As a number of members of this board are also members of Club Driving, or may have an interest in Club Driving, I thought I would share my very positive experience of taking one of the so-called "higher awards". As most people know, I am a member of HPC (as well as IAM and RoADA), but have also joined Club Driving because I very much support any organisation that encourages advanced driving, and from the outset I have been impressed with Mark Kendrick's energy in setting up the Club from scratch.
My first attempt to take the Master Drive award ended in disaster! I had tried to take the award in the Spring of 2007, but whilst parked outside Mark's office in Malvern, at around 9.30am, my GT3 was hit from behind by a chap in a Nissan 300SX, who was travelling far too fast for the slightly slippery conditions (on a 30 mph road). Mark and I were inside his office at the time, and heard the sickening crunch. Mark was fantastic (whilst I was surveying the damage with no little amount of anger), and calmly asked the fool of a driver what had happened, and the chap admitted hitting my car at nearly 30mph (despite locking his brakes). It caused £25,000 of damage but Manthey Racing in Germany have returned it to full health (the Germans are so much better at accident repair).
A year later I gingerly booked another session with Mark, who this time kindly arrived at his office on his motorbike, so I could park on the drive
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The day started with a relaxed conversation about what Mark expects from the drive, and a clarification that the day is an assessment, not a coaching session. Nevertheless, we still discussed areas I was focusing upon so that Mark could tailor any feedback.
The day was dry and bright, but we decided the keep the roof up on my Boxster so we would not get overly tired from the wind noise.
The plan was to drive to Bruntingthorpe, which was around a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive. We started with some motorway, where Mark asked me to give a commentary, no doubt assessing my long range observation and planning. We talked about lane positioning, particularly in lane 3 to minimise the risk from lane wanderers.
After the motorway, we took some very enjoyable roads across to Bruntingthorpe. As is usual for me, I took a little while to lift my vision up properly and really tune into the drive, but Mark’s relaxed demeanour helped me to enjoy the morning. We stopped for a quick snack lunch, and Mark was encouraging in his initial assessment.
At Bruntingthorpe, we commenced by lapping the circuit. Here Mark was looking for a consistent, smooth and progressive drive, and after a few warm up laps I was encouraged to push harder. I’ve done a lot of circuit driving, and am comfortable near the limit of grip, and with techniques such as heel & toe and trail braking.
Once Mark was satisfied with my basic handling skills, we moved onto the more specific tests. In no particular order these included:
- Creating and controlling oversteer. This was achieved by driving at up to 50mph diagonally across the runway, and turning in whilst lifting off. The reduction in weight over the back of the car helped to unstick the rear, and then it was a matter of controlling the slide. Initially, I was a bit jerky with my steering. I then remembered my ice driving training, and took one hand off the wheel. With one hand now sweeping a smooth, wide arc, my control of the slide improved. I also noticed, with Mark’s help, that I was better when I looked well ahead – if my vision dropped, the control of the slide was less subtle. Overall, this was a challenging exercise but I avoided spinning (just), and for at least some of the time the slides were nicely controlled.
- Creating and controlling understeer. For this test, I drove the car in a circle and accelerated to the point where the front end was beginning the slide. We discussed the effect of PSM (Porsche Stability Management). With PSM turned on, the best approach was to steer strongly and rapidly, forcing the system to recognise that I really wanted the car to turn, and hey presto the system applied the appropriate braking to tighten the turn. With PSM switched off, and the control entirely down to me, the correct approach was to lift off and remove some steering, before gently steering back into the curve. This exercise was invaluable at pointing how important it is to understand the effect of systems like PSM and how to get the best out of them.
- High speed lane changes. I had never really performed these before, but knew that one critical aspect was to keep the car balanced on the throttle – i.e. not to lift off, or steer with no gas applied. Without any gas, the risk of roll oversteer is much greater. We drove down the runway at 80mph, and Mark would call out suddenly when he wanted to change lane (as if the lane we were in suddenly had a blockage). With PSM switched on, one could feel the brakes applied twice – first to control the roll oversteer on initial turn in, and second as the car was straightened. The car felt very stable and the lane change was very rapid. With PSM off, again it was down to me. I knew that the right thing was to be quick with the steering, but not to use too much steering. I was ok on my first couple of runs but Mark encouraged me, having applied the lock initially, to straighten the steering more quickly to reduce the roll oversteer. After a couple more runs, I improved the technique but could still have done better. However, I had at least switched lanes at speed without losing control.
- High speed lane change and emergency stop. In this case, I was required to change lane and stop in the shortest distance possible. Again, I knew the priority was to first brake, as the car (with ABS) would be more stable. If I had tried to change lane first, and then braked, I would have risked losing control unless I held off braking until the chassis had recovered from the lane change. The Boxster was highly impressive once again – once firmly on the brakes with the ABS operating, it was easy to change lane rapidly and without drama.
- Stopping in the shortest distance possible whilst driving near the limit of grip in a corner. This sounds hard, but is actually very easy. Modern ABS systems (coupled in my case with the exceptional ceramic braking system on my Boxster) do a great job of controlling the car, so it was just a case of getting on the brakes hard and letting the car do the rest. I did also try to straighten the steering to reduce stopping distance.
- Judging stopping distance from high speed. This was the test I was most worried about as we all tend to judge distance dynamically, rather than in a static context. First, we put out a cone by the edge of the runway. This would mark my braking point. Mark then asked me to place a cone where I thought the car would come to rest at 70mph. This was effectively a “sighter”. My car actually came to rest somewhat short of the marker. Then, it was time for the assessment. Mark asked me to replace the cone for a 90mph emergency stop. At least I had some reference point, and knowing that braking distances increase with the square of one’s speed, I made my estimate. I was pleased that the car stopped with the cone dead centre alongside the car; the requirement was to be within one car length.
This completed the off-road exercises. I was quite tired after working pretty hard on track, but it had been instructive and a lot of fun. (To digress for a moment, it is the sort of experience / training literally every driver should have – real life saving techniques.)
We then took a different route back to Malvern, on some even more lovely country roads. My “eye” was in, and although Mark could still spot that at times my ultra long range vision could have been better, I gave a drive I was pretty happy with. I felt relaxed and we made good, safe progress.
Back at Mark’s office, we de-briefed the day once Mark had given me the good news that I had passed. Mark summarised some of the feedback he had given me during the day, as points to think about. All were useful and valid.
Within a day or so, Mark then sent me his feedback form, which was suitably succinct and focused on the key points.
First and foremost I enjoyed the whole day. I enjoyed Mark’s company and I enjoyed being under a bit of pressure to perform, as for me at least, this helps me become aware of potential development points. The exercises at Bruntingthorpe, as I have already said, were extremely well judged in terms of their relevance to the road and were suitably challenging but achievable.
My thanks to Mark for his professional and relaxed approach to whole day.
Kind regards
Steve
