Many arrived at MotorSport Vision way before the 7.30am deadline, champing at the bit. The common bond was a love of driving and from the outset the IAM’s first ever Members’ Track Day promised to be a great success. Once the bacon butties had been consumed, the participants were split into to four teams and the fun began.
The yellow group (their designated colour not their state of mind!) drew the short straw, as their first task was to drive the Le Mans-style Palmer JP1s. Think 0-100mph in 6.8 secs, 180mph, slick tyres and a wet track glistening in the early morning sun – quite a wake-up call! The instructors sure know their stuff and constantly communicate with you through the excellent built-in headsets in the helmets provided. ‘Change down here’, ‘foot to the floor now’, ‘don’t brake yet’ – the crisp commands came thick and fast as members grappled with the thoroughbred racecar beneath them. The result? Smiles of undiluted excitement on every face.
Back to school – briefly
According to the presentation received next, Herr Bosch’s ESP system is saving lives all over the world and should perhaps be a mandatory fitment on all new cars. Honda’s latest Civic has a switchable version and was therefore the ideal vehicle to demonstrate sudden changes of direction with and without the aid of ESP. The test was 100% conclusive – if you were faced with an emergency, you’d choose to have ESP on your side every time.
Conical conundrum
Everybody should drive a Caterham at least once in their life. The IAM party used the ones at MotorSport Vision’s superb Bedford facility for a back-to-back autotest. Even a driving dunce can make a Caterham leave the line like a cork out of a bottle and power-sliding round cones in one is pure driving delight.
Slip sliding away
So, there you are barrelling down a winding road when you hit an unheralded lake of water caused by a flooded drain. All of sudden you’re aquaplaning. Could you cope? This and general car control is what the wet grip facility is designed to assist with and is another source of great fun, for which members used their own cars.
Free-for-all
So to the finale – almost two hours of free-for-all driving on a combination of MotorSport Vision’s fastest circuits: ie a chance to really explore the limits of one’s own car and talent (or lack of!) in complete safety. Then the light was suddenly gone and the session ended. It was long enough for some (especially those who arrived with little to spare in the way of brakes and tyres!) while others would still be circulating now, given the chance.
Cries of ‘can we do it again please’ have been duly noted and organiser Bob Hinchliffe expects to have news of a date for this October/November very soon – see the Summer edition of Advanced Driving for details or look out for the next issue of Driving Ambition
