bernmc
28-05-2008, 01:22 PM
(adapted from an article I've written, but thought you lot might be interested too :))
100 ton limit over bridge...
Fortunately, there’s no such limit beneath it, where I'm doing exactly a ton... and the lunatic next to me has just told me to take both hands off the steering wheel! Welcome to Millbrook, and CAT Advanced Driver Training.
***
I’m at Millbrook with 8 other members of the GTR club for a day with CAT Driver Training. It’s essentially a day of ‘tasters’ of what CAT has to offer, and an opportunity to do things with your car that you would never dare on the public road, all within the bounds of a purpose built vehicle test facility... ‘a 750 acre playground’ as one of the instructors puts it :happy: .
Millbrook is owned and run by General Motors. Security is tight, and there are no cameras allowed. Try taking a sneaky snap of one of the prototypes or test vehicles you’ll come across during the course of the day, and expect to face a charge of industrial espionage. As it’s a vehicle test facility rather than a recreation area, there aren’t any spectator areas, little or no runoff :o, and sections of fresh barrier bare testament to recent driver indiscretions.... Good thing that no-one has had an accident on a CAT course then!
The day starts off in some of the best hospitality facilities that I’ve ever experienced on a driving day. Hot and cold drinks are on tap, enough chocolate and biscuits to double your waistline, and an excellent lunch will appear throughout the day. Even the portable toilets are good enough for a hotel!
Head Honcho Colin runs through a safety briefing, and then gets down to the business of vehicle dynamics. He comes from a background of motor racing and vehicle evaluation, so has an intimate knowledge of what makes a car tick. This is one of the things that impressed me most about the day – there’s a huge amount of technical information, with emphasis on why what we do makes the car react the way it does. The focus is on smoothness, balance, and achieving what you set out to achieve with minimal input.
While we’re being lectured, CAT’s own engineer is busy going through each of our cars with a fine toothed comb, checking tyre tread, pressures, fluids and so on. He’s around for the day to help if anything falls off, and will recheck all the cars again when the fun is over, so you can drive home in safety. It’s this level of customer care and attention to detail that sets CAT apart from any other ‘driving day’ I’ve experienced. They really do go to extraordinary lengths to make the day a success.
Talking over, and its game on! There are two instructors for the day, so the group of 8 splits into two groups of four, and we’re off to probably the most famous strip of tarmac in the UK – Millbrook’s Mile Straight. Get excited about the acceleration figures that your favourite car mag churns out every month? Chances are they were done here. It’s the site of the day’s first event: Threshold braking.
As with all the events, we start off with a demo by our instructor, so we all pile into the Ford repmobile for a few eyeball-popping high speed stops. Then it’s time to go one-to-one with the instructor in your own car. The idea here is firstly to learn to stop with the help of ABS. ‘Once you hit 70mph, hit the pedal like you hate it’ says Nick, my guru for the day. ‘You obviously don’t hate it much’ he quips after my first feeble attempt. Once you realise you’ve probably never braked as hard as you could have ever before, you go on to learn to threshold brake – that is braking with the maximum pedal pressure that just keeps from triggering the ABS. Get it right, and you’ll stop quicker than you can with ABS. And 70mph is the slowest stop of the exercise – you soon move on to 80, then 90, and then 100. Braking has to be smooth and consistent, and in a straight line. I found that I tensed my arms when hitting the brake pedal, which made the car squirm. As I learned to relax, the car stopped in a straight line. It’s not something I would have picked up on my own.
Translate this to the track, and if you can brake consistently and to the car’s maximum potential, you can do the same thing at every corner, every lap.
Of course, while all this is going on, your instructor is learning how well you and your car stop, so that when the time comes for the finale and he says ‘you’re just going to have to trust me on this one...’ he knows exactly what he’s doing.
The final run is absolutely flat out down the mile straight with a stop at the end. ‘This is your car – you do it how you want to’ says Nick. Want to launch at 6000 rpm and blast away? Prefer to do a gentler rolling start? Entirely up to you. I haven’t had the courage or opportunity to do a full launch in safety in the GTR, so this was my chance, and I wasn’t going to pass it up. Somewhere around 6000 rpm, I discover that all that money spent on the twin-plate carbon clutch is worthwhile as the Skyline leaps forward with a banshee howl and chirp of the rear tyres. ‘That was pretty near perfect’ says Nick as I concentrate on getting my gear changes in before the 8000rpm redline comes up. 100mph flies by and we’re nudging 160 when the end of the straight starts to look awfully close and I’m wondering if Nick has lost his voice, had a stroke from all the excitement, or is just plain crazy! There’s no moaning or snoring from the passenger seat, so I’m just settling on option three when he says ‘BRAKE!’ and I slam on the anchors. The car pulls up without drama and with at least 50m to spare. 15 minutes in the car, and Nick already knows the GTR (and me) better than I do.
