How cool is Mike Wilds!
Discussion
I’ve been meaning to write this for a few months now, but as the fat bird I pulled last night has finally left my apartment and its freezing outside I have some time, so here goes.
A bit of background: After 10+ years each of doing trackdays in various beemers, caterhams, porsches, fezzas, lambos and both of us having problems with every single one of these having issues/breaking/leaving us stranded. My mate Dave and I realised that the perfect trackday car really is the GT3 so we bought one each a couple of years ago. We both have 6GT3’s with the standard JZM accoutrements of KWV3’s, Alcons, SSK.
However as we know the engine is in the wrong place so we were smart enough to know that we needed to learn how to drive these properly.
After some research it seemed that Mike Wilds name kept coming up with quotes of (“brilliant”, “patient”, “ex F1 driver”), so we booked him.
We’ve had him for sessions at Silverstone, Bedford and even managed to sneak in some time at Spa when he wasn’t there with us officially.
We’ve also managed to be fortunate to have some dinners/drinks with Mike during the evening and listened to his awesome stories.
Mike doesn’t advertise so I thought I would give him a bit of free press
The first time we booked him we didn’t know what to expect so after turning up at Silverstone in April we meet this old guy. Immediately I am slightly concerned that this is some had it ex racer who is now on the trackday ciurcuit. Oh how I was wrong (I will share a story later).
We jump in and drive Mike around so he can see what level we’re at, believing we’re impressing him with our years of experience, heel and toeing, and me being the normal muppet I am by drifting around a couple of corners. After we’d both come in from our introductory laps he said something like (expletives deleted) “Yep I can tell you’ve both driven before, you’ve got a good base to work with but you’re both need a lot of work in a GT3”. Right fair enough, ego is now fully deflated.
So we jump in for a few more sessions and he starts slowly, teaching us lines, about balance and his way of driving a GT3. We slowly get faster and faster applying the basics of Mikes way of driving a GT3.
After a couple of these of these sessions he asks me if it would be ok if he did a few laps in the car. I reluctantly agree as being an inherent alpha male I don’t like being in the passenger seat and basically end up being a big girls blouse. I’ve been in with a few of the standard trackday instructors but fark me was he quick. He was very complementary of the car (thanks jzm) and started to push it. I had no idea of what my car was capable of, how good the brakes really were when used properly. There was 2 cup cars there doing shakedown tests and he managed to pull them in (remember we were 2 up) and after a bit of a tussle to pass them. As he’s doing this he’s calmly talking me thru what he’s doing. V impressive. After 3 laps I am sweating like a b@stard and about to throw up so I ask him if we go in please.
We go in and I have a bit of a lie down. Oh yeah about an hour later one of the managers of the cup team comes over to me and is asking what engine mods I’ve had done as boy the car is quick. I had to bust my bubble and ask the cup mgr chap if the guy driving my car had a yellow helmet on. Cup guys confirms this. Me “oh yeah he’s an ex formula 1 driver”
As above we’re have hired him a few times now at various circuits and the level now versus at the start of the season is incredible.
However I wouldn’t use Mike straight away if I was starting to learn, he really is better for the more advanced driver. And he’s expensive @ £450 a day (but sharing with a friend it is actually decent value).
Start with a decent base of learning and then go to Mike. By way of comparison a few years ago I spent £3.5k on a week long racing driver course at Silverstone. Dave has also spent close to the same with various courses/drifting from don palmer and mark hales over the last couple of years. Thus we had both had a decent base to make the most of.
I now see heavily modified 996 and 997GT3RS’s that we can drive around with relative ease hence I thought I’d share what I would do if I had a GT3 (or in fact any trackable 911) and wanted to get better. Hopefully this may save some people some money.
It might be a bit of a radical approach and I’m sure a few naysayers will shoot me down. But hey here goes..
I would offer this advice to fellow 911 and GT3 owners thinking about spending a fortune on upgrades. Stop. All you need to do is the following:
1. Upgrade the front pads to RS29’s and get a decent fast road/track setup down (any of the reputable Indys around the country can do this)
2. Learn to drive your car. In order I would do this:
i) Learn to heel and toe
ii) Learn to heel and toe by doing this every time you’re on the road
iii) Do the basic 2 day course with Don Palmer
iv) Do a drift course so you know what to do when a car goes past its limit/starts to get sideways downhill at 100mph.. I have seen too many beautiful cars damaged on track by their drivers not being able to control them at speed
v) Do a few days with Mike Wilds.
The above should cost about £2-3k max which is what you’d pay for upgraded suspension fitted. And the above will pay a lot more dividends.
