DRIVING UNLIMITED / BMW Car Control & AutoX!
Today was my big day!
Stage ONE of my evil drive-a-porsche-this-summer plan went swimmingly!
BACK STORY:
over a year ago at dinner with an ex's famdamily when i found out that his stepdad was (like myself) a porsche enthusiast. ..he happened to own one of course, but thats besides the point. told me about The BMW Club of BC and the performance driving courses he's taken (in his porsche..) through them. i fell in love with the idea, and since then have kept this goal (to attend) in the back of my mind.
PRESENT
i signed up a couple of weeks ago!
i did a me-job of detailing my car the other day, after removing all the junk from it... prepared myself through the FAQ, searched the company DRIVING UNLIMITED, and posted on local car club forums looking for info & experiences.
Today was the day, and i woke up continuously last night checking the clock to make sure i wasnt late.
after signing in & doughnuts(!!!!!), class began. there were 13 people in my class, and i think i remember 5 or 6 awesome instructors (apparently all into racing) including one lady! (Melanie i believe, who is a delight!)
We were taken through proper seating position, mirrors & vehicle controls. much of this is taught by regular driving schools, unfortunately without any explanation of the importance. i sure as hell didnt listen till today. what i learned today though, was how closely related the handling of your car & your seating position are. this helps a TON at pretty much any speed (i stayed in 2nd gear through the autoX at the suggestion of an instructor) when using the footrest.
i learned how to minimize blind spots by angling my side mirrors properly!
vision was a neat topic to discuss. makes perfect sense logically, but in practice... (the drills, that is) its DAMN HARD to figure out.
using your peripheral vision in a constantly changing environment is one thing... trying to use it when whatever's in front of you is PRACTICALLY STILL is way harder, and i had a rough time with this one.
i was driving toward an instructor around 35km/h waiting for his direction, trying NOT to look at him. ended up looking at anything BUT him, but caught his signal and didnt kill him! YAY!
>>we initially did a slalom to practice our 'high-vision', moved on to 2 EMERGency braking exercises, then we were asked to put them together for the notorious exercise above.
to be perfectly honest i wasnt TOTALLY feelin it through the morning...
old habits die hard... got frustrated with my new 9 & 3 hands instead of "12 & shifter", haha.
i wasnt making proper use of my footrest (it never helped in my old seating position) so i wasnt able to handle my gorgeous car the way i was accustomed to.
what i think got to me was the lack of activity in the background. (instructor > mountains > skyline) there was nothing new or fresh for my mind to process when practicing 'high-vision' and therefore got caught up / focused on not focusing. this is never good for me - sends me into a brain-melt spiral.
yeah, i was pretty frustrated with myself at lunch.
still had fun though - the instructors were incredible, and the other students were nice.
i remember... i think it was jeremy(? - SUPER tall guy) who poked fun at me...
"is your car gonna fall out of gear?"
....is it what? was my reply, so he repeated himself.
when i looked confused as fuck he asked if i had to hold it there.
when i caught on, he smirked... "get your hand off that damn shifter!"
oooooops :]
things turned AWESOME after the break..
before hitting the skidpad (after a yummy catered lunch!) we were given a very interesting and incredibly well demonstrated physics lesson (which a woodbug could understand) regarding braking & acceleration in regard to traction & weight transfer. it was nice to get a clearcut explanation of it all, as although i understood the baaaaasic concept through my 2 years on the road (you catch on) id never before heard it in words. neat.
we did some EMERGency lane change runs which were neat for learning about reference points! these were fun & apparently theres a good action shot of me hitting a cone! (Yay for Doug being there cause i was too busy drivin' to take pics!)
before beginning the 'autocross' section of the day we were given an in-depth explanation of cornering effectively. "brake in, accelerate out" is commonly taught at 'normal' driving schools. im going to say that DRIVING UNLIMITED courses put on by The BMW Club of BC are WAY better than normal. (& im coming to that conclusion after just one course)
we learned the ins & outs of cornering... trailbraking, using reference points (that we'd learned about in the EMERG lane change drill), control phases, once again the importance of 'high vision' to steer better (or in this case out our side windows). we even got a booklet with a "traction circle" graph - negotiating the fine (steering/pedal) balance!
the autocross exercise itself was killer.
i got a BUNCH of runs in & feedback from each instructor (i even did double runs with 2 of them!)
it was really helpful getting instruction DURING, as i was able to correct things immediately and see the vast difference. it was also cool to get one tip per run really, so kept adding as i went!
what was REALLY interesting was feeling the pavement progressively lube up as the puddles we crossed spread down the (otherwise dry) 'track' over time.
...that was kind of a wakeup call you could say, especially as my driving was improving (in theory... or, short term). shows how much of a difference a LITTLE water makes.
we parked & headed into the tent to finish up...had more doughnuts.. got those little booklets..
i learned a FUCKLOAD today. its odd to realize that i may just like autocross after all... i always envisioned myself as a curvy road kinda girl. both maybe? one day?
while the morning stressed me out a tad, the afternoon felt completely natural & i was at ease. the tips were easy to accommodate AND made a world of difference.
now i must practice! until next weekend. cause im going back for a full day of it! FUCKYEAH!
