Don Palmer - Driving Development
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Don Palmer - Driving Development
I won't post a full report as there have been a number of excellent write-ups from other members of this board on this course already. I will summarise what I got out of the day and my opinions on the MY02 S2000.
Having driven my S2K for the last few months, I have been consistently surprised by the amount of grip the car has in both the wet and dry, particularly in comparison to the MY00-01 models. This was the main reason for taking the course as I wanted to find out where the limit was and how to deal with the situation when that limit was reached and exceeded.
The main learning points that I picked up were:
- Road positioning and the use of vanishing point to understand the opening/closing of corners
- An understanding of tyre physics and how that affects the steering feel (now I know what all the motoring rags are banging on about in terms of 'feel'!)
- Steering input and grip levels relating to understeer and oversteer
- Throttle input and weight transfer to aid cornering
To my surprise, my main problem was the car understeering at the double apex 180 turn from the end of the lane changes to the start of the giant slalom. This was dialled out with the correct usage of steering angle, entry speed, weight transfer and application of throttle to aid in the exit.
Don't get me wrong, the car will power oversteer. However, I felt that the car telegraphed when a slide would start beautifully and any corrections were easily dealt with. Bringing all of Don's techniques together resulted with the car transitioning through each direction with oversteer drift though the slalom - an absolutely wonderful grin-inducing experience!!!
Don is an excellent coach and an extremely interesting character, not to mention a driver with awesome car control. He is not an instructor in the sense that he doesn't tell you what to do as much as ask you questions which prompt you to examine how you are driving, how he is driving and how that makes him faster. I find that this is a much better approach to learning as you have a much fuller understanding and appreciation of the techniques which he is trying to teach you.
I would highly recommend Don's course and would urge all drivers of high performance cars to attend. I have definitely picked up skills which I will be applying both on the road and on track which hopefully will make me a safer, more capable and faster driver.
Other highlights included a couple of practice laps around Bruntingthorpe with a competitor in todays Sideway Challenge in a M6 who was powersliding over 200 yards. Stunning car control and commitment from a 16 year old! Meeting the owner of Blackspot Developments and watching him go sideways in a Carrera 4S for Revs who were there doing a photo shoot. Having smoke erupt from the back of my S2K and cacking myself that I had blown the engine (was reassured by Don that he had seen it before and was nothing to be concerned) and scrubbing a lot of rubber off my tires!
Best
Having driven my S2K for the last few months, I have been consistently surprised by the amount of grip the car has in both the wet and dry, particularly in comparison to the MY00-01 models. This was the main reason for taking the course as I wanted to find out where the limit was and how to deal with the situation when that limit was reached and exceeded.
The main learning points that I picked up were:
- Road positioning and the use of vanishing point to understand the opening/closing of corners
- An understanding of tyre physics and how that affects the steering feel (now I know what all the motoring rags are banging on about in terms of 'feel'!)
- Steering input and grip levels relating to understeer and oversteer
- Throttle input and weight transfer to aid cornering
To my surprise, my main problem was the car understeering at the double apex 180 turn from the end of the lane changes to the start of the giant slalom. This was dialled out with the correct usage of steering angle, entry speed, weight transfer and application of throttle to aid in the exit.
Don't get me wrong, the car will power oversteer. However, I felt that the car telegraphed when a slide would start beautifully and any corrections were easily dealt with. Bringing all of Don's techniques together resulted with the car transitioning through each direction with oversteer drift though the slalom - an absolutely wonderful grin-inducing experience!!!
Don is an excellent coach and an extremely interesting character, not to mention a driver with awesome car control. He is not an instructor in the sense that he doesn't tell you what to do as much as ask you questions which prompt you to examine how you are driving, how he is driving and how that makes him faster. I find that this is a much better approach to learning as you have a much fuller understanding and appreciation of the techniques which he is trying to teach you.
I would highly recommend Don's course and would urge all drivers of high performance cars to attend. I have definitely picked up skills which I will be applying both on the road and on track which hopefully will make me a safer, more capable and faster driver.
Other highlights included a couple of practice laps around Bruntingthorpe with a competitor in todays Sideway Challenge in a M6 who was powersliding over 200 yards. Stunning car control and commitment from a 16 year old! Meeting the owner of Blackspot Developments and watching him go sideways in a Carrera 4S for Revs who were there doing a photo shoot. Having smoke erupt from the back of my S2K and cacking myself that I had blown the engine (was reassured by Don that he had seen it before and was nothing to be concerned) and scrubbing a lot of rubber off my tires!
Best
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