3. After a season of Mike and if you really want to then look at suspension upgrades, brake upgrades, SSK, lightweight wheels, aerodynamic, Engine mods etc. Theres some great posts of here by knowledgable people on each of the above.
HTH.
Cheers,
BJ
A bit of background: After 10+ years each of doing trackdays in various beemers, caterhams, porsches, fezzas, lambos and both of us having problems with every single one of these having issues/breaking/leaving us stranded. My mate Dave and I realised that the perfect trackday car really is the GT3 so we bought one each a couple of years ago. We both have 6GT3’s with the standard JZM accoutrements of KWV3’s, Alcons, SSK.
However as we know the engine is in the wrong place so we were smart enough to know that we needed to learn how to drive these properly.
After some research it seemed that Mike Wilds name kept coming up with quotes of (“brilliant”, “patient”, “ex F1 driver”), so we booked him.
We’ve had him for sessions at Silverstone, Bedford and even managed to sneak in some time at Spa when he wasn’t there with us officially.
We’ve also managed to be fortunate to have some dinners/drinks with Mike during the evening and listened to his awesome stories.
Mike doesn’t advertise so I thought I would give him a bit of free press
The first time we booked him we didn’t know what to expect so after turning up at Silverstone in April we meet this old guy. Immediately I am slightly concerned that this is some had it ex racer who is now on the trackday ciurcuit. Oh how I was wrong (I will share a story later).
We jump in and drive Mike around so he can see what level we’re at, believing we’re impressing him with our years of experience, heel and toeing, and me being the normal muppet I am by drifting around a couple of corners. After we’d both come in from our introductory laps he said something like (expletives deleted) “Yep I can tell you’ve both driven before, you’ve got a good base to work with but you’re both need a lot of work in a GT3”. Right fair enough, ego is now fully deflated.
So we jump in for a few more sessions and he starts slowly, teaching us lines, about balance and his way of driving a GT3. We slowly get faster and faster applying the basics of Mikes way of driving a GT3.
After a couple of these of these sessions he asks me if it would be ok if he did a few laps in the car. I reluctantly agree as being an inherent alpha male I don’t like being in the passenger seat and basically end up being a big girls blouse. I’ve been in with a few of the standard trackday instructors but fark me was he quick. He was very complementary of the car (thanks jzm) and started to push it. I had no idea of what my car was capable of, how good the brakes really were when used properly. There was 2 cup cars there doing shakedown tests and he managed to pull them in (remember we were 2 up) and after a bit of a tussle to pass them. As he’s doing this he’s calmly talking me thru what he’s doing. V impressive. After 3 laps I am sweating like a b@stard and about to throw up so I ask him if we go in please.
We go in and I have a bit of a lie down. Oh yeah about an hour later one of the managers of the cup team comes over to me and is asking what engine mods I’ve had done as boy the car is quick. I had to bust my bubble and ask the cup mgr chap if the guy driving my car had a yellow helmet on. Cup guys confirms this. Me “oh yeah he’s an ex formula 1 driver”
As above we’re have hired him a few times now at various circuits and the level now versus at the start of the season is incredible.
However I wouldn’t use Mike straight away if I was starting to learn, he really is better for the more advanced driver. And he’s expensive @ £450 a day (but sharing with a friend it is actually decent value).
Start with a decent base of learning and then go to Mike. By way of comparison a few years ago I spent £3.5k on a week long racing driver course at Silverstone. Dave has also spent close to the same with various courses/drifting from don palmer and mark hales over the last couple of years. Thus we had both had a decent base to make the most of.
I now see heavily modified 996 and 997GT3RS’s that we can drive around with relative ease hence I thought I’d share what I would do if I had a GT3 (or in fact any trackable 911) and wanted to get better. Hopefully this may save some people some money.
It might be a bit of a radical approach and I’m sure a few naysayers will shoot me down. But hey here goes..
I would offer this advice to fellow 911 and GT3 owners thinking about spending a fortune on upgrades. Stop. All you need to do is the following:
1. Upgrade the front pads to RS29’s and get a decent fast road/track setup down (any of the reputable Indys around the country can do this)
2. Learn to drive your car. In order I would do this:
i) Learn to heel and toe
ii) Learn to heel and toe by doing this every time you’re on the road
iii) Do the basic 2 day course with Don Palmer
iv) Do a drift course so you know what to do when a car goes past its limit/starts to get sideways downhill at 100mph.. I have seen too many beautiful cars damaged on track by their drivers not being able to control them at speed
v) Do a few days with Mike Wilds.
The above should cost about £2-3k max which is what you’d pay for upgraded suspension fitted. And the above will pay a lot more dividends.
