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1stLotus Road Day

http://www.1stLotus.com

If anyone has been considering a course, then I highly recommend this one. I made just about every mistake going (including forgetting which side of the road I should be on :o), but he remained calm & patient throughout.

I chose to do the course using Andrews car - that way I could just be in the UK for the weekend as I was rather busy at work. Swapping from a left hand drive 111S to a right hand drive standard Elise was a bit strange at first, and it took me a while to realise that my knee hitting the gear stick was the result of the habit I had picked up of resting my leg against the side of the left hand drive Elise (I'm not the only person to have commented on this phenomenon apparently!) I also had to remind myself several times which side of the road I should be on! This was also the first time that I'd had anyone sitting in the car examining my driving since I passed my test XX years ago - so all in all I was pretty nervous, but Andrew soon made me feel settled.

"Course" is a bit of a misnomer really - Andrew will cover any techniques you want to cover & give you feedback on your driving. 

One of the first things we tried was an emergency stop. This is definitely a good exercise to do as it teaches you just how good the brakes can be. We tried this exercise a few times, reducing the stopping distance each time. Eventually we tried a stop on a bit of a downhill slope. I managed to lock the brakes a little and we skidded momentarily, I just lifted off and then reapplied the brakes and we came to a stop. Ooops I said. But that was just what Andrew was looking for - to make sure I didn't just stamp on the brakes hard, as you might in a ABS equipped car. The goal being to maximise deceleration by keeping the wheels on the verge of locking up by varying the pressure on the pedal.

Another technique he taught me was to keep both hands in the same position on the steering wheel as you go around corners. Andrew explained how rotational steering enables you to turn from full lock to full lock more smoothly and with fewer (or no) crossing of the hands. It also means that you have a better idea of exactly where the tyres are facing, and gives you maximum feedback through the steering wheel of what is going on. This takes some getting used to, unlearning the "feeding" technique that they teach you to pass your test was very tricky.

At the end of the first day I was suffering from sheer fatigue (3 nights of minimal sleep the previous days were catching up too). So Andrew took over and gave a demo down a twisty & narrow road. Wow! That demonstration really showed me the sheer grippyness & braking power of the Elise. We had some great fun around a roundabout too.

Driving backwards and forwards across the Brecon Beacons and towards the Gower peninsular was one of the highlights - it was worth it just for that. The motorbiker doing a wheely past me as we came out of one small village was pretty entertaining too. 

Other essential skills covered included observation and road positioning - using the road to the full to maximise your view of the road ahead.

We also tried heel & toe, but I am still struggling to master this one!

You will discover areas of your driving to think about that you didn't even know existed.

North Weald Airfield - 1stLotus, Jan 2002

I arrived at about 9.30 to the sight of the airfield covered in snow, and Mr Walsh spinning happily up and down the runway :o)

The day was perfect for me - I wanted to improve my confidence in slippery conditions. As the day warmed up, the ice melted though, but even without the ice there was load of room to have a safe play.

The first thing we covered was oversteer/understeer. We had covered this a little on the road day, but I wanted to push things a bit more in the safety of an airfield. At first I was struggling to overcome understeer, but Andrew jumped into the driving seat and showed me how it is done. After that little demo, I was more successful & got quite addicted to it :o)

Andrew covered use of throttle to balance/induce understeer and oversteer. These are things I we all "know" about - but having somebody to explain and show you how to correctly master (or attempt to master) them was great. 

Four of us were at N Weald that day, 3 Elises and an MGF. Waiting around was minimal though as we could each practice different techniques in different areas of the airfield. There was also a small coned area to practice the steering techniques that Andrew had taught me during the road day.

You can try things you would (should) never dream of doing on the roads without the slightest worry of any damage to your car. Although the day was all about pushing the car to its limits in the safety of an airfield, it does also improve your road driving as you become more aware of those limits and what happens when you exceed them.

We had to set off early, so just before we left I asked Andrew to take me through heel & toe technique again. An interesting demo was when he showed me what happens when you brake and accelerate at the same time. Despite moving the wheel from hard left to hard right, the car just continued on regardless in a completely straight line.

For accommodation see: http://www.wingsnwheels.net/accomodation.htm
We stayed in the Forte hotel on the edge of Epping.