Morning all

Yesterday Matt, Nigel and I went to the 1stLotus Driver Teaching day at North Weald. The reason for attending this course for me was to understand the limits both of myself and the car. I also wanted to learn about the information the car was sending to me and how to react to those and furthermore if I stepped beyond the limit how to try and control it or minimise the eventual disaster it would lead me to.

I arrived 10 mins late due to traffic but since no one else had arrived either Andy took me out to asses my current skill level. The course is run at an airfield but the surface we used was bumpy and uneven. Some parts of it were more abrasive than others too. The surface in the morning was damp to seriously wet and stayed almost the same throughout the day which I was thankful for as I wanted to learn as much as possible about the slippery surface control as possible.

We first did a brake check to see how quickly I could get the car to stop from 60mph. I applied my brakes by stepping onto the brake pedal as hard as possible. The ABS kicked in and stopped the car in a short distance. Andy observed this and told me that the best use of the brakes was to avoid locking them up and stop the ABS kicking in. I knew this fact but I had also been taught at the academy day that in the wet the best possible way to stop the car was to let the ABS do its job. I was now told to let the ABS kick in but slowly remove a very slight amount of pressure until the ABS was not intervening. Interesting, but I took it on board and tired to do this throughout the day but not always very successfully.

I was then taken onto a slip road adjoining the main surface where the activities were going to take place. It was a stretch which would allow us to build up speed and then to take a left bend at a high speed. I was real nervous as the slip road was muddy and slippy as hell. I accelerated to 50mph and went around this bend. There is a drain running along the main surface which you have to imagine as being a concrete wall. This drain would be your exit to a corner and after an apex if you were doing a track day. If you spin into or across the drain you are considered as having crashed.

I was then asked to increase my speed to 55 and do it again. I spun out! Not much of a driver then. I tried it again and tried to correct it but still spun out. It takes a lot of faith in Andy to push yourself because of a lack of fear of crashing the car but there was no risk as I soon found out. I was asked to go around the bend again but this time Andy asked me to take my foot off the gas and/or brake pedal just before turn in. The car would get balanced and go around the bend easily. I however managed to spin it again. It was now due to my jerky steering. I felt as though it was very smooth but Andy pointed out that I was smooth in the beginning of the turn but as I approached the apex I was trying to keep the car to my side of the drain and was forcing the wheel too much. So round I went and tried again and managed to get it right. Yehaw!

I was now asked to increase my speed to 60 and try this over and over again and every time I was successful to increase my speed going into the bend by 5mph. At the end of this exercise I managed 65mph. However I did do this exercise about 15 times but I still lost control on a number of occasions and more than the ones I saved.

Andy showed me the technique for steering especially for doing hairpin turns. He told me my steering wheel hold was in the right position but my steering around hairpins was poor. To cones were set up and I had to do a figure of 8 around them at slow speed to try and practice the methods he had taught me. I did this for about 10 mins while Andy repeated the corner exercise with another driver.

My next training was around oversteer and understeer. I was shown how you can induce both of these and how to eliminate or use them to your advantage. We started this exercise between the drain and a grass verge being closer to the latter to start with. The aim was to get the car across the drain from the grassy end while holding the steering in a fixed rotation period. By increasing the accelerations at the right time I was able to increase understeer and increase the driving circle and then reducing the speed to narrow the circle when approaching the grass verge. This was a lot of fun but did make me dizzy. I was then left alone to practice this some more but not too much as the front tyres sliding would cause too much heat into the tyres and ruin them.

So far we had learnt braking, high speed cornering, understeer, oversteer and steering wheel control.We then had lunch, I am sorry but I was very unsocial as I had brought my own lunch with me thinking there would be nothing to eat there, but joined the rest of my group for discussions about our day so far.

