Kuragon Room - Day 1 - SSPark

Touchn was kind enough to tell me about a 2 day driving class with Kuragon-san. Day 1 was on Friday at SSPark where I'd been once before on another 2 day course. It was a very different experience.

There were 16 cars in the class, 2 other RX-8s and a bunch of other stuff including a GT-R. In the morning it had been pissing down but the rain had thankfully let up and soon dried out. It made for a cooler day which was very welcome. We were split into 2 groups, 8 cars each. I'd no idea what to expect as I couldn't read any of the introductory material.

My group started off car by car by driving full on into a small roundabout clockwise. The idea was to control brake all the way to the clipping point and stop. This was mentally a challenge as I wasn't used to the idea of braking so hard (using ABS) so deep into a corner to turn the car. I also found it mentally hard to stop as I naturally wanted to go around the corner and out the other side. Kuragon-sensei gave us feedback over a radio for every attempt, the common theme being brake harder, the tires can take more. I knew they could too but it was hard to cross to that point. I was getting more and more aggressive though.

Finally Kuragon-sensei gave us a passenger ride and after feeling the car move underneath me, the tires on their limit I was ready to attack and replicate with new venom. I finally got close to that same feeling in my car.

Next up, was driving around in a big circle around cones. This was to learn how to cope with under-steer etc. I found this a little boring but managed to work on my throttle control a little.

After lunch, we were back on that little roundabout this time looking for the exit. Radio gave me lots of advice again all pretty much bang on to what I felt I was doing wrong too. Look more in the distance, accelerate earlier, brake harder. Kuragon-sensei again demo'd in my car which was great. Attack and replicate! Unfortunately I missed 2nd gear so took the corner slower than previously but I felt great coming out on the throttle nice and early.

Back on the circle again for another bit, this time, the other sensei holding the wheel while we were told to control our circle with throttle. To complicate things the rain came back. This was pretty easy also but quite interesting to practice as I didn't have full control over the car. I learned more about throttle control again from this. Great exercise even in the rain.

Last part of the day was free so I went back to attack the small roundabout in the now pissing rain. Attacking the roundabout with similar venom as before quickly had me spinning which was no surprise. After smoothing out my braking, I really also gained a bigger understanding of earlier acceleration out of the corner even in the wet with smooth throttle application. I was pretty elated at being able to practice this so much. Its great to attack just the one corner repeatedly all day.

It continued to rain hard all the way to my hotel. Link circuit which was Day 2 and was some 50km north of SSPark. Lots to sleep on. Great day of driving!