11 October 2007, 20:04 in Cars
AHG performance driving course
On Sunday I attended a performance driving course at AHG, which is near the Perth International Airport. The night before I set all four tyres on my Evo IX to a pressure of 40 psi and removed all loose items from the car. I often see people driving around with various items on their rear parcel shelf; they don’t seem to realise that under hard braking or in a crash, these items can become lethal projectiles. We had to wear long pants and and long sleeved shirts, closed shoes, and a helmet.
We had two instructors and eleven participants. The course started with a short theory session with some Powerpoint slides, explaining basic safety rules, and performance driving concepts such as seating position, only braking in a straight line, smoothness, slow in fast out for corners, looking ahead, understeer and oversteer, etc.
After the theory session we went out to the skidpan where the instructors set up various courses using street cones. They provided us with maps with the various courses numbered, so they could tell us “we are now doing course number 7”, and we would vaguely know what path to drive. One car would go at a time, and the two instructors would hop into your car and give tips as you drove.
While all the theory was simple to understand, it was hard to actually put it into practice! My first couple of runs out were awkward – I was over-correcting and was giving way too much input on the throttle (too on/off), braking while cornering, wasn’t looking ahead past the next obstacle, and wasn’t taking good lines around the track. The car was violently pitching and rolling all over the place with tyres squealing.
I asked one of the instructors to have a drive of my car so I could observe how it should feel. Let’s just say I was amazed at what the Evo could do!! I remember thinking “shit, there’s no way were’ going to make this corner”, or “we’re going way to fast here”, etc, but due to the smooth inputs, separation of braking and cornering, looking ahead on the track and choosing appropriate lines, and so on, the car handled it with no problem. Impressive.
I carefully listened to the instructor’s feedback during and after each run, and each time I went out I tried to work on one or two of the things that I knew I was doing wrong. I initially felt quite frustrated, but was improving steadily; each run felt better than the last. They changed the course three times and each time it took a little getting used to before you could drive it with confidence.
By the end of the driving (which went from about 9am to midday) I felt like I had improved massively compared to before. Not perfect by any means, but I was braking in a straight line into corners and properly doing the slow in, fast out, looking and thinking ahead and planning my lines appropriately, smoother with my throttle inputs through the slalom, and so on.
The skidpan was a great safe way to push the limits of yourself and your vehicle without worrying about damaging it on a kerb or rolling it, or hurting anyone else. The instructors were great drivers and very good at explaining and demonstrating what we should be doing. We were all exhausted after it as driving above your comfort level requires a lot of concentration and is quite stressful. It was a really good positive learning experience and I am keen to do it again to build on my skills (before I forget it all). Highly recommended!
More photos are in the gallery. Cheers to Brandon for organising the day, and thanks to Alex Yoong for the great photos!
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