Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Roadcraft
piran

posted on 14/8/09 at 09:14 AM Reply With Quote
Roadcraft

Well for my 40th birthday present my other half arranged for me to have a full day (8:30 till 5) one on one performance car driving training, one year on the car was complete enough to take the training so off I trundled yesterday, the forecast was for a nice dry day a little overcast but that should keep the glare down. The forecast was wrong it was damp with showers all day so we got fairly damp but what a great day !

We started out on the roads looking at my technique and how that could be improved and then spent a few hours at the Millbrook proving ground where we went on the skid pan to find out about the grip and how to control it when it gets away from you, we did seme cornering on another section spotting where to aim for braking points and such, we went on the mile straight to do brake testing and then went on the Alpine route to bring it all together - lots of up and down, corners with varying visibility and all that. Finally another session on the road to see how these were all applied ...

It was brilliant, not in the exciting way perhaps of getting to drive a dream car but in terms of actually learning how to get more out of my car and how she behaves on the limit.

The car (which became as "the little green sports car" - the kids are now quoting from "faster, faster little red engine" ) behaved faultlessly and we thrashed it around for 230 miles and nothing fell off ! and in some ways it was probably better that it was wet as the levels of grip she showed were pretty impressive and probably beyond my ability to find in the dry ! We were both impressed with her handling and braking dynamics and at 200bhp per ton she was quick off the mark too

So I highly reccomend Roadcraft it does cost more than these experience days but you get a lot out of it

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
speedyxjs

posted on 14/8/09 at 10:53 AM Reply With Quote
Sounds like you had a good time. It looks like a good idea for those of us who are not used to the power our little cars have





How long can i resist the temptation to drop a V8 in?

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
piran

posted on 14/8/09 at 11:03 AM Reply With Quote
yes it was good and the time at millbrook was good for finding where the limits were and what happened when it all went pete tong. It was also reassuring that under emergency braking conditions the car kept in a straight line - the instructor was saying that some of the Caterhams he's done the day with swap ends quite quickly under heavy braking as the rear wheels lock up with little loading on them.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
beaver34

posted on 14/8/09 at 05:11 PM Reply With Quote
sounds fantastic, any ideas of the cost of a day like this?
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
piran

posted on 16/8/09 at 10:49 AM Reply With Quote
not sure as it was a present but I thiink it was a shade under £500 for the whole day in which we drove over 200 miles.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.