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Nov 23rd, 3 x 968's and a 928 soend a day with Don Palmer at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground for his "Limit handling course". 06:45 set off from Guildford in the pouring rain and it just continued like that until J14 on the M1 where it stopped raining and was dry from then on, so the weather forecast was right. Got off at J20 and then wiggled through the country lanes, i had no idea where i was going but my PDA navigation system took me right to the entrance, excellent piece of kit. Bruntingthorpe is a massive place, the entrance is controlled by rising barriers, security guards and fearsome looking rising road spikes that would soon shred your tyres should you try and rush the gate. Don jumped in his car beckoning us to follow him, we duly did and trying to keep up with him round the perimeter roads and down a massivley wide concrete strip. Looking up the airstrip back towards the complex buildings and the parked up aircraft, not that you could see anything as the curve of the strip disappeared over the horizon and long long way across the grass was the other strip we'd driven down, we were now over 2 miles from the entrance, this was our venue for the day.
Don had already set out coned course, consisting of a starting point to our right on the opposite side of the strip 2/3rds of way across and then it's a straight drive into the first excerise, a right/left lane change, continuing on through this to a cone where you start your left turn to come back down the course to start the zig zags. There were 7 of these and then another left/right lane change at the end of the course, i guess the course was about half a mile long. We dumped all our loose articles into the boot of Dons car, we didn't waste any time and Don took 2 passengers through the course and i teamed up with someone else that had done this before and we drove through the course to learn it's layout. We then took turns and i was up second and felt i was doing ok, i missed a couple of cones the first few times but felt i was going pretty quick through it, after a few goes i managed to enter the lane change at 60mph and flick it right/left. Then Don got in my car and drove me through the course, holy shit, i though the car was going to go off so many times, he hurtled towards the first part the lane change, this is the same width as 2 motorway lanes, 4 cones in the lane you're in and then 4 cones to right with only maybe a car and half length seperating them, then another 4 cones back in the first lane again. He's maxed out in third and still gaining speed in 4th when he dabs the brakes and thows the car through this lane change and continues to the far cone. All the brakes on now and down in 2nd gear and throw the car left past the first cone, the back end being provoked into oversteer continuing across the strip to the 2nd cone further across the strip and then a really tight pull back to set off and aim for the far left cone.
The back of the car was at a 45 degree angle to where it should have been going, opposite lock and smoking up the rears and off towards the next cone, rev limiter cutting in and into 3rd before he throws it right, these are all 90 degree turns. I was convinced that the car would either roll over or just continue in a straight line off onto the grass, no brakes were used just hard off the throttle and turn the wheel in hard and he gathers it all up with a calm and collected manner and sets off for the next right hand side cone which is further away and so faster by the time we get there again i'm still reeling from the first 2 turns and now we're going faster, but i realise that this car really holds the road superbly well and it has to be severly provoked before it gets out of shape. I've never felt so much G-force in a car before as we flew through this zig zag with me holding on and loving every second of it, eventually through the end lane change again, grinning like silly kids Don set off again, the first one was just a warm up lap for next 2 laps circuits he really gets a shift on. He stops the car and jumps out at the end of the 3rd run and says ok, your turn. He's telling me go faster and then we go through the lane change then he says faster and BRAKE for the last cone to start the turn in and the run back down the course through the zig zags, he tells turn in hard get back on the power and i loose it as the car does a 360, Woohoo my first 360, excellent.
A couple more runs and try as i might i can't get the car to step out of line but still it feels bloody fast to me. Don says asks me to go back to the others and he gets out and sends me on a cooling down lap of the enormous perimeter road circuit while he takes out the next driver. I get back and park up to watch the others takes their turns. Now we've all had a go and the air is full of excitement as we discuss the frightening speeds and high g-force direction changes, most of us are shaking...is it the cold on this late November morning causing this or is it the buzz that's getting to us all! through this first part of the morning session we all get to spin out cars a couple of times and this helps to feel as though we're really trying. Lunch was at an excellent restaurant, The Joiners Arms, in the village, superb menu and well presented, but all we could really think about was getting back into sliding the cars around. The afternoon brought some light drizzle at first turning into steady falling rain, this made the idea of throwing the car into these tight turns a lot more daunting but again the 968 suprised us all by gripping so well that we still had to provoke it to break out at the rear.
Don introduced a technical discussion every now and then on tyres, steering, throttle control, weight transfer, feel etc. and what exactely happens when you ask the car to do something severe, this helped us understand what we could expect the car to do. He taught us about how to steer and then how to use the throttle and then putting them both together so we could all get the rear end out but then came the next trick of knowing when the rear was about to go and then how to catch it and later on how to control it. All through the day Don showed us all in our own cars just what can be done and as the afternoon progressed we all gradually learned the subtlties of feeling the car reacting to your inputs and then how to counter the cars responses to take charge of the situation. We all had loads more spin outs but this was par for the course and showed that now we were all trying very hard now and enjoying every moment of it.
By the end of the day, which went by so quickly, we were getting the rear end out, putting on opposite lock and power sliding the car through the slalom course, a great sense of achievement and a real understanding of just what the car is capable of and more importantly what we as drivers were capable of. Every drive with either each other or especially with Don in the car was 2 grown men laughing out loud, with woohoo's and yeah's with both us beeming from ear to ear as we careered sideways through the slalom, from the sidelines it looked like a couple of madmen were on the road to amegeddon. The morning after coming back from the course i found that i had aches and pains in my shoulders, neck and legs from bracing myself in the car against the g-forces and also a feeling of confusion until a couple of days had passed when we all spoke to each other again and found that as a group it took that long for it all to sink in and now we all felt we had a much better understanding of just what happens during those extreme moments and what is was we needed to do and in fact we all want to go and do it again fairly soon. A truly excellent day all round and only losing 1mm of tread in the process. Unfortuantely we were all so buzy with driving and chatting and the rain didn't help that video cameras didn't come out, but i have vivid memories, next time i'll be more organised and get some video.
