North Weald Driving Day

[Fishy Dave]

Thank you Andy, very kind comments.
@Kicks on 66 Great to see you chucking the car around, it was one of the best sounding cars there too. Anything to us up a bit of rubber on those budget rears has got to be a good thing.
@Adtheman I hope you can make the next day, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.

Whilst we all seemed to agree it was fun, do you think you learned anything about your car or your driving?

 

[Invetterate]

Yep - I always learn on these things. This time, I could feel the new suspension set-up working well. My first 60mph turn-in last time resulted in significant oversteer - this time the car turned in and went round with nary a complaint. The tip about understeer was very useful if counter-intuitive which quite a lot of performance driving seems to be, but it is great to work on it and improve. At low speeds for me, it is not practical to try to reduce understeer with power - I just got more understeer - unwinding the lock a little allows the front outside tyre to grip again thus getting you round quicker. Doesn't seem logical until you understand about the tyre loading and unloading as the instructor told us.

The single biggest thing I have learned from these days though is not to grip the wheel tightly. In fact when the speed builds, I have taught myself to consciously reduce grip to the extent that I grip the wheel only with thumb and index fingers just above the spokes, keeping my other fingers away from the wheel. This allows you to "listen to the car talking through the wheel". Sounds odd, but it really works.

Roll on the next time