I’ve heard a lot about how bad the standard Brembo setup is on the R33-GTR, but after my time with CAT, I can only conclude that it’s operator of the pedal that must be at fault. I’m running Motul RBF600 brake fluid, Ferodo DS2500 pads, and standard disks. The car performed faultlessly stop after high speed stop. No smoke, no fade. Apart from the blue discs and enough radiant heat to sunbathe in, you’d never have known what we’d been up to.
Next on the program was the High Speed Bowl, where we’d practice rapid lane changes, and then learn to lose our licence hands free! As with all the activities, it starts with a familiarisation jaunt in the CAT repmobiles, and then it’s back into your own car for the real thing.
The first exercise involves travelling at 30mph in a lane, and then having to swerve into the adjacent lane as quickly as possible. You’d be surprised at how violent this manoeuvre feels. And at how well the car handles it. Again, I’m sure that if I’d have had to do it for the first time in an emergency on the road, I’d never have turned the wheel enough – either to turn out of the lane, or more importantly to turn back into the next lane. Once you’re happy at 30, you do the same thing at 40. Interestingly, the Skyline felt better at 40 than it did 30 – we suspected this was due to the rear wheel steering coming into play.
Intestine shaking shenanigans over, we move over to the high speed lanes of the bowl. Again, it’s up to the individual driver to go as fast as they’re comfortable - there’s no pressure to go at a certain speed. One of CAT’s mantras for the day is ‘look where you want to go, not where you’re going’. This is especially important on the high speed bowl – at 150mph in the banked outside lane, you’re practically looking out of the side window, and you feel like you’re almost vertical! Look at the barrier, and surprise surprise, that’s where you start heading! Once again, the GTR is impressive at speed. It is completely stable and unruffled.
The bowl is designed so that in each lane, at a certain speed, you should be able to take your hands off the steering wheel and the car will continue to travel in that lane without any steering inputs. Accelerate slightly, and the car will move further up the bank. Decelerate and it moves down. It just so happens that this speed is 100mph in the outer lane. It’s still a huge leap of faith to gently lift your hands away from the wheel while travelling at a speed that would get you an instant ban from PC Plod. But the adrenaline rush leaves you with the biggest grin afterwards...!
And once again, your instructor has been learning how you and your car handle turning and travelling at high speed. All the better to guide you when you get to the next two events. Cunning devils!
100 ton limit over bridge...
Fortunately, there’s no such limit beneath it, where I'm doing exactly a ton... and the lunatic next to me has just told me to take both hands off the steering wheel! Welcome to Millbrook, and CAT Advanced Driver Training.
***
I’m at Millbrook with 8 other members of the GTR club for a day with CAT Driver Training. It’s essentially a day of ‘tasters’ of what CAT has to offer, and an opportunity to do things with your car that you would never dare on the public road, all within the bounds of a purpose built vehicle test facility... ‘a 750 acre playground’ as one of the instructors puts it :happy: .
Millbrook is owned and run by General Motors. Security is tight, and there are no cameras allowed. Try taking a sneaky snap of one of the prototypes or test vehicles you’ll come across during the course of the day, and expect to face a charge of industrial espionage. As it’s a vehicle test facility rather than a recreation area, there aren’t any spectator areas, little or no runoff :o, and sections of fresh barrier bare testament to recent driver indiscretions.... Good thing that no-one has had an accident on a CAT course then!
The day starts off in some of the best hospitality facilities that I’ve ever experienced on a driving day. Hot and cold drinks are on tap, enough chocolate and biscuits to double your waistline, and an excellent lunch will appear throughout the day. Even the portable toilets are good enough for a hotel!
Head Honcho Colin runs through a safety briefing, and then gets down to the business of vehicle dynamics. He comes from a background of motor racing and vehicle evaluation, so has an intimate knowledge of what makes a car tick. This is one of the things that impressed me most about the day – there’s a huge amount of technical information, with emphasis on why what we do makes the car react the way it does. The focus is on smoothness, balance, and achieving what you set out to achieve with minimal input.
While we’re being lectured, CAT’s own engineer is busy going through each of our cars with a fine toothed comb, checking tyre tread, pressures, fluids and so on. He’s around for the day to help if anything falls off, and will recheck all the cars again when the fun is over, so you can drive home in safety. It’s this level of customer care and attention to detail that sets CAT apart from any other ‘driving day’ I’ve experienced. They really do go to extraordinary lengths to make the day a success.
Talking over, and its game on! There are two instructors for the day, so the group of 8 splits into two groups of four, and we’re off to probably the most famous strip of tarmac in the UK – Millbrook’s Mile Straight. Get excited about the acceleration figures that your favourite car mag churns out every month? Chances are they were done here. It’s the site of the day’s first event: Threshold braking.