3. After a season of Mike and if you really want to then look at suspension upgrades, brake upgrades, SSK, lightweight wheels, aerodynamic, Engine mods etc. Theres some great posts of here by knowledgable people on each of the above.
HTH.
Cheers,
BJ
Edited by BrendonJ on Friday 2nd November 11:37
I met Mike at Spa a few years ago on a track day, i had taken my 3.2 carrera, which seemed fairly quick on the road, however everything on the track was coming past me.
Booked a 1/2hr session with Mike, as he had a 3.2 asked if he could drive mine and do a couple of laps to show me the lines, well going down into Eau Rouge at 120 was an experience, previously i had been 20-25mph slower than this.
We passed a reasonable amount of the cars, which proved to me there was nothing wrong with the car, it was down to the driver.
So came back and bought a GT3, while at least i can be quicker on the straights...
Mike's a real nice guy and knows his stuff, he also admitted to having spun at top of Eau Rouge in the previous weekends meeting, so he said even with all that expereince, still make mistakes...
Booked a 1/2hr session with Mike, as he had a 3.2 asked if he could drive mine and do a couple of laps to show me the lines, well going down into Eau Rouge at 120 was an experience, previously i had been 20-25mph slower than this.
We passed a reasonable amount of the cars, which proved to me there was nothing wrong with the car, it was down to the driver.
So came back and bought a GT3, while at least i can be quicker on the straights...
Mike's a real nice guy and knows his stuff, he also admitted to having spun at top of Eau Rouge in the previous weekends meeting, so he said even with all that expereince, still make mistakes...
BrendonJ said:
2. Learn to drive your car. In order I would do this:
i) Learn to heel and toe
ii) Learn to heel and toe by doing this every time you’re on the road
iii) Do the basic 2 day course with Don Palmer
iv) Do a drift course so you know what to do when a car goes past its limit/starts to get sideways downhill at 100mph.. I have seen too many beautiful cars damaged on track by their drivers not being able to control them at speed
v) Do a few days with Mike Wilds.
The above should cost about £2-3k max which is what you’d pay for upgraded suspension fitted. And the above will pay a lot more dividends.
And that's a far more fun way to spend 3k than upgrading your suspension!i) Learn to heel and toe
ii) Learn to heel and toe by doing this every time you’re on the road
iii) Do the basic 2 day course with Don Palmer
iv) Do a drift course so you know what to do when a car goes past its limit/starts to get sideways downhill at 100mph.. I have seen too many beautiful cars damaged on track by their drivers not being able to control them at speed
v) Do a few days with Mike Wilds.
The above should cost about £2-3k max which is what you’d pay for upgraded suspension fitted. And the above will pay a lot more dividends.
Good writeup Brendon
It's always amazing how a good instructor makes it easy for you to drive better/faster. It's a bit annoying frankly as I am a driving god, so it shouldn't be that easy to show me how to go faster!
Bert
An easy rule is to look at lat lap time difference between yourself vs. a professional racing driver in the same car. Most of the time it will tell you that not the car but you yourself are the limiting factor. What could be more fun than overtaking other drivers whilst being in much more inferior metal...
Mike's a real nice guy and knows his stuff, he also admitted to having spun at top of Eau Rouge in the previous weekends meeting, so he said even with all that expereince, still make mistakes...
Jeez, he entered Eau Rouge at 140ish in my car on the BAT day this year, with me sat at the side of him thinking 'this guy is good.....I think'...he was, is, fantastic! I really learnt so much from Mike on this day and he is a proper Porsche man, loves the cars....
Oh and has been said, a true gentleman and very respectful of the ladies....;)
g
Jeez, he entered Eau Rouge at 140ish in my car on the BAT day this year, with me sat at the side of him thinking 'this guy is good.....I think'...he was, is, fantastic! I really learnt so much from Mike on this day and he is a proper Porsche man, loves the cars....
Oh and has been said, a true gentleman and very respectful of the ladies....;)
g
mad4amanda said:
Mike is a fab guy and hes just got into boats now too!
first time I saw him drive it was round clearways in torrential rain and he was overtaking every wannabee in their Scoobys and evos in a black 2wd 911 , it was awesome to watch his feel for the car and curcuit is second to none!
I think you may find that Mike was driving my car that day - it was Matt Black back then and is a Manthey K400 modified 996.1 GT3 running on worn R888s. Video of him in action below.... Enjoy first time I saw him drive it was round clearways in torrential rain and he was overtaking every wannabee in their Scoobys and evos in a black 2wd 911 , it was awesome to watch his feel for the car and curcuit is second to none!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT0iRmXS6q4&fea...
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