Tuscan Driving Skills Day - Interested ?
Discussion
Apologies in advance for this and further posts on this thread, but there's no easy way to explain this idea,
Be warned! I'm about to go into a rant......don't worry though, I'll get my coat at the end !
Ok, so we're a mixed bunch of owners, some of us may well be very confident with our driving skills. You may think that the following is incorrect or overstated or both! You may even think that the idea of an event like this is both pointless and condescending
I'm pretty sure that the dedicated owners amongst you will realise that there is no end to the driving skills learning curve. Then they'll be those of you that have recently accquired your Tusk, or maybe that have owned them for a long time, but whatever your position, you don't feel that confident about using the power that's available because of the possibility of loosing control of your baby!
Of course there's also the issue that keeps coming up and that you must be aware of '...loosing the back end under heavy braking'. Uuuumm scarry thought, is this really possible ?
We own a fairly light rear wheel drive car with between 360 and 400 odd BHP and there's no ETC or ABS, no stack of computers to shift weight/force around the car to maintain it's balance, no 4wd - it's all down to you and your skill and knowledge to drive it safely, and to keep it safely, on the road.....
*************************************************
Imagine for a minute...
Your battling downhill on a sunny day, your on a badly maintained A road that you have never driven on before. You don't know it.
There's plenty of width and the road is wonderfully straight, there's a slight amount of tramlining but visibility is good and you can see there is no oncoming traffic at all.
You check behind, drop it into third and blast past the two cars in front of you that have been dawdling for the last few miles.
They're now well gone! Your now on an open road, the air rushing in over the open top, what a day!
Still smiling, you push on down the hill picking up speed. You soon become aware that the road bends to the right at the bottom of the hill.
Easing off the power to assess the bend you look for the line, you adjust your speed to suit, as you start into the corner it tightens up surprisingly rapidly - you brake, a stab to waste some speed, it tightens again and you find your loosing the line and you'd like to turn further into the apex of the bend because you can feel the outward drift, you want to brake again to loose more speed but you know you shouldn't be braking on the corner and you decide to ride it.
Steering harder into the apex and slightly crossing the white line your confident that your in control. The speed is coming off fast now on the over-run and all is well....
Until, you meet the car coming the other way on the apex! You instinctively push away from it which requires a quick opposite correction as it goes past very close, you have to stab the brakes hard because you've totally lost the line now and the car doesn't feel cleanly under control now, but your still not fully out of the corner....
Of course, it's then that the Tractor and trailer emerge out of the gateway slightly on your left!
- the weights all piled up now at the front left nose of the car but you've got to swerve right to avoid the f****n thing.
Under pressure you brake hard and your bizarrely surprised that the back end steps right out................
I think i'll simply finish this little story at that point
****************************************************
Ok, so it's only a scenario, you may not agree with it as an example '...i never drive like that anyway', '..the car wouldn't handle that way' - sure, whatever
The main thing is - how many of us know what our car feels like when it's unbalanced, and what to do to settle it, and what sort of situation is going to unbalance the car in the first place ?
So finally (pheww!) I'll cut to the chase........
I'm organising a Tuscan Driving Skills Day at Bruntingthorpe Airfield on possibly - Saturday 12th July
The aim of the day is to learn these skills, and if you already have them, then the aim of the day is to improve on those skills, and if you're a born again double Tuscan Challenge Race Driver with a cherry on top, then the aim of the day is to just meet up with the other Tuscan's and hang out and maybe even pass your knowledge around !!
All comments from whatever angle are greatfully accepted - but I guess that goes without saying hey!!
I'll add more detail to further post's - "right which is mine?.....no it's that fella with the fur round the hood"
If this event comes off, this could well be the largest gathering of Tuscans this year!
Be warned! I'm about to go into a rant......don't worry though, I'll get my coat at the end !
Ok, so we're a mixed bunch of owners, some of us may well be very confident with our driving skills. You may think that the following is incorrect or overstated or both! You may even think that the idea of an event like this is both pointless and condescending I'm pretty sure that the dedicated owners amongst you will realise that there is no end to the driving skills learning curve. Then they'll be those of you that have recently accquired your Tusk, or maybe that have owned them for a long time, but whatever your position, you don't feel that confident about using the power that's available because of the possibility of loosing control of your baby!
Of course there's also the issue that keeps coming up and that you must be aware of '...loosing the back end under heavy braking'. Uuuumm scarry thought, is this really possible ?
We own a fairly light rear wheel drive car with between 360 and 400 odd BHP and there's no ETC or ABS, no stack of computers to shift weight/force around the car to maintain it's balance, no 4wd - it's all down to you and your skill and knowledge to drive it safely, and to keep it safely, on the road.....
