th overall. Earlier on in the day we were 11th in class, so I guess we were around this, maybe 10th or 9th if we're lucky. Again, considering the car, we are more than happy with this, especially on such a high-speed "power" venue like MIRA.

The team has a short break now before the next event (Abingdon in June) - we can't make Epynt because of long-standing holiday commitments, which is a shame because I was quite looking forward to giving it a try. Still, we all liked Abingdon last year (despite the weather and the 'off') and it gives the car a few months break, in which I've got some time to fix the brakes, the brake pedal and get the diff adjusted for wear.