After lunch Andy setup a course with the help of some nice large cones. We were to drive this as quickly as possible while keeping control of the car at all times. The course resembled a large X and and an S at the end of this. First he showed me by driving along slowly and then with all the knowledge he had. It was now my turn and I had three laps to do it in. As you can imagine I screwed up the first one but progressively was getting better at it. All the previous lessons were now paying off and they gelled together to show how each one was needed for proper control. I knew immediately when I was about to get under/over steer and when I went over it. More importantly however to keep control of the car and not spin out. We did this for the rest of the day by taking turns and jumping in each others cars as passengers to observe and give feedback. By the end of the day I can say that I was in control 90% of the time and was powering out of corners with speed and doing power slides. A couple of times although I didn't spin out I didn't manage to hold my oversteer properly and ended up fishtailing for almost 100 yds and and on other times I let off the gas too much and the car snapped by into straight probably giving my passengers concussions. It was all fun though.

Matt and Nigel were great company and I could not have chosen better driving partners for the day. They were both willing to learn, not cocky about their abilities and easy going. Shame the same can't be said the same about me. I haven't mentioned the fourth driver so far but will tell you about him too. I am an idiot and getting old so forgive me but I have already forgotten his name. He came along in his Z3M Coupe. He too was a really nice bloke but he has a bit of bad luck. Just before lunch time he had a puncture and had to drive off to get it fixed. Also the course at the end of the day made him feel sick and so had to leave early. Sorry about that but it gave us more track time. I have been promised by him that he will visit the forum and contribute to the thread.

A video was made during the day and I'll post it when I get the chance.

 

Nice write up - sounds like a very useful day.

I'll have to check out this sort of thing in due course....(car arrives in about two weeks!!)

 

I did a day at North Weald with Andy in my Elise a couple of years ago. The high speed braking was the most insightful, I think, particularly as the car had no ABS. I found the "corner" very scary at higher speeds and span out loads, but learnt lots too. My highest was 75mph but Andy showed me 85!

I will definitely be spending a day there to learn the limits of my new S, I think it'll be a very different beast to handle!

 

Sounds great, I'd like to do one of these days, how much is it? It depends on how many people go doesn't it?

 

http://www.carlimits.com

 

Great write up Rahul. It was an exellant day, loads of fun and very useful.

I think Rahul has covered most of it except the hard braking into the fast left hand corner and then using the brake to vary over- and under-steer to steer the car around the bend.

I felt very sorry for Mr BMW (Metmood I think and I'm sure I've spelt it wrong - sorry ) what with his puncture and then leaving early feeling ill immediately after a ride in my Matt's spinning machine...

I think we all learned a lot and you could see improvements in all of us. I think the main surprises for me were the sheer braking power of the car, together with just how fine a line it is on the edge. Its easy to get a few corners spot on and start thinking you're a driving God but (at least in my case) its not usually very long before the next slight error brings you back to reality. Its invaluable to be able to practice and learn in a safe place. I know I'll be going back for more...

I don't think I'll bother with insurance next time (on this course) as its very expensive and there was never any danger of hitting anything - this time I didn't know what to expect and took it just to be sure.

Overall a great day, great company (thanks chaps) and I would thoroughly recommend it. Cost was

 

Did you get to experience the MCoupes performance before he got his puncture and ed

 

I didn't... (and in fairness to my driving / spinning, he was feeling dodgy after driving his own lap before he got in my car, I just finished him off!)

One of the others did though so hopefully they'll be able to put in a report.

 

It is unbelievably quiet-a lot quieter than mine & matts stock S, and obviously much much quieter than the HKS growl from Rahuls car.

The instructor (Andy) commented that the M coupe felt wallowy compared to the S. However watching him drive the car round the track was more impressive than him driving the S2000.

Rahul great write up. You forgot to mention a couple of things...

Andys control of the S-he showed us what can be achieved out of this car. He was let loose in each of our cars to show us the track course.

I was probably a little more enthusiastic than the others-I was the only one who managed to put it on the grass

Andy was filming the end of his DVD-this was a little annoying as he kept disappearing off in this mad arsed caterham with 330bhp special engine that he is going to be racing next year.

 

I knew I would forget a few things in my excitment but thanks to Matt and Moggy to add the extra bits for me.

I did sit in the M and it was quiet inside too. He managed to run the full course in second with revs to spare though. I have always liked those cars but moving from the S into that car made me realise how soft the suspension on it is. Nice car even so.

More good news. I am booked in for another day with Andy on 18 Jan if anyone would like to join me but first preference would be Matt and Moggy so we can start from we left off yesterday. Video is also coming along nicely and should be ready by this evening.