To be honest I am not sure where to start describing my Saturday morning experience, so I think I’ll begin by telling the story as it unfolded.
The morning began with us being “fitted” with a driving suit. I say fitted because both Jan and I, being more slim than many, ended up looking like a cross between Spiderman and Bozo the Clown.
Then the 20 of us gathered as a group for a surprisingly short briefing session. This was pretty much about laying down the rules:
- hands at “a quarter to 3” on the steering wheel at all times, no shuffling the wheel through your hands.
- 4000 revs limit until your instructor said it was OK to go to 5000.
- 3rd and 4th gear only.
- no passing until you were told it was OK, and then pass on the right hand side.
By this stage I was beginning to feel that the experience may not be all that I had hoped, it sounded as if we might be a bit hamstrung in terms of what we could actually do out there. I was wrong! 5000 revs ended up with you hitting just on 170 clicks at the end of the straight, and 3rd and 4th gears were all that you actually needed given the short and tight nature of the Adelaide International course.
We then were taken for a few “get to know the track layout” laps with the instructors in normal road cars. My group found itself in a Toyota Camry … I never want to go this quick on one of those bloody things again. In some ways this was the most terrifying part of the whole day. During these laps the braking bollards were pointed out, along with the witches hats that had been set out to give us something to aim at in terms of pointing the cars through the corners. This was an excellent idea and helped us to get the cars around the circuit in a reasonably tidy manner.
Then it was to time to drive the real thing! I was in a Monaro and my drive started, and ended, with a clunk as I bashed my helmeted head both getting into and out of the thing.
My first lap was spent marvelling at how easy the thing was to drive … very nice and light clutch and gearbox and steering that was hardly any heavier than my Golf. The 4000 rev limit saw me at about 130 at the end of the straight and after sorting me out on how to get through the off-camber corner leading back into the bowl area of the circuit, my instructor gave me the all-clear to use 5000.
This is when it got much more interesting … the extra 1000 revs meant that suddenly the brakes became much more useful … I found myself at something around 170 at the end of the straight.
Driving it was really a blast … the acceleration was good, the braking power absolutely amazing! These things stop like you would not believe! All-in-all I think I did pretty well, my instructor used terms like “that’s better, well done” and “really good line” a few times.
After we all had our turns it was time for the hot laps with the pros driving. Somewhat worryingly, these guys at this stage took off the open face little helmets they had been wearing and put on their own full face jobbies! Hmmm methinks … why would they need to do that?
The hot laps were very fast, some got out of the car looking like they may have been just a touch shook up. For me … well I guess the experience of going around Mallala a few years ago with Jim Richards had prepared me a bit so I just found it very enjoyable.
All in all it was a great experience. Barring technical hitches I should get a DVD of my laps in 3 weeks or so and, presuming I didn’t make a complete ass of myself, I guess I will need to figure out how to get my server to stream this video to you.
The highlights for me:
- the nerves of steal of the instructors … imagine driving around a race track in a very fast car with some wally that had never driven one before!
- the braking power of the cars … much more impressive than their acceleration for me.
If you have ever thought about doing something like this my advice is go for it!
PS. I ended up in the red undies … thought they would go faster!
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