I didn't fancy the idea of driving 300km in the morning, driving all day at the track and then driving 300km back that night, so I had to drive to Fukushima the night before and pitch my tent somewhere. All the usual business hotels were full where I usually stay so I thought I'd chance a love hotel by myself.Pretty great value. My own covered car space, private room/shower, ultraviolet lighting, vibrating bed, huge TV, beer and ice-cream in the fridge! 6,800 yen! Its just a shame I had to actually sleep to be ready for a hard day of driving the following day.
There were 8 people on the course. This was fantastic as I got great attention all day. We studied high speed turn in and practiced lots of turning the wheel earlier and earlier. This is really hard to do mentally as your mind says that if you turn your wheel at that point, you'll either spin out and crash or you'll turn way to early and drive into the corner rather than around it. We practiced no braking slaloms, double braking turns, single braking turns etc. It was really good to get so much practice over and over again. A second day would have been great to really get it all to sink in, although I'd got Tsukuba TC2000 coming up on Tuesday to try it out on.
For the first half of the day I was a bit confused as it all seemed very different to what we'd been concentrating on with Kuragon-san. The later part of the day, I felt a lot better about what I was learning and actually began to piece it together. During the last session were we practiced a mini course I feel I did pretty good turning the car quickly.
I was having a bit of trouble wondering how to put all this knowledge together and apply it to TC2000 on Tuesday. At TC2000 the speeds are way up (or seem that way) compared to what we were doing at SSPark. I was wondering just how to apply my brakes etc in the same manner to get the same feeling at TC2000 without having some sort of off track excursion. Still, you have to believe it and try it or you will never progress. I am a believer! I'll progress.
Sorry no photos from the day. I seem to have forgotten my camera in the midst of the constant driving. So, Here is one from the inside of the love hotel were I stayed. Some nice use of yellow in the room...
2 comments:
It is interesting of your description of the move you are practicing on. You said they ask you to turn in earlier under brakes? That means you are trailing braking is that right?
Hi Taka,
Trail braking to me is braking in a straight line followed by turn in, followed by easing off the brakes to the part where you are 100% cornering.
This technique is used on 2nd gear corners which are hairpins or close to hairpins. You steer first and instead of really hammering the brakes you use them a bit more delicately.. Its kinda hard to explain still as I still don't understand it 100% (as I'm trying to learn all this through Japanese). But when you do it right the car turns nicely into the corner sometimes with a little rear jump. Its not drifting just quicker turn in.
The problem I find is braking. The project Mu pads have a little more bite to them which make this move tougher, but still possible. You can really feel the car using this technique though and you know when you get it right. It feels great! The other problem is when you are approaching that particular 2nd gear corner at 150kmph in 4th... Still figuring it out.
Am back at TC2000 9/11 so will work on it more then.
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