*************************************************
Imagine for a minute...
Your battling downhill on a sunny day, your on a badly maintained A road that you have never driven on before. You don't know it.
There's plenty of width and the road is wonderfully straight, there's a slight amount of tramlining but visibility is good and you can see there is no oncoming traffic at all.
You check behind, drop it into third and blast past the two cars in front of you that have been dawdling for the last few miles.
They're now well gone! Your now on an open road, the air rushing in over the open top, what a day!
Still smiling, you push on down the hill picking up speed. You soon become aware that the road bends to the right at the bottom of the hill.
Easing off the power to assess the bend you look for the line, you adjust your speed to suit, as you start into the corner it tightens up surprisingly rapidly - you brake, a stab to waste some speed, it tightens again and you find your loosing the line and you'd like to turn further into the apex of the bend because you can feel the outward drift, you want to brake again to loose more speed but you know you shouldn't be braking on the corner and you decide to ride it.
Steering harder into the apex and slightly crossing the white line your confident that your in control. The speed is coming off fast now on the over-run and all is well....
Until, you meet the car coming the other way on the apex! You instinctively push away from it which requires a quick opposite correction as it goes past very close, you have to stab the brakes hard because you've totally lost the line now and the car doesn't feel cleanly under control now, but your still not fully out of the corner....
Of course, it's then that the Tractor and trailer emerge out of the gateway slightly on your left!
- the weights all piled up now at the front left nose of the car but you've got to swerve right to avoid the f****n thing.
Under pressure you brake hard and your bizarrely surprised that the back end steps right out................ I think i'll simply finish this little story at that point
****************************************************
Ok, so it's only a scenario, you may not agree with it as an example '...i never drive like that anyway', '..the car wouldn't handle that way' - sure, whatever
The main thing is - how many of us know what our car feels like when it's unbalanced, and what to do to settle it, and what sort of situation is going to unbalance the car in the first place ?
So finally (pheww!) I'll cut to the chase........
I'm organising a Tuscan Driving Skills Day at Bruntingthorpe Airfield on possibly - Saturday 12th July
The aim of the day is to learn these skills, and if you already have them, then the aim of the day is to improve on those skills, and if you're a born again double Tuscan Challenge Race Driver with a cherry on top, then the aim of the day is to just meet up with the other Tuscan's and hang out and maybe even pass your knowledge around !!
All comments from whatever angle are greatfully accepted - but I guess that goes without saying hey!!
I'll add more detail to further post's - "right which is mine?.....no it's that fella with the fur round the hood"
If this event comes off, this could well be the largest gathering of Tuscans this year!
I thought some of you might like it!!!!!!!
I've decided after much thoughts to use Motorsport Events to host the event
Once we've got a really good idea of numbers we can pass it over to them, they will do all the organising, running, marshalling, tuition provision etc etc
Ed Moore of Motorsport Events is well qualified for this. He currently races Formula Ford, but has been driving cars too quickly on tracks for many years, recent claim to fame includes his work for Aston Martin and training Piers Brosnan to drive the Vanquish, and Hugh Grant when he bought one!
Ed has aready made some really good suggestions for providing a car control area. This could be used to try emergency stops from high speed, or controlled accelaration etc (very open to suggestions)
This would be seperate to the open pit lane format main circuit where you can learn how to balance your car in and out of corners
I stress this is not going to be a standard track day, the intention is not to rag your car - however, you can if you want! but we're thinking it would be best to split everybody according to ability in to groups
more to follow....of course!
I've decided after much thoughts to use Motorsport Events to host the event
Once we've got a really good idea of numbers we can pass it over to them, they will do all the organising, running, marshalling, tuition provision etc etc
Ed Moore of Motorsport Events is well qualified for this. He currently races Formula Ford, but has been driving cars too quickly on tracks for many years, recent claim to fame includes his work for Aston Martin and training Piers Brosnan to drive the Vanquish, and Hugh Grant when he bought one!
Ed has aready made some really good suggestions for providing a car control area. This could be used to try emergency stops from high speed, or controlled accelaration etc (very open to suggestions)
This would be seperate to the open pit lane format main circuit where you can learn how to balance your car in and out of corners
I stress this is not going to be a standard track day, the intention is not to rag your car - however, you can if you want! but we're thinking it would be best to split everybody according to ability in to groups
more to follow....of course!
Sounds interesting - especially as I have just booked a one to one Advanced TVR Handling Day with Ride Drive for £299! This includes an hour or two of handling on a track/airfield.
