Driving a Seat Cupra 290 on a disused oval is not for the meek [video]

Driving a road car around a famed racing oval is every petrol heads idea of a good weekend, but what if that oval has been abandoned for more than half a century?

This is what CarThrottle’s Matt Robinson did at the Seat Cupra 290 launch. The venue was the Autodromo Sitges-Terramar, Barcelona. The driver in charge was ex-WTCC racer Jordi Gene. And well, the oval surface was about as bumpy as you can imagine.

The concrete circuit hosted one Grand Prix in 1923, but apart from a few minor races after that, the track’s been lying dormant since, and largely intact.

Eventually Robinson got to drive the car himself and explains that it’s about as “terrifying” as most things in life, but worse:

It [the banking] looks steep enough from a distance, but it’s not until the banking’s right on top of me that the severity of the 60 degree angle hits home. And threatens to scare the contents of my bladder onto my trousers.

It’s a great read, and you can catch Robinson’s entire article here, but if you prefer visual stimuli, have a look at the video below.