[Owen Pyrah]

I haven't done any sim racing in probably over 18 months. I've got a new baby who takes a lot of my time and 10pm GMT seems to work best for me. I look at SRS and see that the Ginetta series is the only one running at that time and have a look on the forum for info about the series.

From the comments here about the car I was really thinking sod this, I'll just wait a week and see what's on next season. The car sounds like a pig to drive and really wasn't what I wanted for my first race back. Concerned about wrecking the field enough as it is without uncontrollable cars.

Glad I gave it a go though, the car is beautiful! Easily one of my favourites in AC. I don't know what the fuss is about. I only got 11th in the race. I also spun out from 7th after a few great first laps, leaving me facing the wrong way and with no camera look left/right mapped had to just wait for the whole field to go by before turning round. But I think that's more to do with me being out of practice and uncompetitive.

Here's what I liked about the car:

• It's really eager to turn in, only needing a slight scrub of trail braking to get it pointed at the apex.
  
• It's really satisfying balancing the car on the brakes and throttle. It really rewards smooth use of the pedals.
  
• Once off the brakes and turning off throttle at the apex (like the long downhill right hander of Bruxelles) it really rails round. Too many cars in AC just plough forward with understeer as if the front tyres are skateboard wheels. The Ginetta G40 feels like it's actually got sticky slicks at the front (made of rubber, not urethane).
  
• Once pointed at the exit and feeding the power back on you can feel the balance shift and the rears digging in. It's really satisfying and predictable, I don't think I had any fear of losing the rear at any point.
  
• The car feels like it wants to be driven in a very smooth and flowy way. Which I quite like and probably prefer to more aggressive point and squirt driving.
  

The only real downside in the handling were more characteristics than flaws I think. Like they were the cost of the benefits:

• I had to be really careful trail braking too hard and too deep, otherwise that lovely precise turn in would turn into oversteer and spin.
  
• Likewise, downshifting too late can also lead to spins due to the engine braking. I mean my bike is worse, this was just something to be careful with. Downshift in a straight line.
  
• Touching an inside kerb also led to spins. The flat ones at exit were no problem but the raised ones on the inside at Spa caused a couple spins for me in practice. The spins weren't the worst for saving but were often unexpected (to me at least).
  

So, thanks Shaun! I think you did a great job of the car