As with all the events, we start off with a demo by our instructor, so we all pile into the Ford repmobile for a few eyeball-popping high speed stops. Then it’s time to go one-to-one with the instructor in your own car. The idea here is firstly to learn to stop with the help of ABS. ‘Once you hit 70mph, hit the pedal like you hate it’ says Nick, my guru for the day. ‘You obviously don’t hate it much’ he quips after my first feeble attempt. Once you realise you’ve probably never braked as hard as you could have ever before, you go on to learn to threshold brake – that is braking with the maximum pedal pressure that just keeps from triggering the ABS. Get it right, and you’ll stop quicker than you can with ABS. And 70mph is the slowest stop of the exercise – you soon move on to 80, then 90, and then 100. Braking has to be smooth and consistent, and in a straight line. I found that I tensed my arms when hitting the brake pedal, which made the car squirm. As I learned to relax, the car stopped in a straight line. It’s not something I would have picked up on my own.
Translate this to the track, and if you can brake consistently and to the car’s maximum potential, you can do the same thing at every corner, every lap.
Of course, while all this is going on, your instructor is learning how well you and your car stop, so that when the time comes for the finale and he says ‘you’re just going to have to trust me on this one...’ he knows exactly what he’s doing.
The final run is absolutely flat out down the mile straight with a stop at the end. ‘This is your car – you do it how you want to’ says Nick. Want to launch at 6000 rpm and blast away? Prefer to do a gentler rolling start? Entirely up to you. I haven’t had the courage or opportunity to do a full launch in safety in the GTR, so this was my chance, and I wasn’t going to pass it up. Somewhere around 6000 rpm, I discover that all that money spent on the twin-plate carbon clutch is worthwhile as the Skyline leaps forward with a banshee howl and chirp of the rear tyres. ‘That was pretty near perfect’ says Nick as I concentrate on getting my gear changes in before the 8000rpm redline comes up. 100mph flies by and we’re nudging 160 when the end of the straight starts to look awfully close and I’m wondering if Nick has lost his voice, had a stroke from all the excitement, or is just plain crazy! There’s no moaning or snoring from the passenger seat, so I’m just settling on option three when he says ‘BRAKE!’ and I slam on the anchors. The car pulls up without drama and with at least 50m to spare. 15 minutes in the car, and Nick already knows the GTR (and me) better than I do.
I’ve heard a lot about how bad the standard Brembo setup is on the R33-GTR, but after my time with CAT, I can only conclude that it’s operator of the pedal that must be at fault. I’m running Motul RBF600 brake fluid, Ferodo DS2500 pads, and standard disks. The car performed faultlessly stop after high speed stop. No smoke, no fade. Apart from the blue discs and enough radiant heat to sunbathe in, you’d never have known what we’d been up to.
Next on the program was the High Speed Bowl, where we’d practice rapid lane changes, and then learn to lose our licence hands free! As with all the activities, it starts with a familiarisation jaunt in the CAT repmobiles, and then it’s back into your own car for the real thing.
The first exercise involves travelling at 30mph in a lane, and then having to swerve into the adjacent lane as quickly as possible. You’d be surprised at how violent this manoeuvre feels. And at how well the car handles it. Again, I’m sure that if I’d have had to do it for the first time in an emergency on the road, I’d never have turned the wheel enough – either to turn out of the lane, or more importantly to turn back into the next lane. Once you’re happy at 30, you do the same thing at 40. Interestingly, the Skyline felt better at 40 than it did 30 – we suspected this was due to the rear wheel steering coming into play.
Intestine shaking shenanigans over, we move over to the high speed lanes of the bowl. Again, it’s up to the individual driver to go as fast as they’re comfortable - there’s no pressure to go at a certain speed. One of CAT’s mantras for the day is ‘look where you want to go, not where you’re going’. This is especially important on the high speed bowl – at 150mph in the banked outside lane, you’re practically looking out of the side window, and you feel like you’re almost vertical! Look at the barrier, and surprise surprise, that’s where you start heading! Once again, the GTR is impressive at speed. It is completely stable and unruffled.
The bowl is designed so that in each lane, at a certain speed, you should be able to take your hands off the steering wheel and the car will continue to travel in that lane without any steering inputs. Accelerate slightly, and the car will move further up the bank. Decelerate and it moves down. It just so happens that this speed is 100mph in the outer lane. It’s still a huge leap of faith to gently lift your hands away from the wheel while travelling at a speed that would get you an instant ban from PC Plod. But the adrenaline rush leaves you with the biggest grin afterwards...!
And once again, your instructor has been learning how you and your car handle turning and travelling at high speed. All the better to guide you when you get to the next two events. Cunning devils!