My review of my MFT Tuned Ginetta G4
Sorry its taken me a while to write this, been too busy driving the pants off it.
In February, I sent my Ginetta G4 to Greycap of MFT to be tuned.
Why a Ginetta, you ask? I had only recently discovered the car, and had quite frankly fallen in love with it. However, my attempts to tune it quite frankly failed dismally.
After some 'hands on' testing of another MFT product, I was very impressed, and quite frankly, had high hopes from the beginning. I asked for it to be tuned as a grip racer because quite frankly, I spend too much time hanging the arse out in cars I drive which can be, but is not always, beneficial to my cause. Good fun though.
But anyway, I digress. I received the car, and took it straight to the Ring. Big mistake. With a car that weighed less than some humans but had the power of a cavalry charge, I was in for a lesson I wouldn't easily forget.
The car shot off like a rocket. First gear was basically useless. Power shifting into second, the back end could squirm a little, but only under hard acceleration. The exhaust note is pure bliss as I shift to third, the resounding crackle reverberating off the walls. Down shift back into second, turn in. Boy does it turn! The little yellow British lightweight sticks like s**t to a blanket as I clip the apex perfectly...at which point I'm promptly hurtled into the outside wall with a bewildered look on my face. I start the car moving again, and as I reach speeds of 100 KM/H or above, the car really becomes rather unstable on the patchwork roads that make the Nurburgring. In my excitement, I had forgotten that the car only had 400 odd kilos under its belt....ahh.
I resumed testing at another, smoother track to get a feel of the Ginetta. And what a car it is! The under braked, overpowered vehicle that I had tuned had disappeared. In its place was the new king of my garage. With top gear whining loudly, the exhaust making the floor warm under my feet, the G4 is capable of speeds over 300 KM/H, yet is nimble as a housefly and accelerates remarkably well.
After becoming used to the car, I entered it in the 99 lap race in Monte Carlo, at the Côte d'Azur. I was limited to S3 tyres in this race. I spent the first few laps familiarizing myself with the track, the let the Ginetta have it. With a beautiful induction roar and screeching of the tyres, it was off.
As I started knocking my laps times down and down, I took a step back and looked at my driving style. I was going through far too many sets of rear hoops, with, on average, one set of fronts outlasting two rears. On a smooth surface, the Ginetta had really come into its own and I had been having great fun driving it. With the lower grip tyres on it, the G4 made a perfectly capable track car, and was also the most predictable car I have ever driven when taken past the limit. Drifting, and linking two or 3 corners was laughably easy, and as such I was putting on a smoke show for the crowd.
However my lap times were beginning to suffer. So I bunkered down, and concentrated on improving the regulation of my right foot. Believe it or not, it worked. I was making tyres last longer, and my lap times had improved remarkably by race end.
And my thoughts turned back to the Nurburgring. With an evil cackle, I entered a 25 lap race. Let me tell you, it was interesting. Within the first 5 laps, which were taken very cautiously, I learned the vices of the car on a rough track. Rumble strips, although posing a danger, could be easily overcome by anticipating the movements of the car.
One problem I did encounter though, was the extreme instability of the G4 on the straight at high speeds. As long as one left the steering wheel up to its own devices, the car is controllable. However, when steering input was required at high speed, the car would enter an uncontrollable fishtail. I countered this by using the brakes to put more pressure on the tyres during even the slightest of steering movements.
This is a problem that I feel could be easily countered with a wing, an option not available for the G4. However, it is a problem I have only encountered on the Nurburgring (as yet untested on Circuit de la Sarthe), and is avoidable with adaptable driving techniques, and as such, is not a trait I am concerned with.
But overall, I have nothing but praise for this car. Nothing. The MFT tuned Ginetta is a wonderful piece of machinery. Its really a shame GT4 is the closest I will ever get to it, because I can think of a few roads near my house that would be incredibly fun.....
👍👍👍👍👍