Your event sounds very good - any idea of how many it can cater for and how much tuition individuals would get - and £ of course? All infor gratefully received.
Your event sounds very good - any idea of how many it can cater for and how much tuition individuals would get - and £ of course? All infor gratefully received.
for anybody that's come into this one fresh - its as a result of this
[url]www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=29460&f=5&h=0[/url]
[url]www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=29460&f=5&h=0[/url]
We will need 40 Tuscans !!! This due to the quite expensive cost of booking Bruntingthorpe
This from Ed Moore recently:-
This from Ed Moore recently:-
Have spoken yesterday afternoon and this morning with Bruntingthorpe. Even with my long standing history with the owners I can't beat them down on price! We have run events there over the last 2 years and they are always a big success, but the venue is expensive. The deal I can offer you is as follows:
40 person day £150 per head (lots and lots of track time and car control instruction session)
60 person day £ 99 per head (Instruction at £25 per 30 minutes)
There will be 3 grade A qualified Instructors available for lessons if booked, full event support (Marshall and Medic), Event Manager and Co-ordinator. During lunch time we can organise for top speed runs on the long straight. We would envisage using the area on the far side of the run way for advanced car control training (on the 40 person day we would split into 4 groups of 10 and spend an hour practicing new skills!).
It might be nice to have a more relaxed day with less numbers and the lesson built into the day, but at a higher price per person.
For an exclusive event we will need a guarantee that these numbers will be achieved and a deposit to secure the event.
Please let me know your thoughts on the above.
Kind regards,
Ed
So if we don't make the numbers we'll have to open it up to Chims and Griffs but at the moment I'd like to keep it to the one breed purely for the info exchange and the fun of getting everybody together
on the other thread davids wrote:-
I've spoken with Ed about this, I also had a suggestion that Jason Sheperd might be interested in being an instructor, if any of us bring along our own instructors, they will be viewed as passengers only. ie they will be most welcome but will have to fit in with any stipulations made by Motorsport Events as the organisers of the event
But this is a crackin idea, it may even be possible to share these instructors between cars, so YOU can help pay their fee and spread the instruction around
Any thoughts ED ?
>> Edited by 21TVR (moderator) on Thursday 20th March 11:19
Count me in. As for instructors, I have just had a lesson with Don Palmer (See EVO back pages) who does all his track work at Bruntingthorpe. I am sure we could get his services for the day for not too much extra. As it happens I am going up there this Saturday and I know he would like a couple more people either side of my lesson so if anyone would like a sneak preview of the circuit and a professional racing lesson for about £100
I've spoken with Ed about this, I also had a suggestion that Jason Sheperd might be interested in being an instructor, if any of us bring along our own instructors, they will be viewed as passengers only. ie they will be most welcome but will have to fit in with any stipulations made by Motorsport Events as the organisers of the event
But this is a crackin idea, it may even be possible to share these instructors between cars, so YOU can help pay their fee and spread the instruction around
Any thoughts ED ?
>> Edited by 21TVR (moderator) on Thursday 20th March 11:19
yes, except that if we split into say four groups of ten - just one of the thoughts - there would still be plenty on time on track without you feeling hasseled with a car in your mirror! Infact that is a prime point, unlike other track/airfield days this is about the tuition and getting to really know your car - so it won't be any kind of a race (ooooh! bad word!)
save your money for an instructor or Optimax!
save your money for an instructor or Optimax!
Me too - Rob Ingelby has found a beaut for me (checking it out tomorrow) and have been looking for something like this - 'Ride Drive' seeming to be the only other real option.
I'm currently driving a Lotus with front wheel drive so this is a must for me and am quietly daunted with the prospect
Look forward to it!
and have been looking for something like this - 'Ride Drive' seeming to be the only other real option. I'm currently driving a Lotus with front wheel drive so this is a must for me and am quietly daunted with the prospect
Look forward to it!
) in person. 
Whilst I am thinking about it... My insurance is with Tesco who obviously do not cover track days. I am sure they would view this event as a track day although no racing will take place, for me anyway!
To this end, does anyone know a company that will insure a one off track day for reasonable money? Don't mind stumping up a larger deposit as long as I get it back when I don't bump anything, hopefully!
Hope this makes sense and what is everyones opinion?
- Pete -
To this end, does anyone know a company that will insure a one off track day for reasonable money? Don't mind stumping up a larger deposit as long as I get it back when I don't bump anything, hopefully!
Hope this makes sense and what is everyones opinion?
- Pete -
Gassing Station | Tuscan | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff