SEAT Leon Touring Car Makes UK Track Debut
24
February 2006
Jason Plato gave the new SEAT Sport UK Leon touring car its UK track
debut at Brands Hatch this week. During the two days of private testing,
team-mates James Thompson and Darren Turner also drove the Leon, which
appeared in its 2006 livery for the first time.
In bitterly cold weather, the car ran faultlessly – allowing
the team to continue to learn about the new car, as it prepares for
the opening rounds of the 2006 MSA Dunlop British Touring Car Championship
at Brands Hatch on April 9th.
The Leon is a finely balanced car with a superb chassis. During the
test, the team concentrated on fine-tuning the cornering capabilities
of the Leon on the BTCC control Dunlop tyres, and although showers of
snow and freezing rain interrupted the test, the team was pleased with
the data it gathered.
Jason said: “I’m really excited because we’ve had
a great test and I think we’ve unlocked something really special
in the car. We know the new Leon is better than the Toledo in mid-corners
and on the exit of corners, and we’ve found something that enables
us to generate quite a lot of front grip entering corners as well. Hopefully
stand us in good stead for the rest of the year.”
James said: “The new Leon is one of the best cars, if not the
best car, I’ve driven in terms of balance. The hatch-back shape
sees us give away a bit of top speed and we won’t be the fastest
car down the long straights, but in terms of the chassis and the handling
of the car we should be at least equal to everyone, if not slightly
better. Until we test with everyone else we won’t know how competitive
we’ll be, but I do get a very good feeling from the car.”
Darren said: “At the moment I’m just concentrating on getting
as many miles in the car as I can, because I’ve never raced a
front-wheel drive car before in my life. The conditions at Brands were
very wet and slippery and that accentuated many of the issues of driving
a front-wheel drive car, so for me that was perfect because I was able
to learn a lot in a shorter space of time.”
SEAT
See series calendar for British
Touring Car Championship 2006
Related Story 30.11.2005 - Plato
to Race New Leon for SEAT in the 2006 BTCC
