Two enhancements to a recently developed plastic-damage-contact model for concrete are presented. The model itself, which uses planes of degradation that can undergo damage and separation but that can regain contact according to a contact law, is described. The first enhancement is a new damage evolution function which provides a completely smooth transition from the undamaged to the damaged state and from pre-peak to post-peak regions. The second is an improved contact function that governs the potential degree of contact with increasing opening on a crack plane. The use of a damage evolution function with a pre-peak has implications for the consistent tangent matrix/stress recovery algorithm developed for the model implementation, and amendments to this algorithm to accommodate the new function are described. A series of unpublished experimental tests on notched specimens undertaken in Cardiff in the mid 1990s are then described. These include notched beam tests as well as prismatic and cylindrical torsion tests. The tests are then considered in three dimensional finite element analyses using the modified Craft model implemented in the finite element program LUSAS. Comparisons between experimental and numerical data show reasonable agreement except that the numerical simulations do not fully describe the latter stages of the softening responses for the torsion examples. Finally, it is concluded that the torsion tests described provide useful benchmark examples for the validation of three-dimensional numerical models for concrete.