My day at Prodrive

As I’m sure you’re more than aware, I recently bought a new RX-8. As part of the “deal” when buying one knew you get given a day at Prodrive (www.prodrive.co.uk). Officially this is a “get to know your car better day”, unofficially it’s a track day.

It was a full day (10 – 4ish) on Saturday 21st, we got there a little late as we were meant to get there for 9:30am but we ended up following the sat nav through fords and down country lanes taking the “scenic” route –hindsight is a wonderful thing! On arriving, you need to check in with the guy on the gate, it’s a serious deal as they had two police vans on the gate too and about 1mile of lane before you get into the compound.

Thankfully we weren’t the last people to arrive as there was another car that pulled up after we got there. We were met by a pace car (a car that you have to follow at a given speed around the track) which took us onto and around the track and to the “club house” where we signed in and were briefed about the day ahead.

Our day was to start off with road driving (Advanced Driving test style), we were paired up with another owner “Suzanne” and off we went. Suzanne got to drive first (in her car), it was somewhat hair raising –it was as though she has something to prove (by killing us all). The instructor was however very patient and everytime she started speeding asked what the speed limit was –almost every time I think she responded “No idea”.

Anyways, after she’d impressed us with her rally skills it was my turn, it was like having a driving lesson all over again, this time knowing that you can drive and the guy’s going to try and pick faults. On the whole my driving was ok, I didn’t slow down enough for some mud on the road at one point but after going through it in my mind a fair few times since I think I’d have done the same thing again, probably because I’m used to driving on muddy lanes -I don’t know. It was a great hour and I learnt a lot, some points that we were told:

• Always have your lights on (not sidelights) –this is something I’ve done ever since and is great advice, next time you’re out driving, see how many people you spot with their lights on. Need anymore of an explaination? Well try spotting the ones that don’t, you’ll quickly realise that even if you’re thinking “look at that idiot with his lights on” your presence is still being registered with them…
• Rather than holding your steering wheel at “ten to two” hold it at “quarter to three” that way you’ve got complete control and access to all your steering controls.
• When overtaking, don’t whiz up behind someone and then suddenly pull out and wiz around, instead, match their speed a few car lengths back, pull into the other lane all the way to ensure the routes clear and then over take. Doing this means your passenger (if you have one) will get to see it’s safe (and possibly notice something you didn’t), it also means the car you’re overtaking will clearly see your intention to overtake and probably let you past. Remember: Pulling into the other lane doesn’t mean you’re committed to the overtake, if it’s not safe just pull in!
• When going around a right hand bend have the left tyre about 2ft from the curb, this’ll increase your visability a lot. When going around a left hand bend, get right up to the centre line –if a car’s coming then just come in a bit to avoid clipping wing mirrors.
• When driving along a lane, if there’s nothing coming on the other side of the road, why not drive straddling the middle of the road? –you’re paying for both sides so you may as well use them, not only that, it means you’re more likely to be driving on fresh road. If that’s not enough of a reason, if there was a car coming the other way you’d see them sooner (see above about going around corners)

There was a load more, but if you want to know about that, why not take your advanced driving test (I know I am!).

After lunch the afternoon was the track stuff:

Breaking

What an amazing car, we were first given a demo of what happened when breaking from 30, 70 and from 30/70 while swerving to avoid an object and then given a go ourselves. Due to the various gizmos on the car (EBDS – Electronic Brake Distribution System and ABS) you can maintain steering control while emergency breaking around i.e. a small child.

Also, when breaking the wheels never stop turning, as Stacey pointed out, that could cause issues for the police measuring skidmarks –there are none (even from 115mph!).

Breaking from 30mph is tame, I’ve done that before, from 70 however was impressive, the car can stop in 30ft –I kid you not. I then braked from 90mph which it did in about 70ft and one last time for good measure –from about 115mph hands free.

Yes, I did just say hands free, basically the car then controls the steering wheel’s position and keeps you going in the same direction! How cool is that. Tip: The only time you should take your hands off the steering wheel while breaking is when involved in a front impact.

Adverse camber

This was basically just winging it around corners at stupid speeds. The track was full of nice and tight bends for you to throw the car around, mostly S bends so you really have to push the car’s imits.

The instructor took me around the track twice first, once slow and then once fast. That was amazing, the slow felt fast enough but it’s always nice to see how a pro does it. Once he’s completed it’s your turn to go around.

You’re never pushed to go past your own limits but I was always pushing it as much as I could. The reality is I probably didn’t even push it as much as 10% of the car’s limits. The amazing thing is no matter how hard you pushed it the back just held, ok it swung out a little but it was still secure.

High speed driving

I was taken around by a guy called Charlie Bulter-Henderson (www.cb-h.net), nice guy who’s setting up a website (amazing what you chat about while driving around a track!), he’s offered me to have some private tuition if I wanted (yes I really am that bad).

The course was about 1.8miles long with a nice almost right angle bend (Click here to see the corner on Google Maps) doesn’t look much but basically you drive into the corner’s centre in a straight line and then the second half was driven sideways so you could drive out straight. It’s certainly an interesting feeling driving at 90mph ish around a corner sideways.

Skid Pan

The last part of the day, we got to play on the skid pans –not only the straights but also the UK’s only “circle” –apparently it’s 10x more slippy than black ice! Oh what fun -round and round in circles, ok you were only doing 15mph at most but in the back it was more fun than the local fair ground.

When going along the straight you have to put the car into a zig zag motion and keep the car going straight –the DSC was incredible, really holds the car in place. The instructor was a great laugh, demo’ing what happens when you take DSC off etc.

If you ever get the option to go to Prodrive for a day (there were a few scoobies there) defiantly do it, I hardly used any tyre tread despite the speculation. Awesome –this car just gets better!