Del.
Don had already set out coned course, consisting of a starting point to our right on the opposite side of the strip 2/3rds of way across and then it's a straight drive into the first excerise, a right/left lane change, continuing on through this to a cone where you start your left turn to come back down the course to start the zig zags. There were 7 of these and then another left/right lane change at the end of the course, i guess the course was about half a mile long. We dumped all our loose articles into the boot of Dons car, we didn't waste any time and Don took 2 passengers through the course and i teamed up with someone else that had done this before and we drove through the course to learn it's layout. We then took turns and i was up second and felt i was doing ok, i missed a couple of cones the first few times but felt i was going pretty quick through it, after a few goes i managed to enter the lane change at 60mph and flick it right/left. Then Don got in my car and drove me through the course, holy shit, i though the car was going to go off so many times, he hurtled towards the first part the lane change, this is the same width as 2 motorway lanes, 4 cones in the lane you're in and then 4 cones to right with only maybe a car and half length seperating them, then another 4 cones back in the first lane again. He's maxed out in third and still gaining speed in 4th when he dabs the brakes and thows the car through this lane change and continues to the far cone. All the brakes on now and down in 2nd gear and throw the car left past the first cone, the back end being provoked into oversteer continuing across the strip to the 2nd cone further across the strip and then a really tight pull back to set off and aim for the far left cone.
The back of the car was at a 45 degree angle to where it should have been going, opposite lock and smoking up the rears and off towards the next cone, rev limiter cutting in and into 3rd before he throws it right, these are all 90 degree turns. I was convinced that the car would either roll over or just continue in a straight line off onto the grass, no brakes were used just hard off the throttle and turn the wheel in hard and he gathers it all up with a calm and collected manner and sets off for the next right hand side cone which is further away and so faster by the time we get there again i'm still reeling from the first 2 turns and now we're going faster, but i realise that this car really holds the road superbly well and it has to be severly provoked before it gets out of shape. I've never felt so much G-force in a car before as we flew through this zig zag with me holding on and loving every second of it, eventually through the end lane change again, grinning like silly kids Don set off again, the first one was just a warm up lap for next 2 laps circuits he really gets a shift on. He stops the car and jumps out at the end of the 3rd run and says ok, your turn. He's telling me go faster and then we go through the lane change then he says faster and BRAKE for the last cone to start the turn in and the run back down the course through the zig zags, he tells turn in hard get back on the power and i loose it as the car does a 360, Woohoo my first 360, excellent.
A couple more runs and try as i might i can't get the car to step out of line but still it feels bloody fast to me. Don says asks me to go back to the others and he gets out and sends me on a cooling down lap of the enormous perimeter road circuit while he takes out the next driver. I get back and park up to watch the others takes their turns. Now we've all had a go and the air is full of excitement as we discuss the frightening speeds and high g-force direction changes, most of us are shaking...is it the cold on this late November morning causing this or is it the buzz that's getting to us all! through this first part of the morning session we all get to spin out cars a couple of times and this helps to feel as though we're really trying. Lunch was at an excellent restaurant, The Joiners Arms, in the village, superb menu and well presented, but all we could really think about was getting back into sliding the cars around. The afternoon brought some light drizzle at first turning into steady falling rain, this made the idea of throwing the car into these tight turns a lot more daunting but again the 968 suprised us all by gripping so well that we still had to provoke it to break out at the rear.
Don introduced a technical discussion every now and then on tyres, steering, throttle control, weight transfer, feel etc. and what exactely happens when you ask the car to do something severe, this helped us understand what we could expect the car to do. He taught us about how to steer and then how to use the throttle and then putting them both together so we could all get the rear end out but then came the next trick of knowing when the rear was about to go and then how to catch it and later on how to control it. All through the day Don showed us all in our own cars just what can be done and as the afternoon progressed we all gradually learned the subtlties of feeling the car reacting to your inputs and then how to counter the cars responses to take charge of the situation. We all had loads more spin outs but this was par for the course and showed that now we were all trying very hard now and enjoying every moment of it.
By the end of the day, which went by so quickly, we were getting the rear end out, putting on opposite lock and power sliding the car through the slalom course, a great sense of achievement and a real understanding of just what the car is capable of and more importantly what we as drivers were capable of. Every drive with either each other or especially with Don in the car was 2 grown men laughing out loud, with woohoo's and yeah's with both us beeming from ear to ear as we careered sideways through the slalom, from the sidelines it looked like a couple of madmen were on the road to amegeddon. The morning after coming back from the course i found that i had aches and pains in my shoulders, neck and legs from bracing myself in the car against the g-forces and also a feeling of confusion until a couple of days had passed when we all spoke to each other again and found that as a group it took that long for it all to sink in and now we all felt we had a much better understanding of just what happens during those extreme moments and what is was we needed to do and in fact we all want to go and do it again fairly soon. A truly excellent day all round and only losing 1mm of tread in the process. Unfortuantely we were all so buzy with driving and chatting and the rain didn't help that video cameras didn't come out, but i have vivid memories, next time i'll be more organised and get some video.
Del.
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