Stage ONE of my evil drive-a-porsche-this-summer plan went swimmingly!
BACK STORY:
over a year ago at dinner with an ex's famdamily when i found out that his stepdad was (like myself) a porsche enthusiast. ..he happened to own one of course, but thats besides the point. told me about The BMW Club of BC and the performance driving courses he's taken (in his porsche..) through them. i fell in love with the idea, and since then have kept this goal (to attend) in the back of my mind.
PRESENT
i signed up a couple of weeks ago!
i did a me-job of detailing my car the other day, after removing all the junk from it... prepared myself through the FAQ, searched the company DRIVING UNLIMITED, and posted on local car club forums looking for info & experiences.
Today was the day, and i woke up continuously last night checking the clock to make sure i wasnt late.
after signing in & doughnuts(!!!!!), class began. there were 13 people in my class, and i think i remember 5 or 6 awesome instructors (apparently all into racing) including one lady! (Melanie i believe, who is a delight!)
We were taken through proper seating position, mirrors & vehicle controls. much of this is taught by regular driving schools, unfortunately without any explanation of the importance. i sure as hell didnt listen till today. what i learned today though, was how closely related the handling of your car & your seating position are. this helps a TON at pretty much any speed (i stayed in 2nd gear through the autoX at the suggestion of an instructor) when using the footrest.
i learned how to minimize blind spots by angling my side mirrors properly!
vision was a neat topic to discuss. makes perfect sense logically, but in practice... (the drills, that is) its DAMN HARD to figure out.
using your peripheral vision in a constantly changing environment is one thing... trying to use it when whatever's in front of you is PRACTICALLY STILL is way harder, and i had a rough time with this one.
i was driving toward an instructor around 35km/h waiting for his direction, trying NOT to look at him. ended up looking at anything BUT him, but caught his signal and didnt kill him! YAY!
>>we initially did a slalom to practice our 'high-vision', moved on to 2 EMERGency braking exercises, then we were asked to put them together for the notorious exercise above.
to be perfectly honest i wasnt TOTALLY feelin it through the morning...
old habits die hard... got frustrated with my new 9 & 3 hands instead of "12 & shifter", haha.
i wasnt making proper use of my footrest (it never helped in my old seating position) so i wasnt able to handle my gorgeous car the way i was accustomed to.
what i think got to me was the lack of activity in the background. (instructor > mountains > skyline) there was nothing new or fresh for my mind to process when practicing 'high-vision' and therefore got caught up / focused on not focusing. this is never good for me - sends me into a brain-melt spiral.
yeah, i was pretty frustrated with myself at lunch.
still had fun though - the instructors were incredible, and the other students were nice.
i remember... i think it was jeremy(? - SUPER tall guy) who poked fun at me...
"is your car gonna fall out of gear?"
....is it what? was my reply, so he repeated himself.
when i looked confused as fuck he asked if i had to hold it there.
when i caught on, he smirked... "get your hand off that damn shifter!"
oooooops :]
things turned AWESOME after the break..
before hitting the skidpad (after a yummy catered lunch!) we were given a very interesting and incredibly well demonstrated physics lesson (which a woodbug could understand) regarding braking & acceleration in regard to traction & weight transfer. it was nice to get a clearcut explanation of it all, as although i understood the baaaaasic concept through my 2 years on the road (you catch on) id never before heard it in words. neat.
we did some EMERGency lane change runs which were neat for learning about reference points! these were fun & apparently theres a good action shot of me hitting a cone! (Yay for Doug being there cause i was too busy drivin' to take pics!)
before beginning the 'autocross' section of the day we were given an in-depth explanation of cornering effectively. "brake in, accelerate out" is commonly taught at 'normal' driving schools. im going to say that DRIVING UNLIMITED courses put on by The BMW Club of BC are WAY better than normal. (& im coming to that conclusion after just one course)
we learned the ins & outs of cornering... trailbraking, using reference points (that we'd learned about in the EMERG lane change drill), control phases, once again the importance of 'high vision' to steer better (or in this case out our side windows). we even got a booklet with a "traction circle" graph - negotiating the fine (steering/pedal) balance!
the autocross exercise itself was killer.
i got a BUNCH of runs in & feedback from each instructor (i even did double runs with 2 of them!)
it was really helpful getting instruction DURING, as i was able to correct things immediately and see the vast difference. it was also cool to get one tip per run really, so kept adding as i went!
what was REALLY interesting was feeling the pavement progressively lube up as the puddles we crossed spread down the (otherwise dry) 'track' over time.
...that was kind of a wakeup call you could say, especially as my driving was improving (in theory... or, short term). shows how much of a difference a LITTLE water makes.
we parked & headed into the tent to finish up...had more doughnuts.. got those little booklets..
i learned a FUCKLOAD today. its odd to realize that i may just like autocross after all... i always envisioned myself as a curvy road kinda girl. both maybe? one day?
while the morning stressed me out a tad, the afternoon felt completely natural & i was at ease. the tips were easy to accommodate AND made a world of difference.
now i must practice! until next weekend. cause im going back for a full day of it! FUCKYEAH!